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diff --git a/44101-0.txt b/44101-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..055a022 --- /dev/null +++ b/44101-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15870 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Holy Roman Empire, by James Bryce + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Holy Roman Empire + +Author: James Bryce + +Release Date: November 4, 2013 [EBook #44101] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE *** + + + + +Produced by Melissa McDaniel, Stephen Rowland, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have + been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. + + + + + THE + HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE + + BY + JAMES BRYCE, D.C.L. + + _FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE + and + PROFESSOR OF CIVIL LAW IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD_ + + + THIRD EDITION REVISED + + + London + MACMILLAN AND CO. + 1871 + + + + + OXFORD: + By T. Combe, M.A., E. B. Gardner, and E. Pickard Hall, + PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. + + +The object of this treatise is not so much to give a narrative history +of the countries included in the Romano-Germanic Empire--Italy during +the middle ages, Germany from the ninth century to the nineteenth--as +to describe the Holy Empire itself as an institution or system, the +wonderful offspring of a body of beliefs and traditions which have +almost wholly passed away from the world. Such a description, however, +would not be intelligible without some account of the great events +which accompanied the growth and decay of imperial power; and it has +therefore appeared best to give the book the form rather of a +narrative than of a dissertation; and to combine with an exposition of +what may be called the theory of the Empire an outline of the +political history of Germany, as well as some notices of the affairs +of mediæval Italy. To make the succession of events clearer, a +Chronological List of Emperors and Popes has been prefixed[1]. + +The present edition has been carefully revised and corrected +throughout; and a good many additions have been made to both text and +notes. + + LINCOLN'S INN, + August 11, 1870. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] The author has in preparation, and hopes before long to complete +and publish, a set of chronological tables which may be made to serve +as a sort of skeleton history of mediæval Germany and Italy. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. + Introductory. + + + CHAPTER II. + The Roman Empire before the Invasion of the Barbarians. + + The Empire in the Second Century 5 + Obliteration of National distinctions 6 + Rise of Christianity 10 + Its Alliance with the State 10 + Its Influence on the Idea of an Imperial Nationality 13 + + + CHAPTER III. + The Barbarian Invasions. + + Relations between the Primitive Germans and the Romans 15 + Their Feelings towards Rome and her Empire 16 + Belief in its Eternity 20 + Extinction by Odoacer of the Western branch of the Empire 26 + Theodoric the Ostrogothic King 27 + Gradual Dissolution of the Empire 30 + Permanence of the Roman Religion and the Roman Law 31 + + + CHAPTER IV. + Restoration of the Empire in the West. + + The Franks 34 + Italy under Greeks and Lombards 37 + The Iconoclastic Schism 38 + Alliance of the Popes with the Frankish Kings 39 + The Frankish Conquest of Italy 41 + Adventures and Plans of Pope Leo III 43 + Coronation of Charles the Great 48 + + + CHAPTER V. + Empire and Policy of Charles. + + Import of the Coronation at Rome 52 + Accounts given in the Annals of the time 53 + Question as to the Intentions of Charles 58 + Legal Effect of the Coronation 62 + Position of Charles towards the Church 64 + Towards his German Subjects 67 + Towards the other Races of Europe 70 + General View of his Character and Policy 72 + + + CHAPTER VI. + Carolingian and Italian Emperors. + + Reign of Lewis I 76 + Dissolution of the Carolingian Empire 78 + Beginnings of the German Kingdom 79 + Italian Emperors 80 + Otto the Saxon King 84 + Coronation of Otto at Rome 87 + + + CHAPTER VII. + Theory of the Mediæval Empire. + + The World Monarchy and the World Religion 91 + Unity of the Christian Church 94 + Influence of the Doctrine of Realism 97 + The Popes as heirs to the Roman Monarchy 99 + Character of the revived Roman Empire 102 + Respective Functions of the Pope and the Emperor 104 + Proofs and Illustrations 109 + Interpretations of Prophecy 112 + Two remarkable Pictures 116 + + + CHAPTER VIII. + The Roman Empire and the German Kingdom. + + The German or East Frankish Monarchy 122 + Feudality in Germany 123 + Reciprocal Influence of the Roman and Teutonic Elements on + the Character of the Empire 127 + + + CHAPTER IX. + Saxon and Franconian Emperors. + + Adventures of Otto the Great in Rome 134 + Trial and Deposition of Pope John XII 135 + Position of Otto in Italy 139 + His European Policy 140 + Comparison of his Empire with the Carolingian 144 + Character and Projects of the Emperor Otto III 146 + The Emperors Henry II and Conrad II 150 + The Emperor Henry III 151 + + + CHAPTER X. + Struggle of the Empire and the Papacy. + + Origin and Progress of Papal Power 153 + Relations of the Popes with the early Emperors 155 + Quarrel of Henry IV and Gregory VII 159 + Gregory's Ideas 160 + Concordat of Worms 163 + General Results of the Contest 164 + + + CHAPTER XI. + The Emperors in Italy: Frederick Barbarossa. + + Frederick and the Papacy 167 + Revival of the Study of the Roman Law 172 + Arnold of Brescia and the Roman Republicans 174 + Frederick's Struggle with the Lombard Cities 175 + His Policy as German King 178 + + + CHAPTER XII. + Imperial Titles and Pretensions. + + Territorial Limits of the Empire--Its Claims of Jurisdiction + over other Countries 182 + Hungary 183 + Poland 184 + Denmark 184 + France 185 + Sweden 185 + Spain 185 + England 186 + Scotland 187 + Naples and Sicily 188 + Venice 188 + The East 189 + Rivalry of the Teutonic and Byzantine Emperors 191 + The Four Crowns 193 + Origin and Meaning of the title 'Holy Empire' 199 + + + CHAPTER XIII. + Fall of the Hohenstaufen. + + Reign of Henry VI 205 + Contest of Philip and Otto IV 206 + Character and Career of the Emperor Frederick II 207 + Destruction of Imperial Authority in Italy 211 + The Great Interregnum 212 + Rudolf of Hapsburg 213 + Change in the Character of the Empire 214 + Haughty Demeanour of the Popes 217 + + + CHAPTER XIV. + The Germanic Constitution--the Seven Electors. + + Germany in the Fourteenth Century 222 + Reign of the Emperor Charles IV 225 + Origin and History of the System of Election, and of the + Electoral Body 225 + The Golden Bull 230 + Remarks on the Elective Monarchy of Germany 233 + Results of Charles IV's Policy 236 + + + CHAPTER XV. + The Empire as an International Power. + + Revival of Learning 240 + Beginnings of Political Thought 241 + Desire for an International Power 242 + Theory of the Emperor's Functions as Monarch of Europe 244 + Illustrations 249 + Relations of the Empire and the New Learning 251 + The Men of Letters--Petrarch, Dante 254 + The Jurists 256 + Passion for Antiquity in the Middle Ages: its Causes 258 + The Emperor Henry VII in Italy 262 + The _De Monarchia_ of Dante 264 + + + CHAPTER XVI. + The City of Rome in the Middle Ages. + + Rapid Decline of the City after the Gothic Wars 273 + Her Condition in the Dark Ages 274 + Republican Revival of the Twelfth Century 276 + Character and Ideas of Nicholas Rienzi 278 + Social State of Mediæval Rome 280 + Visits of the Teutonic Emperors 282 + Revolts against them 284 + Existing Traces of their Presence in Rome 286 + Want of Mediæval, and especially of Gothic Buildings, in + Modern Rome 289 + Causes of this; Ravages of Enemies and Citizens 291 + Modern Restorations 292 + Surviving Features of truly Mediæval Architecture--the + Bell-towers 294 + The Roman Church and the Roman City 296 + Rome since the Revolution 299 + + + CHAPTER XVII. + The Renaissance: Change in the Character of the Empire. + + Weakness of Germany 302 + Loss of Imperial Territories 303 + Gradual Change in the Germanic Constitution 307 + Beginning of the Predominance of the Hapsburgs 310 + The Discovery of America 311 + The Renaissance and its Effects on the Empire 311 + Projects of Constitutional Reform 313 + Changes of Title 316 + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + The Reformation and its Effects upon the Empire. + + Accession of Charles V 319 + His Attitude towards the Reformation 321 + Issue of his Attempts at Coercion 322 + Spirit and Essence of the Religious Movement 325 + Its Influence on the Doctrine of the Visible Church 327 + How far it promoted Civil and Religious Liberty 329 + Its Effect upon the Mediæval Theory of the Empire 332 + Upon the Position of the Emperor in Europe 333 + Dissensions in Germany 334 + The Thirty Years' War 335 + + + CHAPTER XIX. + The Peace of Westphalia: Last Stage in the Decline + of the Empire. + + Political Import of the Peace of Westphalia 337 + Hippolytus a Lapide and his Book 339 + Changes in the Germanic Constitution 340 + Narrowed Bounds of the Empire 341 + Condition of Germany after the Peace 342 + The Balance of Power 345 + The Hapsburg Emperors and their Policy 348 + The Emperor Charles VII 351 + The Empire in its last Phase 352 + Feelings of the German People 354 + + + CHAPTER XX. + Fall of the Empire. + + The Emperor Francis II 356 + Napoleon as the Representative of the Carolingians 357 + The French Empire 360 + Napoleon's German Policy 361 + The Confederation of the Rhine 362 + End of the Empire 363 + The German Confederation 364 + + + CHAPTER XXI. + Conclusion: General Summary. + + Causes of the Perpetuation of the Name of Rome 366 + Parallel instances: Claims now made to represent the Roman + Empire 367 + Parallel afforded by the History of the Papacy 369 + In how far was the Empire really Roman 374 + Imperialism: Ancient and Modern 375 + Essential Principles of the Mediæval Empire 377 + Influence of the Imperial System in Germany 378 + The Claim of Modern Austria to represent the Mediæval Empire 381 + Results of the Influence of the Empire upon Europe 383 + Upon Modern Jurisprudence 383 + Upon the Development of the Ecclesiastical Power 384 + Struggle of the Empire with three Hostile Principles 388 + Its Relations, Past and Present, to the Nationalities + of Europe 390 + Conclusion: Difficulties caused by the Nature of the + Subject 392 + + + APPENDIX. + + NOTE A. + On the Burgundies 395 + + NOTE B. + On the Relations to the Empire of the Kingdom of Denmark + and the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein 398 + + NOTE C. + On certain Imperial Titles and Ceremonies 400 + + NOTE D. + Hildebert's Lines contrasting the Past and Present of Rome 406 + + + INDEX 407 + + + + + DATES OF + SEVERAL IMPORTANT EVENTS + IN THE HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE. + + + B.C. + + Battle of Pharsalia 48 + + A.D. + + Council of Nicæa 325 + + End of the separate Western Empire 476 + + Revolt of the Italians from the Iconoclastic Emperors 728 + + Coronation of Charles the Great 800 + + End of the Carolingian Empire 888 + + Coronation of Otto the Great 962 + + Final Union of Italy to the Empire 1014 + + Quarrel between Henry IV and Gregory VII 1076 + + The First Crusade 1096 + + Battle of Legnano 1176 + + Death of Frederick II 1250 + + League of the three Forest Cantons of Switzerland 1308 + + Career of Rienzi 1347-1354 + + The Golden Bull 1356 + + Council of Constance 1415 + + Extinction of the Eastern Empire 1453 + + Discovery of America 1492 + + Luther at the Diet of Worms 1521 + + Beginning of the Thirty Years' War 1618 + + Peace of Westphalia 1648 + + Prussia recognized as a Kingdom 1701 + + End of the House of Hapsburg 1742 + + Seven Years' War 1756-1763 + + Peace of Luneville 1801 + + Formation of the German Confederation 1815 + + Establishment of the North German Confederation 1866 + + + + + CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE + OF + EMPERORS AND POPES. + + + A. D. B. C. + Augustus. 27 + A. D. + Tiberius. 14 + Caligula. 37 + Claudius. 41 + 42 St. Peter, (according + to Jerome). + Nero. 54 + 67 Linus, (according to + Jerome, Irenæus, + Eusebius). + 68 Clement, (according Galba, Otho, Vitellius, + to Tertullian and Vespasian. 68 + Rufinus). + 78 Anacletus (?). + Titus. 79 + Domitian. 81 + 91 Clement, (according + to later writers). + Nerva. 96 + Trajan. 98 + 100 Evaristus (?). + 109 Alexander (?). + Hadrian. 117 + 119 Sixtus I. + 129 Telesphorus. + Antoninus Pius. 138 + 139 Hyginus. + 143 Pius I. + 157 Anicetus. + Marcus Aurelius. 161 + 168 Soter. + 177 Eleutherius. + Commodus. 180 + Pertinax. 190 + Didius Julianus. 191 + Niger. 192 + 193 Victor (?). Septimius Severus. 193 + 202 Zephyrinus (?). + Caracalla, Geta, + Diadumenian. 211 + Opilius Macrinus. 217 + Elagabalus. 218 + 219 Calixtus I. + Alexander Severus. 222 + 223 Urban I. + 230 Pontianus. + 235 Anterius or Anteros. Maximin. 235 + 236 Fabianus. + The two Gordians, Maximus + Pupienus, Balbinus. 237 + Gordian the Younger. 238 + Philip. 244 + Decius. 249 + 251 Cornelius. Gallus. 251 + 252 Lucius I. Volusian. 252 + 253 Stephen I. Æmilian, Valerian, + Gallienus. 253 + 257 Sixtus II. + 259 Dionysius. + Claudius II. 268 + 269 Felix. + Aurelian. 270 + 275 Eutychianus. Tacitus. 275 + Probus. 276 + Carus. 282 + 283 Caius. + Carinus, Numerian, + Diocletian. 284 + Maximian, joint Emperor + with Diocletian. 286 + 296 Marcellinus. [305(?) + 304 Vacancy. Constantius, Galerius. 304(?) + Licinius. or 307] + 308 Marcellus I. Maximin. 308 + Constantine, Galerius, + Licinius, Maximin, + Maxentius, and Maximian + reigning jointly. 309 + 310 Eusebius. + 311 Melchiades. + 314 Sylvester I. + Constantine (the Great) + alone. 323 + 336 Marcus I. + 337 Julius I. Constantine II, + Constantius II, + Constans. 337 + Magnentius. 350 + 352 Liberius. + Constantius alone. 353 + 356 Felix (Anti-pope). + Julian. 361 + Jovian. 363 + Valens and Valentinian I. 364 + 366 Damasus I. + Gratian and Valentinian I. 367 + Valentinian II and + Gratian. 375 + Theodosius. 379 + 384 Siricius. + Arcadius (in the East), + Honorius (in the West). 395 + 398 Anastasius I. + 402 Innocent I. + Theodosius II. (E) 408 + 417 Zosimus. + 418 Boniface I. + 418 Eulalius (Anti-pope). + 422 Celestine I. + Valentinian III. (W) 424 + 432 Sixtus III. + 440 Leo I (the Great). + Marcian. (E) 450 + Maximus, Avitus. (W) 455 + Majorian. (W) 455 + Leo I. (E) 457 + 461 Hilarius. Severus. (W) 461 + Vacancy. (W) 465 + Anthemius. (W) 467 + 468 Simplicius. + Olybrius. (W) 472 + Glycerius. (W) 473 + Julius Nepos. (W) 474 + Leo II, Zeno, Basiliscus + (all E.) 474 + Romulus Augustulus. (W) 475 + (End of the Western Line + in Romulus Augustus. 476) + (Henceforth, till A.D. 800, + Emperors reigning at + 483 Felix III[2]. Constantinople). + Anastasius I. 491 + 492 Gelasius I. + 496 Anastasius II. + 498 Symmachus. + 498 Laurentius (Anti-pope). + 514 Hormisdas. + Justin I. 518 + 523 John I. + 526 Felix IV. + Justinian. 527 + 530 Boniface II. + 530 Dioscorus (Anti-pope). + 532 John II. + 535 Agapetus I. + 536 Silverius. + 537 Vigilius. + 555 Pelagius I. + 560 John III. + Justin II. 565 + 574 Benedict I. + 578 Pelagius II. Tiberius II. 578 + Maurice. 582 + 590 Gregory I (the Great). + Phocas. 602 + 604 Sabinianus. + 607 Boniface III. + 607 Boniface IV. + Heraclius. 610 + 615 Deus dedit. + 618 Boniface V. + 625 Honorius I. + 638 Severinus. + 640 John IV. + Constantine III, + Heracleonas, + Constans II. 641 + 642 Theodorus I. + 649 Martin I. + 654 Eugenius I. + 657 Vitalianus. + Constantine IV (Pogonatus). 668 + 672 Adeodatus. + 676 Domnus or Donus I. + 678 Agatho. + 682 Leo II. + 683(?) Benedict II. + 685 John V. Justinian II. 685 + 685(?) Conon. + 687 Sergius I. + 687 Paschal (Anti-pope). + 687 Theodorus (Anti-pope). + Leontius. 694 + Tiberius. 697 + 701 John VI. + 705 John VII. Justinian II restored. 705 + 708 Sisinnius. + 708 Constantine. + Philippicus Bardanes. 711 + Anastasius II. 713 + 715 Gregory II. + Theodosius III. 716 + Leo III (the Isaurian). 718 + 731 Gregory III. + 741 Zacharias. Constantine V + (Copronymus). 741 + 752 Stephen (II). + 752 Stephen II (or III). + 757 Paul I. + 767 Constantine (Anti-pope). + 768 Stephen III (IV). + 772 Hadrian I. + Leo IV. 775 + Constantine VI. 780 + 795 Leo III. + Deposition of Constantine + VI by Irene. 797 + Charles I (the Great). 800 + (Following henceforth the + new Western line). + Lewis I (the Pious). 814 + 816 Stephen IV. + 817 Paschal I. + 824 Eugenius II. + 827 Valentinus. + 827 Gregory IV. + Lothar I. 840 + 844 Sergius II. + 847 Leo IV. + 855 Benedict III. Lewis II. 855 + 855 Anastasius (Anti-pope). + 858 Nicholas I. + 867 Hadrian II. + 872 John VIII. + Charles II (the Bald). 875 + Charles III (the Fat). 881 + 882 Martin II. + 884 Hadrian III. + 885 Stephen V. + 891 Formosus. Guido. 891 + Lambert. 894 + 896 Boniface VI. Arnulf. 896 + 896 Stephen VI. + 897 Romanus. + 897 Theodore II. + 898 John IX. + Lewis (the Child).[+] 899 + 900 Benedict IV. + Lewis III (of Provence). 901 + 903 Leo V. + 903 Christopher. + 904 Sergius III. + 911 Anastasius III. + Conrad I.[+] 912(?) + 913 Lando. + 914 John X. + Berengar. 915 + Henry I (the Fowler).[+] 918 + 928 Leo VI. + 929 Stephen VII. + 931 John XI. + 936 Leo VII. Otto I (the Great).[+] 936 + 939 Stephen VIII. + 941 Martin III. + 946 Agapetus II. + 955 John XII. + Otto I, crowned at Rome. 962 + 963 Leo VIII. + 964 Benedict V (Anti-Pope?). + 965 John XIII. + 972 Benedict VI. + Otto II. 973 + 974 Boniface VII (Anti-pope?). + 974 Domnus II (?). + 974 Benedict VII. + 983 John XIV. Otto III 983 + 985 John XV. + 996 Gregory V. + 996 John XVI (Anti-pope). + 999 Sylvester II. + Henry II (the Saint). 1002 + 1003 John XVII. + 1003 John XVIII. + 1009 Sergius IV. + 1012 Benedict VIII. + 1024 John XIX. Conrad II (the Salic). 1024 + 1033 Benedict IX. + Henry III. 1039 + 1044 Sylvester (Anti-pope). + 1045( Gregory VI. + 1046 Clement II. + 1048 Damasus II. + 1048 Leo IX. + 1054 Victor II. + Henry IV. 1056 + 1057 Stephen IX. + 1058 Benedict X. + 1059 Nicholas II. + 1061 Alexander II. + 1073 Gregory VII (Hildebrand). + 1080 (Clement, Anti-pope). + 1086 Victor III. + 1087 Urban II. + 1099 Paschal II. + Henry V. 1106 + 1118 Gelasius II. + 1118 Gregory, (Anti-pope). + 1119 Calixtus II. + 1121 (Celestine, Anti-pope). + 1124 Honorius II. + Lothar II (the Saxon). 1125 + 1130 Innocent II. + (Anacletus, Anti-pope). + 1138 Victor (Anti-pope). [*]Conrad III. 1138 + 1143 Celestine II. + 1144 Lucius II. + 1145 Eugenius III. + Frederick I (Barbarossa). 1152 + 1153 Anastasius IV. + 1154 Hadrian IV. + 1159 Alexander III. + 1159 (Victor, Anti-pope). + 1164 (Paschal, Anti-pope). + 1168 (Calixtus, Anti-pope). + 1181 Lucius III. + 1185 Urban III. + 1187 Gregory VIII. + 1187 Clement III. + Henry VI. 1190 + 1191 Celestine III. + 1198 Innocent III. [*]Philip, Otto IV + (rivals). 1198 + Otto IV. 1208 + Frederick II. 1212 + 1216 Honorius III. + 1227 Gregory IX. + 1241 Celestine IV. + 1241 Vacancy. + 1243 Innocent IV. + [*]Conrad IV, [*]William, + (rivals). 1250 + 1254 Alexander IV. Interregnum. 1254 + [*]Richard (earl of + Cornwall). + [*]Alfonso (king of + Castile), (rivals). 1257 + 1261 Urban IV. + 1265 Clement IV. + 1269 Vacancy. + 1271 Gregory X. + [*]Rudolf I (of Hapsburg). 1272 + 1276 Innocent V. + 1276 Hadrian V. + 1277 John XX or XXI. + 1277 Nicholas I + 1281 Martin IV. + 1285 Honorius IV. + 1289 Nicholas IV. + 1292 Vacancy. [*]Adolf (of Nassau). 1292 + 1294 Celestine V. + 1294 Boniface VIII. + [*]Albert I. 1298 + 1303 Benedict XI. + 1305 Clement V. + Henry VII. 1308 + 1314 Vacancy. Lewis IV. 1315 + (Frederick of Austria, + rival). + 1316 John XXI or XXII. + 1334 Benedict XII. + 1342 Clement VI. + Charles IV. 1347 + 1352 Innocent VI. (Günther of Schwartzburg, + rival). + 1362 Urban V. + 1370 Gregory XI. + 1378 Urban VI, + Clement VII [*]Wenzel. 1378 + (Anti-pope). + 1389 Boniface IX. + 1394 Benedict (Anti-pope). + [*]Rupert. 1400 + 1404 Innocent VII. + 1406 Gregory XII. + 1409 Alexander V. + 1410 John XXII or Sigismund. 1410 + XXIII. (Jobst of Moravia, rival). + + 1417 Martin V. + 1431 Eugene IV. + [*]Albert II. 1438 + 1439 Felix V (Anti-pope). + Frederick III. 1440 + 1447 Nicholas V. + 1455 Calixtus IV. + 1458 Pius II. + 1464 Paul II. + 1471 Sixtus IV. + 1484 Innocent VIII. + 1493 Alexander VI. [*]Maximilian I. 1493 + 1503 Pius III. + 1503 Julius II. + 1513 Leo X. + Charles V.[3] 1519 + 1522 Hadrian VI. + 1523 Clement VII. + 1534 Paul III. + 1550 Julius III. + 1555 Marcellus II. + 1555 Paul IV. + [*]Ferdinand I. 1558 + 1559 Pius IV. + [*]Maximilian II. 1564 + 1566 Pius V. + 1572 Gregory XIII. + [*]Rudolf II. 1576 + 1585 Sixtus V. + 1590 Urban VII. + 1590 Gregory XIV. + 1591 Innocent IX. + 1592 Clement VIII. + 1604 Leo XI. + 1604 Paul V. + [*]Matthias. 1612 + [*]Ferdinand II. 1619 + 1621 Gregory XV. + 1623 Urban VIII. + [*]Ferdinand III. 1637 + 1644 Innocent X. + 1655 Alexander VII. + [*]Leopold I. 1658 + 1667 Clement IX. + 1670 Clement X. + 1676 Innocent XI. + 1689 Alexander VIII. + 1691 Innocent XII. + 1700 Clement XI. + [*]Joseph I. 1705 + [*]Charles VI. 1711 + 1720 Innocent XIII. + 1724 Benedict XIII. + 1740 Benedict XIV. + [*]Charles VII. 1742 + [*]Francis I. 1745 + 1758 Clement XII. + [*]Joseph II. 1765 + 1769 Clement XIII. + 1775 Pius VI. + [*]Leopold II. 1790 + [*]Francis II. 1792 + 1800 Pius VII. + Abdication of Francis II. 1806 + 1823 Leo XII. + 1829 Pius VIII. + 1831 Gregory XVI. + 1846 Pius IX. + +[*] Those marked with an asterisk were never actually crowned at Rome. +[+] The names marked with a + are those of German kings who never made any +claim to the imperial title. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Reckoning the Anti-pope Felix (A.D. 356) as Felix II. + +[3] Crowned Emperor, but at Bologna, not at Rome. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +Of those who in August, 1806, read in the English newspapers that the +Emperor Francis II had announced to the Diet his resignation of the +imperial crown, there were probably few who reflected that the oldest +political institution in the world had come to an end. Yet it was so. +The Empire which a note issued by a diplomatist on the banks of the +Danube extinguished, was the same which the crafty nephew of Julius +had won for himself, against the powers of the East, beneath the +cliffs of Actium; and which had preserved almost unaltered, through +eighteen centuries of time, and through the greatest changes in +extent, in power, in character, a title and pretensions from which all +meaning had long since departed. Nothing else so directly linked the +old world to the new--nothing else displayed so many strange contrasts +of the present and the past, and summed up in those contrasts so much +of European history. From the days of Constantine till far down into +the middle ages it was, conjointly with the Papacy, the recognised +centre and head of Christendom, exercising over the minds of men an +influence such as its material strength could never have commanded. It +is of this influence and of the causes that gave it power rather than +of the external history of the Empire, that the following pages are +designed to treat. That history is indeed full of interest and +brilliance, of grand characters and striking situations. But it is a +subject too vast for any single canvas. Without a minuteness of detail +sufficient to make its scenes dramatic and give us a lively sympathy +with the actors, a narrative history can have little value and still +less charm. But to trace with any minuteness the career of the Empire, +would be to write the history of Christendom from the fifth century to +the twelfth, of Germany and Italy from the twelfth to the nineteenth; +while even a narrative of more restricted scope, which should attempt +to disengage from a general account of the affairs of those countries +the events that properly belong to imperial history, could hardly be +compressed within reasonable limits. It is therefore better, declining +so great a task, to attempt one simpler and more practicable though +not necessarily inferior in interest; to speak less of events than of +principles, and endeavour to describe the Empire not as a State but as +an Institution, an institution created by and embodying a wonderful +system of ideas. In pursuance of such a plan, the forms which the +Empire took in the several stages of its growth and decline must be +briefly sketched. The characters and acts of the great men who +founded, guided, and overthrew it must from time to time be touched +upon. But the chief aim of the treatise will be to dwell more fully on +the inner nature of the Empire, as the most signal instance of the +fusion of Roman and Teutonic elements in modern civilization: to shew +how such a combination was possible; how Charles and Otto were led to +revive the imperial title in the West; how far during the reigns of +their successors it preserved the memory of its origin, and influenced +the European commonwealth of nations. + +Strictly speaking, it is from the year 800 A.D., when a King of the +Franks was crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III, that the +beginning of the Holy Roman Empire must be dated. But in history there +is nothing isolated, and just as to explain a modern Act of Parliament +or a modern conveyance of lands we must go back to the feudal customs +of the thirteenth century, so among the institutions of the Middle +Ages there is scarcely one which can be understood until it is traced +up either to classical or to primitive Teutonic antiquity. Such a mode +of inquiry is most of all needful in the case of the Holy Empire, +itself no more than a tradition, a fancied revival of departed +glories. And thus, in order to make it clear out of what elements the +imperial system was formed, we might be required to scrutinize the +antiquities of the Christian Church; to survey the constitution of +Rome in the days when Rome was no more than the first of the Latin +cities; nay, to travel back yet further to that Jewish theocratic +polity whose influence on the minds of the mediæval priesthood was +necessarily so profound. Practically, however, it may suffice to begin +by glancing at the condition of the Roman world in the third and +fourth centuries of the Christian era. We shall then see the old +Empire with its scheme of absolutism fully matured; we shall mark how +the new religion, rising in the midst of a hostile power, ends by +embracing and transforming it; and we shall be in a position to +understand what impression the whole huge fabric of secular and +ecclesiastical government which Roman and Christian had piled up made +upon the barbarian tribes who pressed into the charmed circle of the +ancient civilization. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE ROMAN EMPIRE BEFORE THE INVASIONS OF THE BARBARIANS. + + +[Sidenote: The Roman Empire in the second century.] + +[Sidenote: Obliteration of national distinctions.] + +[Sidenote: The Capital.] + +That ostentation of humility which the subtle policy of Augustus had +conceived, and the jealous hypocrisy of Tiberius maintained, was +gradually dropped by their successors, till despotism became at last +recognised in principle as the government of the Roman Empire. With an +aristocracy decayed, a populace degraded, an army no longer recruited +from Italy, the semblance of liberty that yet survived might be swept +away with impunity. Republican forms had never been known in the +provinces at all, and the aspect which the imperial administration had +originally assumed there, soon reacted on its position in the capital. +Earlier rulers had disguised their supremacy by making a slavish +senate the instrument of their more cruel or arbitrary acts. As time +went on, even this veil was withdrawn; and in the age of Septimius +Severus, the Emperor stood forth to the whole Roman world as the +single centre and source of power and political action. The warlike +character of the Roman state was preserved in his title of General; +his provincial lieutenants were military governors; and a more +terrible enforcement of the theory was found in his dependence on the +army, at once the origin and support of all authority. But, as he +united in himself every function of government, his sovereignty was +civil as well as military. Laws emanated from him; all officials acted +under his commission; the sanctity of his person bordered on divinity. +This increased concentration of power was mainly required by the +necessities of frontier defence, for within there was more decay than +disaffection. Few troops were quartered through the country: few +fortresses checked the march of armies in the struggles which placed +Vespasian and Severus on the throne. The distant crash of war from the +Rhine or the Euphrates was scarcely heard or heeded in the profound +quiet of the Mediterranean coasts, where, with piracy, fleets had +disappeared. No quarrels of race or religion disturbed that calm, for +all national distinctions were becoming merged in the idea of a common +Empire. The gradual extension of Roman citizenship through the +_coloniæ_, the working of the equalized and equalizing Roman law, the +even pressure of the government on all subjects, the movement of +population caused by commerce and the slave traffic, were steadily +assimilating the various peoples. Emperors who were for the most part +natives of the provinces cared little to cherish Italy or conciliate +Rome: it was their policy to keep open for every subject a career by +whose freedom they had themselves risen to greatness, and to recruit +the senate from the most illustrious families in the cities of Gaul, +Spain, and Asia. The edict by which Caracalla extended to all natives +of the Roman world the rights of Roman citizenship, though prompted by +no motives of kindness, proved in the end a boon. Annihilating legal +distinctions, it completed the work which trade and literature and +toleration to all beliefs but one were already performing, and left, +so far as we can tell, only two nations still cherishing a national +feeling. The Jew was kept apart by his religion: the Greek boasted his +original intellectual superiority. Speculative philosophy lent her aid +to this general assimilation. Stoicism, with its doctrine of a +universal system of nature, made minor distinctions between man and +man seem insignificant: and by its teachers the idea of +cosmopolitanism was for the first time proclaimed. Alexandrian +Neo-Platonism, uniting the tenets of many schools, first bringing the +mysticism of the East into connection with the logical philosophies of +Greece, had opened up a new ground of agreement or controversy for the +minds of all the world. Yet Rome's commanding position was scarcely +shaken. Her actual power was indeed confined within narrow limits. +Rarely were her senate and people permitted to choose the sovereign: +more rarely still could they control his policy; neither law nor +custom raised them above other subjects, or accorded to them any +advantage in the career of civil or military ambition. As in time past +Rome had sacrificed domestic freedom that she might be the mistress of +others, so now to be universal, she, the conqueror, had descended to +the level of the conquered. But the sacrifice had not wanted its +reward. From her came the laws and the language that had overspread +the world: at her feet the nations laid the offerings of their labour: +she was the head of the Empire and of civilization, and in riches, +fame, and splendour far outshone as well the cities of that time as +the fabled glories of Babylon or Persepolis. + +[Sidenote: Diocletian and Constantine.] + +Scarcely had these slowly working influences brought about this unity, +when other influences began to threaten it. New foes assailed the +frontiers; while the loosening of the structure within was shewn by +the long struggles for power which followed the death or deposition of +each successive emperor. In the period of anarchy after the fall of +Valerian, generals were raised by their armies in every part of the +Empire, and ruled great provinces as monarchs apart, owning no +allegiance to the possessor of the capital. + +The founding of the kingdoms of modern Europe might have been +anticipated by two hundred years, had the barbarians been bolder, or +had there not arisen in Diocletian a prince active and politic enough +to bind up the fragments before they had lost all cohesion, meeting +altered conditions by new remedies. By dividing and localizing +authority, he confessed that the weaker heart could no longer make its +pulsations felt to the body's extremities. He parcelled out the +supreme power among four persons, and then sought to give it a +factitious strength, by surrounding it with an oriental pomp which his +earlier predecessors would have scorned. The sovereign's person became +more sacred, and was removed further from the subject by the +interposition of a host of officials. The prerogative of Rome was +menaced by the rivalry of Nicomedia, and the nearer greatness of +Milan. Constantine trod in the same path, extending the system of +titles and functionaries, separating the civil from the military, +placing counts and dukes along the frontiers and in the cities, making +the household larger, its etiquette stricter, its offices more +important, though to a Roman eye degraded by their attachment to the +monarch's person. The crown became, for the first time, the fountain +of honour. These changes brought little good. Heavier taxation +depressed the aristocracy[4]: population decreased, agriculture +withered, serfdom spread: it was found more difficult to raise native +troops and to pay any troops whatever. The removal of the seat of +power to Byzantium, if it prolonged the life of a part of the Empire, +shook it as a whole, by making the separation of East and West +inevitable. By it Rome's self-abnegation that she might Romanize the +world, was completed; for though the new capital preserved her name, +and followed her customs and precedents, yet now the imperial sway +ceased to be connected with the city which had created it. Thus did +the idea of Roman monarchy become more universal; for, having lost its +local centre, it subsisted no longer historically, but, so to speak, +naturally, as a part of an order of things which a change in external +conditions seemed incapable of disturbing. Henceforth the Empire would +be unaffected by the disasters of the city. And though, after the +partition of the Empire had been confirmed by Valentinian, and finally +settled on the death of Theodosius, the seat of the Western government +was removed first to Milan and then to Ravenna, neither event +destroyed Rome's prestige, nor the notion of a single imperial +nationality common to all her subjects. The Syrian, the Pannonian, the +Briton, the Spaniard, still called himself a Roman[5]. + +[Sidenote: Christianity.] + +[Sidenote: Its alliance with the State.] + +For that nationality was now beginning to be supported by a new and +vigorous power. The Emperors had indeed opposed it as disloyal and +revolutionary: had more than once put forth their whole strength to +root it out. But the unity of the Empire, and the ease of +communication through its parts, had favoured the spread of +Christianity: persecution had scattered the seeds more widely, had +forced on it a firm organization, had given it martyr-heroes and a +history. When Constantine, partly perhaps from a genuine moral +sympathy, yet doubtless far more in the well-grounded belief that he +had more to gain from the zealous sympathy of its professors than he +could lose by the aversion of those who still cultivated a languid +paganism, took Christianity to be the religion of the Empire, it was +already a great political force, able, and not more able than willing, +to repay him by aid and submission. Yet the league was struck in no +mere mercenary spirit, for the league was inevitable. Of the evils and +dangers incident to the system then founded, there was as yet no +experience: of that antagonism between Church and State which to a +modern appears so natural, there was not even an idea. Among the Jews, +the State had rested upon religion; among the Romans, religion had +been an integral part of the political constitution, a matter far more +of national or tribal or family feeling than of personal[6]. Both in +Israel and at Rome the mingling of religious with civic patriotism had +been harmonious, giving strength and elasticity to the whole body +politic. So perfect a union was now no longer possible in the Roman +Empire, for the new faith had already a governing body of her own in +those rulers and teachers whom the growth of sacramentalism, and of +sacerdotalism its necessary consequence, was making every day more +powerful, and marking off more sharply from the mass of the Christian +people. Since therefore the ecclesiastical organization could not be +identical with the civil, it became its counterpart. Suddenly called +from danger and ignominy to the seat of power, and finding her +inexperience perplexed by a sphere of action vast and varied, the +Church was compelled to frame herself upon the model of the secular +administration. Where her own machinery was defective, as in the case +of doctrinal disputes affecting the whole Christian world, she sought +the interposition of the sovereign; in all else she strove not to sink +in, but to reproduce for herself the imperial system. And just as with +the extension of the Empire all the independent rights of districts, +towns, or tribes had disappeared, so now the primitive freedom and +diversity of individual Christians and local Churches, already +circumscribed by the frequent struggles against heresy, was finally +overborne by the idea of one visible catholic Church, uniform in faith +and ritual; uniform too in her relation to the civil power and the +increasingly oligarchical character of her government. Thus, under the +combined force of doctrinal theory and practical needs, there shaped +itself a hierarchy of patriarchs, metropolitans, and bishops, their +jurisdiction, although still chiefly spiritual, enforced by the laws +of the State, their provinces and dioceses usually corresponding to +the administrative divisions of the Empire. As no patriarch yet +enjoyed more than an honorary supremacy, the head of the Church--so +far as she could be said to have a head--was virtually the Emperor +himself. The inchoate right to intermeddle in religious affairs which +he derived from the office of Pontifex Maximus was readily admitted; +and the clergy, preaching the duty of passive obedience now as it had +been preached in the days of Nero and Diocletian[7], were well pleased +to see him preside in councils, issue edicts against heresy, and +testify even by arbitrary measures his zeal for the advancement of the +faith and the overthrow of pagan rites. But though the tone of the +Church remained humble, her strength waxed greater, nor were occasions +wanting which revealed the future that was in store for her. The +resistance and final triumph of Athanasius proved that the new society +could put forth a power of opinion such as had never been known +before: the abasement of Theodosius the Emperor before Ambrose the +Archbishop admitted the supremacy of spiritual authority. In the +decrepitude of old institutions, in the barrenness of literature and +the feebleness of art, it was to the Church that the life and feelings +of the people sought more and more to attach themselves; and when in +the fifth century the horizon grew black with clouds of ruin, those +who watched with despair or apathy the approach of irresistible foes, +fled for comfort to the shrine of a religion which even those foes +revered. + +[Sidenote: It embraces and preserves the imperial idea.] + +But that which we are above all concerned to remark here is, that this +church system, demanding a more rigid uniformity in doctrine and +organization, making more and more vital the notion of a visible body +of worshippers united by participation in the same sacraments, +maintained and propagated afresh the feeling of a single Roman people +throughout the world. Christianity as well as civilization became +conterminous with the Roman Empire[8]. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] According to the vicious financial system that prevailed, the +_curiales_ in each city were required to collect the taxes, and when +there was a deficit, to supply it from their own property. + +[5] See the eloquent passage of Claudian, _In secundum consulatum +Stilichonis_, 129, _sqq._, from which the following lines are taken +(150-60):-- + + 'Hæc est in gremio victos quæ sola recepit, + Humanumque genus communi nomine fovit, + Matris, non dominæ, ritu; civesque vocavit + Quos domuit, nexuque pio longinqua revinxit. + Hujus pacificis debemus moribus omnes + Quod veluti patriis regionibus utitur hospes: + Quod sedem mutare licet: quod cernere Thulen + Lusus, et horrendos quondam penetrare recessus: + Quod bibimus passim Rhodanum, potamus Oronten, + Quod cuncti gens una sumus. Nec terminus unquam + Romanæ ditionis erit.' + +[6] In the Roman jurisprudence, _ius sacrum_ is a branch of _ius +publicum_. + +[7] Tertullian, writing circ. A.D. 200, says: 'Sed quid ego amplius de +religione atque pietate Christiana in imperatorem quem necesse est +suspiciamus ut eum quem Dominus noster elegerit. Et merito dixerim, +noster est magis Cæsar, ut a nostro Deo constitutus.'--_Apologet._ +cap. 34. + +[8] See the book of Optatus, bishop of Milevis, _Contra Donatistas_. +'Non enim respublica est in ecclesia, sed ecclesia in republica, id +est, in imperio Romano, cum super imperatorem non sit nisi solus +Deus:' (p. 999 of vol. ii. of Migne's _Patrologiæ Cursus completus_.) +The treatise of Optatus is full of interest, as shewing the growth of +the idea of the visible Church, and of the primacy of Peter's chair, +as constituting its centre and representing its unity. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS. + + +[Sidenote: The Barbarians.] + +[Sidenote: Admitted to Roman titles and honours.] + +Upon a world so constituted did the barbarians of the North descend. +From the dawn of history they shew as a dim background to the warmth +and light of the Mediterranean coast, changing little while kingdoms +rise and fall in the South: only thought on when some hungry swarm +comes down to pillage or to settle. It is always as foes that they are +known. The Romans never forgot the invasion of Brennus; and their +fears, renewed by the irruption of the Cimbri and Teutones, could not +let them rest till the extension of the frontier to the Rhine and the +Danube removed Italy from immediate danger. A little more perseverance +under Tiberius, or again under Hadrian, would probably have reduced +all Germany as far as the Baltic and the Oder. But the politic or +jealous advice of Augustus[9] was followed, and it was only along the +frontiers that Roman arts and culture affected the Teutonic races. +Commerce was brisk; Roman envoys penetrated the forests to the courts +of rude chieftains; adventurous barbarians entered the provinces, +sometimes to admire, oftener, like the brother of Arminius[10], to +take service under the Roman flag, and rise to a distinction in the +legion which some feud denied them at home. This was found even more +convenient by the hirer than by the employed; till by degrees +barbarian mercenaries came to form the largest, or at least the most +effective, part of the Roman armies. The body-guard of Augustus had +been so composed; the prætorians were generally selected from the +bravest frontier troops, most of them German; the practice could not +but increase with the extinction of the free peasantry, the growth of +villenage, and the effeminacy of all classes. Emperors who were, like +Maximin, themselves foreigners, encouraged a system by whose means +they had risen, and whose advantages they knew. After Constantine, the +barbarians form the majority of the troops; after Theodosius, a Roman +is the exception. The soldiers of the Eastern Empire in the time of +Arcadius are almost all Goths, vast bodies of whom had been settled in +the provinces; while in the West, Stilicho[11] can oppose Rhodogast +only by summoning the German auxiliaries from the frontiers. Along +with this practice there had grown up another, which did still more to +make the barbarians feel themselves members of the Roman state. +Whatever the pride of the old republic might assert, the maxim of the +Empire had always been that birth and race should exclude no subject +from any post which his abilities deserved. This principle, which had +removed all obstacles from the path of the Spaniard Trajan, the +Pannonian Maximin, the Numidian Philip, was afterwards extended to the +conferring of honour and power on persons who did not even profess to +have passed through the grades of Roman service, but remained leaders +of their own tribes. Ariovistus had been soothed by the title of +Friend of the Roman People; in the third century the insignia of the +consulship[12] were conferred on a Herulian chief: Crocus and his +Alemanni entered as an independent body into the service of Rome; +along the Rhine whole tribes received, under the name of Laeti, lands +within the provinces on condition of military service; and the foreign +aid which the Sarmatian had proffered to Vespasian against his rival, +and Marcus Aurelius had indignantly rejected in the war with Cassius, +became the usual, at last the sole support of the Empire, in civil as +well as in external strife. + +Thus in many ways was the old antagonism broken down--Romans admitting +barbarians to rank and office, barbarians catching something of the +manners and culture of their neighbours. And thus when the final +movement came, and the Teutonic tribes slowly established themselves +through the provinces, they entered not as savage strangers, but as +colonists knowing something of the system into which they came, and +not unwilling to be considered its members; despising the degenerate +provincials who struck no blow in their own defence, but full of +respect for the majestic power which had for so many centuries +confronted and instructed them. + +[Sidenote: Their feelings towards the Roman Empire.] + +Great during all these ages, but greatest when they were actually +traversing and settling in the Empire, must have been the impression +which its elaborate machinery of government and mature civilization +made upon the minds of the Northern invaders. With arms whose +fabrication they had learned from their foes, these dwellers in the +forest conquered well-tilled fields, and entered towns whose busy +workshops, marts stored with the productions of distant countries, and +palaces rich in monuments of art, equally roused their wonder. To the +beauty of statuary or painting they might often be blind, but the +rudest mind must have been awed by the massive piles with which vanity +or devotion, or the passion for amusement, had adorned Milan and +Verona, Arles, Treves, and Bordeaux. A deeper awe would strike them as +they gazed on the crowding worshippers and stately ceremonial of +Christianity, most unlike their own rude sacrifices. The exclamation +of the Goth Athanaric, when led into the market-place of +Constantinople, may stand for the feelings of his nation: 'Without +doubt the Emperor is a God upon earth, and he who attacks him is +guilty of his own blood[13].' + +[Sidenote: Their desire to preserve its institutions.] + +The social and political system, with its cultivated language and +literature, into which they came, would impress fewer of the +conquerors, but by those few would be admired beyond all else. Its +regular organization supplied what they most needed and could least +construct for themselves, and hence it was that the greatest among +them were the most desirous to preserve it. The Mongol Attila +excepted, there is among these terrible hosts no destroyer; the wish +of each leader is to maintain the existing order, to spare life, to +respect every work of skill and labour, above all to perpetuate the +methods of Roman administration, and rule the people as the deputy or +successor of their Emperor. Titles conferred by him were the highest +honours they knew: they were also the only means of acquiring +something like a legal claim to the obedience of the subject, and of +turning a patriarchal or military chieftainship into the regular sway +of an hereditary monarch. Civilis had long since endeavoured to govern +his Batavians as a Roman general[14]. Alaric became master-general of +the armies of Illyricum. Clovis exulted in the consulship; his son +Theodebert received Provence, the conquest of his own battle-axe, as +the gift of Justinian. Sigismund the Burgundian king, created count +and patrician by the Emperor Anastasius, professed the deepest +gratitude and the firmest faith to that Eastern court which was +absolutely powerless to help or to hurt him. 'My people is yours,' he +writes, 'and to rule them delights me less than to serve you; the +hereditary devotion of my race to Rome has made us account those the +highest honours which your military titles convey; we have always +preferred what an Emperor gave to all that our ancestors could +bequeath. In ruling our nation we hold ourselves but your lieutenants: +you, whose divinely-appointed sway no barrier bounds, whose blessed +beams shine from the Bosphorus into distant Gaul, employ us to +administer the remoter regions of your Empire: your world is our +fatherland[15].' A contemporary historian has recorded the remarkable +disclosure of his own thoughts and purposes, made by one of the ablest +of the barbarian chieftains, Athaulf the Visigoth, the brother-in-law +and successor of Alaric. 'It was at first my wish to destroy the Roman +name, and erect in its place a Gothic empire, taking to myself the +place and the powers of Cæsar Augustus. But when experience taught me +that the untameable barbarism of the Goths would not suffer them to +live beneath the sway of law, and that the abolition of the +institutions on which the state rested would involve the ruin of the +state itself, I chose the glory of renewing and maintaining by Gothic +strength the fame of Rome, desiring to go down to posterity as the +restorer of that Roman power which it was beyond my power to replace. +Wherefore I avoid war and strive for peace[16].' + +Historians have remarked how valuable must have been the skill of +Roman officials to princes who from leaders of tribes were become +rulers of wide lands; and in particular how indispensable the aid of +the Christian bishops, the intellectual aristocracy of their new +subjects, whose advice could alone guide their policy and conciliate +the vanquished. Not only is this true; it is but a small part of the +truth; one form of that manifold and overpowering influence which the +old system exercised over its foes not less than its own children. For +it is hardly too much to say that the thought of antagonism to the +Empire and the wish to extinguish it never crossed the mind of the +barbarians[17]. The conception of that Empire was too universal, too +august, too enduring. It was everywhere around them, and they could +remember no time when it had not been so. It had no association of +people or place whose fall could seem to involve that of the whole +fabric; it had that connection with the Christian Church which made it +all-embracing and venerable. + +[Sidenote: The belief in its eternity.] + +There were especially two ideas whereon it rested, and from which it +obtained a peculiar strength and a peculiar direction. The one was the +belief that as the dominion of Rome was universal, so must it be +eternal. Nothing like it had been seen before. The empire of Alexander +had lasted a short lifetime; and within its wide compass were included +many arid wastes, and many tracts where none but the roving savage had +ever set foot. That of the Italian city had for fourteen generations +embraced all the most wealthy and populous regions of the civilized +world, and had laid the foundations of its power so deep that they +seemed destined to last for ever. If Rome moved slowly for a time, her +foot was always planted firmly: the ease and swiftness of her later +conquests proved the solidity of the earlier; and to her, more justly +than to his own city, might the boast of the Athenian historian be +applied: that she advanced farthest in prosperity, and in adversity +drew back the least. From the end of the republican period her poets, +her orators, her jurists, ceased not to repeat the claim of +world-dominion, and confidently predict its eternity[18]. The proud +belief of his countrymen which Virgil had expressed-- + + 'His ego nec metas rerum, nec tempora pono: + Imperium sine fine dedi'-- + +was shared by the early Christians when they prayed for the +persecuting power whose fall would bring Antichrist upon earth. +Lactantius writes: 'When Rome the head of the world shall have fallen, +who can doubt that the end is come of human things, aye, of the earth +itself. She, she alone is the state by which all things are upheld +even until now; wherefore let us make prayers and supplications to the +God of heaven, if indeed his decrees and his purposes can be delayed, +that that hateful tyrant come not sooner than we look for, he for whom +are reserved fearful deeds, who shall pluck out that eye in whose +extinction the world itself shall perish[19].' With the triumph of +Christianity this belief had found a new basis. For as the Empire had +decayed, the Church had grown stronger; and now while the one, +trembling at the approach of the destroyer, saw province after +province torn away, the other, rising in stately youth, prepared to +fill her place and govern in her name, and in doing so, to adopt and +sanctify and propagate anew the notion of a universal and unending +state. + +[Sidenote: Sanctity of the imperial name.] + +The second chief element in this conception was the association of +such a state with one irresponsible governor, the Emperor. The hatred +to the name of King, which their earliest political struggles had left +in the Romans, by obliging their ruler to take a new and strange +title, marked him off from all the other sovereigns of the world. To +the provincials especially he became an awful impersonation of the +great machine of government which moved above and around them. It was +not merely that he was, like a modern king, the centre of power and +the dispenser of honour: his pre-eminence, broken by no comparison +with other princes, by the ascending ranks of no aristocracy, had in +it something almost supernatural. The right of legislation had become +vested in him alone: the decrees of the people, and resolutions of the +senate, and edicts of the magistrates were, during the last three +centuries, replaced by imperial constitutions; his domestic council, +the consistory, was the supreme court of appeal; his interposition, +like that of some terrestrial Providence, was invoked, and legally +provided so to be, to reverse or overleap the ordinary rules of +law[20]. From the time of Julius and Augustus his person had been +hallowed by the office of chief pontiff[21] and the tribunician power; +to swear by his head was considered the most solemn of all oaths[22]; +his effigy was sacred[23], even on a coin; to him or to his Genius +temples were erected and divine honours paid while he lived[24]; and +when, as it was expressed, he ceased to be among men, the title of +Divus was accorded to him, after a solemn consecration[25]. In the +confused multiplicity of mythologies, the worship of the Emperor was +the only worship common to the whole Roman world, and was therefore +that usually proposed as a test to the Christians on their trial. +Under the new religion the form of adoration vanished, the sentiment +of reverence remained: the right to control Church as well as State, +admitted at Nicæa, and habitually exercised by the sovereigns of +Constantinople, made the Emperor hardly less essential to the new +conception of a world-wide Christian monarchy than he had been to the +military despotism of old. These considerations explain why the men of +the fifth century, clinging to preconceived ideas, refused to believe +in that dissolution of the Empire which they saw with their own eyes. +Because it could not die, it lived. And there was in the slowness of +the change and its external aspect, as well as in the fortunes of the +capital, something to favour the illusion. The Roman name was shared +by every subject; the Roman city was no longer the seat of government, +nor did her capture extinguish the imperial power, for the maxim was +now accepted, Where the Emperor is, there is Rome[26]. But her +continued existence, not permanently occupied by any conqueror, +striking the nations with an awe which the history or the external +splendours of Constantinople, Milan, or Ravenna could nowise inspire, +was an ever new assertion of the endurance of the Roman race and +dominion. Dishonoured and defenceless, the spell of her name was still +strong enough to arrest the conqueror in the moment of triumph. The +irresistible impulse that drew Alaric was one of glory or revenge, not +of destruction: the Hun turned back from Aquileia with a vague fear +upon him: the Ostrogoth adorned and protected his splendid prize. + +[Sidenote: Last days of the Western Empire.] + +[Sidenote: Its extinction by Odoacer, A.D. 476.] + +In the history of the last days of the Western Empire, two points +deserve special remark: its continued union with the Eastern branch, +and the way in which its ideal dignity was respected while its +representatives were despised. After Stilicho's death, and Alaric's +invasion, its fall was a question of time. While one by one the +provinces were abandoned by the central government, left either to be +occupied by invading tribes or to maintain a precarious independence, +like Britain and Armorica[27], by means of municipal unions, Italy lay +at the mercy of the barbarian auxiliaries and was governed by their +leaders. The degenerate line of Theodosius might have seemed to reign +by hereditary right, but after their extinction in Valentinian III +each phantom Emperor--Maximus, Avitus, Majorian, Anthemius, +Olybrius--received the purple from the haughty Ricimer, general of the +troops, only to be stripped of it when he presumed to forget his +dependence. Though the division between Arcadius and Honorius had +definitely severed the two realms for administrative purposes, they +were still supposed to constitute a single Empire, and the rulers of +the East interfered more than once to raise to the Western throne +princes they could not protect upon it. Ricimer's insolence quailed +before the shadowy grandeur of the imperial title: his ambition, and +Gundobald his successor's, were bounded by the name of patrician. The +bolder genius of Odoacer[28], general of the barbarian auxiliaries, +resolved to abolish an empty pageant, and extinguish the title and +office of Emperor of the West. Yet over him too the spell had power; +and as the Gaulish warrior had gazed on the silent majesty of the +senate in a deserted city, so the Herulian revered the power before +which the world had bowed, and though there was no force to check or +to affright him, shrank from grasping in his own barbarian hand the +sceptre of the Cæsars. When, at Odoacer's bidding, Romulus Augustulus, +the boy whom a whim of fate had chosen to be the last native Cæsar of +Rome, had formally announced his resignation to the senate, a +deputation from that body proceeded to the Eastern court to lay the +insignia of royalty at the feet of the Eastern Emperor Zeno. The West, +they declared, no longer required an Emperor of its own; one monarch +sufficed for the world; Odoacer was qualified by his wisdom and +courage to be the protector of their state, and upon him Zeno was +entreated to confer the title of patrician and the administration of +the Italian provinces[29]. The Emperor granted what he could not +refuse, and Odoacer, taking the title of King[30], continued the +consular office, respected the civil and ecclesiastical institutions +of his subjects, and ruled for fourteen years as the nominal vicar of +the Eastern Emperor. There was thus legally no extinction of the +Western Empire at all, but only a reunion of East and West. In form, +and to some extent also in the belief of men, things now reverted to +their state during the first two centuries of the Empire, save that +Byzantium instead of Rome was the centre of the civil government. The +joint tenancy which had been conceived by Diocletian, carried further +by Constantine, renewed under Valentinian I and again at the death of +Theodosius, had come to an end; once more did a single Emperor sway +the sceptre of the world, and head an undivided Catholic Church[31]. +To those who lived at the time, this year (476 A.D.) was no such epoch +as it has since become, nor was any impression made on men's minds +commensurate with the real significance of the event. For though it +did not destroy the Empire in idea, nor wholly even in fact, its +consequences were from the first great. It hastened the development of +a Latin as opposed to Greek and Oriental forms of Christianity: it +emancipated the Popes: it gave a new character to the projects and +government of the Teutonic rulers of the West. But the importance of +remembering its formal aspect to those who witnessed it will be felt +as we approach the era when the Empire was revived by Charles the +Frank. + +[Sidenote: Odoacer.] + +[Sidenote: Theodoric.] + +[Sidenote: Italy reconquered, by Justinian.] + +Odoacer's monarchy was not more oppressive than those of his +neighbours in Gaul, Spain, and Africa. But the mercenary _fœderati_ +who supported it were a loose swarm of predatory tribes: themselves +without cohesion, they could take no firm root in Italy. During the +eighteen years of his reign no progress seems to have been made +towards the re-organization of society; and the first real attempt to +blend the peoples and maintain the traditions of Roman wisdom in the +hands of a new and vigorous race was reserved for a more famous +chieftain, the greatest of all the barbarian conquerors, the +forerunner of the first barbarian Emperor, Theodoric the Ostrogoth. +The aim of his reign, though he professed allegiance to the Eastern +court which had favoured his invasion[32], was the establishment of a +national monarchy in Italy. Brought up as a hostage in the court of +Byzantium, he learnt to know the advantages of an orderly and +cultivated society and the principles by which it must be maintained; +called in early manhood to roam as a warrior-chief over the plains of +the Danube, he acquired along with the arts of command a sense of the +superiority of his own people in valour and energy and truth. When the +defeat and death of Odoacer had left the peninsula at his mercy, he +sought no further conquest, easy as it would have been to tear away +new provinces from the Eastern realm, but strove only to preserve and +strengthen the ancient polity of Rome, to breathe into her decaying +institutions the spirit of a fresh life, and without endangering the +military supremacy of his own Goths, to conciliate by indulgence and +gradually raise to the level of their masters the degenerate +population of Italy. The Gothic nation appears from the first less +cruel in war and more prudent in council than any of their Germanic +brethren[33]: all that was most noble among them shone forth now in +the rule of the greatest of the Amali. From his palace at Verona[34], +commemorated in the song of the Nibelungs, he issued equal laws for +Roman and Goth, and bade the intruder, if he must occupy part of the +lands, at least respect the goods and the person of his +fellow-subject. Jurisprudence and administration remained in native +hands: two annual consuls, one named by Theodoric, the other by the +Eastern monarch, presented an image of the ancient state; and while +agriculture and the arts revived in the provinces, Rome herself +celebrated the visits of a master who provided for the wants of her +people and preserved with care the monuments of her former splendour. +With peace and plenty men's minds took hope, and the study of letters +revived. The last gleam of classical literature gilds the reign of the +barbarian. By the consolidation of the two races under one wise +government, Italy might have been spared six hundred years of gloom +and degradation. It was not so to be. Theodoric was tolerant, but +toleration was itself a crime in the eyes of his orthodox subjects: +the Arian Goths were and remained strangers and enemies among the +Catholic Italians. Scarcely had the sceptre passed from the hands of +Theodoric to his unworthy offspring, when Justinian, who had viewed +with jealousy the greatness of his nominal lieutenant, determined to +assert his dormant rights over Italy; its people welcomed Belisarius +as a deliverer, and in the struggle that followed the race and name of +the Ostrogoths perished for ever. Thus again reunited in fact, as it +had been all the while united in name, to the Roman Empire, the +peninsula was divided into counties and dukedoms, and obeyed the +exarch of Ravenna, viceroy of the Byzantine court, till the arrival of +the Lombards in A.D. 568 drove him from some districts, and left him +only a feeble authority in the rest. + +[Sidenote: The Transalpine provinces.] + +Beyond the Alps, though the Roman population had now ceased to seek +help from the Eastern court, the Empire's rights still subsisted in +theory, and were never legally extinguished. As has been said, they +were admitted by the conquerors themselves: by Athaulf, when he +reigned in Aquitaine as the vicar of Honorius, and recovered Spain +from the Suevi to restore it to its ancient masters; by the Visigothic +kings of Spain, when they permitted the Mediterranean cities to send +tribute to Byzantium; by Clovis, when, after the representatives of +the old government, Syagrius and the Armorican cities, had been +overpowered or absorbed, he received with delight from the Eastern +emperor Anastasius the grant of a Roman dignity to confirm his +possession. Arrayed like a Fabius or Valerius in the consul's +embroidered robe, the Sicambrian chieftain rode through the streets of +Tours, while the shout of the provincials hailed him Augustus[35]. +They already obeyed him, but his power was now legalised in their +eyes, and it was not without a melancholy pride that they saw the +terrible conqueror himself yield to the spell of the Roman name, and +do homage to the enduring majesty of their legitimate sovereign[36]. + +[Sidenote: Lingering influences of Rome.] + +[Sidenote: Religion.] + +Yet the severed limbs of the Empire forgot by degrees their original +unity. As in the breaking up of the old society, which we trace from +the sixth to the eighth century, rudeness and ignorance grew apace, as +language and manners were changed by the infiltration of Teutonic +settlers, as men's thoughts and hopes and interests were narrowed by +isolation from their fellows, as the organization of the Roman +province and the Germanic tribe alike dissolved into a chaos whence +the new order began to shape itself, dimly and doubtfully as yet, the +memory of the old Empire, its symmetry, its sway, its civilization, +must needs wane and fade. It might have perished altogether but for +the two enduring witnesses Rome had left--her Church and her Law. The +barbarians had at first associated Christianity with the Romans from +whom they learned it: the Romans had used it as their only bulwark +against oppression. The hierarchy were the natural leaders of the +people, and the necessary councillors of the king. Their power grew +with the extinction of civil government and the spread of +superstition; and when the Frank found it too valuable to be abandoned +to the vanquished people, he insensibly acquired the feelings and +policy of the order he entered. + +[Sidenote: Jurisprudence.] + +As the Empire fell to pieces, and the new kingdoms which the +conquerors had founded themselves began to dissolve, the Church clung +more closely to her unity of faith and discipline, the common bond of +all Christian men. That unity must have a centre, that centre was +Rome. A succession of able and zealous pontiffs extended her influence +(the sanctity and the writings of Gregory the Great were famous +through all the West): never occupied by barbarians, she retained her +peculiar character and customs, and laid the foundations of a power +over men's souls more durable than that which she had lost over their +bodies[37]. Only second in importance to this influence was that which +was exercised by the permanence of the old law, and of its creature +the municipality. The barbarian invaders retained the customs of their +ancestors, characteristic memorials of a rude people, as we see them +in the Salic law or in the ordinances of Ina and Alfred. But the +subject population and the clergy continued to be governed by that +elaborate system which the genius and labour of many generations had +raised to be the most lasting monument of Roman greatness. + +The civil law had maintained itself in Spain and Southern Gaul, nor +was it utterly forgotten even in the North, in Britain, on the borders +of Germany. Revised editions of the Theodosian code were issued by the +Visigothic and Burgundian princes. For some centuries it was the +patrimony of the subject population everywhere, and in Aquitaine and +Italy has outlived feudalism. The presumption in later times was that +all men were to be judged by it who could not be proved to be subject +to some other[38]. Its phrases, its forms, its courts, its subtlety +and precision, all recalled the strong and refined society which had +produced it. Other motives, as well as those of kindness to their +subjects, made the new kings favour it; for it exalted their +prerogative, and the submission enjoined by it on one class of their +subjects soon came to be demanded from the other, by their own laws +the equals of the prince. Considering attentively how many of the old +institutions continued to subsist, and studying the feelings of that +time, as they are faintly preserved in its scanty records, it seems +hardly too much to say that in the eighth century the Roman Empire +still existed in the West: existed in men's minds as a power weakened, +delegated, suspended, but not destroyed. + +It is easy for those who read the history of an age in the light of +those that followed it, to perceive that in this men erred; that the +tendency of events was wholly different; that society had entered on a +new phase, wherein every change did more to localize authority and +strengthen the aristocratic principle at the expense of the despotic. +We can see that other forms of life, more full of promise for the +distant future, had already begun to shew themselves: they--with no +type of power or beauty, but that which had filled the imagination of +their forefathers, and now loomed on them grander than ever through +the mist of centuries--mistook, as it has been said of Rienzi in later +days, memories for hopes, and sighed only for the renewal of its +strength. Events were at hand by which these hopes seemed destined to +be gratified. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] 'Addiderat consilium coercendi intra terminos imperii.'--Tac. +_Ann._ i. 2. + +[10] Tac. _Ann._ ii. 9. + +[11] Stilicho, the bulwark of the Empire, seems to have been himself a +Vandal by extraction. + +[12] Of course not the consulship itself, but the _ornamenta +consularia_. + +[13] Jornandes, _De Rebus Geticis_, cap. 28. + +[14] Tac. _Hist._ i. and iv. + +[15] 'Vester quidem est populus meus sed me plus servire vobis quam +illi præesse delectat. Traxit istud a proavis generis mei apud vos +decessoresque vestros semper animo Romana devotio, ut illa nobis magis +claritas putaretur, quam vestra per militiæ titulos porrigeret +celsitudo: cunctisque auctoribus meis semper magis ambitum est quod a +principibus sumerent quam quod a patribus attulissent. Cumque gentem +nostram videamur regere, non aliud nos quam milites vestros credimus +ordinari.... Per nos administratis remotarum spatia regionum: patria +nostra vester orbis est. Tangit Galliam suam lumen orientis, et radius +qui illis partibus oriri creditur, hic refulget. Dominationem vobis +divinitus præstitam obex nulla concludit, nec ullis provinciarum +terminis diffusio felicium sceptrorum limitatur. Salvo divinitatis +honore sit dictum.'--Letter printed among the works of Avitus, Bishop +of Vienne. (Migne's _Patrologia_, vol. lix. p. 285.) + +This letter, as its style shews, is the composition not of Sigismund +himself, but of Avitus, writing on Sigismund's behalf. But this makes +it scarcely less valuable evidence of the feelings of the time. + +[16] 'Referre solitus est (_sc._ Ataulphus) se in primis ardenter +inhiasse: ut obliterato Romanorum nomine Romanum omne solum Gothorum +imperium et faceret et vocaret: essetque, ut vulgariter loquar, Gothia +quod Romania fuisset; fieretque nunc Ataulphus quod quondam Cæsar +Augustus. At ubi multa experientia probavisset, neque Gothos ullo modo +parere legibus posse propter effrenatam barbariem, neque reipublicæ +interdici leges oportere sine quibus respublica non est respublica; +elegisse se saltem, ut gloriam sibi de restituendo in integrum +augendoque Romano nomine Gothorum viribus quæreret, habereturque apud +posteros Romanæ restitutionis auctor postquam esse non potuerat +immutator. Ob hoc abstinere a bello, ob hoc inhiare paci +nitebatur.'--Orosius, vii. 43. + +[17] Athaulf formed only to abandon it. + +[18] See, among other passages, Varro, _De lingua Latina_, iv. 34; +Cic., _Pro Domo_, 33; and in the _Corpus Iuris Civilis_, Dig. i. 5, +17; l. 1, 33; xiv. 2, 9; quoted by Ægidi, _Der Fürstenrath nach dem +Luneviller Frieden_. The phrase 'urbs æterna' appears in a novel +issued by Valentinian III. + +Tertullian speaks of Rome as 'civitas sacrosancta.' + +[19] Lact. _Divin. Instit._ vii. 25: 'Etiam res ipsa declarat lapsum +ruinamque rerum brevi fore: nisi quod incolumi urbe Roma nihil +istiusmodi videtur esse metuendum. At vero cum caput illud orbis +occident, et ῥύμη esse cœperit quod Sibyllæ fore aiunt, quis dubitet +venisse iam finem rebus humanis, orbique terrarum? Illa, illa est +civitas quæ adhuc sustentat omnia, precandusque nobis et adorandus est +Deus cœli si tamen statuta eius et placita differri possunt, ne citius +quam putemus tyrannus ille abominabilis veniat qui tantum facinus +moliatur, ac lumen illud effodiat cuius interitu mundus ipse lapsurus +est.' + +Cf. Tertull. _Apolog._ cap. xxxii: 'Est et alia maior necessitas nobis +orandi pro imperatoribus, etiam pro omni statu imperii rebusque +Romanis, qui vim maximam universo orbi imminentem ipsamque clausulam +sæculi acerbitates horrendas comminantem Romani imperii commeatu +scimus retardari.' Also the same writer, _Ad Scapulam_, cap. ii: +'Christianus sciens imperatorem a Deo suo constitui, necesse est ut +ipsum diligat et revereatur et honoret et salvum velit cum toto Romano +imperio quousque sæculum stabit: tamdiu enim stabit.' So too the +author--now usually supposed to be Hilary the Deacon--of the +Commentary on the Pauline Epistles ascribed to S. Ambrose: 'Non prius +veniet Dominus quam regni Romani defectio fiat, et appareat +antichristus qui interficiet sanctos, reddita Romanis libertate, sub +suo tamen nomine.'--Ad II Thess. ii. 4, 7. + +[20] For example, by the 'restitutio natalium,' and the 'adrogatio per +rescriptum principis,' or, as it is expressed, 'per sacrum oraculum.' + +[21] Even the Christian Emperors took the title of Pontifex Maximus, +till Gratian refused it: ἀθέμιστον εἶναι Χριστιάνῳ τὸ σχῆμα +νομίσας.--Zosimus, lib. iv. cap. 36. + +[22] 'Maiore formidine et callidiore timiditate Cæsarem observatis quam +ipsum ex Olympo Iovem, et merito, si sciatis.... Citius denique apud +vos per omnes Deos quam per unum genium Cæsaris peieratur.'--Tertull. +_Apolog._ c. xxviii. + +Cf. Zos. v. 51: εἰ μὲν γὰρ πρὸς τὸν θεὸν τετυχήκει διδόμενος ὁρκὸς, ἦν +ἂν ὡς εἰκὸς παριδεῖν ἐνδίδοντας τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ φιλανθρωπίᾳ τὴν ἐπὶ τῇ +ἀσεβείᾳ συγγνώμην. ἐπεὶ δὲ κατὰ τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως ὀμωμόκεσαν κεφαλῆς, +οὐκ εἶναι θεμιτὸν αὐτοῖς εἰς τὸν τοσοῦτον ὅρκον ἐξαμαρτεῖν. + +[23] Tac. _Ann._ i. 73; iii. 38, etc. + +[24] It is curious that this should have begun in the first years of +the Empire. See, among other passages that might be cited from the +Augustan poets, Virg. _Georg._ i. 42; iv. 462; Hor. _Od._ iii. 3, 11; +Ovid, _Epp. ex Ponto_, iv. 9. 105. + +[25] Hence Vespasian's dying jest, 'Ut puto, deus fio.' + +[26] ὅπου ἂν ὁ βασιλεὺς ᾖ, ἐκεῖ ἡ Ῥώμη.--Herodian. + +[27] If the accounts we find of the Armorican republic can be trusted. + +[28] Odoacer or Odovaker, as it seems his name ought to be written, is +usually, but incorrectly, described as a King of the Heruli, who led +his people into Italy and overthrew the Empire of the West; others +call him King of the Rugii, or Skyrri, or Turcilingi. The truth seems +to be that he was not a king at all, but the son of a Skyrrian +chieftain (Edecon, known as one of the envoys whom Attila sent to +Constantinople), whose personal merits made him chosen by the +barbarian auxiliaries to be their leader. The Skyrri were a small +tribe, apparently akin to the more powerful Heruli, whose name is +often extended to them. + +[29] Αὔγουστος ὁ Ὀρέστου υἱὸς ἀκούσας Ζήνωνα πάλιν τὴν βασιλείαν +ἀνακεκτῆσθαι τῆς ἕω ... ἠνάγκασε τὴν βουλὴν ἀποστεῖλαι πρεσβεῖαν +Ζήνωνι σημαίνουσαν ὡς ἰδίας μὲν αὐτοῖς βασιλείας οὐ δέοι, κοινὸς δὲ +ἀποχρήσει μόνος ὢν αὐτοκράτωρ ἐπ' ἀμφοτέροις τοῖς πέρασι. τὸν μέντοι +Ὀδόαχον ὑπ' αὐτῶν προβεβλῆσθαι ἱκανὸν ὄντα σώζειν τὰ παρ' αὐτοῖς +πράγματα πολιτικὴν ἐχὼν νοῦν καὶ σύνεσιν ὁμοῦ καὶ μάχιμον. καὶ δεῖσθαι +τοῦ Ζήνωνος πατρικίου τε αὐτῷ ἀποστεῖλαι ἀξίαν καὶ τὴν τῶν Ἰτάλων +τουτῷ ἐφεῖναι διοίκησιν.--Malchus ap. Photium in _Corp. Hist. Byzant._ + +[30] Not king of Italy, as is often said. The barbarian kings did not +for several centuries employ territorial titles; the title 'king of +France,' for instance, was first used by Henry IV. Jornandes tells us +that Odoacer never so much as assumed the insignia of royalty. + +[31] Sismondi, _Histoire de la Chute de l'Empire Occidentale_. + +[32] 'Nil deest nobis imperio vestro famulantibus.'--Theodoric to +Zeno: Jornandes, _De Rebus Geticis_, cap. 57. + +[33] 'Unde et pæne omnibus barbaris Gothi sapientiores exstiterunt +Græcisque pæne consimiles.'--Jorn. cap. 5. + +[34] Theodoric (Thiodorich) seems to have resided usually at Ravenna, +where he died and was buried; a remarkable building which tradition +points out as his tomb stands a little way out of the town, near the +railway station, but the porphyry sarcophagus, in which his body is +supposed to have lain, has been removed thence, and may be seen built +up into the wall of the building called his palace, situated close to +the church of Sant' Apollinare, and not far from the tomb of Dante. +There does not appear to be any sufficient authority for attributing +this building to Ostrogothic times; it is very different from the +representation of Theodoric's palace which we have in the contemporary +mosaics of Sant' Apollinare in urbe. + +In the German legends, however, Theodoric is always the prince of +Verona (Dietrich von Berne), no doubt because that city was better +known to the Teutonic nations, and because it was thither that he +moved his court when transalpine affairs required his attention. His +castle there stood in the old town on the left bank of the Adige, on +the height now occupied by the citadel; it is doubtful whether any +traces of it remain, for the old foundations which we now see may have +belonged to the fortress erected by Gian Galeazzo Visconti in the +fourteenth century. + +[35] 'Igitur Chlodovechus ab imperatore Anastasio codicillos de +consulatu accepit, et in basilica beati Martini tunica blatea indutus +est et chlamyde, imponens vertici diadema ... et ab ea die tanquam +consul aut (=et) Augustus est vocitatus.'--Gregory of Tours, ii. 58. + +[36] Sir F. Palgrave (_English Commonwealth_) considers this grant as +equivalent to a formal ratification of Clovis' rule in Gaul. Hallam +rates its importance lower (_Middle Ages_, note iii. to chap. i.). +Taken in connection with the grant of south-eastern Gaul to Theodebert +by Justinian, it may fairly be held to shew that the influence of the +Empire was still felt in these distant provinces. + +[37] Even so early as the middle of the fifth century, S. Leo the +Great could say to the Roman people, 'Isti (sc. Petrus et Paulus) sunt +qui te ad hanc gloriam provexerunt ut gens sancta, populus electus, +civitas sacerdotalis et regia, per sacram B. Petri sedem caput orbis +effecta latius præsideres religione divina quam dominatione +terrena.'--_Sermon on the feast of SS. Peter and Paul._ (Opp. _ap._ +Migne tom. i. p. 336.) + +[38] 'Ius Romanum est adhuc in viridi observantia et eo iure +præsumitur quilibet vivere nisi adversum probetur.'--Maranta, quoted +by Marquard Freher. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +RESTORATION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. + + +It was towards Rome as their ecclesiastical capital that the thoughts +and hopes of the men of the sixth and seventh centuries were +constantly directed. Yet not from Rome, feeble and corrupt, nor on the +exhausted soil of Italy, was the deliverer to arise. Just when, as we +may suppose, the vision of a renewal of imperial authority in the +Western provinces was beginning to vanish away, there appeared in the +furthest corner of Europe, sprung of a race but lately brought within +the pale of civilization, a line of chieftains devoted to the service +of the Holy See, and among them one whose power, good fortune, and +heroic character pointed him out as worthy of a dignity to which +doctrine and tradition had attached a sanctity almost divine. + +[Sidenote: The Franks.] + +[Sidenote: A.D. 486.] + +Of the new monarchies that had risen on the ruins of Rome, that of the +Franks was by far the greatest. In the third century they appear, with +Saxons, Alemanni, and Thuringians, as one of the greatest German tribe +leagues. The Sicambri (for it seems probable that this famous race was +a chief source of the Frankish nation) had now laid aside their former +hostility to Rome, and her future representatives were thenceforth, +with few intervals, her faithful allies. Many of their chiefs rose to +high place: Malarich receives from Jovian the charge of the Western +provinces; Bauto and Mellobaudes figure in the days of Theodosius and +his sons; Meroveus (if Meroveus be a real name) fights under Aetius +against Attila in the great battle of Chalons; his countrymen +endeavour in vain to save Gaul from the Suevi and Burgundians. Not +till the Empire was evidently helpless did they claim a share of the +booty; then Clovis, or Chlodovech, chief of the Salian tribe, leaving +his kindred the Ripuarians in their seats on the lower Rhine, advances +from Flanders to wrest Gaul from the barbarian nations which had +entered it some sixty years before. Few conquerors have had a career +of more unbroken success. By the defeat of the Roman governor Syagrius +he was left master of the northern provinces: the Burgundian kingdom +in the valley of the Rhone was in no long time reduced to dependence: +last of all, the Visigothic power was overthrown in one great battle, +and Aquitaine added to the dominions of Clovis. Nor were the Frankish +arms less prosperous on the other side of the Rhine. The victory of +Tolbiac led to the submission of the Alemanni: their allies the +Bavarians followed, and when the Thuringian power had been broken by +Theodorich I (son of Clovis), the Frankish league embraced all the +tribes of western and southern Germany. The state thus formed, +stretching from the Bay of Biscay to the Inn and the Ems, was of +course in no sense a French, that is to say, a Gallic monarchy. Nor, +although the widest and strongest empire that had yet been founded by +a Teutonic race, was it, under the Merovingian kings, a united kingdom +at all, but rather a congeries of principalities, held together by the +predominance of a single nation and a single family, who ruled in Gaul +as masters over a subject race, and in Germany exercised a sort of +hegemony among kindred and scarcely inferior tribes. But towards the +middle of the eighth century a change began. Under the rule of Pipin +of Herstal and his son Charles Martel, mayors of the palace to the +last feeble Merovingians, the Austrasian Franks in the lower Rhineland +became acknowledged heads of the nation, and were able, while +establishing a firmer government at home, to direct its whole strength +in projects of foreign ambition. The form those projects took arose +from a circumstance which has not yet been mentioned. It was not +solely or even chiefly to their own valour that the Franks owed their +past greatness and the yet loftier future which awaited them, it was +to the friendship of the clergy and the favour of the Apostolic See. +The other Teutonic nations, Goths, Vandals, Burgundians, Suevians, +Lombards, had been most of them converted by Arian missionaries who +proceeded from the Roman Empire during the short period when Arian +doctrines were in the ascendant. The Franks, who were among the latest +converts, were Catholics from the first, and gladly accepted the +clergy as their teachers and allies. Thus it was that while the +hostility of their orthodox subjects destroyed the Vandal kingdom in +Africa and the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy, the eager sympathy of the +priesthood enabled the Franks to vanquish their Burgundian and +Visigothic enemies, and made it comparatively easy for them to blend +with the Roman population in the provinces. They had done good service +against the Saracens of Spain; they had aided the English Boniface in +his mission to the heathen of Germany[39]; and at length, as the most +powerful among Catholic nations, they attracted the eyes of the +ecclesiastical head of the West, now sorely bested by domestic foes. + +[Sidenote: Italy: the Lombards.] + +[Sidenote: The Popes.] + +Since the invasion of Alboin, Italy had groaned under a complication +of evils. The Lombards who had entered along with that chief in A.D. +568 had settled in considerable numbers in the valley of the Po, and +founded the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento, leaving the rest of the +country to be governed by the exarch of Ravenna as viceroy of the +Eastern crown. This subjection was, however, little better than +nominal. Although too few to occupy the whole peninsula, the invaders +were yet strong enough to harass every part of it by inroads which met +with no resistance from a population unused to arms, and without the +spirit to use them in self-defence. More cruel and repulsive, if we +may believe the evidence of their enemies, than any other of the +Northern tribes, the Lombards were certainly singular in their +aversion to the clergy, never admitting them to the national councils. +Tormented by their repeated attacks, Rome sought help in vain from +Byzantium, whose forces, scarce able to repel from their walls the +Avars and Saracens, could give no support to the distant exarch of +Ravenna. The Popes were the Emperor's subjects; they awaited his +confirmation, like other bishops; they had more than once been the +victims of his anger[40]. But as the city became more accustomed in +independence, and the Pope rose to a predominance, real if not yet +legal, his tone grew bolder than that of the Eastern patriarchs. In +the controversies that had raged in the Church, he had had the wisdom +or good fortune to espouse (though not always from the first) the +orthodox side: it was now by another quarrel of religion that his +deliverance from an unwelcome yoke was accomplished[41]. + +[Sidenote: Iconoclastic controversy.] + +[Sidenote: The Popes appeal to the Franks.] + +[Sidenote: Pipin patrician of the Romans, A.D. 754.] + +The Emperor Leo, born among the Isaurian mountains, where a purer +faith may yet have lingered, and stung by the Mohammedan taunt of +idolatry, determined to abolish the worship of images, which seemed +fast obscuring the more spiritual part of Christianity. An attempt +sufficient to cause tumults among the submissive Greeks, excited in +Italy a fiercer commotion. The populace rose with one heart in defence +of what had become to them more than a symbol: the exarch was slain: +the Pope, though unwilling to sever himself from the lawful head and +protector of the Church, must yet excommunicate the prince whom he +could not reclaim from so hateful a heresy. Liudprand, king of the +Lombards, improved his opportunity: falling on the exarchate as the +champion of images, on Rome as the minister of the Greek Emperor, he +overran the one, and all but succeeded in capturing the other. The +Pope escaped for the moment, but saw his peril; placed between a +heretic and a robber, he turned his gaze beyond the Alps, to a +Catholic chief who had just achieved a signal deliverance for +Christendom on the field of Poitiers. Gregory II had already opened +communications with Charles Martel, mayor of the palace, and virtual +ruler of the Frankish realm[42]. As the crisis becomes more pressing, +Gregory III finds in the same quarter his only hope, and appeals to +him, in urgent letters, to haste to the succour of Holy Church[43]. +Some accounts add that Charles was offered, in the name of the Roman +people, the office of consul and patrician. It is at least certain +that here begins the connection of the old imperial seat with the +rising German power: here first the pontiff leads a political +movement, and shakes off the ties that bound him to his legitimate +sovereign. Charles died before he could obey the call; but his son +Pipin (surnamed the Short) made good use of the new friendship with +Rome. He was the third of his family who had ruled the Franks with a +monarch's full power: it seemed time to abolish the pageant of +Merovingian royalty; yet a departure from the ancient line might shock +the feelings of the people. A course was taken whose dangers no one +then foresaw: the Holy See, now for the first time invoked as an +international power, pronounced the deposition of Childeric, and gave +to the royal office of his successor Pipin a sanctity hitherto +unknown; adding to the old Frankish election, which consisted in +raising the chief on a shield amid the clash of arms, the Roman diadem +and the Hebrew rite of anointing. The compact between the chair of +Peter and the Teutonic throne was hardly sealed, when the latter was +summoned to discharge its share of the duties. Twice did Aistulf the +Lombard assail Rome, twice did Pipin descend to the rescue: the second +time at the bidding of a letter written in the name of St. Peter +himself[44]. Aistulf could make no resistance; and the Frank bestowed +on the Papal chair all that belonged to the exarchate in North Italy, +receiving as the meed of his services the title of Patrician[45]. + +[Sidenote: Import of this title.] + +As a foreshadowing of the higher dignity that was to follow, this +title requires a passing notice. Introduced by Constantine at a time +when its original meaning had been long forgotten, it was designed to +be, and for awhile remained, the name not of an office but of a rank, +the highest after those of emperor and consul. As such, it was usually +conferred upon provincial governors of the first class, and in time +also upon barbarian potentates whose vanity the Roman court might wish +to flatter. Thus Odoacer, Theodoric, the Burgundian king Sigismund, +Clovis himself, had all received it from the Eastern emperor; so too +in still later times it was given to Saracenic and Bulgarian +princes[46]. In the sixth and seventh centuries an invariable practice +seems to have attached it to the Byzantine viceroys of Italy, and +thus, as we may conjecture, a natural confusion of ideas had made men +take it to be, in some sense, an official title, conveying an +extensive though undefined authority, and implying in particular the +duty of overseeing the Church and promoting her temporal interests. It +was doubtless with such a meaning that the Romans and their bishop +bestowed it upon the Frankish kings, acting quite without legal right, +for it could emanate from the emperor alone, but choosing it as the +title which bound its possessor to render to the Church support and +defence against her Lombard foes. Hence the phrase is always +'_Patricius Romanorum_;' not, as in former times, '_Patricius_' alone: +hence it is usually associated with the terms '_defensor_' and +'_protector_.' And since 'defence' implies a corresponding measure of +obedience on the part of those who profit by it, there must have been +conceded to the new patrician more or less of the positive authority +in Rome, although not such as to extinguish the supremacy of the +Emperor. + +[Sidenote: Extinction of the Lombard kingdom by Charles king of the +Franks.] + +[Sidenote: A.D. 774.] + +So long indeed as the Franks were separated by a hostile kingdom from +their new allies, this control remained little better than nominal. +But when on Pipin's death the restless Lombards again took up arms and +menaced the possessions of the Church, Pipin's son Charles or +Charlemagne swept down like a whirlwind from the Alps at the call of +Pope Hadrian, seized king Desiderius in his capital, assumed himself +the Lombard crown, and made northern Italy thenceforward an integral +part of the Frankish empire. Proceeding to Rome at the head of his +victorious army, the first of a long line of Teutonic kings who were +to find her love more deadly than her hate, he was received by Hadrian +with distinguished honours, and welcomed by the people as their leader +and deliverer. Yet even then, whether out of policy or from that +sentiment of reverence to which his ambitious mind did not refuse to +bow, he was moderate in claims of jurisdiction, he yielded to the +pontiff the place of honour in processions, and renewed, although in +the guise of a lord and conqueror, the gift of the Exarchate and +Pentapolis, which Pipin had made to the Roman Church twenty years +before. + +[Sidenote: Charles and Hadrian.] + +It is with a strange sense, half of sadness, half of amusement, that +in watching the progress of this grand historical drama, we recognise +the meaner motives by which its chief actors were influenced. The +Frankish king and the Roman pontiff were for the time the two most +powerful forces that urged the movement of the world, leading it on by +swift steps to a mighty crisis of its fate, themselves guided, as it +might well seem, by the purest zeal for its spiritual welfare. Their +words and acts, their whole character and bearing in the sight of +expectant Christendom, were worthy of men destined to leave an +indelible impress on their own and many succeeding ages. Nevertheless +in them too appears the undercurrent of vulgar human desires and +passions. The lofty and fervent mind of Charles was not free from the +stirrings of personal ambition: yet these may be excused, if not +defended, as almost inseparable from an intense and restless genius, +which, be it never so unselfish in its ends, must in pursuing them fix +upon everything its grasp and raise out of everything its monument. +The policy of the Popes was prompted by motives less noble. Ever since +the extinction of the Western Empire had emancipated the +ecclesiastical potentate from secular control, the first and most +abiding object of his schemes and prayers had been the acquisition of +territorial wealth in the neighbourhood of his capital. He had indeed +a sort of justification--for Rome, a city with neither trade nor +industry, was crowded with poor, for whom it devolved on the bishop to +provide. Yet the pursuit was one which could not fail to pervert the +purposes of the Popes and give a sinister character to all they did. +It was this fear for the lands of the Church far more than for +religion or the safety of the city--neither of which were really +endangered by the Lombard attacks--that had prompted their passionate +appeals to Charles Martel and Pipin; it was now the well-grounded hope +of having these possessions confirmed and extended by Pipin's greater +son that made the Roman ecclesiastics so forward in his cause. And it +was the same lust after worldly wealth and pomp, mingled with the +dawning prospect of an independent principality, that now began to +seduce them into a long course of guile and intrigue. For this is +probably the very time, although the exact date cannot be established, +to which must be assigned the extraordinary forgery of the Donation of +Constantine, whereby it was pretended that power over Italy and the +whole West had been granted by the first Christian Emperor to Pope +Sylvester and his successors in the Chair of the Apostle. + +[Sidenote: Accession of Pope Leo III, A.D. 796.] + +For the next twenty-four years Italy remained quiet. The government of +Rome was carried on in the name of the Patrician Charles, although it +does not appear that he sent thither any official representative; +while at the same time both the city and the exarchate continued to +admit the nominal supremacy of the Eastern Emperor, employing the +years of his reign to date documents. In A.D. 796, Leo the Third +succeeded Pope Hadrian, and signalized his devotion to the Frankish +throne by sending to Charles the banner of the city and the keys of +the holiest of all Rome's shrines, the confession of St. Peter, asking +that some officer should be deputed to the city to receive from the +people their oath of allegiance to the Patrician. He had soon need to +seek the Patrician's help for himself. In A.D. 798 a sedition broke +out: the Pope, going in solemn procession from the Lateran to the +church of S. Lorenzo in Lucina, was attacked by a band of armed men, +headed by two officials of his court, nephews of his predecessor; was +wounded and left for dead, and with difficulty succeeded in escaping +to Spoleto, whence he fled northward into the Frankish lands. Charles +had led his army against the revolted Saxons: thither Leo following +overtook him at Paderborn in Westphalia. The king received with +respect his spiritual father, entertained and conferred with him for +some time, and at length sent him back to Rome under the escort of +Angilbert, one of his trustiest ministers; promising to follow ere +long in person. After some months peace was restored in Saxony, and in +the autumn of 799 Charles descended from the Alps once more, while Leo +revolved deeply the great scheme for whose accomplishment the time was +now ripe. + +[Sidenote: Belief in the Roman Empire not extinct.] + +[Sidenote: Motives of the Pope.] + +Three hundred and twenty-four years had passed since the last Cæsar of +the West resigned his power into the hands of the senate, and left to +his Eastern brother the sole headship of the Roman world. To the +latter Italy had from that time been nominally subject; but it was +only during one brief interval between the death of Totila the last +Ostrogothic king and the descent of Alboin the first Lombard, that his +power had been really effective. In the further provinces, Gaul, +Spain, Britain, it was only a memory. But the idea of a Roman Empire +as a necessary part of the world's order had not vanished: it had been +admitted by those who seemed to be destroying it; it had been +cherished by the Church; was still recalled by laws and customs; was +dear to the subject populations, who fondly looked back to the days +when slavery was at least mitigated by peace and order. We have seen +the Teuton endeavouring everywhere to identify himself with the system +he overthrew. As Goths, Burgundians, and Franks sought the title of +consul or patrician, as the Lombard kings when they renounced their +Arianism styled themselves Flavii, so even in distant England the +fierce Saxon and Anglian conquerors used the names of Roman dignities, +and before long began to call themselves _imperatores_ and _basileis_ +of Britain. Within the last century and a half the rise of +Mohammedanism[47] had brought out the common Christianity of Europe +into a fuller relief. The false prophet had left one religion, one +Empire, one Commander of the faithful: the Christian commonwealth +needed more than ever an efficient head and centre. Such leadership it +could nowise find in the Court of the Bosphorus, growing ever feebler +and more alien to the West. The name of 'respublica,' permanent at the +elder Rome, had never been applied to the Eastern Empire. Its +government was from the first half Greek, half Asiatic; and had now +drifted away from its ancient traditions into the forms of an Oriental +despotism. Claudian had already sneered at 'Greek Quirites[48]:' the +general use, since Heraclius's reign, of the Greek tongue, and the +difference of manners and usages, made the taunt now more deserved. +The Pope had no reason to wish well to the Byzantine princes, who +while insulting his weakness had given him no help against the savage +Lombards, and who for nearly seventy years[49] had been contaminated +by a heresy the more odious that it touched not speculative points of +doctrine but the most familiar usages of worship. In North Italy their +power was extinct: no pontiff since Zacharias had asked their +confirmation of his election: nay, the appointment of the intruding +Frank to the patriciate, an office which it belonged to the Emperor to +confer, was of itself an act of rebellion. Nevertheless their rights +subsisted: they were still, and while they retained the imperial name, +must so long continue, titular sovereigns of the Roman city. Nor could +the spiritual head of Christendom dispense with the temporal: without +the Roman Empire there could not be a Roman, nor by necessary +consequence a Catholic and Apostolic Church[50]. For, as will be shewn +more fully hereafter, men could not separate in fact what was +indissoluble in thought: Christianity must stand or fall along with +the great Christian state: they were but two names for the same thing. +Thus urged, the Pope took a step which some among his predecessors are +said to have already contemplated[51], and towards which the events of +the last fifty years had pointed. The moment was opportune. The +widowed empress Irene, equally famous for her beauty, her talents, and +her crimes, had deposed and blinded her son Constantine VI: a woman, +an usurper, almost a parricide, sullied the throne of the world. By +what right, it might well be asked, did the factions of Byzantium +impose a master on the original seat of empire? It was time to provide +better for the most august of human offices: an election at Rome was +as valid as at Constantinople--the possessor of the real power should +also be clothed with the outward dignity. Nor could it be doubted +where that possessor was to be found. The Frank had been always +faithful to Rome: his baptism was the enlistment of a new barbarian +auxiliary. His services against Arian heretics and Lombard marauders, +against the Saracen of Spain and the Avar of Pannonia, had earned him +the title of Champion of the Faith and Defender of the Holy See. He +was now unquestioned lord of Western Europe, whose subject nations, +Keltic and Teutonic, were eager to be called by his name and to +imitate his customs[52]. In Charles, the hero who united under one +sceptre so many races, who ruled all as the vicegerent of God, the +pontiff might well see--as later ages saw--the new golden head of a +second image[53], erected on the ruins of that whose mingled iron and +clay seemed crumbling to nothingness behind the impregnable bulwarks +of Constantinople. + +[Sidenote: Coronation of Charles at Rome, A.D. 800.] + +At length the Frankish host entered Rome. The Pope's cause was heard; +his innocence, already vindicated by a miracle, was pronounced by the +Patrician in full synod; his accusers condemned in his stead. Charles +remained in the city for some weeks; and on Christmas-day, A.D. +800[54], he heard mass in the basilica of St. Peter. On the spot where +now the gigantic dome of Bramante and Michael Angelo towers over the +buildings of the modern city, the spot which tradition had hallowed as +that of the Apostle's martyrdom, Constantine the Great had erected the +oldest and stateliest temple of Christian Rome. Nothing could be less +like than was this basilica to those northern cathedrals, shadowy, +fantastic, irregular, crowded with pillars, fringed all round by +clustering shrines and chapels, which are to most of us the types of +mediæval architecture. In its plan and decorations, in the spacious +sunny hall, the roof plain as that of a Greek temple, the long rows of +Corinthian columns, the vivid mosaics on its walls, in its brightness, +its sternness, its simplicity, it had preserved every feature of Roman +art, and had remained a perfect expression of the Roman character[55]. +Out of the transept, a flight of steps led up to the high altar +underneath and just beyond the great arch, the arch of triumph as it +was called: behind in the semicircular apse sat the clergy, rising +tier above tier around its walls; in the midst, high above the rest, +and looking down past the altar over the multitude, was placed the +bishop's throne[56], itself the curule chair of some forgotten +magistrate[57]. From that chair the Pope now rose, as the reading of +the Gospel ended, advanced to where Charles--who had exchanged his +simple Frankish dress for the sandals and the chlamys of a Roman +patrician[58]--knelt in prayer by the high altar, and as in the sight +of all he placed upon the brow of the barbarian chieftain the diadem +of the Cæsars, then bent in obeisance before him, the church rang to +the shout of the multitude, again free, again the lords and centre of +the world, 'Karolo Augusto a Deo coronato magno et pacifico imperatori +vita et victoria[59].' In that shout, echoed by the Franks without, +was pronounced the union, so long in preparation, so mighty in its +consequences, of the Roman and the Teuton, of the memories and the +civilization of the South with the fresh energy of the North, and from +that moment modern history begins. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[39] 'Denique gens Francorum multos et fœcundissimos fructus Domino +attulit, non solum credendo, sed et alios salutifere convertendo,' +says the emperor Lewis II in A.D. 871. + +[40] Martin, as in earlier times Sylverius. + +[41] A singular account of the origin of the separation of the Greeks +and Latins occurs in the treatise of Radulfus de Columna (Ralph +Colonna, or, as some think, de Coloumelle), _De translatione Imperii +Romani_ (circ. 1300). 'The tyranny of Heraclius,' says he, 'provoked a +revolt of the Eastern nations. They could not be reduced, because the +Greeks at the same time began to disobey the Roman Pontiff, receding, +like Jeroboam, from the true faith. Others among these schismatics +(apparently with the view of strengthening their political revolt) +carried their heresy further and founded Mohammedanism.' Similarly, +the Franciscan Marsilius of Padua (circa 1324) says that Mohammed, 'a +rich Persian,' invented his religion to keep the East from returning +to allegiance to Rome. It is worth remarking that few, if any, of the +earlier historians (from the tenth to the fifteenth century) refer to +the Emperors of the West from Constantine to Augustulus: the very +existence of this Western line seems to have been even in the eighth +or ninth century altogether forgotten. + +[42] Anastasius, _Vitæ Pontificum Romanorum_ i. _ap._ Muratori. + +[43] Letter in _Codex Carolinus_, in Muratori's _Scriptores Rerum +Italicarum_, vol. iii. (part 2nd), addressed 'Subregulo Carolo.' + +[44] Letter in _Cod. Carol._ (Mur. _R. S. I._ iii. [2.] p. 96), a +strange mixture of earnest adjurations, dexterous appeals to Frankish +pride, and long scriptural quotations: 'Declaratum quippe est quod +super omnes gentes vestra Francorum gens prona mihi Apostolo Dei Petro +exstitit, et ideo ecclesiam quam mihi Dominus tradidit vobis per manus +Vicarii mei commendavi.' + +[45] The exact date when Pipin received the title cannot be made out. +Pope Stephen's next letter (p. 96 of Mur. iii.) is addressed 'Pipino, +Carolo et Carolomanno patriciis.' And so the _Chronicon Casinense_ +(Mur. iv. 273) says it was first given to Pipin. Gibbon can hardly be +right in attributing it to Charles Martel, although one or two +documents may be quoted in which it is used of him. As one of these is +a letter of Pope Gregory II's, the explanation may be that the title +was offered or intended to be offered to him, although never accepted +by him. + +[46] The title of Patrician appears even in the remote West: it stands +in a charter of Ina the West Saxon king, and in one given by Richard +of Normandy in A.D. 1015. Ducange, _s.v._ + +[47] After the _translatio ad Francos_ of A.D. 800, the two Empires +corresponded exactly to the two Khalifates of Bagdad and Cordova. + +[48] + + 'Plaudentem cerne senatum + Et Byzantinos proceres, Graiosque Quirites.' + _In Eutrop._ ii. 135. + +[49] Several Emperors during this period had been patrons of images, +as was Irene at the moment of which I write: the stain nevertheless +adhered to their government as a whole. + +[50] I should not have thought it necessary to explain that the +sentence in the text is meant simply to state what were (so far as can +be made out) the sentiments and notions of the ninth century, if a +writer in the _Tablet_ (reviewing a former edition) had not understood +it as an expression of the author's own belief. + +To a modern eye there is of course no necessary connection between the +Roman Empire and a catholic and apostolic Church; in fact, the two +things seem rather, such has been the impression made on us by the +long struggle of church and state, in their nature mutually +antagonistic. The interest of history lies not least in this, that it +shews us how men have at different times entertained wholly different +notions respecting the relation to one another of the same ideas or +the same institutions. + +[51] Monachus Sangallensis, _De Gestis Karoli_; in Pertz, _Monumenta +Germaniæ Historica_. + +[52] Monachus Sangallensis; _ut supra_. So Pope Gregory the Great two +centuries earlier: 'Quanto cæteros homines regia dignitas antecedit, +tanto cæterarum gentium regna regni Francorum culmen excellit.' Ep. v. +6. + +[53] Alciatus, _De Formula imperii Romani_. + +[54] Or rather, according to the then prevailing practice of beginning +the year from Christmas-day, A.D. 801. + +[55] An elaborate description of old St. Peter's may be found in +Bunsen's and Platner's _Beschreibung der Stadt Rom_; with which +compare Bunsen's work on the Basilicas of Rome. + +[56] The primitive custom was for the bishop to sit in the centre of +the apse, at the central point of the east end of the church (or, as +it would be more correct to say, the end furthest from the door) just +as the judge had done in those law courts on the model of which the +first basilicas were constructed. This arrangement may still be seen +in some of the churches of Rome, as well as elsewhere in Italy; +nowhere better than in the churches of Ravenna, particularly the +beautiful one of Sant' Apollinare in Classe, and in the cathedral of +Torcello, near Venice. + +[57] On this chair were represented the labours of Hercules and the +signs of the zodiac. It is believed at Rome to be the veritable chair +of the Apostle himself, and whatever may be thought of such an +antiquity as this, it can be satisfactorily traced back to the third +or fourth century of Christianity. (The story that it is inscribed +with verses from the Koran is, I believe, without foundation.) It is +now enclosed in a gorgeous casing of gilded wood (some say, of +bronze), and placed aloft at the extremity of St. Peter's, just over +the spot where a bishop's chair would in the old arrangement of the +basilica have stood. The sarcophagus in which Charles himself lay, +till the French scattered his bones abroad, had carved on it the rape +of Proserpine. It may still be seen in the gallery of the basilica at +Aachen. + +[58] Eginhard, _Vita Karoli_. + +[59] The coronation scene is described in all the annals of the time, +to which it is therefore needless to refer more particularly. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +EMPIRE AND POLICY OF CHARLES. + + +The coronation of Charles is not only the central event of the Middle +Ages, it is also one of those very few events of which, taking them +singly, it may be said that if they had not happened, the history of +the world would have been different. In one sense indeed it has +scarcely a parallel. The assassins of Julius Cæsar thought that they +had saved Rome from monarchy, but monarchy came inevitable in the next +generation. The conversion of Constantine changed the face of the +world, but Christianity was spreading fast, and its ultimate triumph +was only a question of time. Had Columbus never spread his sails, the +secret of the western sea would yet have been pierced by some later +voyager: had Charles V broken his safe-conduct to Luther, the voice +silenced at Wittenberg would have been taken up by echoes elsewhere. +But if the Roman Empire had not been restored in the West in the +person of Charles, it would never have been restored at all, and the +inexhaustible train of consequences for good and for evil that +followed could not have been. Why this was so may be seen by examining +the history of the next two centuries. In that day, as through all the +Dark and Middle Ages, two forces were striving for the mastery. The +one was the instinct of separation, disorder, anarchy, caused by the +ungoverned impulses and barbarous ignorance of the great bulk of +mankind; the other was that passionate longing of the better minds for +a formal unity of government, which had its historical basis in the +memories of the old Roman Empire, and its most constant expression in +the devotion to a visible and catholic Church. The former tendency, as +everything shews, was, in politics at least, the stronger, but the +latter, used and stimulated by an extraordinary genius like Charles, +achieved in the year 800 a victory whose results were never to be +lost. When the hero was gone, the returning wave of anarchy and +barbarism swept up violent as ever, yet it could not wholly obliterate +the past: the Empire, maimed and shattered though it was, had struck +its roots too deep to be overthrown by force, and when it perished at +last, perished from inner decay. It was just because men felt that no +one less than Charles could have won such a triumph over the evils of +the time, by framing and establishing a gigantic scheme of government, +that the excitement and hope and joy which the coronation evoked were +so intense. Their best evidence is perhaps to be found not in the +records of that time itself, but in the cries of lamentation that +broke forth when the Empire began to dissolve towards the close of the +ninth century, in the marvellous legends which attached themselves to +the name of Charles the Emperor, a hero of whom any exploit was +credible[60], in the devout admiration wherewith his German successors +looked back to, and strove in all things to imitate, their all but +superhuman prototype. + +[Sidenote: Import of the coronation.] + +As the event of A.D. 800 made an unparalleled impression on those who +lived at the time, so has it engaged the attention of men in +succeeding ages, has been viewed in the most opposite lights, and +become the theme of interminable controversies. It is better to look +at it simply as it appeared to the men who witnessed it. Here, as in +so many other cases, may be seen the errors into which jurists have +been led by the want of historical feeling. In rude and unsettled +states of society men respect forms and obey facts, while careless of +rules and principles. In England, for example, in the eleventh and +twelfth centuries, it signified very little whether an aspirant to the +throne was next lawful heir, but it signified a great deal whether he +had been duly crowned and was supported by a strong party. Regarding +the matter thus, it is not hard to see why those who judged the actors +of A.D. 800 as they would have judged their contemporaries should have +misunderstood the nature of that which then came to pass. Baronius and +Bellarmine, Spanheim and Conring, are advocates bound to prove a +thesis, and therefore believing it; nor does either party find any +lack of plausible arguments[61]. But civilian and canonist alike +proceed upon strict legal principles, and no such principles can be +found in the case, or applied to it. Neither the instances cited by +the Cardinal from the Old Testament of the power of priests to set up +and pull down princes, nor those which shew the earlier Emperors +controlling the bishops of Rome, really meet the question. Leo acted +not as having alone the right to transfer the crown; the practice of +hereditary succession and the theory of popular election would have +equally excluded such a claim; he was the spokesman of the popular +will, which, identifying itself with the sacerdotal power, hated the +Greeks and was grateful to the Franks. Yet he was also something more. +The act, as it specially affected his interests, was mainly his work, +and without him would never have been brought about at all. It was +natural that a confusion of his secular functions as leader, and his +spiritual as consecrating priest, should lay the foundation of the +right claimed afterwards of raising and deposing monarchs at the will +of Christ's vicar. The Emperor was passive throughout; he did not, as +in Lombardy, appear as a conqueror, but was received by the Pope and +the people as a friend and ally. Rome no doubt became his capital, but +it had already obeyed him as Patrician, and the greatest fact that +stood out to posterity from the whole transaction was that the crown +was bestowed, was at least imposed, by the hands of the pontiff. He +seemed the trustee and depositary of the imperial authority[62]. + +[Sidenote: Contemporary accounts.] + +The best way of shewing the thoughts and motives of those concerned in +the transaction is to transcribe the narratives of three contemporary, +or almost contemporary annalists, two of them German and one Italian. +The Annals of Lauresheim say:-- + +'And because the name of Emperor had now ceased among the Greeks, and +their Empire was possessed by a woman, it then seemed both to Leo the +Pope himself, and to all the holy fathers who were present in the +selfsame council, as well as to the rest of the Christian people, that +they ought to take to be Emperor Charles king of the Franks, who held +Rome herself, where the Cæsars had always been wont to sit, and all +the other regions which he ruled through Italy and Gaul and Germany; +and inasmuch as God had given all these lands into his hand, it seemed +right that with the help of God and at the prayer of the whole +Christian people he should have the name of Emperor also. Whose +petition king Charles willed not to refuse, but submitting himself +with all humility to God, and at the prayer of the priests and of the +whole Christian people, on the day of the nativity of our Lord Jesus +Christ he took on himself the name of Emperor, being consecrated by +the lord Pope Leo[63].' + +Very similar in substance is the account of the Chronicle of Moissac +(ad ann. 801):-- + +'Now when the king upon the most holy day of the Lord's birth was +rising to the mass after praying before the confession of the blessed +Peter the Apostle, Leo the Pope, with the consent of all the bishops +and priests and of the senate of the Franks and likewise of the +Romans, set a golden crown upon his head, the Roman people also +shouting aloud. And when the people had made an end of chanting the +Laudes, he was adored by the Pope after the manner of the emperors of +old. For this also was done by the will of God. For while the said +Emperor abode at Rome certain men were brought unto him, who said that +the name of Emperor had ceased among the Greeks, and that among them +the Empire was held by a woman called Irene, who had by guile laid +hold on her son the Emperor, and put out his eyes, and taken the +Empire to herself, as it is written of Athaliah in the Book of the +Kings; which when Leo the Pope and all the assembly of the bishops and +priests and abbots heard, and the senate of the Franks and all the +elders of the Romans, they took counsel with the rest of the Christian +people, that they should name Charles king of the Franks to be +Emperor, seeing that he held Rome the mother of empire where the +Cæsars and Emperors were always used to sit; and that the heathen +might not mock the Christians if the name of Emperor should have +ceased among the Christians[64].' + +These two accounts are both from a German source: that which follows +is Roman, written probably within some fifty or sixty years of the +event. It is taken from the Life of Leo III in the _Vitæ Pontificum +Romanorum_, compiled by Anastasius the papal librarian. + +'After these things came the day of the birth of our Lord Jesus +Christ, and all men were again gathered together in the aforesaid +basilica of the blessed Peter the Apostle: and then the gracious and +venerable pontiff did with his own hands crown Charles with a very +precious crown. Then all the faithful people of Rome, seeing the +defence that he gave and the love that he bare to the holy Roman +Church and her Vicar, did by the will of God and of the blessed Peter, +the keeper of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, cry with one accord +with a loud voice, 'To Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned of +God, the great and peacegiving Emperor, be life and victory.' While +he, before the holy confession of the blessed Peter the Apostle, was +invoking divers saints, it was proclaimed thrice, and he was chosen by +all to be Emperor of the Romans. Thereon the most holy pontiff +anointed Charles with holy oil, and likewise his most excellent son to +be king, upon the very day of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ; and +when the mass was finished, then after the mass the most serene lord +Emperor offered gifts[65].' + +[Sidenote: Impression which they convey.] + +[Sidenote: Later theories respecting the coronation.] + +In these three accounts there is no serious discrepancy as to the +facts, although the Italian priest, as is natural, heightens the +importance of the part played by the Pope, while the Germans are too +anxious to rationalize the event, talking of a synod of the clergy, a +consultation of the people, and a formal request to Charles, which the +silence of Eginhard, as well as the other circumstances of the case, +forbid us to accept as literally true. Similarly Anastasius passes +over the adoration rendered by the Pope to the Emperor, upon which +most of the Frankish records insist in a way which puts it beyond +doubt. But the impression which the three narratives leave is +essentially the same. They all shew how little the transaction can be +made to wear a strictly legal character. The Frankish king does not of +his own might seize the crown, but rather receives it as coming +naturally to him, as the legitimate consequence of the authority he +already enjoyed. The Pope bestows the crown, not in virtue of any +right of his own as head of the Church: he is merely the instrument of +God's providence, which has unmistakeably pointed out Charles as the +proper person to defend and lead the Christian commonwealth. The Roman +people do not formally elect and appoint, but by their applause accept +the chief who is presented to them. The act is conceived of as +directly ordered by the Divine Providence which has brought about a +state of things that admits of but one issue, an issue which king, +priest, and people have only to recognise and obey; their personal +ambitions, passions, intrigues, sinking and vanishing in reverential +awe at what seems the immediate interposition of Heaven. And as the +result is desired by all parties alike, they do not think of inquiring +into one another's rights, but take their momentary harmony to be +natural and necessary, never dreaming of the difficulties and +conflicts which were to arise out of what seemed then so simple. And +it was just because everything was thus left undetermined, resting not +on express stipulation but rather on a sort of mutual understanding, a +sympathy of beliefs and wishes which augured no evil, that the event +admitted of being afterwards represented in so many different lights. +Four centuries later, when Papacy and Empire had been forced into the +mortal struggle by which the fate of both was decided, three distinct +theories regarding the coronation of Charles will be found advocated +by three different parties, all of them plausible, all of them to some +extent misleading. The Swabian Emperors held the crown to have been +won by their great predecessor as the prize of conquest, and drew the +conclusion that the citizens and bishop of Rome had no rights as +against themselves. The patriotic party among the Romans, appealing to +the early history of the Empire, declared that by nothing but the +voice of their senate and people could an Emperor be lawfully created, +he being only their chief magistrate, the temporary depositary of +their authority. The Popes pointed to the indisputable fact that Leo +imposed the crown, and argued that as God's earthly vicar it was then +his, and must always continue to be their right to give to whomsoever +they would an office which was created to be the handmaid of their +own. Of these three it was the last view that eventually prevailed, +yet to an impartial eye it cannot claim, any more than do the two +others, to contain the whole truth. Charles did not conquer, nor the +Pope give, nor the people elect. As the act was unprecedented so was +it illegal; it was a revolt of the ancient Western capital against a +daughter who had become a mistress; an exercise of the sacred right of +insurrection, justified by the weakness and wickedness of the +Byzantine princes, hallowed to the eyes of the world by the sanction +of Christ's representative, but founded upon no law, nor competent to +create any for the future. + +[Sidenote: Was the coronation a surprise?] + +It is an interesting and somewhat perplexing question, how far the +coronation scene, an act as imposing in its circumstances as it was +momentous in its results, was prearranged among the parties. Eginhard +tells us that Charles was accustomed to declare that he would not, +even on so high a festival, have entered the church had he known of +the Pope's intention. Even if the monarch had uttered, the secretary +would hardly have recorded a falsehood long after the motive that +might have prompted it had disappeared. Of the existence of that +motive which has been most commonly assumed, a fear of the discontent +of the Franks who might think their liberties endangered, little or no +proof can be brought from the records of the time, wherein the nation +is represented as exulting in the new dignity of their chief as an +accession of grandeur to themselves. Nor can we suppose that Charles's +disavowal was meant to soothe the offended pride of the Byzantine +princes, from whom he had nothing to fear, and who were none the more +likely to recognise his dignity, if they should believe it to be not +of his own seeking. Yet it is hard to suppose the whole affair a +surprise; for it was the goal towards which the policy of the Frankish +kings had for many years pointed, and Charles himself, in sending +before him to Rome many of the spiritual and temporal magnates of his +realm, in summoning thither his son Pipin from the war against the +Lombards of Benevento, had shewn that he expected some more than +ordinary result from this journey to the imperial city. Alcuin +moreover, Alcuin of York, the prime minister of Charles in matters +religious and literary, appears from one of his extant letters to have +sent as a Christmas gift to his royal pupil a carefully corrected and +superbly adorned copy of the Scriptures, with the words 'ad splendorem +imperialis potentiæ.' This has commonly been taken for conclusive +evidence that the plan had been settled beforehand, and such it would +be were there not some reasons for giving the letter an earlier date, +and looking upon the word 'imperialis' as a mere magniloquent +flourish[66]. More weight is therefore to be laid upon the arguments +supplied by the nature of the case itself. The Pope, whatever his +confidence in the sympathy of the people, would never have ventured on +so momentous a step until previous conferences had assured him of the +feelings of the king, nor could an act for which the assembly were +evidently prepared have been kept a secret. Nevertheless, the +declaration of Charles himself can neither be evaded nor set down to +mere dissimulation. It is more just to him, and on the whole more +reasonable, to suppose that Leo, having satisfied himself of the +wishes of the Roman clergy and people as well as of the Frankish +magnates, resolved to seize an occasion and place so eminently +favourable to his long-cherished plan, while Charles, carried away by +the enthusiasm of the moment and seeing in the pontiff the prophet and +instrument of the divine will, accepted a dignity which he might have +wished to receive at some later time or in some other way. If, +therefore, any positive conclusion be adopted, it would seem to be +that Charles, although he had probably given a more or less vague +consent to the project, was surprised and disconcerted by a sudden +fulfilment which interrupted his own carefully studied designs. And +although a deed which changed the history of the world was in any case +no accident, it may well have worn to the Frankish and Roman +spectators the air of a surprise. For there were no preparations +apparent in the church; the king was not, like his Teutonic successors +in aftertime, led in procession to the pontifical throne: suddenly, at +the very moment when he rose from the sacred hollow where he had knelt +among the ever-burning lamps before the holiest of Christian +relics--the body of the prince of the Apostles--the hands of that +Apostle's representative placed upon his head the crown of glory and +poured upon him the oil of sanctification. There was something in this +to thrill the beholders with the awe of a divine presence, and make +them hail him whom that presence seemed almost visibly to consecrate, +the 'pious and peace-giving Emperor, crowned of God.' + +[Sidenote: Theories of the motives of Charles.] + +The reluctance of Charles to assume the imperial title is ascribed by +Eginhard to a fear of the jealous hostility of the Greeks, who could +not only deny his claim to it, but might disturb by their intrigues +his dominions in Italy. Accepting this statement, the problem remains, +how is this reluctance to be reconciled with those acts of his which +clearly shew him aiming at the Roman crown? An ingenious and probable, +if not certain solution, is suggested by a recent historian[67], who +argues from a minute examination of the previous policy of Charles, +that while it was the great object of his reign to obtain the crown of +the world, he foresaw at the same time the opposition of the Eastern +Court, and the want of legality from which his title would in +consequence suffer. He was therefore bent on getting from the +Byzantines, if possible, a transference of their crown; if not, at +least a recognition of his own: and he appears to have hoped to win +this by the negotiations which had been for some time kept on foot +with the Empress Irene. Just at this moment came the coronation by +Pope Leo, interrupting these deep-laid schemes, irritating the Eastern +Court, and forcing Charles into the position of a rival who could not +with dignity adopt a soothing or submissive tone. Nevertheless, he +seems not even then to have abandoned the hope of obtaining a peaceful +recognition. Irene's crimes did not prevent him, if we may credit +Theophanes[68], from seeking her hand in marriage. And when the +project of thus uniting the East and West in a single Empire, baffled +for a time by the opposition of her minister Ætius, was rendered +impossible by her subsequent dethronement and exile, he did not +abandon the policy of conciliation until a surly acquiescence in +rather than admission of his dignity had been won from the Byzantine +sovereigns Michael and Nicephorus[69]. + +[Sidenote: Defect in the title of the Teutonic Emperors.] + +Whether, supposing Leo to have been less precipitate, a cession of the +crown, or an acknowledgment of the right of the Romans to confer it, +could ever have been obtained by Charles is perhaps more than +doubtful. But it is clear that he judged rightly in rating its +importance high, for the want of it was the great blemish in his own +and his successors' dignity. To shew how this was so, reference must +be made to the events of A.D. 476. Both the extinction of the Western +Empire in that year and its revival in A.D. 800 have been very +generally misunderstood in modern times, and although the mistake is +not, in a certain sense, of practical importance, yet it tends to +confuse history and to blind us to the ideas of the people who acted +on both occasions. When Odoacer compelled the abdication of Romulus +Augustulus, he did not abolish the Western Empire as a separate power, +but caused it to be reunited with or sink into the Eastern, so that +from that time there was, as there had been before Diocletian, a +single undivided Roman Empire. In A.D. 800 the very memory of the +separate Western Empire, as it had stood from the death of Theodosius +till Odoacer, had, so far as appears, been long since lost, and +neither Leo nor Charles nor any one among their advisers dreamt of +reviving it. They too, like their predecessors, held the Roman Empire +to be one and indivisible, and proposed by the coronation of the +Frankish king not to proclaim a severance of the East and West, but to +reverse the act of Constantine, and make Old Rome again the civil as +well as the ecclesiastical capital of the Empire that bore her name. +Their deed was in its essence illegal, but they sought to give it +every semblance of legality: they professed and partly believed that +they were not revolting against a reigning sovereign, but legitimately +filling up the place of the deposed Constantine the Sixth; the people +of the imperial city exercising their ancient right of choice, their +bishop his right of consecration. + +Their purpose was but half accomplished. They could create but they +could not destroy: they set up an Emperor of their own, whose +representatives thenceforward ruled the West, but Constantinople +retained her sovereigns as of yore; and Christendom saw henceforth two +imperial lines, not as in the time before A.D. 476, the conjoint heads +of a single realm, but rivals and enemies, each denouncing the other +as an impostor, each professing to be the only true and lawful head of +the Christian Church and people. Although therefore we must in +practice speak during the next seven centuries (down till A.D. 1453, +when Constantinople fell before the Mohammedan) of an Eastern and a +Western Empire, the phrase is in strictness incorrect, and was one +which either court ought to have repudiated. The Byzantines always did +repudiate it; the Latins usually; although, yielding to facts, they +sometimes condescended to employ it themselves. But their theory was +always the same. Charles was held to be the legitimate successor, not +of Romulus Augustulus, but of Basil, Heraclius, Justinian, Arcadius, +and all the Eastern line; and hence it is that in all the annals of +the time and of many succeeding centuries, the name of Constantine VI, +the sixty-seventh in order from Augustus, is followed without a break +by that of Charles, the sixty-eighth. + +[Sidenote: Government of Charles as Emperor.] + +[Sidenote: His authority in matters ecclesiastical.] + +The maintenance of an imperial line among the Greeks was a continuing +protest against the validity of Charles's title. But from their enmity +he had little to fear, and in the eyes of the world he seemed to step +into their place, adding the traditional dignity which had been theirs +to the power that he already enjoyed. North Italy and Rome ceased for +ever to own the supremacy of Byzantium; and while the Eastern princes +paid a shameful tribute to the Mussulman, the Frankish Emperor--as the +recognised head of Christendom--received from the patriarch of +Jerusalem the keys of the Holy Sepulchre and the banner of Calvary; +the gift of the Sepulchre itself, says Eginhard, from Aaron king of +the Persians[70]. Out of this peaceful intercourse with the great +Khalif the romancers created a crusade. Within his own dominions his +sway assumed a more sacred character. Already had his unwearied and +comprehensive activity made him throughout his reign an ecclesiastical +no less than a civil ruler, summoning and sitting in councils, +examining and appointing bishops, settling by capitularies the +smallest points of church discipline and polity. A synod held at +Frankfort in A.D. 794 condemned the decrees of the second council of +Nicæa, which had been approved by Pope Hadrian, censured in violent +terms the conduct of the Byzantine rulers in suggesting them, and +without excluding images from churches, altogether forbade them to be +worshipped or even venerated. Not only did Charles preside in and +direct the deliberations of this synod, although legates from the Pope +were present--he also caused a treatise to be drawn up stating and +urging its conclusions; he pressed Hadrian to declare Constantine VI a +heretic for enouncing doctrines to which Hadrian had himself +consented. There are letters of his extant in which he lectures Pope +Leo in a tone of easy superiority, admonishes him to obey the holy +canons, and bids him pray earnestly for the success of the efforts +which it is the monarch's duty to make for the subjugation of pagans +and the establishment of sound doctrine throughout the Church. Nay, +subsequent Popes themselves[71] admitted and applauded the despotic +superintendence of matters spiritual which he was wont to exercise, +and which led some one to give him playfully a title that had once +been applied to the Pope himself, 'Episcopus episcoporum.' + +[Sidenote: The imperial office in its ecclesiastical relations.] + +[Sidenote: Capitulary of A.D. 802.] + +Acting and speaking thus when merely king, it may be thought that +Charles needed no further title to justify his power. The inference is +in truth rather the converse of this. Upon what he had done already +the imperial title must necessarily follow: the attitude of protection +and control which he held towards the Church and the Holy See +belonged, according to the ideas of the time, especially and only to +an Emperor. Therefore his coronation was the fitting completion and +legitimation of his authority, sanctifying rather than increasing it. +We have, however, one remarkable witness to the importance that was +attached to the imperial name, and the enhancement which he conceived +his office to have received from it. In a great assembly held at +Aachen, A.D. 802, the lately-crowned Emperor revised the laws of all +the races that obeyed him, endeavouring to harmonize and correct them, +and issued a capitulary singular in subject and tone[72]. All persons +within his dominions, as well ecclesiastical as civil, who have +already sworn allegiance to him as king, are thereby commanded to +swear to him afresh as Cæsar; and all who have never yet sworn, down +to the age of twelve, shall now take the same oath. 'At the same time +it shall be publicly explained to all what is the force and meaning of +this oath, and how much more it includes than a mere promise of +fidelity to the monarch's person. Firstly, it binds those who swear it +to live, each and every one of them, according to his strength and +knowledge, in the holy service of God; since the lord Emperor cannot +extend over all his care and discipline. Secondly, it binds them +neither by force nor fraud to seize or molest any of the goods or +servants of his crown. Thirdly, to do no violence nor treason towards +the holy Church, or to widows, or orphans, or strangers, seeing that +the lord Emperor has been appointed, after the Lord and his saints, +the protector and defender of all such.' Then in similar fashion +purity of life is prescribed to the monks; homicide, the neglect of +hospitality, and other offences are denounced, the notions of sin and +crime being intermingled and almost identified in a way to which no +parallel can be found, unless it be in the Mosaic code. There God, the +invisible object of worship, is also, though almost incidentally, the +judge and political ruler of Israel; here the whole cycle of social +and moral duty is deduced from the obligation of obedience to the +visible autocratic head of the Christian state. + +In most of Charles's words and deeds, nor less distinctly in the +writings of his adviser Alcuin, may be discerned the working of the +same theocratic ideas. Among his intimate friends he chose to be +called by the name of David, exercising in reality all the powers of +the Jewish king; presiding over this kingdom of God upon earth rather +as a second Constantine or Theodosius than in the spirit and +traditions of the Julii or the Flavii. Among his measures there are +two which in particular recall the first Christian Emperor. As +Constantine founds so Charles erects on a firmer basis the connection +of Church and State. Bishops and abbots are as essential a part of +rising feudalism as counts and dukes. Their benefices are held under +the same conditions of fealty and the service in war of their vassal +tenants, not of the spiritual person himself: they have similar rights +of jurisdiction, and are subject alike to the imperial _missi_. The +monarch tries often to restrict the clergy, as persons, to spiritual +duties; quells the insubordination of the monasteries; endeavours to +bring the seculars into a monastic life by instituting and regulating +chapters. But after granting wealth and power, the attempt was vain; +his strong hand withdrawn, they laughed at control. Again, it was by +him first that the payment of tithes, for which the priesthood had +long been pleading, was made compulsory in Western Europe, and the +support of the ministers of religion entrusted to the laws of the +state. + +[Sidenote: Influence of the imperial title in Germany and Gaul.] + +[Sidenote: Action of Charles on Europe.] + +In civil affairs also Charles acquired, with the imperial title, a new +position. Later jurists labour to distinguish his power as Roman +Emperor from that which he held already as king of the Franks and +their subject allies: they insist that his coronation gave him the +capital only, that it is absurd to talk of a Roman Empire in regions +whither the eagles had never flown[73]. In such expressions there +seems to lurk either confusion or misconception. It was not the actual +government of the city that Charles obtained in A.D. 800: that his +father had already held as Patrician and he had constantly exercised +in the same capacity: it was far more than the titular sovereignty of +Rome which had hitherto been supposed to be vested in the Byzantine +princes: it was nothing less than the headship of the world, believed +to appertain of right to the lawful Roman Emperor, whether he reigned +on the Bosphorus, the Tiber, or the Rhine. As that headship, although +never denied, had been in abeyance in the West for several centuries, +its bestowal on the king of so vast a realm was a change of the first +moment, for it made the coronation not merely a transference of the +seat of Empire, but a renewal of the Empire itself, a bringing back of +it from faith to sight, from the world of belief and theory to the +world of fact and reality. And since the powers it gave were +autocratic and unlimited, it must swallow up all minor claims and +dignities: the rights of Charles the Frankish king were merged in +those of Charles the successor of Augustus, the lord of the world. +That his imperial authority was theoretically irrespective of place is +clear from his own words and acts, and from all the monuments of that +time. He would not, indeed, have dreamed of treating the free Franks +as Justinian had treated his half-Oriental subjects, nor would the +warriors who followed his standard have brooked such an attempt. Yet +even to German eyes his position must have been altered by the halo of +vague splendour which now surrounded him; for all, even the Saxon and +the Slave, had heard of Rome's glories, and revered the name of Cæsar. +And in his effort to weld discordant elements into one body, to +introduce regular gradations of authority, to control the Teutonic +tendency to localization by his _missi_--officials commissioned to +traverse each some part of his dominions, reporting on and redressing +the evils they found--and by his own oft-repeated personal progresses, +Charles was guided by the traditions of the old Empire. His sway is +the revival of order and culture, fusing the West into a compact +whole, whose parts are never thenceforward to lose the marks of their +connection and their half-Roman character, gathering up all that is +left in Europe of spirit and wealth and knowledge, and hurling it with +the new force of Christianity on the infidel of the South and the +masses of untamed barbarism to the North and East. Ruling the world by +the gift of God, and the transmitted rights of the Romans and their +Cæsar whom God had chosen to conquer it, he renews the original +aggressive movement of the Empire: the civilized world has subdued her +invader[74], and now arms him against savagery and heathendom. Hence +the wars, not more of the sword than of the cross, against Saxons, +Avars, Slaves, Danes, Spanish Arabs, where monasteries are fortresses +and baptism the badge of submission. The overthrow of the +Irminsûl[75], in the first Saxon campaign[76], sums up the changes of +seven centuries. The Romanized Teuton destroys the monument of his +country's freedom, for it is also the emblem of paganism and +barbarism. The work of Arminius is undone by his successor. + +[Sidenote: His position as Frankish king.] + +This, however, is not the only side from which Charles's policy and +character may be regarded. If the unity of the Church and the shadow +of imperial prerogative was one pillar of his power, the other was the +Frankish nation. The Empire was still military, though in a sense +strangely different from that of Julius or Severus. The warlike Franks +had permeated Western Europe; their primacy was admitted by the +kindred tribes of Lombards, Bavarians, Thuringians, Alemannians, and +Burgundians; the Slavic peoples on the borders trembled and paid +tribute; Alfonso of Asturias found in the Emperor a protector against +the infidel foe. His influence, if not his exerted power, crossed the +ocean: the kings of the Scots sent gifts and called him lord[77]: the +restoration of Eardulf to Northumbria, still more of Egbert to Wessex, +might furnish a better ground for the claim of suzerainty than many to +which his successors had afterwards recourse. As it was by Frankish +arms that this predominance in Europe which the imperial title adorned +and legalized had been won, so was the government of Charles Roman in +semblance rather than in fact. It was not by restoring the effete +mechanism of the old Empire, but by his own vigorous personal action +and that of his great officers, that he strove to administer and +reform. With every effort for a strong central government, there is no +despotism; each nation retains its laws, its hereditary chiefs, its +free popular assemblies. The conditions granted to the Saxons after +such cruel warfare, conditions so favourable that in the next century +their dukes hold the foremost place in Germany, shew how little he +desired to make the Franks a dominant caste. + +[Sidenote: General results of his Empire.] + +He repeats the attempt of Theodoric to breathe a Teutonic spirit into +Roman forms. The conception was magnificent; great results followed +its partial execution. Two causes forbade success. The one was the +ecclesiastical, especially the Papal power, apparently subject to the +temporal, but with a strong and undefined prerogative which only +waited the occasion to trample on what it had helped to raise. The +Pope might take away the crown he had bestowed, and turn against the +Emperor the Church which now obeyed him. The other was to be found in +the discordance of the component parts of the Empire. The nations were +not ripe for settled life or extensive schemes of polity; the +differences of race, language, manners, over vast and thinly-peopled +lands baffled every attempt to maintain their connection: and when +once the spell of the great mind was withdrawn, the mutually repellent +forces began to work, and the mass dissolved into that chaos out of +which it had been formed. Nevertheless, the parts separated not as +they met, but having all of them undergone influences which continued +to act when political connection had ceased. For the work of +Charles--a genius pre-eminently creative--was not lost in the anarchy +that followed: rather are we to regard his reign as the beginning of a +new era, or as laying the foundations whereon men continued for many +generations to build. + +[Sidenote: Personal habits and sympathies.] + +No claim can be more groundless than that which the modern French, the +sons of the Latinized Kelt, set up to the Teutonic Charles. At Rome he +might assume the chlamys and the sandals, but at the head of his +Frankish host he strictly adhered to the customs of his country, and +was beloved by his people as the very ideal of their own character and +habits[78]. Of strength and stature almost superhuman, in swimming and +hunting unsurpassed, steadfast and terrible in fight, to his friends +gentle and condescending, he was a Roman, much less a Gaul, in nothing +but his culture and his width of view, otherwise a Teuton. The centre +of his realm was the Rhine; his capitals Aachen[79] and +Engilenheim[80]; his army Frankish; his sympathies as they are shewn +in the gathering of the old hero-lays[81], the composition of a German +grammar, the ordinance against confining prayer to the three +languages,--Hebrew, Greek, and Latin,--were all for the race from +which he sprang, and whose advance, represented by the victory of +Austrasia, the true Frankish fatherland, over Neustria and Aquitaine, +spread a second Germanic wave over the conquered countries. + +[Sidenote: His Empire and character generally.] + +There were in his Empire, as in his own mind, two elements; those two +from the union and mutual action and reaction of which modern +civilization has arisen. These vast domains, reaching from the Ebro to +the Carpathian mountains, from the Eyder to the Liris, were all the +conquests of the Frankish sword, and were still governed almost +exclusively by viceroys and officers of Frankish blood. But the +conception of the Empire, that which made it a State and not a mere +mass of subject tribes like those great Eastern dominions which rise +and perish in a lifetime, the realms of Sesostris, or Attila, or +Timur, was inherited from an older and a grander system, was not +Teutonic but Roman--Roman in its ordered rule, in its uniformity and +precision, in its endeavour to subject the individual to the +system--Roman in its effort to realize a certain limited and human +perfection, whose very completeness shall exclude the hope of further +progress. And the bond, too, by which the Empire was held together was +Roman in its origin, although Roman in a sense which would have +surprised Trajan or Severus, could it have been foretold them. The +ecclesiastical body was already organized and centralized, and it was +in his rule over the ecclesiastical body that the secret of Charles's +power lay. Every Christian--Frank, Gaul, or Italian--owed loyalty to +the head and defender of his religion: the unity of the Empire was a +reflection of the unity of the Church. + +Into a general view of the government and policy of Charles it is not +possible here to enter. Yet his legislation, his assemblies, his +administrative system, his magnificent works, recalling the projects +of Alexander and Cæsar[82], the zeal for education and literature +which he shewed in the collection of manuscripts, the founding of +schools, the gathering of eminent men from all quarters around him, +cannot be appreciated apart from his position as restorer of the Roman +Empire. Like all the foremost men of our race, Charles was all great +things in one, and was so great just because the workings of his +genius were so harmonious. He was not a mere barbarian warrior any +more than he was an astute diplomatist; there is none of all his +qualities which would not be forced out of its place were we to +characterize him chiefly by it. Comparisons between famous men of +different ages are generally as worthless as they are easy: the +circumstances among which Charles lived do not permit us to institute +a minute parallel between his greatness and that of those two to whom +it is the modern fashion to compare him, nor to say whether he was or +could have become as profound a politician as Cæsar, as skilful a +commander as Napoleon[83]. But neither to the Roman nor to the +Corsican was he inferior in that one quality by which both he and they +chiefly impress our imaginations--that intense, vivid, unresting +energy which swept him over Europe in campaign after campaign, which +sought a field for its workings in theology, science, literature, no +less than in politics and war. As it was this wondrous activity that +made him the conqueror of Europe, so was it by the variety of his +culture that he became her civilizer. From him, in whose wide deep +mind the whole mediæval theory of the world and human life mirrored +itself, did mediæval society take the form and impress which it +retained for centuries, and the traces whereof are among us and upon +us to this day. + +The great Emperor was buried at Aachen, in that basilica which it had +been the delight of his later years to erect and adorn with the +treasures of ancient art. His tomb under the dome--where now we see an +enormous slab, with the words 'Carolo Magno'--was inscribed, '_Magnus +atque Orthodoxus Imperator_[84].' Poets, fostered by his own zeal, +sang of him who had given to the Franks the sway of Romulus[85]. The +gorgeous drapery of romance gradually wreathed itself round his name, +till by canonization as a saint he received the highest glory the +world or the Church could confer. For the Roman Church claimed then, +as she claims still, the privilege which humanity in one form or +another seems scarce able to deny itself, of raising to honours almost +divine its great departed; and as in pagan times temples had risen to +a deified Emperor, so churches were dedicated to St. Charlemagne. +Between Sanctus Carolus and Divus Julius how strange an analogy and +how strange a contrast! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[60] Before the end of the tenth century we find the monk Benedict of +Soracte ascribing to Charles an expedition to Palestine, and other +marvellous exploits. The romance which passes under the name of +Archbishop Turpin is well known. All the best stories about +Charles--and some of them are very good--may be found in the book of +the Monk of St. Gall. Many refer to his dealings with the bishops, +towards whom he is described as acting like a good-humoured +schoolmaster. + +[61] Baronius, _Ann._, ad ann. 800; Bellarminus, _De translatione +imperii Romani adversus Illyricum_; Spanhemius, _De ficta translatione +imperii_; Conringius, _De imperio Romano Germanico_. + +[62] See especially Greenwood, _Cathedra Petri_, vol. iii. p. 109. + +[63] _Ann. Lauresb. ap._ Pertz, _M. G. H._ i. + +[64] _Apud_ Pertz, _M. G. H._ i. + +[65] _Vitæ Pontif._ in Mur. _S. R. I._ Anastasius in reporting the +shout of the people omits the word 'Romanorum,' which the other +annalists insert after 'imperatori.' The balance of probability is +certainly in his favour. + +[66] Lorentz, _Leben Alcuins_. And cf. Döllinger, _Das Kaiserthum +Karls des Grossen und seiner Nachfolger_. + +[67] See a very learned and interesting tract entitled _Das Kaiserthum +Karls des Grossen und seiner Nachfolger_, recently published by Dr. v. +Döllinger of Munich. + +[68] Ἀποκρισιάριοι παρὰ Καρούλλου καὶ Λέοντος αἰτούμενοι ζευχθῆναι +αὐτὴν τῷ Καρούλλῳ πρὸς γάμον καὶ ἑνῶσαι τὰ Ἑωὰ καὶ τὰ +Ἑσπερία.--Theoph. _Chron._ in _Corp. Scriptt. Hist. Byz._ + +[69] Their ambassadors at last saluted him by the desired title +'Laudes ei dixerunt imperatorem eum et basileum appellantes.' Eginh. +_Ann._, ad ann. 812. + +[70] Harun er Rashid; Eginh. _Vita Karoli_, c. 16. + +[71] So Pope John VIII in a document quoted by Waitz, _Deutsche +Verfassungs-geschichte_, iii. + +[72] Pertz, _M. G. H._ iii. (legg. I.) + +[73] Pütter, _Historical Development of the German Constitution_; so +too Conring, and esp. David Blondel, _Adv. Chiffletium_. + +[74] 'Græcia capta ferum victorem cepit,' is repeated in this conquest +of the Teuton by the Roman. + +[75] The notion that once prevailed that the Irminsûl was the 'pillar +of Hermann,' set up on the spot of the defeat of Varus, is now +generally discredited. Some German antiquaries take the pillar to be a +rude figure of the native god Irmin; but nothing seems to be known of +this alleged deity: and it is more probable that the name Irmin is +after all merely an altered form of the Keltic word which appears in +Welsh as Hir Vaen, the long stone (_Maen_, a stone). Thus the pillar, +so far from being the monument of the great Teutonic victory, would +commemorate a pre-Teutonic race, whose name for it the invading tribes +adopted. The Rev. Dr. Scott, of Westminster, to whose kindness I am +indebted for this explanation, informs me that a rude ditty recording +the destruction of the pillar by Charles was current on the spot a few +years ago. It ran thus:-- + + 'Irmin slad Irmin + Sla Pfeifen sla Trommen + Der Kaiser wird kommen + Mit Hammer und Stangen + Wird Irmin uphangen.' + +[76] Eginhard, _Ann_. + +[77] Most probably the Scots of Ireland--Eginhard, _Vita Karoli_, cap. +16. + +[78] Eginhard, _Vita Karoli_, cap. 23. + +[79] Aix-la-Chapelle. See the lines in Pertz (_M. G. H._ ii.), +beginning,-- + + 'Urbs Aquensis, urbs regalis, + Sedes regni principalis, + Prima regum curia.' + +This city is commonly called Aken in English books of the seventeenth +century, and probably that ought to be taken as its proper English +name. That name has, however, fallen so entirely into disuse that I do +not venture to use it; and as the employment of the French name +Aix-la-Chapelle seems inevitably to produce the belief that the place +is and was, even in Charles's time, a French town, there is nothing +for it but to fall back upon the comparatively unfamiliar German name. + +[80] Engilenheim, or Ingelheim, lies near the left shore of the Rhine +between Mentz and Bingen. + +[81] Eginhard, _Vita Karoli_, cap. 29. + +[82] Eginhard, _Vita Karoli_, cap. 17. + +[83] It is not a little curious that of the three whom the modern +French have taken to be their national heroes all should have been +foreigners, and two foreign conquerors. + +[84] This basilica was built upon the model of the church of the Holy +Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and as it was the first church of any size +that had been erected in those regions for centuries past, it excited +extraordinary interest among the Franks and Gauls. In many of its +features it greatly resembles the beautiful church of San Vitale, at +Ravenna (also modelled upon that of the Holy Sepulchre) which was +begun by Theodoric, and completed under Justinian. Probably San Vitale +was used as a pattern by Charles's architects: we know that he caused +marble columns to be brought from Ravenna to deck the church at +Aachen. Over the tomb of Charles, below the central dome (to which the +Gothic choir we now see was added some centuries later), there hangs a +huge chandelier, the gift of Frederick Barbarossa. + +[85] 'Romuleum Francis præstitit imperium.'--Elegy of Ermoldus +Nigellus, in Pertz; _M. G. H._, t. i. So too Florus the Deacon,-- + + 'Huic etenim cessit etiam gens Romula genti, + Regnorumque simul mater Roma inclyta cessit: + Huius ibi princeps regni diademata sumpsit + Munere apostolico, Christi munimine fretus.' + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +CAROLINGIAN AND ITALIAN EMPERORS. + + +[Sidenote: Lewis the Pious.] + +[Sidenote: Partition of Verdun, A.D. 843.] + +Lewis the Pious[86], left by Charles's death sole heir, had been some +years before associated with his father in the Empire, and had been +crowned by his own hands in a way which, intentionally or not, +appeared to deny the need of Papal sanction. But it was soon seen that +the strength to grasp the sceptre had not passed with it. Too mild to +restrain his turbulent nobles, and thrown by over-conscientiousness +into the hands of the clergy, he had reigned few years when +dissensions broke out on all sides. Charles had wished the Empire to +continue one, under the supremacy of a single Emperor, but with its +several parts, Lombardy, Aquitaine, Austrasia, Bavaria, each a kingdom +held by a scion of the reigning house. A scheme dangerous in itself, +and rendered more so by the absence or neglect of regular rules of +succession, could with difficulty have been managed by a wise and firm +monarch. Lewis tried in vain to satisfy his sons (Lothar, Lewis, and +Charles) by dividing and redividing: they rebelled; he was deposed, +and forced by the bishops to do penance; again restored, but without +power, a tool in the hands of contending factions. On his death the +sons flew to arms, and the first of the dynastic quarrels of modern +Europe was fought out on the field of Fontenay. In the partition +treaty of Verdun which followed, the Teutonic principle of equal +division among heirs triumphed over the Roman one of the transmission +of an indivisible Empire: the practical sovereignty of all three +brothers was admitted in their respective territories, a barren +precedence only reserved to Lothar, with the imperial title which he, +as the eldest, already enjoyed. A more important result was the +separation of the Gaulish and German nationalities. Their difference +of feeling, shewn already in the support of Lewis the Pious by the +Germans against the Gallo-Franks and the Church[87], took now a +permanent shape: modern Germany proclaims the era of A.D. 843 the +beginning of her national existence, and celebrated its thousandth +anniversary twenty-seven years ago. To Charles the Bald was given +Francia Occidentalis, that is to say, Neustria and Aquitaine; to +Lothar, who as Emperor must possess the two capitals, Rome and Aachen, +a long and narrow kingdom stretching from the North Sea to the +Mediterranean, and including the northern half of Italy: Lewis +(surnamed, from his kingdom, the German) received all east of the +Rhine, Franks, Saxons, Bavarians, Austria, Carinthia, with possible +supremacies over Czechs and Moravians beyond. Throughout these regions +German was spoken; through Charles's kingdom a corrupt tongue, equally +removed from Latin and from modern French. Lothar's, being mixed and +having no national basis, was the weakest of the three, and soon +dissolved into the separate sovereignties of Italy, Burgundy, and +Lotharingia, or, as we call it, Lorraine. + +[Sidenote: End of the Carolingian Empire of the West, A.D. 888.] + +On the tangled history of the period that follows it is not possible +to do more than touch. After passing from one branch of the +Carolingian line to another[88], the imperial sceptre was at last +possessed and disgraced by Charles the Fat, who united all the +dominions of his great-grandfather. This unworthy heir could not avail +himself of recovered territory to strengthen or defend the expiring +monarchy. He was driven out of Italy in A.D. 887, and his death in 888 +has been usually taken as the date of the extinction of the +Carolingian Empire of the West. The Germans, still attached to the +ancient line, chose Arnulf, an illegitimate Carolingian, for their +king: he entered Italy and was crowned Emperor by his partizan Pope +Formosus, in 894. But Germany, divided and helpless, was in no +condition to maintain her power over the southern lands: Arnulf +retreated in haste, leaving Rome and Italy to sixty years of stormy +independence. + +That time was indeed the nadir of order and civilization. From all +sides the torrent of barbarism which Charles the Great had stemmed was +rushing down upon his empire. The Saracen wasted the Mediterranean +coasts, and sacked Rome herself. The Dane and Norseman swept the +Atlantic and the North Sea, pierced France and Germany by their +rivers, burning, slaying, carrying off into captivity: pouring through +the Straits of Gibraltar, they fell upon Provence and Italy. By land, +while Wends and Czechs and Obotrites threw off the German yoke and +threatened the borders, the wild Hungarian bands, pressing in from the +steppes of the Caspian, dashed over Germany like the flying spray of a +new wave of barbarism, and carried the terror of their battleaxes to +the Apennines and the ocean. Under such strokes the already loosened +fabric swiftly dissolved. No one thought of common defence or wide +organization: the strong built castles, the weak became their +bondsmen, or took shelter under the cowl: the governor--count, abbot, +or bishop--tightened his grasp, turned a delegated into an +independent, a personal into a territorial authority, and hardly owned +a distant and feeble suzerain. The grand vision of a universal +Christian empire was utterly lost in the isolation, the antagonism, +the increasing localization of all powers: it might seem to have been +but a passing gleam from an older and better world. + +[Sidenote: The German Kingdom.] + +[Sidenote: Henry the Fowler.] + +In Germany, the greatness of the evil worked at last its cure. When +the male line of the eastern branch of the Carolingians had ended in +Lewis (surnamed the Child), son of Arnulf, the chieftains chose and +the people accepted Conrad the Franconian, and after him Henry the +Saxon duke, both representing the female line of Charles. Henry laid +the foundations of a firm monarchy, driving back the Magyars and +Wends, recovering Lotharingia, founding towns to be centres of orderly +life and strongholds against Hungarian irruptions. He had meant to +claim at Rome his kingdom's rights, rights which Conrad's weakness had +at least asserted by the demand of tribute; but death overtook him, +and the plan was left to be fulfilled by Otto his son. + +[Sidenote: Otto the Great.] + +The Holy Roman Empire, taking the name in the sense which it commonly +bore in later centuries, as denoting the sovereignty of Germany and +Italy vested in a Germanic prince, is the creation of Otto the Great. +Substantially, it is true, as well as technically, it was a +prolongation of the Empire of Charles; and it rested (as will be shewn +in the sequel) upon ideas essentially the same as those which brought +about the coronation of A.D. 800. But a revival is always more or less +a revolution: the one hundred and fifty years that had passed since +the death of Charles had brought with them changes which made Otto's +position in Germany and Europe less commanding and less autocratic +than his predecessor's. With narrower geographical limits, his Empire +had a less plausible claim to be the heir of Rome's universal +dominion; and there were also differences in its inner character and +structure sufficient to justify us in considering Otto (as he is +usually considered by his countrymen) not a mere successor after an +interregnum, but rather a second founder of the imperial throne in the +West. + +Before Otto's descent into Italy is described, something must be said +of the condition of that country, where circumstances had again made +possible the plan of Theodoric, permitted it to become an independent +kingdom, and attached the imperial title to its sovereign. + +[Sidenote: Italian Emperors.] + +The bestowal of the purple on Charles the Great was not really that +'translation of the Empire from the Greeks to the Franks,' which it +was afterwards described as having been. It was not meant to settle +the office in one nation or one dynasty: there was but an extension of +that principle of the equality of all Romans which had made Trajan and +Maximin Emperors. The '_arcanum imperii_,' whereof Tacitus speaks, +'_posse principem alibi quam Romæ fieri_[89],' had long before become +_alium quam Romanum_; and now, the names of Roman and Christian having +grown co-extensive, a barbarian chieftain was, as a Roman citizen, +eligible to the office of Roman Emperor. Treating him as such, the +people and pontiff of the capital had in the vacancy of the Eastern +throne asserted their ancient rights of election, and while attempting +to reverse the act of Constantine, had re-established the division of +Valentinian. The dignity was therefore in strictness personal to +Charles; in point of fact, and by consent, hereditarily transmissible, +just as it had formerly become in the families of Constantine and +Theodosius. To the Frankish crown or nation it was by no means legally +attached, though they might think it so; it had passed to their king +only because he was the greatest European potentate, and might equally +well pass to some stronger race, if any such appeared. Hence, when the +line of Carolingian Emperors ended in Charles the Fat, the rights of +Rome and Italy might be taken to revive, and there was nothing to +prevent the citizens from choosing whom they would. At that memorable +era (A.D. 888) the four kingdoms which this prince had united fell +asunder; West France, where Odo or Eudes then began to reign, was +never again united to Germany; East France (Germany) chose Arnulf; +Burgundy[90] split up into two principalities, in one of which +(Transjurane) Rudolf proclaimed himself king, while the other +(Cisjurane with Provence) submitted to Boso[91]; while Italy was +divided between the parties of Berengar of Friuli and Guido of +Spoleto. The former was chosen king by the estates of Lombardy; the +latter, and on his speedy death his son Lambert, was crowned Emperor +by the Pope. Arnulf's descent chased them away and vindicated the +claims of the Franks, but on his flight Italy and the anti-German +faction at Rome became again free. Berengar was made king of Italy, +and afterwards Emperor. Lewis of Burgundy, son of Boso, renounced his +fealty to Arnulf, and procured the imperial dignity, whose vain title +he retained through years of misery and exile, till A.D. 928[92]. None +of these Emperors were strong enough to rule well even in Italy; +beyond it they were not so much as recognized. The crown had become a +bauble with which unscrupulous Popes dazzled the vanity of princes +whom they summoned to their aid, and soothed the credulity of their +more honest supporters. The demoralization and confusion of Italy, the +shameless profligacy of Rome and her pontiffs during this period, were +enough to prevent a true Italian kingdom from being built up on the +basis of Roman choice and national unity. Italian indeed it can +scarcely be called, for these Emperors were still in blood and manners +Teutonic, and akin rather to their Transalpine enemies than their +Romanic subjects. But Italian it might soon have become under a +vigorous rule which should have organized it within and knit it +together to resist attacks from without. And therefore the attempt to +establish such a kingdom is remarkable, for it might have had great +consequences; might, if it had prospered, have spared Italy much +suffering and Germany endless waste of strength and blood. He who from +the summit of Milan cathedral sees across the misty plain the gleaming +turrets of its icy wall sweep in a great arc from North to West, may +well wonder that a land which nature has so severed from its +neighbours should, since history begins, have been always the victim +of their intrusive tyranny. + +[Sidenote: Adelheid Queen of Italy.] + +[Sidenote: Otto's first expedition into Italy, A.D. 951.] + +[Sidenote: Invitation sent by the Pope to Otto.] + +[Sidenote: Motives for reviving the Empire.] + +In A.D. 924 died Berengar, the last of these phantom Emperors. After +him Hugh of Burgundy, and Lothar his son, reigned as kings of Italy, +if puppets in the hands of a riotous aristocracy can be so called. +Rome was meanwhile ruled by the consul or senator Alberic[93], who had +renewed her never quite extinct republican institutions, and in the +degradation of the papacy was almost absolute in the city. Lothar +dying, his widow Adelheid[94] was sought in marriage by Adalbert son +of Berengar II, the new Italian monarch. A gleam of romance is shed on +the Empire's revival by her beauty and her adventures. Rejecting the +odious alliance, she was seized by Berengar, escaped with difficulty +from the loathsome prison where his barbarity had confined her, and +appealed to Otto the German king, the model of that knightly virtue +which was beginning to shew itself after the fierce brutality of the +last age. He listened, descended into Lombardy by the Adige valley, +espoused the injured queen, and forced Berengar to hold his kingdom as +a vassal of the East Frankish crown. That prince was turbulent and +faithless; new complaints reached ere long his liege lord, and envoys +from the Pope offered Otto the imperial title if he would re-visit and +pacify Italy. The proposal was well-timed. Men still thought, as they +had thought in the centuries before the Carolingians, that the Empire +was suspended, not extinct; and the desire to see its effective power +restored, the belief that without it the world could never be right, +might seem better grounded than it had been before the coronation of +Charles. Then the imperial name had recalled only the faint memories +of Roman majesty and order; now it was also associated with the golden +age of the first Frankish Emperor, when a single firm and just hand +had guided the state, reformed the church, repressed the excesses of +local power: when Christianity had advanced against heathendom, +civilizing as she went, fearing neither Hun nor Paynim. One annalist +tells us that Charles was elected 'lest the pagans should insult the +Christians, if the name of Emperor should have ceased among the +Christians[95].' The motive would be bitterly enforced by the +calamities of the last fifty years. In a time of disintegration, +confusion, strife, all the longings of every wiser and better soul for +unity, for peace and law, for some bond to bring Christian men and +Christian states together against the common enemy of the faith, were +but so many cries for the restoration of the Roman Empire[96]. These +were the feelings that on the field of Merseburg broke forth in the +shout of 'Henry the Emperor:' these the hopes of the Teutonic host +when after the great deliverance of the Lechfeld they greeted Otto, +conqueror of the Magyars, as 'Imperator Augustus, Pater Patriæ[97].' + +[Sidenote: Condition of Italy.] + +The anarchy which an Emperor was needed to heal was at its worst in +Italy, desolated by the feuds of a crowd of petty princes. A +succession of infamous Popes, raised by means yet more infamous, the +lovers and sons of Theodora and Marozia, had disgraced the chair of +the Apostle, and though Rome herself might be lost to decency, Western +Christendom was roused to anger and alarm. Men had not yet learned to +satisfy their consciences by separating the person from the office. +The rule of Alberic had been succeeded by the wildest confusion, and +demands were raised for the renewal of that imperial authority which +all admitted in theory[98], and which nothing but the resolute +opposition of Alberic himself had prevented Otto from claiming in 951. +From the Byzantine Empire, whither Italy was more than once tempted to +turn, nothing could be hoped; its dangers from foreign enemies were +aggravated by the plots of the court and the seditions of the capital; +it was becoming more and more alienated from the West by the Photian +schism and the question regarding the Procession of the Holy Ghost, +which that quarrel had started. Germany was extending and +consolidating herself, had escaped domestic perils, and might think of +reviving ancient claims. No one could be more willing to revive them +than Otto the Great. His ardent spirit, after waging a bold and +successful struggle against the turbulent magnates of his German +realm, had engaged him in wars with the surrounding nations, and was +now captivated by the vision of a wider sway and a loftier +world-embracing dignity. Nor was the prospect which the papal offer +opened up less welcome to his people. Aachen, their capital, was the +ancestral home of the house of Pipin: their sovereign, although +himself a Saxon by race, titled himself king of the Franks, in +opposition to the Frankish rulers of the Western branch, whose +Teutonic character was disappearing among the Romans of Gaul; they +held themselves in every way the true representatives of the +Carolingian power, and accounted the period since Arnulf's death +nothing but an interregnum which had suspended but not impaired their +rights over Rome. 'For so long,' says a writer of the time, 'as there +remain kings of the Franks, so long will the dignity of the Roman +Empire not wholly perish, seeing that it will abide in its +kings[99].' The recovery of Italy was therefore to German eyes a +righteous as well as a glorious design: approved by the Teutonic +Church which had lately been negotiating with Rome on the subject of +missions to the heathen; embraced by the people, who saw in it an +accession of strength to their young kingdom. Everything smiled on +Otto's enterprise, and the connection which was destined to bring so +much strife and woe to Germany and to Italy was welcomed by the wisest +of both countries as the beginning of a better era. + +[Sidenote: Descent of Otto the Great into Italy.] + +[Sidenote: His coronation at Rome, A.D. 962.] + +Whatever were Otto's own feelings, whether or not he felt that he was +sacrificing, as modern writers have thought that he did sacrifice, the +greatness of his German kingdom to the lust of universal dominion, he +shewed no hesitation in his acts. Descending from the Alps with an +overpowering force, he was acknowledged as king of Italy at +Pavia[100]; and, having first taken an oath to protect the Holy See +and respect the liberties of the city, advanced to Rome. There, with +Adelheid his queen, he was crowned by John XII, on the day of the +Purification, the second of February, A.D. 962. The details of his +election and coronation are unfortunately still more scanty than in +the case of his great predecessor. Most of our authorities represent +the act as of the Pope's favour[101], yet it is plain that the consent +of the people was still thought an essential part of the ceremony, and +that Otto rested after all on his host of conquering Saxons. Be this +as it may, there was neither question raised nor opposition made in +Rome; the usual courtesies and promises were exchanged between Emperor +and Pope, the latter owning himself a subject, and the citizens swore +for the future to elect no pontiff without Otto's consent. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[86] Usage has established this translation of 'Hludowicus Pius,' but +'gentle' or 'kind-hearted' would better express the meaning of the +epithet. + +[87] Von Ranke discovers in this early traces of the aversion of the +Germans to the pretensions of the spiritual power.--_History of +Germany during the Reformation_: Introduction. + +[88] Singularly enough, when one thinks of modern claims, the dynasty +of France (Francia occidentalis) had the least share of it. Charles +the Bald was the only West Frankish Emperor, and reigned a very short +time. + +[89] Tac. _Hist._ i. 4. + +[90] For an account of the various applications of the name Burgundy, +see Appendix, Note A. + +[91] The accession of Boso took place in A.D. 877, eleven years before +Charles the Fat's death. But the new kingdom could not be considered +legally settled until the latter date, and its establishment is at any +rate a part of that general break-up of the great Carolingian empire +whereof A.D. 888 marks the crisis. See Appendix A at the end. + +It is a curious mark of the reverence paid to the Carolingian blood, +that Boso, a powerful and ambitious prince, seems to have chiefly +rested his claims on the fact that he was husband of Irmingard, +daughter of the Emperor Lewis II. Baron de Gingins la Sarraz quotes a +charter of his (drawn up when he seems to have doubted whether to call +himself king) which begins, 'Ego Boso Dei gratia id quod sum, et +coniux mea Irmingardis proles imperialis.' + +[92] Lewis had been surprised by Berengar at Verona, blinded, and +forced to take refuge in his own kingdom of Provence. + +[93] Alberic is called variously senator, consul, patrician, and +prince of the Romans. + +[94] Adelheid was daughter of Rudolf, king of Trans-Jurane Burgundy. +She was at this time in her nineteenth year. + +[95] _Chron. Moiss._, in Pertz; _M. G. H._ i. 305. + +[96] See especially the poem of Florus the Deacon (printed in the +Benedictine collection and in Migne), a bitter lament over the +dissolution of the Carolingian Empire. It is too long for quotation. I +give four lines here:-- + + 'Quid faciant populi quos ingens alluit Hister, + Quos Rhenus Rhodanusque rigant, Ligerisve, Padusve, + Quos omnes dudum tenuit concordia nexos, + Foedere nunc rupto divortia moesta fatigant.' + +[97] Witukind, _Annales_, in Pertz. It may, however, be doubted +whether the annalist is not here giving a very free rendering of the +triumphant cries of the German army. + +[98] Cf. esp. the '_Libellus de imperatoria potestate in urbe Roma_,' +in Pertz. + +[99] 'Licet videamus Romanorum regnum in maxima parte jam destructum, +tamen quamdiu reges Francorum duraverint qui Romanum imperium tenere +debent, dignitas Romani imperii ex toto non peribit, quia stabit in +regibus suis.'--_Liber de Antichristo_, addressed by Adso, abbot of +Moutier-en-Der, to queen Gerberga (circa A.D. 950). + +[100] From the money which Otto struck in Italy, it seems probable +that he did occasionally use the title of king of Italy or of the +Lombards. That he was crowned can hardly be considered quite certain. + +[101] 'A papa imperator ordinatur,' says Hermannus Contractus. +'Dominum Ottonem, ad hoc usque vocatum regem, non solum Romano sed et +pœne totius Europæ populo acclamante imperatorem consecravit +Augustum.'--_Annal. Quedlinb._, ad ann. 962. 'Benedictionem a domno +apostolico Iohanne, cuius rogatione huc venit, cum sua coniuge promeruit +imperialem ac patronus Romanæ effectus est ecclesiæ.'--Thietmar. +'Acclamatione totius Romani populi ab apostolico Iohanne, filio +Alberici, imperator et Augustus vocatur et ordinatur.'--Continuator +Reginonis. And similarly the other annalists. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THEORY OF THE MEDIÆVAL EMPIRE. + + +[Sidenote: Why the revival of the Empire was desired.] + +These were the events and circumstances of the time: let us now look +at the causes. The restoration of the Empire by Charles may seem to be +sufficiently accounted for by the width of his conquests, by the +peculiar connection which already subsisted between him and the Roman +Church, by his commanding personal character, by the temporary vacancy +of the Byzantine throne. The causes of its revival under Otto must be +sought deeper. Making every allowance for the favouring incidents +which have already been dwelt upon, there must have been some further +influence at work to draw him and his successors, Saxon and Frankish +kings, so far from home in pursuit of a barren crown, to lead the +Italians to accept the dominion of a stranger and a barbarian, to make +the Empire itself appear through the whole Middle Age not what it +seems now, a gorgeous anachronism, but an institution divine and +necessary, having its foundations in the very nature and order of +things. The empire of the elder Rome had been splendid in its life, +yet its judgment was written in the misery to which it had brought the +provinces, and the helplessness that had invited the attacks of the +barbarian. Now, as we at least can see, it had long been dead, and the +course of events was adverse to its revival. Its actual +representatives, the Roman people, were a turbulent rabble, sunk in a +profligacy notorious even in that guilty age. Yet not the less for all +this did men cling to the idea, and strive through long ages to stem +the irresistible time-current, fondly believing that they were +breasting it even while it was sweeping them ever faster and faster +away from the old order into a region of new thoughts, new feelings, +new forms of life. Not till the days of the Reformation was the +illusion dispelled. + +[Sidenote: Mediæval theories.] + +The explanation is to be found in the state of the human mind during +these centuries. The Middle Ages were essentially unpolitical. Ideas +as familiar to the commonwealths of antiquity as to ourselves, ideas +of the common good as the object of the State, of the rights of the +people, of the comparative merits of different forms of government, +were to them, though sometimes carried out in fact, in their +speculative form unknown, perhaps incomprehensible. Feudalism was the +one great institution to which those times gave birth, and feudalism +was a social and a legal system, only indirectly and by consequence a +political one. Yet the human mind, so far from being idle, was in +certain directions never more active; nor was it possible for it to +remain without general conceptions regarding the relation of men to +each other in this world. Such conceptions were neither made an +expression of the actual present condition of things nor drawn from an +induction of the past; they were partly inherited from the system that +had preceded, partly evolved from the principles of that metaphysical +theology which was ripening into scholasticism[102]. Now the two great +ideas which expiring antiquity bequeathed to the ages that followed +were those of a World-Monarchy and a World-Religion. + +[Sidenote: The World-Religion.] + +Before the conquests of Rome, men, with little knowledge of each +other, with no experience of wide political union[103], had held +differences of race to be natural and irremovable barriers. Similarly, +religion appeared to them a matter purely local and national; and as +there were gods of the hills and gods of the valleys, of the land and +of the sea, so each tribe rejoiced in its peculiar deities, looking on +the natives of another country who worshipped other gods as Gentiles, +natural foes, unclean beings. Such feelings, if keenest in the East, +frequently shew themselves in the early records of Greece and Italy: +in Homer the hero who wanders over the unfruitful sea glories in +sacking the cities of the stranger[104]; the primitive Latins have the +same word for a foreigner and an enemy: the exclusive systems of +Egypt, Hindostan, China, are only more vehement expressions of the +belief which made Athenian philosophers look on a state of war between +Greeks and barbarians as natural[105], and defend slavery on the same +ground of the original diversity of the races that rule and the races +that serve. The Roman dominion giving to many nations a common speech +and law, smote this feeling on its political side; Christianity more +effectually banished it from the soul by substituting for the variety +of local pantheons the belief in one God, before whom all men are +equal[106]. + +[Sidenote: Coincides with the World-Empire.] + +It is on the religious life that nations repose. Because divinity was +divided, humanity had been divided likewise; the doctrine of the unity +of God now enforced the unity of man, who had been created in His +image[107]. The first lesson of Christianity was love, a love that was +to join in one body those whom suspicion and prejudice and pride of +race had hitherto kept apart. There was thus formed by the new +religion a community of the faithful, a Holy Empire, designed to +gather all men into its bosom, and standing opposed to the manifold +polytheisms of the older world, exactly as the universal sway of the +Cæsars was contrasted with the innumerable kingdoms and republics that +had gone before it. The analogy of the two made them appear parts of +one great world-movement toward unity: the coincidence of their +boundaries, which had begun before Constantine, lasted long enough +after him to associate them indissolubly together, and make the names +of Roman and Christian convertible[108]. Œcumenical councils, where +the whole spiritual body gathered itself from every part of the +temporal realm under the presidency of the temporal head, presented +the most visible and impressive examples of their connection[109]. The +language of civil government was, throughout the West, that of the +sacred writings and of worship; the greatest mind of his generation +consoled the faithful for the fall of their earthly commonwealth Rome, +by describing to them its successor and representative, the 'city +which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God[110].' + +[Sidenote: Preservation of the unity of the Church.] + +[Sidenote: Mediæval Theology requires One Visible Catholic Church.] + +Of these two parallel unities, that of the political and that of the +religious society, meeting in the higher unity of all Christians, +which may be indifferently called Catholicity or Romanism (since in +that day those words would have had the same meaning), that only which +had been entrusted to the keeping of the Church survived the storms of +the fifth century. Many reasons may be assigned for the firmness with +which she clung to it. Seeing one institution after another falling to +pieces around her, seeing how countries and cities were being severed +from each other by the irruption of strange tribes and the increasing +difficulty of communication, she strove to save religious fellowship +by strengthening the ecclesiastical organization, by drawing tighter +every bond of outward union. Necessities of faith were still more +powerful. Truth, it was said, is one, and as it must bind into one +body all who hold it, so it is only by continuing in that body that +they can preserve it. Thus with the growing rigidity of dogma, which +may be traced from the council of Jerusalem to the council of Trent, +there had arisen the idea of supplementing revelation by tradition as +a source of doctrine, of exalting the universal conscience and belief +above the individual, and allowing the soul to approach God only +through the universal consciousness, represented by the sacerdotal +order: principles still maintained by one branch of the Church, and +for some at least of which far weightier reasons could be assigned +then, in the paucity of written records and the blind ignorance of the +mass of the people, than any to which their modern advocates have +recourse. There was another cause yet more deeply seated, and which it +is hard adequately to describe. It was not exactly a want of faith in +the unseen, nor a shrinking fear which dared not look forth on the +universe alone: it was rather the powerlessness of the untrained mind +to realize the idea as an idea and live in it: it was the tendency to +see everything in the concrete, to turn the parable into a fact, the +doctrine into its most literal application, the symbol into the +essential ceremony; the tendency which intruded earthly Madonnas and +saints between the worshipper and the spiritual Deity, and could +satisfy its devotional feelings only by visible images even of these: +which conceived of man's aspirations and temptations as the result of +the direct action of angels and devils: which expressed the strivings +of the soul after purity by the search for the Holy Grail: which in +the Crusades sent myriads to win at Jerusalem by earthly arms the +sepulchre of Him whom they could not serve in their own spirit nor +approach by their own prayers. And therefore it was that the whole +fabric of mediæval Christianity rested upon the idea of the Visible +Church. Such a Church could be in nowise local or limited. To +acquiesce in the establishment of National Churches would have +appeared to those men, as it must always appear when scrutinized, +contradictory to the nature of a religious body, opposed to the genius +of Christianity, defensible, when capable of defence at all, only as a +temporary resource in the presence of insuperable difficulties. Had +this plan, on which so many have dwelt with complacency in later +times, been proposed either to the primitive Church in its adversity +or to the dominant Church of the ninth century, it would have been +rejected with horror; but since there were as yet no nations, the plan +was one which did not and could not present itself. The Visible Church +was therefore the Church Universal, the whole congregation of +Christian men dispersed throughout the world. + +[Sidenote: Idea of political unity upheld by the clergy.] + +Now of the Visible Church the emblem and stay was the priesthood; and +it was by them, in whom dwelt whatever of learning and thought was +left in Europe, that the second great idea whereof mention has been +made--the belief in one universal temporal state--was preserved. As a +matter of fact, that state had perished out of the West, and it might +seem their interest to let its memory be lost. They, however, did not +so calculate their interest. So far from feeling themselves opposed to +the civil authority in the seventh and eighth centuries, as they came +to do in the twelfth and thirteenth, the clergy were fully persuaded +that its maintenance was indispensable to their own welfare. They +were, be it remembered, at first Romans themselves living by the Roman +law, using Latin as their proper tongue, and imbued with the idea of +the historical connection of the two powers. And by them chiefly was +that idea expounded and enforced for many generations, by none more +earnestly than by Alcuin of York, the adviser of Charles[111]. The +limits of those two powers had become confounded in practice: bishops +were princes, the chief ministers of the sovereign, sometimes even the +leaders of their flocks in war: kings were accustomed to summon +ecclesiastical councils, and appoint to ecclesiastical offices. + +[Sidenote: Influence of the metaphysics of the time upon the theory of +a World-State.] + +But, like the unity of the Church, the doctrine of a universal +monarchy had a theoretical as well as an historical basis, and may be +traced up to those metaphysical ideas out of which the system we call +Realism developed itself. The beginnings of philosophy in those times +were logical; and its first efforts were to distribute and classify: +system, subordination, uniformity, appeared to be that which was most +desirable in thought as in life. The search after causes became a +search after principles of classification; since simplicity and truth +were held to consist not in an analysis of thought into its elements, +nor in an observation of the process of its growth, but rather in a +sort of genealogy of notions, a statement of the relations of classes +as containing or excluding each other. These classes, genera or +species, were not themselves held to be conceptions formed by the mind +from phenomena, nor mere accidental aggregates of objects grouped +under and called by some common name; they were real things, existing +independently of the individuals who composed them, recognized rather +than created by the human mind. In this view, Humanity is an essential +quality present in all men, and making them what they are: as regards +it they are therefore not many but one, the differences between +individuals being no more than accidents. The whole truth of their +being lies in the universal property, which alone has a permanent and +independent existence. The common nature of the individuals thus +gathered into one Being is typified in its two aspects, the spiritual +and the secular, by two persons, the World-Priest and the +World-Monarch, who present on earth a similitude of the Divine unity. +For, as we have seen, it was only through its concrete and symbolic +expression that a thought could then be apprehended[112]. Although it +was to unity in religion that the clerical body was both by doctrine +and by practice attached, they found this inseparable from the +corresponding unity in politics. They saw that every act of man has a +social and public as well as a moral and personal bearing, and +concluded that the rules which directed and the powers which rewarded +or punished must be parallel and similar, not so much two powers as +different manifestations of one and the same. That the souls of all +Christian men should be guided by one hierarchy, rising through +successive grades to a supreme head, while for their deeds they were +answerable to a multitude of local, unconnected, mutually +irresponsible potentates, appeared to them necessarily opposed to the +Divine order. As they could not imagine, nor value if they had +imagined, a communion of the saints without its expression in a +visible Church, so in matters temporal they recognized no brotherhood +of spirit without the bonds of form, no universal humanity save in the +image of a universal State[113]. In this, as in so much else, the men +of the Middle Ages were the slaves of the letter, unable, with all +their aspirations, to rise out of the concrete, and prevented by the +very grandeur and boldness of their conceptions from carrying them out +in practice against the enormous obstacles that met them. + +[Sidenote: The ideal state supposed to be embodied in the Roman +Empire.] + +[Sidenote: Constantine's Donation.] + +Deep as this belief had struck its roots, it might never have risen to +maturity nor sensibly affected the progress of events, had it not +gained in the pre-existence of the monarchy of Rome a definite shape +and a definite purpose. It was chiefly by means of the Papacy that +this came to pass. When under Constantine the Christian Church was +framing her organization on the model of the state which protected +her, the bishop of the metropolis perceived and improved the analogy +between himself and the head of the civil government. The notion that +the chair of Peter was the imperial throne of the Church had dawned +upon the Popes very early in their history, and grew stronger every +century under the operation of causes already specified. Even before +the Empire of the West had fallen, St. Leo the Great could boast that +to Rome, exalted by the preaching of the chief of the Apostles to be a +holy nation, a chosen people, a priestly and royal city, there had +been appointed a spiritual dominion wider than her earthly sway[114]. +In A.D. 476 Rome ceased to be the political capital of the Western +countries, and the Papacy, inheriting no small part of the Emperor's +power, drew to herself the reverence which the name of the city still +commanded, until by the middle of the eighth, or, at latest, of the +ninth century she had perfected in theory a scheme which made her the +exact counterpart of the departed despotism, the centre of the +hierarchy, absolute mistress of the Christian world. The character of +that scheme is best set forth in the singular document, most +stupendous of all the mediæval forgeries, which under the name of the +Donation of Constantine commanded for seven centuries the +unquestioning belief of mankind[115]. Itself a portentous falsehood, +it is the most unimpeachable evidence of the thoughts and beliefs of +the priesthood which framed it, some time between the middle of the +eighth and the middle of the tenth century. It tells how Constantine +the Great, cured of his leprosy by the prayers of Sylvester, resolved, +on the fourth day from his baptism, to forsake the ancient seat for a +new capital on the Bosphorus, lest the continuance of the secular +government should cramp the freedom of the spiritual, and how he +bestowed therewith upon the Pope and his successors the sovereignty +over Italy and the countries of the West. But this is not all, +although this is what historians, in admiration of its splendid +audacity, have chiefly dwelt upon. The edict proceeds to grant to the +Roman pontiff and his clergy a series of dignities and privileges, all +of them enjoyed by the Emperor and his senate, all of them shewing the +same desire to make the pontifical a copy of the imperial office. The +Pope is to inhabit the Lateran palace, to wear the diadem, the collar, +the purple cloak, to carry the sceptre, and to be attended by a body +of chamberlains. Similarly his clergy are to ride on white horses and +receive the honours and immunities of the senate and patricians[116]. + +[Sidenote: Interdependence of Papacy and Empire.] + +The notion which prevails throughout, that the chief of the religious +society must be in every point conformed to his prototype the chief of +the civil, is the key to all the thoughts and acts of the Roman +clergy; not less plainly seen in the details of papal ceremonial than +it is in the gigantic scheme of papal legislation. The Canon law was +intended by its authors to reproduce and rival the imperial +jurisprudence; a correspondence was traced between its divisions and +those of the Corpus Juris Civilis, and Gregory IX, who was the first +to consolidate it into a code, sought the fame and received the title +of the Justinian of the Church. But the wish of the clergy was always, +even in the weakness or hostility of the temporal power, to imitate +and rival, not to supersede it; since they held it the necessary +complement of their own, and thought the Christian people equally +imperilled by the fall of either. Hence the reluctance of Gregory II +to break with the Byzantine princes[117], and the maintenance of their +titular sovereignty till A.D. 800: hence the part which the Holy See +played in transferring the crown to Charles, the first sovereign of +the West capable of fulfilling its duties; hence the grief with which +its weakness under his successors was seen, the gladness when it +descended to Otto as representative of the Frankish kingdom. + +[Sidenote: The Roman Empire revived in a new character.] + +Up to the era of A.D. 800 there had been at Constantinople a +legitimate historical prolongation of the Roman Empire. Technically, +as we have seen, the election of Charles, after the deposition of +Constantine VI, was itself a prolongation, and maintained the old +rights and forms in their integrity. But the Pope, though he knew it +not, did far more than effect a change of dynasty when he rejected +Irene and crowned the barbarian chief. Restorations are always +delusive. As well might one hope to stop the earth's course in her +orbit as to arrest that ceaseless change and movement in human affairs +which forbids an old institution, suddenly transplanted into a new +order of things, from filling its ancient place and serving its former +ends. The dictatorship at Rome in the second Punic war was not more +unlike the dictatorships of Sulla and Cæsar, nor the States-general of +Louis XIII to the assembly which his unhappy descendant convoked in +1789, than was the imperial office of Theodosius to that of Charles +the Frank; and the seal, ascribed to A.D. 800, which bears the legend +'Renovatio Romani Imperii[118],' expresses, more justly perhaps than +was intended by its author, a second birth of the Roman Empire. + +It is not, however, from Carolingian times that a proper view of this +new creation can be formed. That period was one of transition, of +fluctuation and uncertainty, in which the office, passing from one +dynasty and country to another, had not time to acquire a settled +character and claims, and was without the power that would have +enabled it to support them. From the coronation of Otto the Great a +new period begins, in which the ideas that have been described as +floating in men's minds took clearer shape, and attached to the +imperial title a body of definite rights and definite duties. It is +this new phase, the Holy Empire, that we have now to consider. + +[Sidenote: Position and functions of the Emperor.] + +[Sidenote: Correspondence and harmony of the spiritual and temporal +powers.] + +The realistic philosophy, and the needs of a time when the only notion +of civil or religious order was submission to authority, required the +World-State to be a monarchy; tradition, as well as the continuance of +certain institutions, gave the monarch the name of Roman Emperor. A +king could not be universal sovereign, for there were many kings: the +Emperor must be, for there had never been but one Emperor; he had in +older and brighter days been the actual lord of the civilized world; +the seat of his power was placed beside that of the spiritual autocrat +of Christendom[119]. His functions will be seen most clearly if we +deduce them from the leading principle of mediæval mythology, the +exact correspondence of earth and heaven. As God, in the midst of the +celestial hierarchy, ruled blessed spirits in paradise, so the Pope, +His Vicar, raised above priests, bishops, metropolitans, reigned over +the souls of mortal men below. But as God is Lord of earth as well as +of heaven, so must he (the _Imperator cœlestis_[t]) be represented by +a second earthly viceroy, the Emperor (_Imperator terrenus_[120]), +whose authority shall be of and for this present life. And as in this +present world the soul cannot act save through the body, while yet the +body is no more than an instrument and means for the soul's +manifestation, so must there be a rule and care of men's bodies as +well as of their souls, yet subordinated always to the well-being of +that which is the purer and the more enduring. It is under the emblem +of soul and body that the relation of the papal and imperial power is +presented to us throughout the Middle Ages[121]. The Pope, as God's +vicar in matters spiritual, is to lead men to eternal life; the +Emperor, as vicar in matters temporal, must so control them in their +dealings with one another that they may be able to pursue undisturbed +the spiritual life, and thereby attain the same supreme and common end +of everlasting happiness. In the view of this object his chief duty is +to maintain peace in the world, while towards the Church his position +is that of Advocate, a title borrowed from the practice adopted by +churches and monasteries of choosing some powerful baron to protect +their lands and lead their tenants in war[122]. The functions of +Advocacy are twofold: at home to make the Christian people obedient to +the priesthood, and to execute their decrees upon heretics and +sinners; abroad to propagate the faith among the heathen, not sparing +to use carnal weapons[123]. Thus does the Emperor answer in every +point to his antitype the Pope, his power being yet of a lower rank, +created on the analogy of the papal, as the papal itself had been +modelled after the elder Empire. The parallel holds good even in its +details; for just as we have seen the churchman assuming the crown and +robes of the secular prince, so now did he array the Emperor in his +own ecclesiastical vestments, the stole and the dalmatic, gave him a +clerical as well as a sacred character, removed his office from all +narrowing associations of birth or country, inaugurated him by rites +every one of which was meant to symbolize and enjoin duties in their +essence religious. Thus the Holy Roman Church and the Holy Roman +Empire are one and the same thing, in two aspects; and Catholicism, +the principle of the universal Christian society, is also Romanism; +that is, rests upon Rome as the origin and type of its universality; +manifesting itself in a mystic dualism which corresponds to the two +natures of its Founder. As divine and eternal, its head is the Pope, +to whom souls have been entrusted; as human and temporal, the Emperor, +commissioned to rule men's bodies and acts. + +[Sidenote: Union of Church and State.] + +In nature and compass the government of these two potentates is the +same, differing only in the sphere of its working; and it matters not +whether we call the Pope a spiritual Emperor or the Emperor a secular +Pope. Nor, though the one office is below the other as far as man's +life on earth is less precious than his life hereafter, is therefore, +on the older and truer theory, the imperial authority delegated by the +papal. For, as has been said already, God is represented by the Pope +not in every capacity, but only as the ruler of spirits in heaven: as +sovereign of earth, He issues His commission directly to the Emperor. +Opposition between two servants of the same King is inconceivable, +each being bound to aid and foster the other: the co-operation of both +being needed in all that concerns the welfare of Christendom at large. +This is the one perfect and self-consistent scheme of the union of +Church and State; for, taking the absolute coincidence of their limits +to be self-evident, it assumes the infallibility of their joint +government, and derives, as a corollary from that infallibility, the +duty of the civil magistrate to root out heresy and schism no less +than to punish treason and rebellion. It is also the scheme which, +granting the possibility of their harmonious action, places the two +powers in that relation which gives each of them its maximum of +strength. But by a law to which it would be hard to find exceptions, +in proportion as the State became more Christian, the Church, who to +work out her purposes had assumed worldly forms, became by the contact +worldlier, meaner, spiritually weaker; and the system which +Constantine founded amid such rejoicings, which culminated so +triumphantly in the Empire Church of the Middle Ages, has in each +succeeding generation been slowly losing ground, has seen its +brightness dimmed and its completeness marred, and sees now those who +are most zealous on behalf of its surviving institutions feebly defend +or silently desert the principle upon which all must rest. + +The complete accord of the papal and imperial powers which this +theory, as sublime as it is impracticable, requires, was attained only +at a few points in their history[124]. It was finally supplanted by +another view of their relation, which, professing to be a development +of a principle recognized as fundamental, the superior importance of +the religious life, found increasing favour in the eyes of fervent +churchmen[125]. Declaring the Pope sole representative on earth of the +Deity, it concluded that from him, and not directly from God, must the +Empire be held--held feudally, it was said by many--and it thereby +thrust down the temporal power, to be the slave instead of the sister +of the spiritual[126]. Nevertheless, the Papacy in her meridian, and +under the guidance of her greatest minds, of Hildebrand, of Alexander, +of Innocent, not seeking to abolish or absorb the civil government, +required only its obedience, and exalted its dignity against all save +herself[127]. It was reserved for Boniface VIII, whose extravagant +pretensions betrayed the decay that was already at work within, to +show himself to the crowding pilgrims at the jubilee of A.D. 1300, +seated on the throne of Constantine, arrayed with sword, and crown, +and sceptre, shouting aloud, 'I am Cæsar--I am Emperor[128].' + +[Sidenote: Proofs from mediæval documents.] + +The theory of an Emperor's place and functions thus sketched cannot be +definitely assigned to any point of time; for it was growing and +changing from the fifth century to the fifteenth. Nor need it surprise +us that we do not find in any one author a statement of the grounds +whereon it rested, since much of what seems strangest to us was then +too obvious to be formally explained. No one, however, who examines +mediæval writings can fail to perceive, sometimes from direct words, +oftener from allusions or assumptions, that such ideas as these are +present to the minds of the authors[129]. That which it is easiest to +prove is the connection of the Empire with religion. From every +record, from chronicles and treatises, proclamations, laws, and +sermons, passages may be adduced wherein the defence and spread of the +faith, and the maintenance of concord among the Christian people, are +represented as the function to which the Empire has been set apart. +The belief expressed by Lewis II, 'Imperii dignitas non in vocabuli +voce sed in gloriosæ pietatis culmine consistit[130],' appears again +in the address of the Archbishop of Mentz to Conrad II[131], as Vicar +of God; is reiterated by Frederick I[132], when he writes to the +prelates of Germany, 'On earth God has placed no more than two powers, +and as there is in heaven but one God, so is there here one Pope and +one Emperor. Divine providence has specially appointed the Roman +Empire to prevent the continuance of schism in the Church[133];' is +echoed by jurists and divines down to the days of Charles V[134]. It +was a doctrine which we shall find the friends and foes of the Holy +See equally concerned to insist on, the one to make the transference +(_translatio_) from the Greeks to the Germans appear entirely the +Pope's work, and so establish his right of overseeing or cancelling +his rival's election, the others by setting the Emperor at the head of +the Church to reduce the Pope to the place of chief bishop of his +realm[135]. His headship was dwelt upon chiefly in the two duties +already noticed. As the counterpart of the Mussulman Commander of the +Faithful, he was leader of the Church militant against her infidel +foes, was in this capacity summoned to conduct crusades, and in later +times recognized chief of the confederacies against the conquering +Ottomans. As representative of the whole Christian people, it belonged +to him to convoke General Councils, a right not without importance +even when exercised concurrently with the Pope, but far more weighty +when the object of the council was to settle a disputed election, or, +as at Constance, to depose the reigning pontiff himself. + +[Sidenote: The Coronation ceremonies.] + +No better illustrations can be desired than those to be found in the +office for the imperial coronation at Rome, too long to be transcribed +here, but well worthy of an attentive study[136]. The rites prescribed +in it are rights of consecration to a religious office: the Emperor, +besides the sword, globe, and sceptre of temporal power, receives a +ring as the symbol of his faith, is ordained a subdeacon, assists the +Pope in celebrating mass, partakes as a clerical person of the +communion in both kinds, is admitted a canon of St. Peter and St. John +Lateran. The oath to be taken by an elector begins, 'Ego N. volo regem +Romanorum in Cæsarem promovendum, temporale caput populo Christiano +eligere.' The Emperor swears to cherish and defend the Holy Roman +Church and her bishop: the Pope prays after the reading of the Gospel, +'Deus qui ad prædicandum æterni regni evangelium Imperium Romanum +præparasti, prætende famulo tuo Imperatori nostro arma cœlestia.' +Among the Emperor's official titles there occur these: 'Head of +Christendom,' 'Defender and Advocate of the Christian Church,' +'Temporal Head of the Faithful,' 'Protector of Palestine and of the +Catholic Faith[137].' + +[Sidenote: The rights of the Empire proved from the Bible.] + +Very singular are the reasonings used by which the necessity and +divine right of the Empire are proved out of the Bible. The mediæval +theory of the relation of the civil power to the priestly was +profoundly influenced by the account in the Old Testament of the +Jewish theocracy, in which the king, though the institution of his +office was a derogation from the purity of the older system, appears +divinely chosen and commissioned, and stood in a peculiarly intimate +relation to the national religion. From the New Testament the +authority and eternity of Rome herself was established. Every passage +was seized on where submission to the powers that be is enjoined, +every instance cited where obedience had actually been rendered to +imperial officials, a special emphasis being laid on the sanction +which Christ Himself had given to Roman dominion by pacifying the +world through Augustus, by being born at the time of the taxing, by +paying tribute to Cæsar, by saying to Pilate, 'Thou couldest have no +power at all against Me except it were given thee from above.' + +More attractive to the mystical spirit than these direct arguments +were those drawn from prophecy, or based on the allegorical +interpretation of Scripture. Very early in Christian history had the +belief formed itself that the Roman Empire--as the fourth beast of +Daniel's vision, as the iron legs and feet of Nebuchadnezzar's +image--was to be the world's last and universal kingdom. From Origen +and Jerome downwards it found unquestioned acceptance[138], and that +not unnaturally. For no new power had arisen to extinguish the Roman, +as the Persian monarchy had been blotted out by Alexander, as the +realms of his successors had fallen before the conquering republic +herself. Every Northern conqueror, Goth, Lombard, Burgundian, had +cherished her memory and preserved her laws; Germany had adopted even +the name of the Empire 'dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, +and diverse from all that were before it.' To these predictions, and +to many others from the Apocalypse, were added those which in the +Gospels and Epistles foretold the advent of Antichrist[139]. He was to +succeed the Roman dominion, and the Popes are more than once warned +that by weakening the Empire they are hastening the coming of the +enemy and the end of the world[140]. It is not only when groping in +the dark labyrinths of prophecy that mediæval authors are quick in +detecting emblems, imaginative in explaining them. Men were wont in +those days to interpret Scripture in a singular fashion. Not only did +it not occur to them to ask what meaning words had to those to whom +they were originally addressed; they were quite as careless whether +the sense they discovered was one which the language used would +naturally and rationally bear to any reader at any time. No analogy +was too faint, no allegory too fanciful, to be drawn out of a simple +text; and, once propounded, the interpretation acquired in argument +all the authority of the text itself. Thus the two swords of which +Christ said, 'It is enough,' became the spiritual and temporal powers, +and the grant of the spiritual to Peter involves the supremacy of the +Papacy[141]. Thus one writer proves the eternity of Rome from the +seventy-second Psalm, 'They shall fear thee as long as the sun and +moon endure, throughout all generations;' the moon being of course, +since Gregory VII, the Roman Empire, as the sun, or greater light, is +the Popedom. Another quoting, 'Qui tenet teneat donec auferatur[142],' +with Augustine's explanation thereof[143], says, that when 'he who +letteth' is removed, tribes and provinces will rise in rebellion, and +the Empire to which God has committed the government of the human race +will be dissolved. From the miseries of his own time (he wrote under +Frederick III) he predicts that the end is near. The same spirit of +symbolism seized on the number of the electors: 'the seven lamps +burning in the unity of the sevenfold spirit which illumine the Holy +Empire[144].' Strange legends told how Romans and Germans were of one +lineage; how Peter's staff had been found on the banks of the Rhine, +the miracle signifying that a commission was issued to the Germans to +reclaim wandering sheep to the one fold. So complete does the +scriptural proof appear in the hands of mediæval churchmen, many +holding it a mortal sin to resist the power ordained of God, that we +forget they were all the while only adapting to an existing +institution what they found written already; we begin to fancy that +the Empire was maintained, obeyed, exalted for centuries, on the +strength of words to which we attach in almost every case a wholly +different meaning. + +[Sidenote: Illustrations from Mediæval Art.] + +It would be a task both pleasant and profitable to pass on from the +theologians to the poets and artists of the Middle Ages, and endeavour +to trace through their works the influence of the ideas which have +been expounded above. But it is one far too wide for the scope of the +present treatise; and one which would demand an acquaintance with +those works themselves such as only minute and long-continued study +could give. For even a slight knowledge enables any one to see how +much still remains to be interpreted in the imaginative literature and +in the paintings of those times, and how apt we are in glancing over a +piece of work to miss those seemingly trifling indications of the +artist's thought or belief which are all the more precious that they +are indirect or unconscious. Therefore a history of mediæval art which +shall evolve its philosophy from its concrete forms, if it is to have +any value at all, must be minute in description as well as subtle in +method. But lest this class of illustrations should appear to have +been wholly forgotten, it may be well to mention here two paintings in +which the theory of the mediæval empire is unmistakeably set forth. +One of them is in Rome, the other in Florence; every traveller in +Italy may examine both for himself. + +[Sidenote: Mosaic of the Lateran Palace at Rome.] + +The first of these is the famous mosaic of the Lateran triclinium, +constructed by Pope Leo III about A.D. 800, and an exact copy of +which, made by the order of Sextus V, may still be seen over against +the façade of St. John Lateran. Originally meant to adorn the state +banqueting-hall of the Popes, it is now placed in the open air, in the +finest situation in Rome, looking from the brow of a hill across the +green ridges of the Campagna to the olive-groves of Tivoli and the +glistering crags and snow-capped summits of the Umbrian and Sabine +Apennine. It represents in the centre Christ surrounded by the +Apostles, whom He is sending forth to preach the Gospel; one hand is +extended to bless, the other holds a book with the words 'Pax Vobis.' +Below and to the right Christ is depicted again, and this time +sitting: on his right hand kneels Pope Sylvester, on his left the +Emperor Constantine; to the one he gives the keys of heaven and hell, +to the other a banner surmounted by a cross. In the group on the +opposite, that is, on the left side of the arch, we see the Apostle +Peter seated, before whom in like manner kneel Pope Leo III and +Charles the Emperor; the latter wearing, like Constantine, his crown. +Peter, himself grasping the keys, gives to Leo the pallium of an +archbishop, to Charles the banner of the Christian army. The +inscription is, 'Beatus Petrus dona vitam Leoni PP et bictoriam Carulo +regi dona;' while round the arch is written, 'Gloria in excelsis Deo, +et in terra pax omnibus bonæ voluntatis.' + +The order and nature of the ideas here symbolized is sufficiently +clear. First comes the revelation of the Gospel, and the divine +commission to gather all men into its fold. Next, the institution, at +the memorable era of Constantine's conversion, of the two powers by +which the Christian people is to be respectively taught and governed. +Thirdly, we are shewn the permanent Vicar of God, the Apostle who +keeps the keys of heaven and hell, re-establishing these same powers +on a new and firmer basis[145]. The badge of ecclesiastical supremacy +he gives to Leo as the spiritual head of the faithful on earth, the +banner of the Church Militant to Charles, who is to maintain her cause +against heretics and infidels. + +[Sidenote: Fresco in S. Maria Novella at Florence.] + +The second painting is of greatly later date. It is a fresco in the +chapter-house of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria Novella[146] at +Florence, usually known as the Capellone degli Spagnuoli. It has been +commonly ascribed, on Vasari's authority, to Simone Martini of Siena, +but an examination of the dates of his life seems to discredit this +view[147]. Most probably it was executed between A.D. 1340 and 1350. +It is a huge work, covering one whole wall of the chapter-house, and +filled with figures, some of which, but seemingly on no sufficient +authority, have been taken to represent eminent persons of the +time--Cimabue, Arnolfo, Boccaccio, Petrarch, Laura, and others. In it +is represented the whole scheme of man's life here and hereafter--the +Church on earth and the Church in heaven. Full in front are seated +side by side the Pope and the Emperor: on their right and left, in a +descending row, minor spiritual and temporal officials; next to the +Pope a cardinal, bishops, and doctors; next to the Emperor, the king +of France and a line of nobles and knights. Behind them appears the +Duomo of Florence as an emblem of the Visible Church, while at their +feet is a flock of sheep (the faithful) attacked by ravening wolves +(heretics and schismatics), whom a pack of spotted dogs (the +Dominicans[148]) combat and chase away. From this, the central +foreground of the picture, a path winds round and up a height to a +great gate where the Apostle sits on guard to admit true believers: +they passing through it are met by choirs of seraphs, who lead them on +through the delicious groves of Paradise. Above all, at the top of the +painting and just over the spot where his two lieutenants, Pope and +Emperor, are placed below, is the Saviour enthroned amid saints and +angels[149]. + +[Sidenote: Anti-national character of the Empire.] + +Here, too, there needs no comment. The Church Militant is the perfect +counterpart of the Church Triumphant: her chief danger is from those +who would rend the unity of her visible body, the seamless garment of +her heavenly Lord; and that devotion to His person which is the sum of +her faith and the essence of her being, must on earth be rendered to +those two lieutenants whom He has chosen to govern in His name. + +A theory, such as that which it has been attempted to explain and +illustrate, is utterly opposed to restrictions of place or person. The +idea of one Christian people, all whose members are equal in the sight +of God,--an idea so forcibly expressed in the unity of the priesthood, +where no barrier separated the successor of the Apostle from the +humblest curate,--and in the prevalence of one language for worship +and government, made the post of Emperor independent of the race, or +rank, or actual resources of its occupant. The Emperor was entitled to +the obedience of Christendom, not as hereditary chief of a victorious +tribe, or feudal lord of a portion of the earth's surface, but as +solemnly invested with an office. Not only did he excel in dignity the +kings of the earth: his power was different in its nature; and, so far +from supplanting or rivalling theirs, rose above them to become the +source and needful condition of their authority in their several +territories, the bond which joined them in one harmonious body. The +vast dominions and vigorous personal action of Charles the Great had +concealed this distinction while he reigned; under his successors the +imperial crown appeared disconnected from the direct government of the +kingdoms they had established, existing only in the form of an +undefined suzerainty, as the type of that unity without which men's +minds could not rest. It was characteristic of the Middle Ages, that +demanding the existence of an Emperor, they were careless who he was +or how he was chosen, so he had been duly inaugurated; and that they +were not shocked by the contrast between unbounded rights and actual +helplessness. At no time in the world's history has theory, pretending +all the while to control practice, been so utterly divorced from it. +Ferocious and sensual, that age worshipped humility and asceticism: +there has never been a purer ideal of love, nor a grosser profligacy +of life. + +The power of the Roman Emperor cannot as yet be called international; +though this, as we shall see, became in later times its most important +aspect; for in the tenth century national distinctions had scarcely +begun to exist. But its genius was clerical and old Roman, in nowise +territorial or Teutonic: it rested not on armed hosts or wide lands, +but upon the duty, the awe, the love of its subjects. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[102] I do not mean to say that the system of ideas which it is +endeavoured to set forth in the following pages was complete in this +particular form, either in the days of Charles or in those of Otto, or +in those of Frederick Barbarossa. It seems to have been constantly +growing and decaying from the fourth century to the sixteenth, the +relative prominence of its cardinal doctrines varying from age to age. +But, just as the painter who sees the ever-shifting lights and shades +play over the face of a wide landscape faster than his brush can place +them on the canvas, in despair at representing their exact position at +any single moment, contents himself with painting the effects that are +broadest and most permanent, and at giving rather the impression which +the scene makes on him than every detail of the scene itself, so here, +the best and indeed the only practicable course seems to be that of +setting forth in its most self-consistent form the body of ideas and +beliefs on which the Empire rested, although this form may not be +exactly that which they can be asserted to have worn in any one +century, and although the illustrations adduced may have to be taken +sometimes from earlier, sometimes from later writers. As the doctrine +of the Empire was in its essence the same during the whole Middle Age, +such a general description as is attempted here may, I venture to +hope, be found substantially true for the tenth as well as for the +fourteenth century. + +[103] Empires like the Persian did nothing to assimilate the subject +races, who retained their own laws and customs, sometimes their own +princes, and were bound only to serve in the armies and fill the +treasury of the Great King. + +[104] Od. iii. 72:-- + + ἢ μαψίδιως ἀλάλησθε, + οἷά τε ληϊστῆρες, ὑπεὶρ ἅλα, τοίτ' ἀλόωνται + ψυχὰς παρθέμενοι, κακὸν =ἀλλοδαποῖσι= φέροντες; + +Cf. Od. ix. 39: and the Hymn to the Pythian Apollo, I. 274. So in II. +v. 214, ἀλλότριος φώς. + +[105] Plato, in the beginning of the Laws, represents it as natural +between all states: πολεμὸς φύσει ὑπάρχει πρὸς ἁπάσας τὰς πόλεις. + +[106] See especially Acts xvii. 26; Gal. iii. 28; Eph. ii. 11, sqq.; +iv. 3-6; Col. iii. 11. + +[107] This is drawn out by Laurent, _Histoire du Droit des Gens_; and +Ægidi, _Der Fürstenrath nach dem Luneviller Frieden_. + +[108] 'Romanos enim vocitant homines nostræ religionis.'--Gregory of +Tours, quoted by Ægidi, from A. F. Pott, _Essay on the Words +'Römisch,' 'Romanisch,' 'Roman,' 'Romantisch.'_ So in the Middle Ages, +Ῥωμαῖοι is used to mean Christians, as opposed to Ἕλληνες, heathens. + +Cf. Ducange, 'Romani olim dicti qui alias Christiani vel etiam +Catholici.' + +[109] As a reviewer in the _Tablet_ (whose courtesy it is the more +pleasant to acknowledge since his point of view is altogether opposed +to mine) has understood this passage as meaning that 'people imagined +the Christian religion was to last for ever because the Holy Roman +Empire was never to decay,' it may be worth while to say that this is +far from being the purport of the argument which this chapter was +designed to state. The converse would be nearer the truth:--'people +imagined the Holy Roman Empire was never to decay, because the +Christian religion was to last for ever.' + +The phenomen may perhaps be stated thus:--Men who were already +disposed to believe the Roman Empire to be eternal for one set of +reasons, came to believe the Christian Church to be eternal for +another and, to them, more impressive set of reasons. Seeing the two +institutions allied in fact, they took their alliance and connection +to be eternal also; and went on for centuries believing in the +necessary existence of the Roman Empire because they believed in its +necessary union with the Catholic Church. + +[110] Augustine, in the _De Civitate Dei_. His influence, great +through all the Middle Ages, was greater on no one than on +Charles.--'Delectabatur et libris sancti Augustini, præcipueque his +qui De Civitate Dei prætitulati sunt.'--Eginhard, _Vita Karoli_, cap. +24. + +[111] 'Quapropter universorum precibus fidelium optandum est, ut in +omnem gloriam vestram extendatur imperium, ut scilicet catholica fides +... veraciter in una confessione cunctorum cordibus infigatur, +quatenus summi Regis donante pietate eadem sanctæ pacis et perfectæ +caritatis omnes ubique regat et custodiat unitas.' Quoted by Waitz +(_Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte_, ii. 182) from an unprinted letter +of Alcuin. + +[112] A curious illustration of this tendency of mind is afforded by +the descriptions we meet with of Learning or Theology (_Studium_) as a +concrete existence, having a visible dwelling in the University of +Paris. The three great powers which rule human life, says one writer, +the Popedom, the Empire, and Learning, have been severally entrusted +to the three foremost nations of Europe: Italians, Germans, French. +'His siquidem tribus, scilicet sacerdotio imperio et studio, tanquam +tribus virtutibus, videlicet naturali vitali et scientiali, catholica +ecclesia spiritualiter mirificatur, augmentatur et regitur. His itaque +tribus, tanquam fundamento, pariete et tecto, eadem ecclesia tanquam +materialiter proficit. Et sicut ecclesia materialis uno tantum +fundamento et uno tecto eget, parietibus vero quatuor, ita imperium +quatuor habet parietes, hoc est, quatuor imperii sedes, Aquisgranum, +Arelatum, Mediolanum, Romam.'--_Jordanis Chronica_; _ap._ Schardius +_Sylloge Tractatuum_. And see Döllinger, _Die Vergangenheit und +Gegenwart der katholischen Theologie_, p. 8. + +[113] 'Una est sola respublica totius populi Christiani, ergo de +necessitate erit et unus solus princeps et rex illius reipublicæ, +statutus et stabilitus ad ipsius fidei et populi Christiani +dilatationem et defensionem. Ex qua ratione concludit etiam Augustinus +(_De Civitate Dei_, lib. xix.) quod extra ecclesiam nunquam fuit nec +potuit nec poterit esse verum imperium, etsi fuerint imperatores +qualitercumque et secundum quid, non simpliciter, qui fuerunt extra +fidem Catholicam et ecclesiam.'--Engelbert (abbot of Admont in Upper +Austria), _De Ortu et Fine imperii Romani_ (circ. 1310). + +In this 'de necessitate' everything is included. + +[114] See note 37. + +[115] This is admirably brought out by Ægidi, _Der Fürstenrath nach +dem Luneviller Frieden_. + +[116] See the original forgery (or rather the extracts which Gratian +gives from it) in the _Corpus Iuris Canonici_, _Dist._ xcvi. cc. 13, +14. 'Et sicut nostram terrenam imperialem potentiam, sic sacrosanctam +Romanam ecclesiam decrevimus veneranter honorari, et amplius quam +nostrum imperium et terrenum thronum sedem beati Petri gloriose +exaltari, tribuentes ei potestatem et gloriæ dignitatem atque vigorem +et honorificentiam imperialem.... Beato Sylvestro patri nostro summo +pontifici et universali urbis Romæ papæ, et omnibus eius successoribus +pontificibus, qui usque in finem mundi in sede beati Petri erunt +sessuri, de præsenti contradimus palatium imperii nostri Lateranense, +deinde diadema, videlicet coronam capitis nostri, simulque phrygium, +necnon et superhumerale, verum etiam et chlamydem purpuream et tunicam +coccineam, et omnia imperialia indumenta, sed et dignitatem imperialem +præsidentium equitum, conferentes etiam et imperialia sceptra, +simulque cuncta signa atque banda et diversa ornamenta imperialia et +omnem processionem imperialis culminis et gloriam potestatis +nostræ.... Et sicut imperialis militia ornatur ita et clerum sanctæ +Romanæ ecclesiæ ornari decernimus.... Unde ut pontificalis apex non +vilescat sed magis quam terreni imperii dignitas gloria et potentia +decoretur, ecce tam palatium nostrum quam Romanam urbem et omnes +Italiæ seu occidentalium regionum provincias loca et civitates +beatissimo papæ Sylvestro universali papæ contradimus atque +relinquimus.... Ubi enim principatus sacerdotum et Christianæ +religionis caput ab imperatore cœlesti constitutum est, iustum non est +ut illic imperator terrenus habeat potestatem.' + +The practice of kissing the Pope's foot was adopted in imitation of +the old imperial court. It was afterwards revived by the German +Emperors. + +[117] Döllinger has shewn in a recent work (_Die Papst-Fabeln des +Mittelalters_) that the common belief that Gregory II excited the +revolt against Leo the Iconoclast is unfounded. + +So Anastasius, 'Ammonebat (_sc._ Gregorius Secundus) ne a fide vel +amore Romani imperii desisterent.'--_Vitæ Pontif. Rom._ + +[118] Of this curious seal, a leaden one, preserved at Paris, a figure +is given upon the cover of this volume. There are very few monuments +of that age whose genuineness can be considered altogether beyond +doubt; but this seal has many respectable authorities in its favour. +See, among others, Le Blanc, _Dissertation historique sur quelques +Monnoies de Charlemagne_, Paris, 1689; J. M. Heineccius, _De Veteribus +Germanorum aliarumque nationum sigillis_, Lips. 1709; Anastasius, +_Vitæ Pontificum Romanorum_, ed. Vignoli, Romæ, 1752; Götz, +_Deutschlands Kayser-Münzen des Mittelalters_, Dresden, 1827; and the +authorities cited by Waitz, _Deutsche Verfassungs-geschichte_, iii. +179, n. 4. + +[119] 'Præterea mirari se dilecta fraternitas tua quod non Francorum +set Romanorum imperatores nos appellemus; set scire te convenit quia +nisi Romanorum imperatores essemus, utique nec Francorum. A Romanis +enim hoc nomen et dignitatem assumpsimus, apud quos profecto primum +tantæ culmen sublimitatis effulsit,' &c--_Letter of the Emperor Lewis +II to Basil the Emperor at Constantinople_, from _Chron. Salernit. +ap._ Murat. _S. R. I._ + +[120] 'Illam (_sc._ Romanam ecclesiam) solus ille fundavit, et super +petram fidei mox nascentis erexit, qui beato æternæ vitæ clavigero +terreni simul et cœlestis imperii iura commisit.'--_Corpus Iuris +Canonici_, _Dist._ xxii. c. 1. The expression is not uncommon in +mediæval writers. So 'unum est imperium Patris et Filii et Spiritus +Sancti, cuius est pars ecclesia constituta in terris,' in Lewis II's +letter. + +[121] 'Merito summus Pontifex Romanus episcopus dici potest rex et +sacerdos. Si enim dominus noster Iesus Christus sic appellatur, non +videtur incongruum suum vocare successorem. Corporale et temporale ex +spirituali et perpetuo dependet, sicut corporis operatio ex virtute +animæ. Sicut ergo corpus per animam habet esse virtutem et +operationem, ita et temporalis iurisdictio principum per spiritualem +Petri et successorum eius.'--St. Thomas Aquinas, _De Regimine +Principum_. + +[122] 'Nonne Romana ecclesia tenetur imperatori tanquam suo patrono, +et imperator ecclesiam fovere et defensare tanquam suus vere patronus? +certe sic.... Patronis vero concessum est ut prælatos in ecclesiis sui +patronatus eligant. Cum ergo imperator onus sentiat patronatus, ut qui +tenetur eam defendere, sentire debet honorem et emolumentum.' I quote +this from a curious document in Goldast's collection of tracts +(_Monarchia Imperii_), entitled '_Letter of the four Universities, +Paris, Oxford, Prague, and the "Romana generalitas," to the Emperor +Wenzel and Pope Urban_,' A.D. 1380. The title can scarcely be right, +but if the document is, as in all probability it is, not later than +the fifteenth century, its being misdescribed, or even its being a +forgery, does not make it less valuable as an evidence of men's ideas. + +[123] So Leo III in a charter issued on the day of Charles's +coronation: '... actum in præsentia gloriosi atque excellentissimi +filii nostri Caroli quem auctore Deo in defensionem et provectionem +sanctæ universalis ecclesiæ hodie Augustum sacravimus.'--Jaffé +_Regesta Pontificum Romanorum_, ad ann. 800. + +So, indeed, Theodulf of Orleans, a contemporary of Charles, ascribes +to the Emperor an almost papal authority over the Church itself:-- + + 'Cœli habet hic (_sc._ Papa) claves, proprias te iussit habere; + Tu regis ecclesiæ, nam regit ille poli; + Tu regis eius opes, clerum populumque gubernas, + Hic te cœlicolas ducet ad usque choros.' + In D. Bouquet, v. 415. + +[124] Perhaps at no more than three: in the time of Charles and Leo; +again under Otto III and his two Popes, Gregory V and Sylvester II; +thirdly, under Henry III; certainly never thenceforth. + +[125] _The Sachsenspiegel_ (_Speculum Saxonicum_, circ. A.D. 1240), +the great North-German law book, says, 'The Empire is held from God +alone, not from the Pope. Emperor and Pope are supreme each in what +has been entrusted to him: the Pope in what concerns the soul; the +Emperor in all that belongs to the body and to knighthood.' _The +Schwabenspiegel_, compiled half a century later, subordinates the +prince to the pontiff: 'Daz weltliche Schwert des Gerichtes daz lihet +der Babest dem Chaiser; daz geistlich ist dem Babest gesetzt daz er +damit richte.' + +[126] So Boniface VIII in the bull _Unam Sanctam_, will have but one +head for the Christian people. 'Igitur ecclesiæ unius et unicæ unum +corpus, unum caput, non duo capita quasi monstrum.' + +[127] St. Bernard writes to Conrad III: 'Non veniat anima mea in +consilium eorum qui dicunt vel imperio pacem et libertatem ecclesiæ +vel ecclesiæ prosperitatem et exaltationem imperii nocituram.' So in +the _De Consideratione_: 'Si utrumque simul habere velis, perdes +utrumque,' of the papal claim to temporal and spiritual authority, +quoted by Gieseler. + +[128] 'Sedens in solio armatus et cinctus ensem, habensque in capite +Constantini diadema, stricto dextra capulo ensis accincti, ait: +"Numquid ego summus sum pontifex? nonne ista est cathedra Petri? Nonne +possum imperii iura tutari? ego sum Cæsar, ego sum imperator."'--Fr. +Pipinus (ap. Murat. _S. R. I._ ix.) l. iv. c. 47. These words, +however, are by this writer ascribed to Boniface, when receiving the +envoys of the emperor Albert I, in A.D. 1299. I have not been able to +find authority for their use at the jubilee, but give the current +story for what it is worth. + +It has been suggested that Dante may be alluding to this sword scene +in a well-known passage of the Purgatorio (xvi. l. 106):-- + + 'Soleva Roma, che 'l buon mondo feo + Duo Soli aver, che l' una e l' altra strada + Facean vedere, e del mondo e di Deo. + L' un l' altro ha spento, ed è giunta la spada + Col pastorale: e l' un coll altro insieme + Per viva forzu mal convien che vada.' + + +[129] See especially Peter de Andlo (_De Imperio Romano_); Ralph +Colonna (_De translatione Imperii Romani_); Dante (_De Monarchia_); +Engelbert (_De Ortu et Fine Imperii Romani_); Marsilius Patavinus (_De +translatione Imperii Romani_); Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini (_De Ortu et +Authoritate Imperii Romani_); Zoannetus (_De Imperio Romano atque ejus +Iurisdictione_); and the writers in Schardius's _Sylloge_, and in +Goldast's Collection of Tracts, entitled _Monarchia Imperii_. + +[130] Letter of Lewis II to Basil the Macedonian, in _Chron. +Salernit._ in Mur. _S. R. I._; also given by Baronius, _Ann. Eccl._ ad +ann. 871. + +[131] 'Ad summum dignitatis pervenisti: Vicarius es Christi.'--Wippo, +_Vita Chuonradi_ (_ap._ Pertz), c. 3. + +[132] Letter in Radewic, _ap._ Murat, _S. R. I._ + +[133] Lewis IV is styled in one of his proclamations, 'Gentis humanæ, +orbis Christiani custos, urbi et orbi a Deo electus præesse.'--Pfeffinger, +_Vitriarius Illustratus_. + +[134] In a document issued by the Diet of Speyer (A.D. 1529) the +Emperor is called 'Oberst, Vogt, und Haupt der Christenheit.' +Hieronymus Balbus, writing about the same time, puts the question +whether all Christians are subject to the Emperor in temporal things, +as they are to the Pope in spiritual, and answers it by saying, 'Cum +ambo ex eodem fonte perfluxerint et eadem semita incedant, de utroque +idem puto sentiendum.' + +[135] 'Non magis ad Papam depositio seu remotio pertinet quam ad +quoslibet regum prælatos, qui reges suos prout assolent, consecrant et +inungunt.'--_Letter of Frederick II_ (lib. i. c. 3). + +[136] _Liber Ceremonialis Romanus_, lib. i. sect. 5; with which +compare the _Coronatio Romana_ of Henry VII, in Pertz, and Muratori's +Dissertation in vol. i. of the _Antiquitates Italiæ Medii Ævi_. + +[137] See Goldast, _Collection of Imperial Constitutions_; and Moser, +_Römische Kayser_. + +[138] The abbot Engelbert (_De Ortu et Fine Imperii Romani_) quotes +Origen and Jerome to this effect, and proceeds himself to explain, +from 2 Thess. ii., how the falling away will precede the coming of +Antichrist. There will be a triple 'discessio,' of the kingdoms of the +earth from the Roman Empire, of the Church from the Apostolic See, of +the faithful from the faith. Of these, the first causes the second; +the temporal sword to punish heretics and schismatics being no longer +ready to work the will of the rulers of the Church. + +[139] A full statement of the views that prevailed in the earlier +Middle Age regarding Antichrist--as well as of the singular prophecy +of the Frankish Emperor who shall appear in the latter days, conquer +the world, and then going to Jerusalem shall lay down his crown on the +Mount of Olives and deliver over the kingdom to Christ--may be found +in the little treatise, _Vita Antichristi_, which Adso, monk and +afterwards abbot of Moutier-en-Der, compiled (cir. 950) for the +information of Queen Gerberga, wife of Louis d'Outremer. Antichrist is +to be born a Jew of the tribe of Dan (Gen. xlix. 17), 'non de episcopo +et monacha, sicut alii delirando dogmatizant, sed de immundissima +meretrice et crudelissimo nebulone. Totus in peccato concipietur, in +peccato generabitur, in peccato nascetur.' His birthplace is Babylon: +he is to be brought up in Bethsaida and Chorazin. + +Adso's book may be found printed in Migne, t. ci. p. 1290. + +[140] S. Thomas explains the prophecy in a remarkable manner, shewing +how the decline of the Empire is no argument against its fulfilment. +'Dicendum quod nondum cessavit, sed est commutatum de temporali in +spirituale, ut dicit Leo Papa in sermone de Apostolis: et ideo +discessio a Romano imperio debet intelligi non solum a temporali sed +etiam a spirituali, scilicit a fide Catholica Romanæ Ecclesiæ. Est +autem hoc conveniens signum nam Christus venit, quando Romanum +imperium omnibus dominabatur: ita e contra signum adventus Antichristi +est discessio ab eo.'--_Comment. ad 2 Thess._ ii. + +[141] See note 149, page 119. The Papal party sometimes insisted that +both swords were given to Peter, while the imperialists assigned the +temporal sword to John. Thus a gloss to the _Sachsenspiegel_ says, +'Dat eine svert hadde Sinte Peter, dat het nu de paves: dat andere +hadde Johannes, dat het nu de keyser.' + +[142] 2 Thess. ii. 7. + +[143] St. Augustine, however, though he states the view (applying the +passage to the Roman Empire) which was generally received in the +Middle Ages, is careful not to commit himself positively to it. + +[144] _Jordanis Chronica_ (written towards the close of the thirteenth +century). + +[145] Compare with this the words which Pope Hadrian I. had used some +twenty-three years before, of Charles as representative of +Constantine: 'Et sicut temporibus Beati Sylvestri, Romani pontificis, +a sanctæ recordationis piissimo Constantino magno imperatore, per eius +largitatem sancta Dei catholica et apostolica Romana ecclesia elevata +atque exaltata est, et potestatem in his Hesperiæ partibus largiri +dignatus est, ita et in his vestris felicissimis temporibus atque +nostris, sancta Dei ecclesia, id est, beati Petri apostoli germinet +atque exsultet, ut omnes gentes quæ hæc audierint edicere valeant, +'Domine salvum fac regem, et exaudi nos in die in qua invocaverimus +te;' quia ecce novus Christianissimus Dei Constantinus imperator his +temporibus surrexit, per quem omnia Deus sanctæ suæ ecclesiæ beati +apostolorum principis Petri largiri dignatus est.'--_Letter XLIX of +Cod. Carol._, A.D. 777 (in Mur. _Scriptores Rerum Italicarum_). + +This letter is memorable as containing the first allusion, or what +seems an allusion, to Constantine's Donation. + +The phrase 'sancta Dei ecclesia, id est, B. Petri apostoli,' is worth +noting. + +[146] The church in which the opening scene of Boccaccio's _Decameron_ +is laid. + +[147] So Kugler (Eastlake's ed. vol. i. p. 144), and so also Messrs. +Crowe and Cavalcaselle, in their _New History of Painting in Italy_, +vol. ii. pp. 85 _sqq._ + +[148] Domini canes. Spotted because of their black-and-white raiment. + +[149] There is of course a great deal more detail in the picture, +which it does not appear necessary to describe. St. Dominic is a +conspicuous figure. + +It is worth remarking that the Emperor, who is on the Pope's left +hand, and so made slightly inferior to him while superior to every one +else, holds in his hand, instead of the usual imperial globe, a +death's head, typifying the transitory nature of his power. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE GERMAN KINGDOM. + + +[Sidenote: Union of the Roman Empire with the German kingdom.] + +This was the office which Otto the Great assumed in A.D. 962. But it +was not his only office. He was already a German king; and the new +dignity by no means superseded the old. This union in one person of +two characters, a union at first personal, then official, and which +became at last a fusion of the two into something different from +either, is the key to the whole subsequent history of Germany and the +Empire. + +[Sidenote: Germany and its monarchy.] + +Of the German kingdom little need be said, since it differs in no +essential respect from the other kingdoms of Western Europe as they +stood in the tenth century. The five or six great tribes or +tribe-leagues which composed the German nation had been first brought +together under the sceptre of the Carolingians; and, though still +retaining marks of their independent origin, were prevented from +separating by community of speech and a common pride in the great +Frankish Empire. When the line of Charles the Great ended in A.D. 911, +by the death of Lewis the Child (son of Arnulf), Conrad, duke of the +Franconians, and after him Henry (the Fowler), duke of the Saxons, was +chosen to fill the vacant throne. By his vigorous yet conciliatory +action, his upright character, his courage and good fortune in +repelling the Hungarians, Henry laid deep the foundations of royal +power: under his more famous son it rose into a stable edifice. Otto's +coronation feast at Aachen, where the great nobles of the realm did +him menial service, where Franks, Bavarians, Suabians, Thuringians, +and Lorrainers gathered round the Saxon monarch, is the inauguration +of a true Teutonic realm, which, though it called itself not German +but East Frankish, and claimed to be the lawful representative of the +Carolingian monarchy, had a constitution and a tendency in many +respects different. + +[Sidenote: Feudalism.] + +There had been under those princes a singular mixture of the old +German organization by tribes or districts (the so-called +Gauverfassung), such as we find in the earliest records, with the +method introduced by Charles of maintaining by means of officials, +some fixed, others moving from place to place, the control of the +central government. In the suspension of that government which +followed his days, there grew up a system whose seeds had been sown as +far back as the time of Clovis, a system whose essence was the +combination of the tenure of land by military service with a peculiar +personal relation between the landlord and his tenant, whereby the one +was bound to render fatherly protection, the other aid and obedience. +This is not the place for tracing the origin of feudality on Roman +soil, nor for shewing how, by a sort of contagion, it spread into +Germany, how it struck firm root in the period of comparative quiet +under Pipin and Charles, how from the hands of the latter it took the +impress which determined its ultimate form, how the weakness of his +successors allowed it to triumph everywhere. Still less would it be +possible here to examine its social and moral influence. Politically +it might be defined as the system which made the owner of a piece of +land, whether large or small, the sovereign of those who dwelt +thereon: an annexation of personal to territorial authority more +familiar to Eastern despotism than to the free races of primitive +Europe. On this principle were founded, and by it are explained, +feudal law and justice, feudal finance, feudal legislation, each +tenant holding towards his lord the position which his own tenants +held towards himself. And it is just because the relation was so +uniform, the principle so comprehensive, the ruling class so firmly +bound to its support, that feudalism has been able to lay upon society +that grasp which the struggles of more than twenty generations have +scarcely shaken off. + +[Sidenote: The feudal king.] + +[Sidenote: The nobility.] + +[Sidenote: The Germanic feudal polity generally.] + +Now by the middle of the tenth century, Germany, less fully committed +than France to feudalism's worst feature, the hopeless bondage of the +peasantry, was otherwise thoroughly feudalized. As for that equality +of all the freeborn save the sacred line which we find in the Germany +of Tacitus, there had been substituted a gradation of ranks and a +concentration of power in the hands of a landholding caste, so had the +monarch lost his ancient character as leader and judge of the people, +to become the head of a tyrannical oligarchy. He was titular lord of +the soil, could exact from his vassals service and aid in arms and +money, could dispose of vacant fiefs, could at pleasure declare war or +make peace. But all these rights he exercised far less as sovereign of +the nation than as standing in a peculiar relation to the feudal +tenants, a relation in its origin strictly personal, and whose +prominence obscured the political duties of prince and subject. And +great as these rights might become in the hands of an ambitious and +politic ruler, they were in practice limited by the corresponding +duties he owed to his vassals, and by the difficulty of enforcing them +against a powerful offender. The king was not permitted to retain in +his own hands escheated fiefs, must even grant away those he had held +before coming to the throne; he could not interfere with the +jurisdiction of his tenants in their own lands, nor prevent them from +waging war or forming leagues with each other like independent +princes. Chief among the nobles stood the dukes, who, although their +authority was now delegated, theoretically at least, instead of +independent, territorial instead of personal, retained nevertheless +much of that hold on the exclusive loyalty of their subjects which had +belonged to them as hereditary leaders of the tribe under the ancient +system. They were, with the three Rhenish archbishops, by far the +greatest subjects, often aspiring to the crown, sometimes not unable +to resist its wearer. The constant encroachments which Otto made upon +their privileges, especially through the institution of the Counts +Palatine, destroyed their ascendancy, but not their importance. It was +not till the thirteenth century that they disappeared with the rise of +the second order of nobility. That order, at this period far less +powerful, included the counts, margraves or marquises and landgraves, +originally officers of the crown, now feudal tenants; holding their +lands of the dukes, and maintaining against them the same contest +which they in turn waged with the crown. Below these came the barons +and simple knights, then the diminishing class of freemen, the +increasing one of serfs. The institutions of primitive Germany were +almost all gone; supplanted by a new system, partly the natural result +of the formation of a settled from a half-nomad society, partly +imitated from that which had arisen upon Roman soil, west of the Rhine +and south of the Alps. The army was no longer the Heerban of the whole +nation, which had been wont to follow the king on foot in distant +expeditions, but a cavalry militia of barons and their retainers, +bound to service for a short period, and rendering it unwillingly +where their own interest was not concerned. The frequent popular +assemblies, whereof under the names of the Mallum, the Placitum, the +Mayfield, we hear so much under Clovis and Charles, were now never +summoned, and the laws that had been promulgated there were, if not +abrogated, practically obsolete. No national council existed, save the +Diet in which the higher nobility, lay and clerical, met their +sovereign, sometimes to decide on foreign war, oftener to concur in +the grant of a fief or the proscription of a rebel. Every district had +its own rude local customs administered by the court of the local +lord: other law there was none, for imperial jurisprudence had in +these lately civilized countries not yet filled the place left empty +by the disuse of the barbarian codes. + +[Sidenote: The Roman Empire and the German kingdom.] + +This condition of things was indeed better than that utter confusion +which had gone before, for a principle of order had begun to group and +bind the tossing atoms; and though the union into which it drove men +was a hard and narrow one, it was something that they should have +learnt to unite themselves at all. Yet nascent feudality was but one +remove from anarchy; and the tendency to isolation and diversity +continued, despite the efforts of the Church and the Carolingian +princes, to be all-powerful in Western Europe. The German kingdom was +already a bond between the German races, and appears strong and united +when we compare it with the France of Hugh Capet, or the England of +Ethelred II; yet its history to the twelfth century is little else +than a record of disorders, revolts, civil wars, of a ceaseless +struggle on the part of the monarch to enforce his feudal rights, a +resistance by his vassals equally obstinate and more frequently +successful. What the issue of the contest might have been if Germany +had been left to take her own course is matter of speculation, though +the example of every European state except England and Norway may +incline the balance in favour of the crown. But the strife had +scarcely begun when a new influence was interposed: the German king +became Roman Emperor. No two systems can be more unlike than those +whose headship became thus vested in one person: the one centralized, +the other local; the one resting on a sublime theory, the other the +rude offspring of anarchy; the one gathering all power into the hands +of an irresponsible monarch, the other limiting his rights and +authorizing resistance to his commands; the one demanding the equality +of all citizens as creatures equal before Heaven, the other bound up +with an aristocracy the proudest, and in its gradations of rank the +most exact, that Europe had ever seen. Characters so repugnant could +not, it might be thought, meet in one person, or if they met must +strive till one swallowed up the other. It was not so. In the fusion +which began from the first, though it was for a time imperceptible, +each of the two characters gave and each lost some of its attributes: +the king became more than German, the Emperor less than Roman, till, +at the end of six centuries, the monarch in whom two 'persons' had +been united, appeared as a third different from either of the former, +and might not inappropriately be entitled 'German Emperor[150].' The +nature and progress of this change will appear in the after history of +Germany, and cannot be described here without in some measure +anticipating subsequent events. A word or two may indicate how the +process of fusion began. + +[Sidenote: Results of this union in one person.] + +It was natural that the great mass of Otto's subjects, to whom the +imperial title, dimly associated with Rome and the Pope, sounded +grander than the regal, without being known as otherwise different, +should in thought and speech confound them. The sovereign and his +ecclesiastical advisers, with far clearer views of the new office and +of the mutual relation of the two, found it impossible to separate +them in practice, and were glad to merge the lesser in the greater. +For as lord of the world, Otto was Emperor north as well as south of +the Alps. When he issued an edict, he claimed the obedience of his +Teutonic subjects in both capacities; when as Emperor he led the +armies of the gospel against the heathen, it was the standard of their +feudal superior that his armed vassals followed; when he founded +churches and appointed bishops, he acted partly as suzerain of feudal +lands, partly as protector of the faith, charged to guide the Church +in matters temporal. Thus the assumption of the imperial crown brought +to Otto as its first result an apparent increase of domestic +authority; it made his position by its historical associations more +dignified, by its religious more hallowed; it raised him higher above +his vassals and above other sovereigns; it enlarged his prerogative in +ecclesiastical affairs, and by necessary consequence gave to +ecclesiastics a more important place at court and in the +administration of government than they had enjoyed before. Great as +was the power of the bishops and abbots in all the feudal kingdoms, it +stood nowhere so high as in Germany. There the Emperor's double +position, as head both of Church and State, required the two +organizations to be exactly parallel. In the eleventh century a full +half of the land and wealth of the country, and no small part of its +military strength, was in the hands of Churchmen: their influence +predominated in the Diet; the archchancellorship of the Empire, +highest of all offices, belonged of right to the archbishop of Mentz, +as primate of Germany. It was by Otto, who in resuming the attitude +must repeat the policy of Charles, that the greatness of the clergy +was thus advanced. He is commonly said to have wished to weaken the +aristocracy by raising up rivals to them in the hierarchy. It may have +been so, and the measure was at any rate a disastrous one, for the +clergy soon approved themselves not less rebellious than those whom +they were to restrain. But in accusing Otto's judgment, historians +have often forgotten in what position he stood to the Church, and how +it behoved him, according to the doctrine received, to establish in +her an order like in all things to that which he found already +subsisting in the State. + +[Sidenote: Changes in title.] + +The style which Otto adopted shewed his desire thus to merge the king +in the Emperor[151]. Charles had called himself 'Imperator Cæsar +Carolus rex Francorum invictissimus;' and again, 'Carolus serenissimus +Augustus, Pius, Felix, Romanorum gubernans Imperium, qui et per +misericordiam Dei rex Francorum atque Langobardorum.' Otto and his +first successors, who until their coronation at Rome had used the +titles of 'Rex Francorum,' or 'Rex Francorum Orientalium,' or oftener +still 'Rex' alone, discarded after it all titles save the highest of +'Imperator Augustus;' seeming thereby, though they too had been +crowned at Aachen and Milan, to claim the authority of Cæsar through +all their dominions. Tracing as we are the history of a title, it is +needless to dwell on the significance of the change[152]. Charles, son +of the Ripuarian allies of Probus, had been a Frankish chieftain on +the Rhine; Otto, the Saxon, successor of the Cheruscan Arminius, would +rule his native Elbe with a power borrowed from the Tiber. + +[Sidenote: Imperial power feudalized.] + +Nevertheless, the imperial element did not in every respect +predominate over the royal. The monarch might desire to make good +against his turbulent barons the boundless prerogative which he +acquired with his new crown, but he lacked the power to do so; and +they, disputing neither the supremacy of that crown nor his right to +wear it, refused with good reason to let their own freedom be +infringed upon by any act of which they had not been the authors. So +far was Otto from embarking on so vain an enterprise, that his rule +was even more direct and more personal than that of Charles had been. +There was no scheme of mechanical government, no claim of absolutism; +there was only the resolve to make the energetic assertion of the +king's feudal rights subserve the further aims of the Emperor. What +Otto demanded he demanded as Emperor, what he received he received as +king; the singular result was that in Germany the imperial office was +itself pervaded and transformed by feudal ideas. Feudality needing, to +make its theory complete, a lord paramount of the world, from whose +grant all ownership in land must be supposed to have emanated, and +finding such a suzerain in the Emperor, constituted him liege lord of +all kings and potentates, keystone of the feudal arch, himself, as it +was expressed, 'holding' the world from God. There were not wanting +Roman institutions to which these notions could attach themselves. +Constantine, imitating the courts of the East, had made the +dignitaries of his household great officials of the State: these were +now reproduced in the cup-bearer, the seneschal, the marshal, the +chamberlain of the Empire, so soon to become its electoral princes. +The holding of land on condition of military service was Roman in its +origin: the divided ownership of feudal law found its analogies in the +Roman tenure of emphyteusis. Thus while Germany was Romanized the +Empire was feudalized, and came to be considered not the antagonist +but the perfection of an aristocratic system. And it was this +adaptation to existing political facts that enabled it afterwards to +assume an international character. Nevertheless, even while they +seemed to blend, there remained between the genius of imperialism (if +one may use a now perverted word) and that of feudalism a deep and +lasting hostility. And so the rule of Otto and his successors was in a +measure adverse to feudal polity, not from knowledge of what Roman +government had been, but from the necessities of their position, +raised as they were to an unapproachable height above their subjects, +surrounded with a halo of sanctity as protectors of the Church. Thus +were they driven to reduce local independence, and assimilate the +various races through their vast territories. It was Otto who made the +Germans, hitherto an aggregate of tribes, a single people, and welding +them into a strong political body taught them to rise through its +collective greatness to the consciousness of national life, never +thenceforth to be extinguished. + +[Sidenote: The Commons.] + +One expedient against the land-holding oligarchy which Roman +traditions as well as present needs might have suggested, it was +scarcely possible for Otto to use. He could not invoke the friendship +of the Third Estate, for as yet none existed. The Teutonic order of +freemen, which two centuries earlier had formed the bulk of the +population, was now fast disappearing, just as in England all who did +not become thanes were classed as ceorls, and from ceorls sank for the +most part, after the Conquest, into villeins. It was only in the +Alpine valleys and along the shores of the ocean that free democratic +communities maintained themselves. Town-life there was none, till +Henry the Fowler forced his forest-loving people to dwell in +fortresses that might repel the Hungarian invaders; and the burgher +class thus beginning to form was too small to be a power in the state. +But popular freedom, as it expired, bequeathed to the monarch such of +its rights as could be saved from the grasp of the nobles; and the +crown thus became what it has been wherever an aristocracy presses +upon both, the ally, though as yet the tacit ally, of the people. +More, too, than the royal could have done, did the imperial name +invite the sympathy of the commons. For in all, however ignorant of +its history, however unable to comprehend its functions, there yet +lived a feeling that it was in some mysterious way consecrated to +Christian brotherhood and equality, to peace and law, to the restraint +of the strong and the defence of the helpless. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[150] Although this was of course never his legal title. Till 1806 he +was 'Romanorum Imperator semper Augustus;' 'Römischer Kaiser.' + +[151] Pütter, _Dissertationes de Instauratione Imperii Romani_; cf. +Goldast's _Collection of Constitutions_; and the proclamations and +other documents collected in Pertz, _M. G. H._ legg. I. + +[152] Pütter (_De Instauratione Imperii Romani_) will have it that +upon this mistake, as he calls it, of Otto's, the whole subsequent +history of the Empire turned; that if Otto had but continued to style +himself 'Francorum Rex,' Germany would have been spared all her +Italian wars. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +SAXON AND FRANCONIAN EMPERORS. + + +He who begins to read the history of the Middle Ages is alternately +amused and provoked by the seeming absurdities that meet him at every +step. He finds writers proclaiming amidst universal assent magnificent +theories which no one attempts to carry out. He sees men who are +stained with every vice full of sincere devotion to a religion which, +even when its doctrines were most obscured, never sullied the purity +of its moral teaching. He is disposed to conclude that such people +must have been either fools or hypocrites. Yet such a conclusion would +be wholly erroneous. Every one knows how little a man's actions +conform to the general maxims which he would lay down for himself, and +how many things there are which he believes without realizing: +believes sufficiently to be influenced, yet not sufficiently to be +governed by them. Now in the Middle Ages this perpetual opposition of +theory and practice was peculiarly abrupt. Men's impulses were more +violent and their conduct more reckless than is often witnessed in +modern society; while the absence of a criticizing and measuring +spirit made them surrender their minds more unreservedly than they +would now do to a complete and imposing theory. Therefore it was, that +while everyone believed in the rights of the Empire as a part of +divine truth, no one would yield to them where his own passions or +interests interfered. Resistance to God's Vicar might be and indeed +was admitted to be a deadly sin, but it was one which nobody hesitated +to commit. Hence, in order to give this unbounded imperial prerogative +any practical efficiency, it was found necessary to prop it up by the +limited but tangible authority of a feudal king. And the one spot in +Otto's empire on which feudality had never fixed its grasp, and where +therefore he was forced to rule merely as emperor, and not also as +king, was that in which he and his successors were never safe from +insult and revolt. That spot was his capital. Accordingly an account +of what befel the first Saxon emperor in Rome is a not unfitting +comment on the theory expounded above, as well as a curious episode in +the history of the Apostolic Chair. + +[Sidenote: Otto the Great in Rome.] + +After his coronation Otto had returned to North Italy, where the +partizans of Berengar and his son Adalbert still maintained themselves +in arms. Scarcely was he gone when the restless John the Twelfth, who +found too late that in seeking an ally he had given himself a master, +renounced his allegiance, opened negotiations with Berengar, and even +scrupled not to send envoys pressing the heathen Magyars to invade +Germany. The Emperor was soon informed of these plots, as well as of +the flagitious life of the pontiff, a youth of twenty-five, the most +profligate if not the most guilty of all who have worn the tiara. But +he affected to despise them, saying, with a sort of unconscious irony, +'He is a boy, the example of good men may reform him.' When, however, +Otto returned with a strong force, he found the city gates shut, and a +party within furious against him. John the Twelfth was not only Pope, +but as the heir of Alberic, the head of a strong faction among the +nobles, and a sort of temporal prince in the city. But neither he nor +they had courage enough to stand a siege: John fled into the Campagna +to join Adalbert, and Otto entering convoked a synod in St. Peter's. +Himself presiding as temporal head of the Church, he began by +inquiring into the character and manners of the Pope. At once a +tempest of accusations burst forth from the assembled clergy. +Liudprand, a credible although a hostile witness, gives us a long list +of them:--'Peter, cardinal-priest, rose and witnessed that he had seen +the Pope celebrate mass and not himself communicate. John, bishop of +Narnia, and John, cardinal-deacon, declared that they had seen him +ordain a deacon in a stable, neglecting the proper formalities. They +said further that he had defiled by shameless acts of vice the +pontifical palace; that he had openly diverted himself with hunting; +had put out the eyes of his spiritual father Benedict; had set fire to +houses; had girt himself with a sword, and put on a helmet and +hauberk. All present, laymen as well as priests, cried out that he had +drunk to the devil's health; that in throwing the dice he had invoked +the help of Jupiter, Venus, and other demons; that he had celebrated +matins at uncanonical hours, and had not fortified himself by making +the sign of the cross. After these things the Emperor, who could not +speak Latin, since the Romans could not understand his native, that is +to say, the Saxon tongue, bade Liudprand bishop of Cremona interpret +for him, and adjured the council to declare whether the charges they +had brought were true, or sprang only of malice and envy. Then all the +clergy and people cried with a loud voice, 'If John the Pope hath not +committed all the crimes which Benedict the deacon hath read over, and +even greater crimes than these, then may the chief of the Apostles, +the blessed Peter, who by his word closes heaven to the unworthy and +opens it to the just, never absolve us from our sins, but may we be +bound by the chain of anathema, and on the last day may we stand on +the left hand along with those who have said to the Lord God, "Depart +from us, for we will not know Thy ways."' + +The solemnity of this answer seems to have satisfied Otto and the +council: a letter was despatched to John, couched in respectful terms, +recounting the charges brought against him, and asking him to appear +to clear himself by his own oath and that of a sufficient number of +compurgators. John's reply was short and pithy. + +'John the bishop, the servant of the servants of God, to all the +bishops. We have heard tell that you wish to set up another Pope: if +you do this, by Almighty God I excommunicate you, so that you may not +have power to perform mass or to ordain no one[153].' + +[Sidenote: Deposition of John XII.] + +To this Otto and the synod replied by a letter of humorous +expostulation, begging the Pope to reform both his morals and his +Latin. But the messenger who bore it could not find John: he had +repeated what seems to have been thought his most heinous sin, by +going into the country with his bow and arrows; and after a search had +been made in vain, the synod resolved to take a decisive step. Otto, +who still led their deliberations, demanded the condemnation of the +Pope; the assembly deposed him by acclamation, 'because of his +reprobate life,' and having obtained the Emperor's consent, proceeded +in an equally hasty manner to raise Leo, the chief secretary and a +layman, to the chair of the Apostle. + +[Sidenote: Revolt of the Romans.] + +Otto might seem to have now reached a position loftier and firmer than +that of any of his predecessors. Within little more than a year from +his arrival in Rome, he had exercised powers greater than those of +Charles himself, ordering the dethronement of one pontiff and the +installation of another, forcing a reluctant people to bend themselves +to his will. The submission involved in his oath to protect the Holy +See was more than compensated by the oath of allegiance to his crown +which the Pope and the Romans had taken, and by their solemn +engagement not to elect nor ordain any future pontiff without the +Emperor's consent[154]. But he had yet to learn what this obedience +and these oaths were worth. The Romans had eagerly joined in the +expulsion of John; they soon began to regret him. They were mortified +to see their streets filled by a foreign soldiery, the habitual +licence of their manners sternly repressed, their most cherished +privilege, the right of choosing the universal bishop, grasped by the +strong hand of a master who used it for purposes in which they did not +sympathize. In a fickle and turbulent people, disaffection quickly +turned to rebellion. One night, Otto's troops being most of them +dispersed in their quarters at a distance, the Romans rose in arms, +blocked up the Tiber bridges, and fell furiously upon the Emperor and +his creature the new Pope. Superior valour and constancy triumphed +over numbers, and the Romans were overthrown with terrible slaughter; +yet this lesson did not prevent them from revolting a second time, +after Otto's departure in pursuit of Adalbert. John the Twelfth +returned to the city, and when his pontifical career was speedily +closed by the sword of an injured husband[155], the people chose a new +Pope in defiance of the Emperor and his nominee. Otto again subdued +and again forgave them, but when they rebelled for a third time, in +A.D. 966, he resolved to shew them what imperial supremacy meant. +Thirteen leaders, among them the twelve tribunes, were executed, the +consuls were banished, republican forms entirely suppressed, the +government of the city entrusted to Pope Leo as viceroy. He, too, must +not presume on the sacredness of his person to set up any claims to +independence. Otto regarded the pontiff as no more than the first of +his subjects, the creature of his own will, the depositary of an +authority which must be exercised according to the discretion of his +sovereign. The citizens yielded to the Emperor an absolute veto on +papal elections in A.D. 963. Otto obtained from his nominee, Leo VIII, +a confirmation of this privilege, which it was afterwards supposed +that Hadrian I had granted to Charles, in a decree which may yet be +read in the collections of the canon law[156]. The vigorous exercise +of such a power might be expected to reform as well as to restrain the +apostolic see; and it was for this purpose, and in noble honesty, that +the Teutonic sovereigns employed it. But the fortunes of Otto in the +city are a type of those which his successors were destined to +experience. Notwithstanding their clear rights and the momentary +enthusiasm with which they were greeted in Rome, not all the efforts +of Emperor after Emperor could gain any firm hold on the capital they +were so proud of. Visiting it only once or twice in their reigns, they +must be supported among a fickle populace by a large army of +strangers, which melted away with terrible rapidity under the sun of +Italy amid the deadly hollows of the Campagna[157]. Rome soon resumed +her turbulent independence. + +[Sidenote: Otto's rule in Italy.] + +Causes partly the same prevented the Saxon princes from gaining a firm +footing throughout Italy. Since Charles the Bald had bartered away for +the crown all that made it worth having, no Emperor had exercised +substantial authority there. The _missi dominici_ had ceased to +traverse the country; the local governors had thrown off control, a +crowd of petty potentates had established principalities by +aggressions on their weaker neighbours. Only in the dominions of great +nobles, like the marquises of Tuscany and Spoleto, and in some of the +cities where the supremacy of the bishop was paving the way for a +republican system, could traces of political order be found, or the +arts of peace flourish. Otto, who, though he came as a conqueror, +ruled legitimately as Italian king, found his feudal vassals less +submissive than in Germany. While actually present he succeeded by +progresses and edicts, and stern justice, in doing something to still +the turmoil; on his departure Italy relapsed into that disorganization +for which her natural features are not less answerable than the +mixture of her races. Yet it was at this era, when the confusion was +wildest, that there appeared the first rudiments of an Italian +nationality, based partly on geographical position, partly on the use +of a common language and the slow growth of peculiar customs and modes +of thought. But though already jealous of the Tedescan, national +feeling was still very far from disputing his sway. Pope, princes, and +cities bowed to Otto as king and Emperor; nor did he bethink himself +of crushing while it was weak a sentiment whose development threatened +the existence of his empire. Holding Italy equally for his own with +Germany, and ruling both on the same principles, he was content to +keep it a separate kingdom, neither changing its institutions nor +sending Saxons, as Charles had sent Franks, to represent his +government[158]. + +[Sidenote: Otto's foreign policy.] + +[Sidenote: Towards Byzantium.] + +The lofty claims which Otto acquired with the Roman crown urged him to +resume the plans of foreign conquest which had lain neglected since +the days of Charles: the growing vigour of the Teutonic people, now +definitely separating themselves from surrounding races (this is the +era of the Marks--Brandenburg, Meissen, Schleswig), placed in his +hands a force to execute those plans which his predecessors had +wanted. In this, as in his other enterprises, the great Emperor was +active, wise, successful. Retaining the extreme south of Italy, and +unwilling to confess the loss of Rome, the Greeks had not ceased to +annoy her German masters by intrigue, and might now, under the +vigorous leadership of Nicephorus and Tzimiskes, hope again to menace +them in arms. Policy, and the fascination which an ostentatiously +legitimate court exercised over the Saxon stranger, made Otto, as +Napoleon wooed Maria Louisa, seek for his heir the hand of the +princess Theophano. Liudprand's account of his embassy represents in +an amusing manner the rival pretensions of the old and new +Empires[159]. The Greeks, who fancied that with the name they +preserved the character and rights of Rome, held it almost as absurd +as it was wicked that a Frank should insult their prerogative by +reigning in Italy as Emperor. They refused him that title altogether; +and when the Pope had, in a letter addressed '_Imperatori Græcorum_,' +asked Nicephorus to gratify the wishes of the Emperor of the Romans, +the Eastern was furious. 'You are no Romans,' said he, 'but wretched +Lombards: what means this insolent Pope? with Constantine all Rome +migrated hither.' The wily bishop appeased him by abusing the Romans, +while he insinuated that Byzantium could lay no claim to their name, +and proceeded to vindicate the Francia and Saxonia of his master. +'"Roman" is the most contemptuous name we can use--it conveys the +reproach of every vice, cowardice, falsehood, avarice. But what can be +expected from the descendants of the fratricide Romulus? to his asylum +were gathered the offscourings of the nations: thence came these +κοσμοκράτορες.' Nicephorus demanded the 'theme' or province of Rome as +the price of compliance[160]; Tzimiskes was more moderate, and +Theophano became the bride of Otto II. + +[Sidenote: Towards the West Franks.] + +Holding the two capitals of Charles the Great, Otto might vindicate +the suzerainty over the West Frankish kingdom which it had been meant +that the imperial title should carry with it. Arnulf had asserted it +by making Eudes, the first Capetian king, receive the crown as his +feudatory: Henry the Fowler had been less successful. Otto pursued the +same course, intriguing with the discontented nobles of Louis +d'Outremer, and receiving their fealty as Superior of Roman Gaul. +These pretensions, however, could have been made effective only by +arms, and the feudal militia of the tenth century was no such +instrument of conquest as the hosts of Clovis and Charles had been. +The star of the Carolingian of Laon was paling before the rising +greatness of the Parisian Capets: a Romano-Keltic nation had formed +itself, distinct in tongue from the Franks, whom it was fast +absorbing, and still less willing to submit to a Saxon stranger. +Modern France[161] dates from the accession of Hugh Capet, A.D. 987, +and the claims of the Roman Empire were never afterwards formally +admitted. + +[Sidenote: Lorraine and Burgundy.] + +Of that France, however, Aquitaine was virtually independent. +Lotharingia and Burgundy belonged to it as little as did England. The +former of these kingdoms had adhered to the West Frankish king, +Charles the Simple, against the East Frankish Conrad: but now, as +mostly German in blood and speech, threw itself into the arms of Otto, +and was thenceforth an integral part of the Empire. Burgundy, a +separate kingdom, had, by seeking from Charles the Fat a ratification +of Boso's election, by admitting, in the person of Rudolf the first +Transjurane king, the feudal superiority of Arnulf, acknowledged +itself to be dependent on the German crown. Otto governed it for +thirty years, nominally as the guardian of the young king Conrad (son +of Rudolf II). + +[Sidenote: Denmark and the Slaves.] + +[Sidenote: England.] + +Otto's conquests to the North and East approved him a worthy successor +of the first Emperor. He penetrated far into Jutland, annexed +Schleswig, made Harold the Blue-toothed his vassal. The Slavic tribes +were obliged to submit, to follow the German host in war, to allow the +free preaching of the Gospel in their borders. The Hungarians he +forced to forsake their nomad life, and delivered Europe from the fear +of Asiatic invasions by strengthening the frontier of Austria. Over +more distant lands, Spain and England, it was not possible to recover +the commanding position of Charles. Henry, as head of the Saxon name, +may have wished to unite its branches on both sides the sea[162], and +it was perhaps partly with this intent that he gained for Otto the +hand of Edith, sister of the English Athelstan. But the claim of +supremacy, if any there was, was repudiated by Edgar, when, +exaggerating the lofty style assumed by some of his predecessors, he +called himself 'Basileus and imperator of Britain[163],' thereby +seeming to pretend to a sovereignty over all the nations of the island +similar to that which the Roman Emperor claimed over the states of +Christendom. + +[Sidenote: Extent of Otto's Empire.] + +[Sidenote: Comparison between it and that of Charles.] + +This restored Empire, which professed itself a continuation of the +Carolingian, was in many respects different. It was less wide, +including, if we reckon strictly, only Germany proper and two-thirds +of Italy; or counting in subject but separate kingdoms, Burgundy, +Bohemia, Moravia, Poland, Denmark, perhaps Hungary. Its character was +less ecclesiastical. Otto exalted indeed the spiritual potentates of +his realm, and was earnest in spreading Christianity among the +heathen: he was master of the Pope and Defender of the Holy Roman +Church. But religion held a less important place in his mind and his +administration: he made fewer wars for its sake, held no councils, and +did not, like his predecessor, criticize the discourses of bishops. It +was also less Roman. We do not know whether Otto associated with that +name anything more than the right to universal dominion and a certain +oversight of matters spiritual, nor how far he believed himself to be +treading in the steps of the Cæsars. He could not speak Latin, he had +few learned men around him, he cannot have possessed the varied +cultivation which had been so fruitful in the mind of Charles. +Moreover, the conditions of his time were different, and did not +permit similar attempts at wide organization. The local potentates +would have submitted to no _missi dominici_; separate laws and +jurisdictions would not have yielded to imperial capitularies; the +_placita_ at which those laws were framed or published would not have +been crowded, as of yore, by armed freemen. But what Otto could he +did, and did it to good purpose. Constantly traversing his dominions, +he introduced a peace and prosperity before unknown, and left +everywhere the impress of an heroic character. Under him the Germans +became not only a united nation, but were at once raised on a pinnacle +among European peoples as the imperial race, the possessors of Rome +and Rome's authority. While the political connection with Italy +stirred their spirit, it brought with it a knowledge and culture +hitherto unknown, and gave the newly-kindled energy an object. Germany +became in her turn the instructress of the neighbouring tribes, who +trembled at Otto's sceptre; Poland and Bohemia received from her their +arts and their learning with their religion. If the revived +Romano-Germanic Empire was less splendid than the Empire of the West +had been under Charles, it was, within narrower limits, firmer and +more lasting, since based on a social force which the other had +wanted. It perpetuated the name, the language, the literature, such as +it then was, of Rome; it extended her spiritual sway; it strove to +represent that concentration for which men cried, and became a power +to unite and civilize Europe. + +[Sidenote: Otto II, A.D. 973-983.] + +[Sidenote: Otto III, A.D. 983-1002.] + +[Sidenote: His ideas. Fascination exercised over him by the name of +Rome.] + +[Sidenote: Pope Sylvester II, A.D. 1000.] + +The time of Otto the Great has required a fuller treatment, as the era +of the Holy Empire's foundation: succeeding rulers may be more quickly +dismissed. Yet Otto III's reign cannot pass unnoticed: short, sad, +full of bright promise never fulfilled. His mother was the Greek +princess Theophano; his preceptor, the illustrious Gerbert: through +the one he felt himself connected with the old Empire, and had imbibed +the absolutism of Byzantium; by the other he had been reared in the +dream of a renovated Rome, with her memories turned to realities. To +accomplish that renovation, who so fit as he who with the vigorous +blood of the Teutonic conqueror inherited the venerable rights of +Constantinople? It was his design, now that the solemn millennial era +of the founding of Christianity had arrived, to renew the majesty of +the city and make her again the capital of a world-embracing Empire, +victorious as Trajan's, despotic as Justinian's, holy as +Constantine's. His young and visionary mind was too much dazzled by +the gorgeous fancies it created to see the world as it was: Germany +rude, Italy unquiet, Rome corrupt and faithless. In A.D. 994, at the +age of sixteen, he took from his mother's hands the reins of +government, and entered Italy to receive his crown, and quell the +turbulence of Rome. There he put to death the rebel Crescentius, in +whom modern enthusiasm has seen a patriotic republican, who, reviving +the institutions of Alberic, had ruled as consul or senator, sometimes +entitling himself Emperor[164]. The young monarch reclaimed, perhaps +extended, the privilege of Charles and Otto the Great, by nominating +successive pontiffs: first Bruno his cousin (Gregory V), then Gerbert, +whose name of Sylvester II recalled significantly the ally of +Constantine: Gerbert, to his contemporaries a marvel of piety and +learning, in later legend the magician who, at the price of his own +soul, purchased preferment from the Enemy, and by him was at last +carried off in the body. With the substitution of these men for the +profligate priests of Italy, began that Teutonic reform of the Papacy +which raised it from the abyss of the tenth century to the point where +Hildebrand found it. The Emperors were working the ruin of their power +by their most disinterested acts. + +[Sidenote: Schemes of Otto III: Changes of style and usage.] + +With his tutor on Peter's chair to second or direct him, Otto laboured +on his great project in a spirit almost mystic. He had an intense +religious belief in the Emperor's duties to the world--in his +proclamations he calls himself 'Servant of the Apostles,' 'Servant of +Jesus Christ[165]'--together with the ambitious antiquarianism of a +fiery imagination, kindled by the memorials of the glory and power he +represented. Even the wording of his laws witnesses to the strange +mixture of notions that filled his eager brain. 'We have ordained +this,' says an edict, 'in order that, the church of God being freely +and firmly stablished, our Empire may be advanced and the crown of our +knighthood triumph; that the power of the Roman people may be extended +and the commonwealth be restored; so may we be found worthy after +living righteously in the tabernacle of this world, to fly away from +the prison of this life and reign most righteously with the Lord.' To +exclude the claims of the Greeks he used the title '_Romanorum +Imperator_' instead of the simple '_Imperator_' of his predecessors. +His seals bear a legend resembling that used by Charles, '_Renovatio +Imperii Romanorum_;' even the 'commonwealth,' despite the results that +name had produced under Alberic and Crescentius, was to be +re-established. He built a palace on the Aventine, then the most +healthy and beautiful quarter of the city; he devised a regular +administrative system of government for his capital--naming a +patrician, a prefect, and a body of judges, who were commanded to +recognize no law but Justinian's. The formula of their appointment has +been preserved to us: in it the Emperor delivering to the judge a copy +of the code bids him 'with this code judge Rome and the Leonine city +and the whole world.' He introduced into the simple German court the +ceremonious magnificence of Byzantium, not without giving offence to +many of his followers[166]. His father's wish to draw Italy and +Germany more closely together, he followed up by giving the +chancellorship of both countries to the same churchman, by maintaining +a strong force of Germans in Italy, and by taking his Italian retinue +with him through the Transalpine lands. How far these brilliant and +far-reaching plans were capable of realization, had their author lived +to attempt it, can be but guessed at. It is reasonable to suppose that +whatever power he might have gained in the South he would have lost in +the North. Dwelling rarely in Germany, and in sympathies more a Greek +than a Teuton, he reined in the fierce barons with no such tight hand +as his grandfather had been wont to do; he neglected the schemes of +northern conquest; he released the Polish dukes from the obligation of +tribute. But all, save that those plans were his, is now no more than +conjecture, for Otto III, 'the wonder of the world,' as his own +generation called him, died childless on the threshold of manhood; the +victim, if we may trust a story of the time, of the revenge of +Stephania, widow of Crescentius, who ensnared him by her beauty, and +slew him by a lingering poison. They carried him across the Alps with +laments whose echoes sound faintly yet from the pages of monkish +chroniclers, and buried him in the choir of the basilica at Aachen +some fifty paces from the tomb of Charles beneath the central dome. +Two years had not passed since, setting out on his last journey to +Rome, he had opened that tomb, had gazed on the great Emperor, sitting +on a marble throne, robed and crowned, with the Gospel-book open +before him; and there, touching the dead hand, unclasping from the +neck its golden cross, had taken, as it were, an investiture of Empire +from his Frankish forerunner. Short as was his life and few his acts, +Otto III is in one respect more memorable than any who went before or +came after him. None save he desired to make the seven-hilled city +again the seat of dominion, reducing Germany and Lombardy and Greece +to their rightful place of subject provinces. No one else so forgot +the present to live in the light of the ancient order; no other soul +was so possessed by that fervid mysticism and that reverence for the +glories of the past, whereon rested the idea of the mediæval Empire. + +[Sidenote: Italy independent.] + +[Sidenote: Henry II Emperor.] + +[Sidenote: Southern Italy.] + +The direct line of Otto the Great had now ended, and though the Franks +might elect and the Saxons accept Henry II[167], Italy was nowise +affected by their acts. Neither the Empire nor the Lombard kingdom +could as yet be of right claimed by the German king. Her princes +placed Ardoin, marquis of Ivrea, on the vacant throne of Pavia, moved +partly by the growing aversion to a Transalpine power, still more by +the desire of impunity under a monarch feebler than any since +Berengar. But the selfishness that had exalted Ardoin soon overthrew +him. Ere long a party among the nobles, seconded by the Pope, invited +Henry[168]; his strong army made opposition hopeless, and at Rome he +received the imperial crown, A.D. 1014. It is, perhaps, more singular +that the Transalpine kings should have clung so pertinaciously to +Italian sovereignty than that the Lombards should have so frequently +attempted to recover their independence. For the former had often +little or no hereditary claim, they were not secure in their seat at +home, they crossed a huge mountain barrier into a land of treachery +and hatred. But Rome's glittering lure was irresistible, and the +disunion of Italy promised an easy conquest. Surrounded by martial +vassals, these Emperors were generally for the moment supreme: once +their pennons had disappeared in the gorges of Tyrol, things reverted +to their former condition, and Tuscany was little more dependent than +France. In Southern Italy the Greek viceroy ruled from Bari, and Rome +was an outpost instead of the centre of Teutonic power. A curious +evidence of the wavering politics of the time is furnished by the +Annals of Benevento, the Lombard town which on the confines of the +Greek and Roman realms gave steady obedience to neither. They usually +date by and recognize the princes of Constantinople[169], seldom +mentioning the Franks, till the reign of Conrad II; after him the +Western becomes _Imperator_, the Greek, appearing more rarely, is +_Imperator Constantinopolitanus_. Assailed by the Saracens, masters +already of Sicily, these regions seemed on the eve of being lost to +Christendom, and the Romans sometimes bethought themselves of +returning under the Byzantine sceptre. As the weakness of the Greeks +in the South favoured the rise of the Norman kingdom, so did the +liberties of the northern cities shoot up in the absence of the +Emperors and the feuds of the princes. Milan, Pavia, Cremona, were +only the foremost among many populous centres of industry, some of +them self-governing, all quickly absorbing or repelling the rural +nobility, and not afraid to display by tumults their aversion to the +Germans. + +[Sidenote: Conrad II.] + +The reign of Conrad II, the first monarch of the great Franconian +line, is remarkable for the accession to the Empire of Burgundy, or, +as it is after this time more often called, the kingdom of Arles[170]. +Rudolf III, the last king, had proposed to bequeath it to Henry II, +and the states were at length persuaded to consent to its reunion to +the crown from which it had been separated, though to some extent +dependent, since the death of Lothar I (son of Lewis the Pious). On +Rudolf's death in 1032, Eudes, count of Champagne, endeavoured to +seize it, and entered the north-western districts, from which he was +dislodged by Conrad with some difficulty. Unlike Italy, it became an +integral member of the Germanic realm: its prelates and nobles sat in +imperial diets, and retained till recently the style and title of +Princes of the Holy Empire. The central government was, however, +seldom effective in these outlying territories, exposed always to the +intrigues, finally to the aggressions, of Capetian France. + +[Sidenote: Henry III.] + +[Sidenote: His reform of the Popedom.] + +[Sidenote: Henry IV, A.D. 1056-1106.] + +Under Conrad's son Henry the Third the Empire attained the meridian of +its power. At home Otto the Great's prerogative had not stood so high. +The duchies, always the chief source of fear, were allowed to remain +vacant or filled by the relatives of the monarch, who himself +retained, contrary to usual practice, those of Franconia and (for some +years) Swabia. Abbeys and sees lay entirely in his gift. Intestine +feuds were repressed by the proclamation of a public peace. Abroad, +the feudal superiority over Hungary, which Henry II had gained by +conferring the title of King with the hand of his sister Gisela, was +enforced by war, the country made almost a province, and compelled to +pay tribute. In Rome no German sovereign had ever been so absolute. A +disgraceful contest between three claimants of the papal chair had +shocked even the reckless apathy of Italy. Henry deposed them all, and +appointed their successor: he became hereditary patrician, and wore +constantly the green mantle and circlet of gold which were the badges +of that office, seeming, one might think, to find in it some further +authority than that which the imperial name conferred. The synod +passed a decree granting to Henry the right of nominating the supreme +pontiff; and the Roman priesthood, who had forfeited the respect of +the world even more by habitual simony than by the flagrant corruption +of their manners, were forced to receive German after German as their +bishop, at the bidding of a ruler so powerful, so severe, and so +pious. But Henry's encroachments alarmed his own nobles no less than +the Italians, and the reaction, which might have been dangerous to +himself, was fatal to his successor. A mere chance, as some might call +it, determined the course of history. The great Emperor died suddenly +in A.D. 1056, and a child was left at the helm, while storms were +gathering that might have demanded the wisest hand. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[153] 'Iohannes episcopus, servus servorum Dei, omnibus episcopis. Nos +audivimus dicere quia vos vultis alium papam facere: si hoc facitis, +da Deum omnipotentem excommunico vos, ut non habeatis licentiam missam +celebrare aut nullum ordinare.'--Liudprand, _ut supra_. The 'da' is +curious, as shewing the progress of the change from Latin to Italian. +The answer sent by Otto and the council takes exception to the double +negative. + +[154] 'Cives fidelitatem promittunt hæc addentes et firmiter iurantes +nunquam se papam electuros aut ordinaturos præter consensum atque +electionem domini imperatoris Ottonis Cæsaris Augusti filiique ipsius +Ottonis.'--Liudprand, _Gesta Ottonis_, lib. vi. + +[155] 'In timporibus adeo a dyabulo est percussus ut infra dierum octo +spacium eodem sit in vulnere mortuus,' says the chronicler, crediting +with but little of his wonted cleverness the supposed author of John's +death, who well might have desired a long life for so useful a +servant. + +He adds a detail too characteristic of the time to be omitted--'Sed +eucharistiæ viaticum, ipsius instinctu qui eum percusserat, non +percepit.' + +[156] _Corpus Iuris Canonici_, Dist. lxiii., '_In synodo_.' A decree +which is probably substantially genuine, although the form in which we +have it is evidently of later date. + +[157] Cf. St. Peter Damiani's lines-- + + 'Roma vorax hominum domat ardua colla virorum, + Roma ferax febrium necis est uberrima frugum, + Romanæ febres stabili sunt iure fideles.' + +[158] There was a separate chancellor for Italy, as afterwards for the +kingdom of Burgundy. + +[159] Liudprand, _Legatio Constantinopolitana_. + +[160] 'Sancti imperii nostri olim servos principes, Beneventanum +scilicet, tradat,' &c. The epithet is worth noticing. + +[161] Liudprand calls the Eastern Franks 'Franci Teutonici' to +distinguish them from the Romanized Franks of Gaul or 'Francigenæ,' as +they were frequently called. The name 'Frank' seems even so early as +the tenth century to have been used in the East as a general name for +the Western peoples of Europe. Liudprand says that the Greek Emperor +included 'sub Francorum nomine tam Latinos quam Teutonicos.' Probably +this use dates from the time of Charles. + +[162] Conring, _De Finibus Imperii_. + +[163] Basileus was a favourite title of the English kings before the +Conquest. Titles like this used in these early English charters prove, +it need hardly be said, absolutely nothing as to the real existence of +any rights or powers of the English king beyond his own borders. What +they do prove (over and above the taste for florid rhetoric in the +royal clerks) is the impression produced by the imperial style, and by +the idea of the emperor's throne as supported by the thrones of kings +and other lesser potentates. + +[164] The coins of Crescentius are said to exhibit the insignia of the +old Empire.--Palgrave, _Normandy and England_, i. 715. But probably +some at least of them are forgeries. + +[165] Proclamation in Pertz, _M. G. H._ ii. + +[166] 'Imperator antiquam Romanorum consuetudinem iam ex magna parte +deletam suis cupiens renovare temporibus multa faciebat quæ diversi +diverse sentiebant.'--Thietmar, _Chron._ ix.; ap. Pertz, _M. G. H._ t. +iii. + +[167] _Annales Quedlinb._, ad ann. 1002. + +[168] Henry had already entered Italy in 1004. + +[169] _Annales Beneventani_, in Pertz, _M. G. H._ + +[170] See Appendix, Note A. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +STRUGGLE OF THE EMPIRE AND THE PAPACY. + + +Reformed by the Emperors and their Teutonic nominees, the Papacy had +resumed in the middle of the eleventh century the schemes of polity +shadowed forth by Nicholas I, and which the degradation of the last +age had only suspended. Under the guidance of her greatest mind, +Hildebrand, the archdeacon of Rome, she now advanced to their +completion, and proclaimed that war of the ecclesiastical power +against the civil power in the person of the Emperor, which became the +centre of the subsequent history of both. While the nature of the +struggle cannot be understood without a glance at their previous +connection, the vastness of the subject warns one from the attempt to +draw even its outlines, and restricts our view to those relations of +Popedom and Empire which arise directly out of their respective +positions as heads spiritual and temporal of the universal Christian +state. + +[Sidenote: Growth of the Papal power.] + +[Sidenote: Relations of the Papacy and the Empire.] + +The eagerness of Christianity in the age immediately following her +political establishment to purchase by submission the support of the +civil power, has been already remarked. The change from independence +to supremacy was gradual. The tale we smile at, how Constantine, +healed of his leprosy, granted the West to bishop Sylvester, and +retired to Byzantium that no secular prince might interfere with the +jurisdiction or profane the neighbourhood of Peter's chair, worked +great effects through the belief it commanded for many centuries. Nay +more, its groundwork was true. It was the removal of the seat of +government from the Tiber to the Bosphorus that made the Pope the +greatest personage in the city, and in the prostration after Alaric's +invasion he was seen to be so. Henceforth he alone was a permanent and +effective, though still unacknowledged power, as truly superior to the +revived senate and consuls of the phantom republic as Augustus and +Tiberius had been to the faint continuance of their earlier +prototypes. Pope Leo the First asserted the universal jurisdiction of +his see[171], and his persevering successors slowly enthralled Italy, +Illyricum, Gaul, Spain, Africa, dexterously confounding their +undoubted metropolitan and patriarchal rights with those of œcumenical +bishop, in which they were finally merged. By his writings and the +fame of his personal sanctity, by the conversion of England and the +introduction of an impressive ritual, Gregory the Great did more than +any other pontiff to advance Rome's ecclesiastical authority. Yet his +tone to Maurice of Constantinople was deferential, to Phocas +adulatory; his successors were not consecrated till confirmed by the +Emperor or the Exarch; one of them was dragged in chains to the +Bosphorus, and banished thence to Scythia. When the iconoclastic +controversy and the intervention of Pipin broke the allegiance of the +Popes to the East, the Franks, as patricians and Emperors, seemed to +step into the position which Byzantium had lost[172]. At Charles's +coronation, says the Saxon poet, + + 'Et summus eundem + Præsul adoravit, sicut mos debitus olim + Principibus fuit antiquis.' + +[Sidenote: Temporal power of the Popes.] + +Their relations were, however, no longer the same. If the Frank +vaunted conquest, the priest spoke only of free gift. What Christendom +saw was that Charles was crowned by the Pope's hands, and undertook as +his principal duty the protection and advancement of the Holy Roman +Church. The circumstances of Otto the Great's coronation gave an even +more favourable opening to sacerdotal claims, for it was a Pope who +summoned him to Rome and a Pope who received from him an oath of +fidelity and aid. In the conflict of three powers, the Emperor, the +pontiff, and the people--represented by their senate and consuls, or +by the demagogue of the hour--the most steady, prudent, and +far-sighted was sure eventually to prevail. The Popedom had no +minorities, as yet few disputed successions, few revolts within its +own army--the host of churchmen through Europe. Boniface's conversion +of Germany under its direct sanction, gave it a hold on the rising +hierarchy of the greatest European state; the extension of the rule of +Charles and Otto diffused in the same measure its emissaries and +pretensions. The first disputes turned on the right of the prince to +confirm the elected pontiff, which was afterwards supposed to have +been granted by Hadrian I to Charles, in the decree quoted as +'_Hadrianus Papa_[173].' This '_ius eligendi et ordinandi summum +pontificem_,' which Lewis I appears as yielding by the '_Ego +Ludovicus_[174],' was claimed by the Carolingians whenever they felt +themselves strong enough, and having fallen into desuetude in the +troublous times of the Italian Emperors, was formally renewed to Otto +the Great by his nominee Leo VIII. We have seen it used, and used in +the purest spirit, by Otto himself, by his grandson Otto III, last of +all, and most despotically, by Henry III. Along with it there had +grown up a bold counter-assumption of the Papal chair to be itself the +source of the imperial dignity. In submitting to a fresh coronation, +Lewis the Pious admitted the invalidity of his former self-performed +one: Charles the Bald did not scout the arrogant declaration of John +VIII[175], that to him alone the Emperor owed his crown; and the +council of Pavia[176], when it chose him king of Italy, repeated the +assertion. Subsequent Popes knew better than to apply to the chiefs of +Saxon and Franconian chivalry language which the feeble Neustrian had +not resented; but the precedent remained, the weapon was only hid +behind the pontifical robe to be flashed out with effect when the +moment should come. There were also two other great steps which papal +power had taken. By the invention and adoption of the False Decretals +it had provided itself with a legal system suited to any emergency, +and which gave it unlimited authority through the Christian world in +causes spiritual and over persons ecclesiastical. Canonistical +ingenuity found it easy in one way or another to make this include all +causes and persons whatsoever: for crime is always and wrong is often +sin, nor can aught be anywhere done which may not affect the clergy. +On the gift of Pipin and Charles, repeated and confirmed by Lewis I, +Charles II, Otto I and III, and now made to rest on the more venerable +authority of the first Christian Emperor, it could found claims to the +sovereignty of Rome, Tuscany, and all else that had belonged to the +exarchate. Indefinite in their terms, these grants were never meant by +the donors to convey full dominion over the districts--that belonged +to the head of the Empire--but only as in the case of other church +estates, a perpetual usufruct or _dominium utile_. They were, in fact, +mere endowments. Nor had the gifts been ever actually reduced into +possession: the Pope had been hitherto the victim, not the lord, of +the neighbouring barons. They were not, however, denied, and might be +made a formidable engine of attack: appealing to them, the Pope could +brand his opponents as unjust and impious; and could summon nobles and +cities to defend him as their liege lord, just as, with no better +original right, he invoked the help of the Norman conquerors of Naples +and Sicily. + +The attitude of the Roman Church to the imperial power at Henry the +Third's death was externally respectful. The right of a German king to +the crown of the city was undoubted, and the Pope was his lawful +subject. Hitherto the initiative in reform had come from the civil +magistrate. But the secret of the pontiff's strength lay in this: he, +and he alone, could confer the crown, and had therefore the right of +imposing conditions on its recipient. Frequent interregna had weakened +the claim of the Transalpine monarch and prevented his power from +taking firm root; his title was never by law hereditary: the holy +Church had before sought and might again seek a defender elsewhere. +And since the need of such defence had originated this transference of +the Empire from the Greeks to the Franks, since to render it was the +Emperor's chief function, it was surely the Pope's duty as well as his +right to see that the candidate was capable of fulfilling his task, to +degrade him if he rejected or misperformed it. + +[Sidenote: Hildebrandine reforms.] + +The first step was to remove a blemish in the constitution of the +Church, by fixing a regular body to choose the supreme pontiff. This +Nicholas II did in A.D. 1059, feebly reserving the rights of Henry IV +and his successors. Then the reforming spirit, kindled by the abuses +and depravity of the last century, advanced apace. It had two main +objects: the enforcement of celibacy, especially on the secular +clergy, who enjoyed in this respect considerable freedom, and the +extinction of simony. In the former, the Emperors and a large part of +the laity were not unwilling to join: the latter no one dared to +defend in theory. But when Gregory VII declared that it was sin for +the ecclesiastic to receive his benefice under conditions from a +layman, and so condemned the whole system of feudal investitures to +the clergy, he aimed a deadly blow at all secular authority. Half of +the land and wealth of Germany was in the hands of bishops and abbots, +who would now be freed from the monarch's control to pass under that +of the Pope. In such a state of things government itself would be +impossible. + +[Sidenote: Henry IV and Gregory VII.] + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1077.] + +Henry and Gregory already mistrusted each other: after this decree war +was inevitable. The Pope cited his opponent to appear and be judged at +Rome for his vices and misgovernment. The Emperor[177] replied by +convoking a synod, which deposed and insulted Gregory. At once the +dauntless monk pronounced Henry excommunicate, and fixed a day on +which, if still unrepentant, he should cease to reign. Supported by +his own princes, the monarch might have defied a mandate backed by no +external force; but the Saxons, never contented since the first place +had passed from their own dukes to the Franconians, only waited the +signal to burst into a new revolt, whilst through all Germany the +Emperor's tyranny and irregularities of life had sown the seeds of +disaffection. Shunned, betrayed, threatened, he rushed into what +seemed the only course left, and Canosa saw Europe's mightiest prince, +titular lord of the world, a suppliant before the successor of the +Apostle. Henry soon found that his humiliation had not served him; +driven back into opposition, he defied Gregory anew, set up an +anti-pope, overthrew the rival whom his rebellious subjects had +raised, and maintained to the end of his sad and chequered life a +power often depressed but never destroyed. Nevertheless had all other +humiliation been spared, that one scene in the yard of the Countess +Matilda's castle, an imperial penitent standing barefoot and +woollen-frocked on the snow three days and nights, till the priest who +sat within should admit and absolve him, was enough to mark a decisive +change, and inflict an irretrievable disgrace on the crown so abased. +Its wearer could no more, with the same lofty confidence, claim to be +the highest power on earth, created by and answerable to God alone. +Gregory had extorted the recognition of that absolute superiority of +the spiritual dominion which he was wont to assert so sternly; +proclaiming that to the Pope, as God's vicar, all mankind are subject, +and all rulers responsible: so that he, the giver of the crown, may +also excommunicate and depose. Writing to William the Conqueror, he +says[178]: 'For as for the beauty of this world, that it may be at +different seasons perceived by fleshly eyes, God hath disposed the sun +and the moon, lights that outshine all others; so lest the creature +whom His goodness hath formed after His own image in this world should +be drawn astray into fatal dangers, He hath provided in the apostolic +and royal dignities the means of ruling it through divers offices.... +If I, therefore, am to answer for thee on the dreadful day of judgment +before the just Judge who cannot lie, the creator of every creature, +bethink thee whether I must not very diligently provide for thy +salvation, and whether, for thine own safety, thou oughtest not +without delay to obey me, that so thou mayest possess the land of the +living.' + +Gregory was not the inventor nor the first propounder of these +doctrines; they had been long before a part of mediæval Christianity, +interwoven with its most vital doctrines. But he was the first who +dared to apply them to the world as he found it. His was that rarest +and grandest of gifts, an intellectual courage and power of +imaginative belief which, when it has convinced itself of aught, +accepts it fully with all its consequences, and shrinks not from +acting at once upon it. A perilous gift, as the melancholy end of his +own career proved, for men were found less ready than he had thought +them to follow out with unswerving consistency like his the principles +which all acknowledged. But it was the very suddenness and boldness of +his policy that secured the ultimate triumph of his cause, awing men's +minds and making that seem realized which had been till then a vague +theory. His premises once admitted,--and no one dreamt of denying +them,--the reasonings by which he established the superiority of +spiritual to temporal jurisdiction were unassailable. With his +authority, in whose hands are the keys of heaven and hell, whose word +can bestow eternal bliss or plunge in everlasting misery, no other +earthly authority can compete or interfere: if his power extends into +the infinite, how much more must he be supreme over things finite? It +was thus that Gregory and his successors were wont to argue: the +wonder is, not that they were obeyed, but that they were not obeyed +more implicitly. In the second sentence of excommunication which +Gregory passed upon Henry the Fourth are these words:-- + +'Come now, I beseech you, O most holy and blessed Fathers and Princes, +Peter and Paul, that all the world may understand and know that if ye +are able to bind and to loose in heaven, ye are likewise able on +earth, according to the merits of each man, to give and to take away +empires, kingdoms, princedoms, marquisates, duchies, countships, and +the possessions of all men. For if ye judge spiritual things, what +must we believe to be your power over worldly things? and if ye judge +the angels who rule over all proud princes, what can ye not do to +their slaves?' + +[Sidenote: Results of the struggle.] + +Doctrines such as these do indeed strike equally at all temporal +governments, nor were the Innocents and Bonifaces of later days slow +to apply them so. On the Empire, however, the blow fell first and +heaviest. As when Alaric entered Rome, the spell of ages was broken, +Christendom saw her greatest and most venerable institution +dishonoured and helpless; allegiance was no longer undivided, for who +could presume to fix in each case the limits of the civil and +ecclesiastical jurisdictions? The potentates of Europe beheld in the +Papacy a force which, if dangerous to themselves, could be made to +repel the pretensions and baffle the designs of the strongest and +haughtiest among them. Italy learned how to meet the Teutonic +conqueror by gaining the papal sanction for the leagues of her cities. +The German princes, anxious to narrow the prerogative of their head, +were the natural allies of his enemy, whose spiritual thunders, more +terrible than their own lances, could enable them to depose an +aspiring monarch, or extort from him any concessions they desired. +Their altered tone is marked by the promise they required from Rudolf +of Swabia, whom they set up as a rival to Henry, that he would not +endeavour to make the throne hereditary. + +[Sidenote: Concordat of Worms, A.D. 1122.] + +It is not possible here to dwell on the details of the great struggle +of the Investitures, rich as it is in the interest of adventure and +character, momentous as were its results for the future. A word or two +must suffice to describe the conclusion, not indeed of the whole +drama, which was to extend over centuries, but of what may be called +its first act. Even that act lasted beyond the lives of the original +performers. Gregory the Seventh passed away at Salerno in A.D. 1087, +exclaiming with his last breath 'I have loved justice and hated +iniquity, therefore I die in exile.' Nineteen years later, in A.D. +1106, Henry IV died, dethroned by an unnatural son whom the hatred of +a relentless pontiff had raised in rebellion against him. But that +son, the emperor Henry the Fifth, so far from conceding the points in +dispute, proved an antagonist more ruthless and not less able than his +father. He claimed for his crown all the rights over ecclesiastics +that his predecessors had ever enjoyed, and when at his coronation in +Rome, A.D. 1112, Pope Paschal II refused to complete the rite until he +should have yielded, Henry seized both Pope and cardinals and +compelled them by a rigorous imprisonment to consent to a treaty which +he dictated. Once set free, the Pope, as was natural, disavowed his +extorted concessions, and the struggle was protracted for ten years +longer, until nearly half a century had elapsed from the first quarrel +between Gregory VII and Henry IV. The Concordat of Worms, concluded in +A.D. 1122, was in form a compromise, designed to spare either party +the humiliation of defeat. Yet the Papacy remained master of the +field. The Emperor retained but one-half of those rights of +investiture which had formerly been his. He could never resume the +position of Henry III; his wishes or intrigues might influence the +proceedings of a chapter, his oath bound him from open interference. +He had entered the strife in the fulness of dignity; he came out of it +with tarnished glory and shattered power. His wars had been hitherto +carried on with foreign foes, or at worst with a single rebel noble; +now his steadiest ally was turned into his fiercest assailant, and had +enlisted against him half his court, half the magnates of his realm. +At any moment his sceptre might be shivered in his hand by the bolt of +anathema, and a host of enemies spring up from every convent and +cathedral. + +[Sidenote: The Crusades.] + +Two other results of this great conflict ought not to pass unnoticed. +The Emperor was alienated from the Church at the most unfortunate of +all moments, the era of the Crusades. To conduct a great religious war +against the enemies of the faith, to head the church militant in her +carnal as the Popes were accustomed to do in her spiritual strife, +this was the very purpose for which an Emperor had been called into +being; and it was indeed in these wars, more particularly in the first +three of them, that the ideal of a Christian commonwealth which the +theory of the mediæval Empire proclaimed, was once for all and never +again realized by the combined action of the great nations of Europe. +Had such an opportunity fallen to the lot of Henry III, he might have +used it to win back a supremacy hardly inferior to that which had +belonged to the first Carolingians. But Henry IV's proscription +excluded him from all share in an enterprise which he must otherwise +have led--nay, more, committed it to the guidance of his foes. The +religious feeling which the Crusades evoked--a feeling which became +the origin of the great orders of chivalry, and somewhat later of the +two great orders of mendicant friars--turned wholly against the +opponent of ecclesiastical claims, and was made to work the will of +the Holy See, which had blessed and organized the project. A century +and a half later the Pope did not scruple to preach a crusade against +the Emperor himself. + +Again: it was now that the first seeds were sown of that fear and +hatred wherewith the German people never thenceforth ceased to regard +the encroaching Romish court. Branded by the Church and forsaken by +the nobles, Henry IV retained the affections of the faithful burghers +of Worms and Liege. It soon became the test of Teutonic patriotism to +resist Italian priestcraft. + +[Sidenote: Limitations of imperial prerogative.] + +[Sidenote: Lothar II, 1125-1138.] + +[Sidenote: Conrad III, 1138-1152.] + +The changes in the internal constitution of Germany which the long +anarchy of Henry IV's reign had produced are seen when the nature of +the prerogative as it stood at the accession of Conrad II, the first +Franconian Emperor, is compared with its state at Henry V's death. All +fiefs are now hereditary, and when vacant can be granted afresh only +by consent of the States; the jurisdiction of the crown is less wide; +the idea is beginning to make progress that the most essential part of +the Empire is not its supreme head but the commonwealth of princes and +barons. The greatest triumph of these feudal magnates is in the +establishment of the elective principle, which when confirmed by the +three free elections of Lothar II, Conrad III, and Frederick I, passes +into an undoubted law. The Prince-Electors are mentioned in A.D. 1156 +as a distinct and important body[179]. The clergy, too, whom the +policy of Otto the Great and Henry II had raised, are now not less +dangerous than the dukes, whose power it was hoped they would balance; +possibly more so, since protected by their sacred character and their +allegiance to the Pope, while able at the same time to command the +arms of their countless vassals. Nor were the two succeeding Emperors +the men to retrieve those disasters. The Saxon Lothar the Second is +the willing minion of the Pope; performs at his coronation a menial +service unknown before, and takes a more stringent oath to defend the +Holy See, that he may purchase its support against the Swabian faction +in his own dominions. Conrad the Third, the first Emperor of the great +house of Hohenstaufen[180], represents the anti-papal party; but +domestic troubles and an unfortunate crusade prevented him from +effecting anything in Italy. He never even entered Rome to receive the +crown. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[171] 'Roma per sedem Beati Petri caput orbis effecta.'--See note _i_, +p. 32. + +[172] 'Claves tibi _ad regnum_ dimisimus.'--Pope Stephen to Charles +Martel, in _Codex Carolinus_, ap. Muratori, _S. R. I._ iii. Some, +however, prefer to read 'ad rogum.' + +[173] _Corpus Iuris Canonici_, Dist. lxiii. c. 22. + +[174] Dist. lxiii. c. 30. This decree is, however, in all probability +spurious. + +[175] 'Nos elegimus merito et approbavimus una cum annisu et voto +patrum amplique senatus et gentis togatæ,' &c., ap. Baron. _Ann. +Eccl._, ad ann. 876. + +[176] 'Divina vos pietas B. principum apostolorum Petri et Pauli +interventione per vicarium ipsorum dominum Ioannem summum pontificem +... ad imperiale culmen S. Spiritus iudicio provexit.'--_Concil. +Ticinense_, in Mur., _S. R. I._ ii. + +[177] Strictly speaking, Henry was at this time only king of the +Romans: he was not crowned Emperor at Rome till 1084. + +[178] Letter of Gregory VII to William I, A.D. 1080. I quote from +Migne, t. cxlviii. p. 568. + +[179] 'Gradum statim post Principes Electores.'--Frederick I's +Privilege of Austria, in Pertz, _M. G. H._ legg. ii. + +[180] Hohenstaufen is a castle in what is now the kingdom of +Würtemberg, about four miles from the Göppingen station of the railway +from Stuttgart to Ulm. It stands, or rather stood, on the summit of a +steep and lofty conical hill, commanding a boundless view over the +great limestone plateau of the Rauhe Alp, the eastern declivities of +the Schwartzwald, and the bare and tedious plains of western Bavaria. +Of the castle itself, destroyed in the Peasants' War, there remain +only fragments of the wall-foundations: in a rude chapel lying on the +hill slope below are some strange half-obliterated frescoes; over the +arch of the door is inscribed 'Hic transibat Cæsar.' Frederick +Barbarossa had another famous palace at Kaiserslautern, a small town +in the Palatinate, on the railway from Mannheim to Treves, lying in a +wide valley at the western foot of the Hardt mountains. It was +destroyed by the French and a house of correction has been built upon +its site; but in a brewery hard by may be seen some of the huge +low-browed arches of its lower story. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE EMPERORS IN ITALY: FREDERICK BARBAROSSA. + + +[Sidenote: Frederick of Hohenstaufen, 1152-1189.] + +The reign of Frederick the First, better known under his Italian +surname Barbarossa, is the most brilliant in the annals of the Empire. +Its territory had been wider under Charles, its strength perhaps +greater under Henry the Third, but it never appeared in such pervading +vivid activity, never shone with such lustre of chivalry, as under the +prince whom his countrymen have taken to be one of their national +heroes, and who is still, as the half-mythic type of Teutonic +character, honoured by picture and statue, in song and in legend, +through the breadth of the German lands. The reverential fondness of +his annalists and the whole tenour of his life go far to justify this +admiration, and dispose us to believe that nobler motives were joined +with personal ambition in urging him to assert so haughtily and carry +out so harshly those imperial rights in which he had such unbounded +confidence. Under his guidance the Transalpine power made its greatest +effort to subdue the two antagonists which then threatened and were +fated in the end to destroy it--Italian nationality and the Papacy. + +[Sidenote: His relations to the Popedom.] + +Even before Gregory VII's time it might have been predicted that two +such potentates as the Emperor and the Pope, closely bound together, +yet each with pretensions wide and undefined, must ere long come into +collision. The boldness of that great pontiff in enforcing, the +unflinching firmness of his successors in maintaining, the supremacy +of clerical authority, inspired their supporters with a zeal and +courage which more than compensated the advantages of the Emperor in +defending rights he had long enjoyed. On both sides the hatred was +soon very bitter. But even had men's passions permitted a +reconciliation, it would have been found difficult to bring into +harmony adverse principles, each irresistible, mutually destructive. +As the spiritual power, in itself purer, since exercised over the soul +and directed to the highest of all ends, eternal felicity, was +entitled to the obedience of all, laymen as well as clergy; so the +spiritual person, to whom, according to the view then universally +accepted, there had been imparted by ordination a mysterious sanctity, +could not without sin be subject to the lay magistrate, be installed +by him in office, be judged in his court, and render to him any +compulsory service. Yet it was no less true that civil government was +indispensable to the peace and advancement of society; and while it +continued to subsist, another jurisdiction could not be suffered to +interfere with its workings, nor one-half of the people be altogether +removed from its control. Thus the Emperor and the Pope were forced +into hostility as champions of opposite systems, however fully each +might admit the strength of his adversary's position, however bitterly +he might bewail the violence of his own partisans. There had also +arisen other causes of quarrel, less respectable but not less +dangerous. The pontiff demanded and the monarch refused the lands +which the Countess Matilda of Tuscany had bequeathed to the Holy See; +Frederick claiming them as feudal suzerain, the Pope eager by their +means to carry out those schemes of temporal dominion which +Constantine's donation sanctioned, and Lothar's seeming renunciation +of the sovereignty of Rome had done much to encourage. As feudal +superior of the Norman kings of Naples and Sicily, as protector of the +towns and barons of North Italy who feared the German yoke, the +successor of Peter wore already the air of an independent potentate. + +[Sidenote: Contest with Hadrian IV.] + +No man was less likely than Frederick to submit to these +encroachments. He was a sort of imperialist Hildebrand, strenuously +proclaiming the immediate dependence of his office on God's gift, and +holding it every whit as sacred as his rival's. On his first journey +to Rome, he refused to hold the Pope's stirrup[181], as Lothar had +done, till Pope Hadrian the Fourth's threat that he would withhold the +crown enforced compliance. Complaints arising not long after on some +other ground, the Pope exhorted Frederick by letter to shew himself +worthy of the kindness of his mother the Roman Church, who had given +him the imperial crown, and would confer on him, if dutiful, benefits +still greater. This word benefits--_beneficia_--understood in its +usual legal sense of 'fief,' and taken in connection with the picture +which had been set up at Rome to commemorate Lothar's homage, provoked +angry shouts from the nobles assembled in diet at Besançon; and when +the legate answered, 'From whom, then, if not from our Lord the Pope, +does your king hold the Empire?' his life was not safe from their +fury. On this occasion Frederick's vigour and the remonstrances of the +Transalpine prelates obliged Hadrian to explain away the obnoxious +word, and remove the picture. Soon after the quarrel was renewed by +other causes, and came to centre itself round the Pope's demand that +Rome should be left entirely to his government. Frederick, in reply, +appeals to the civil law, and closes with the words, 'Since by the +ordination of God I both am called and am Emperor of the Romans, in +nothing but name shall I appear to be ruler if the control of the +Roman city be wrested from my hands.' That such a claim should need +assertion marks the change since Henry III; how much more that it +could not be enforced. Hadrian's tone rises into defiance; he mingles +the threat of excommunication with references to the time when the +Germans had not yet the Empire. 'What were the Franks till Zacharias +welcomed Pipin? What is the Teutonic king now till consecrated at Rome +by holy hands? The chair of Peter has given, and can withdraw its +gifts.' + +[Sidenote: With Pope Alexander III.] + +The schism that followed Hadrian's death produced a second and more +momentous conflict. Frederick, as head of Christendom, proposed to +summon the bishops of Europe to a general council, over which he +should preside, like Justinian or Heraclius. Quoting the favourite +text of the two swords, 'On earth,' he continues, 'God has placed no +more than two powers: above there is but one God, so here one Pope and +one Emperor. The Divine Providence has specially appointed the Roman +Empire as a remedy against continued schism[182].' The plan failed; +and Frederick adopted the candidate whom his own faction had chosen, +while the rival claimant, Alexander III, appealed, with a confidence +which the issue justified, to the support of sound churchmen +throughout Europe. The keen and long doubtful strife of twenty years +that followed, while apparently a dispute between rival Popes, was in +substance an effort by the secular monarch to recover his command of +the priesthood; not less truly so than that contemporaneous conflict +of the English Henry II and St. Thomas of Canterbury, with which it +was constantly involved. Unsupported, not all Alexander's genius and +resolution could have saved him: by the aid of the Lombard cities, +whose league he had counselled and hallowed, and of the fevers of +Rome, by which the conquering German host was suddenly annihilated, he +won a triumph the more signal, that it was over a prince so wise and +so pious as Frederick. At Venice, who, inaccessible by her position, +maintained a sedulous neutrality, claiming to be independent of the +Empire, yet seldom led into war by sympathy with the Popes, the two +powers whose strife had roused all Europe were induced to meet by the +mediation of the doge Sebastian Ziani. Three slabs of red marble in +the porch of St. Mark's point out the spot where Frederick knelt in +sudden awe, and the Pope with tears of joy raised him, and gave the +kiss of peace. A later legend, to which poetry and painting have given +an undeserved currency[183], tells how the pontiff set his foot on the +neck of the prostrate king, with the words, 'The lion and the dragon +shalt thou trample under feet[184].' It needed not this exaggeration +to enhance the significance of that scene, even more full of meaning +for the future than it was solemn and affecting to the Venetian crowd +that thronged the church and the piazza. For it was the renunciation +by the mightiest prince of his time of the project to which his life +had been devoted: it was the abandonment by the secular power of a +contest in which it had twice been vanquished, and which it could not +renew under more favourable conditions. + +[Sidenote: Revival of the study of the civil law.] + +Authority maintained so long against the successor of Peter would be +far from indulgent to rebellious subjects. For it was in this light +that the Lombard cities appeared to a monarch bent on reviving all the +rights his predecessors had enjoyed: nay, all that the law of ancient +Rome gave her absolute ruler. It would be wrong to speak of a +re-discovery of the civil law. That system had never perished from +Gaul and Italy, had been the groundwork of some codes, and the whole +substance, modified only by the changes in society, of many others. +The Church excepted, no agent did so much to keep alive the memory of +Roman institutions. The twelfth century now beheld the study +cultivated with a surprising increase of knowledge and ardour, +expended chiefly upon the Pandects. First in Italy and the schools of +the South, then in Paris and Oxford, they were expounded, commented +on, extolled as the perfection of human wisdom, the sole, true, and +eternal law. Vast as has been the labour and thought expended from +that time to this in the elucidation of the civil law, the most +competent authorities declare that in acuteness, in subtlety, in all +those branches of learning which can subsist without help from +historical criticism, these so-called Glossatores have been seldom +equalled and never surpassed by their successors. The teachers of the +canon law, who had not as yet become the rivals of the civilian, and +were accustomed to recur to his books where their own were silent, +spread through Europe the fame and influence of the Roman +jurisprudence; while its own professors were led both by their feeling +and their interest to give to all its maxims the greatest weight and +the fullest application. Men just emerging from barbarism, with minds +unaccustomed to create and blindly submissive to authority, viewed +written texts with an awe to us incomprehensible. All that the most +servile jurists of Rome had ever ascribed to their despotic princes +was directly transferred to the Cæsarean majesty who inherited their +name. He was 'Lord of the world,' absolute master of the lives and +property of all his subjects, that is, of all men; the sole fountain +of legislation, the embodiment of right and justice. These doctrines, +which the great Bolognese jurists, Bulgarus, Martinus, Hugolinus, and +others who constantly surrounded Frederick, taught and applied, as +matter of course, to a Teutonic, a feudal king, were by the rest of +the world not denied, were accepted in fervent faith by his German and +Italian partisans. 'To the Emperor belongs the protection of the whole +world,' says bishop Otto of Freysing. 'The Emperor is a living law +upon earth[185].' To Frederick, at Roncaglia, the archbishop of Milan +speaks for the assembled magnates of Lombardy: 'Do and ordain +whatsoever thou wilt, thy will is law; as it is written, "Quicquid +principi placuit legis habet vigorem, cum populus ei et in eum omne +suum imperium et potestatem concesserit[186]." The Hohenstaufen +himself was not slow to accept these magnificent ascriptions of +dignity, and though modestly professing his wish to govern according +to law rather than override the law, was doubtless roused by them to a +more vehement assertion of a prerogative so hallowed by age and by +what seemed a divine ordinance. + +[Sidenote: Frederick in Italy.] + +[Sidenote: Rome under Arnold of Brescia.] + +That assertion was most loudly called for in Italy. The Emperors might +appear to consider it a conquered country without privileges to be +respected, for they did not summon its princes to the German diets, +and overawed its own assemblies at Pavia or Roncaglia by the +Transalpine host that followed them. Its crown, too, was theirs +whenever they crossed the Alps to claim it, while the elections on the +banks of the Rhine might be adorned but could not be influenced by the +presence of barons from the southern kingdom[187]. In practice, +however, the imperial power stood lower in Italy than in Germany, for +it had been from the first intermittent, depending on the personal +vigour and present armed support of each invader. The theoretic +sovereignty of the Emperor-king was nowise disputed: in the cities +toll and tax were of right his: he could issue edicts at the Diet, and +require the tenants in chief to appear with their vassals. But the +revival of a control never exercised since Henry IV's time, was felt +as an intolerable hardship by the great Lombard cities, proud of +riches and population equal to that of the duchies of Germany or the +kingdoms of the North, and accustomed for more than a century to a +turbulent independence. For republicanism and popular freedom +Frederick had little sympathy. At Rome the fervent Arnold of Brescia +had repeated, but with far different thoughts and hopes, the part of +Crescentius[188]. The city had thrown off the yoke of its bishop, and +a commonwealth under consuls and senate professed to emulate the +spirit while it renewed the forms of the primitive republic. Its +leaders had written to Conrad III[189], asking him to help them to +restore the Empire to its position under Constantine and Justinian; +but the German, warned by St. Bernard, had preferred the friendship of +the Pope. Filled with a vain conceit of their own importance, they +repeated their offers to Frederick when he sought the crown from +Hadrian the Fourth. A deputation, after dwelling in highflown language +on the dignity of the Roman people, and their kindness in bestowing +the sceptre on him, a Swabian and a stranger, proceeded, in a manner +hardly consistent, to demand a largess ere he should enter the city. +Frederick's anger did not hear them to the end: 'Is this your Roman +wisdom? Who are ye that usurp the name of Roman dignities? Your +honours and your authority are yours no longer; with us are consuls, +senate, soldiers. It was not you who chose us, but Charles and Otto +that rescued you from the Greek and the Lombard, and conquered by +their own might the imperial crown. That Frankish might is still the +same: wrench, if you can, the club from Hercules. It is not for the +people to give laws to the prince, but to obey his mandate[190].' This +was Frederick's version of the 'Translation of the Empire[191].' + +[Sidenote: The Lombard Cities.] + +He who had been so stern to his own capital was not likely to deal +more gently with the rebels of Milan and Tortona. In the contest by +which Frederick is chiefly known to history, he is commonly painted as +the foreign tyrant, the forerunner of the Austrian oppressor[192], +crushing under the hoofs of his cavalry the home of freedom and +industry. Such a view is unjust to a great man and his cause. To the +despot liberty is always licence; yet Frederick was the advocate of +admitted claims; the aggressions of Milan threatened her neighbours; +the refusal, where no actual oppression was alleged, to admit his +officers and allow his regalian rights, seemed a wanton breach of +oaths and engagements, treason against God no less than himself[193]. +Nevertheless our sympathy must go with the cities, in whose victory we +recognize the triumph of freedom and civilization. Their resistance +was at first probably a mere aversion to unused control, and to the +enforcement of imposts less offensive in former days than now, and by +long dereliction apparently obsolete[194]. Republican principles were +not avowed, nor Italian nationality appealed to. But the progress of +the conflict developed new motives and feelings, and gave them clearer +notions of what they fought for. As the Emperor's antagonist, the Pope +was their natural ally: he blessed their arms, and called on the +barons of Romagna and Tuscany for aid; he made 'The Church' ere long +their watchword, and helped them to conclude that league of mutual +support by means whereof the party of the Italian Guelfs was formed. +Another cry, too, began to be heard, hardly less inspiriting than the +last, the cry of freedom and municipal self-government--freedom little +understood and terribly abused, self-government which the cities who +claimed it for themselves refused to their subject allies, yet both of +them, through their divine power of stimulating effort and quickening +sympathy, as much nobler than the harsh and sterile system of a feudal +monarchy as the citizen of republican Athens rose above the slavish +Asiatic or the brutal Macedonian. Nor was the fact that Italians were +resisting a Transalpine invader without its effect; there was as yet +no distinct national feeling, for half Lombardy, towns as well as +rural nobles, fought under Frederick; but events made the cause of +liberty always more clearly the cause of patriotism, and increased +that fear and hate of the Tedescan for which Italy has had such bitter +justification. + +[Sidenote: Temporary success of Frederick.] + +The Emperor was for a time successful: Tortona was taken, Milan razed +to the ground, her name apparently lost: greater obstacles had been +overcome, and a fuller authority was now exercised than in the days of +the Ottos or the Henrys. The glories of the first Frankish conqueror +were triumphantly recalled, and Frederick was compared by his admirers +to the hero whose canonization he had procured, and whom he strove in +all things to imitate[195]. 'He was esteemed,' says one, 'second only +to Charles in piety and justice.' 'We ordain this,' says a decree: 'Ut +ad Caroli imitationem ius ecclesiarum statum reipublicæ et legum +integritatem per totum imperium nostrum servaremus[196].' But the hold +the name of Charles had on the minds of the people, and the way in +which he had become, so to speak, an eponym of Empire, has better +witnesses than grave documents. A rhyming poet sings[197]:-- + + 'Quanta sit potentia vel laus Friderici + Cum sit patens omnibus, non est opus dici; + Qui rebelles lancea fodiens ultrici + Repræsentat Karolum dextera victrici.' + +The diet at Roncaglia was a chorus of gratulations over the +re-establishment of order by the destruction of the dens of unruly +burghers. + +[Sidenote: Victory of the Lombard league.] + +This fair sky was soon clouded. From her quenchless ashes uprose +Milan; Cremona, scorning old jealousies, helped to rebuild what she +had destroyed, and the confederates, committed to an all but hopeless +strife, clung faithfully together till on the field of Legnano the +Empire's banner went down before the carroccio[198] of the free city. +Times were changed since Aistulf and Desiderius trembled at the +distant tramp of the Frankish hosts. A new nation had arisen, slowly +reared through suffering into strength, now at last by heroic deeds +conscious of itself. The power of Charles had overleaped boundaries of +nature and language that were too strong for his successor, and that +grew henceforth ever firmer, till they made the Empire itself a +delusive name. Frederick, though harsh in war, and now balked of his +most cherished hopes, could honestly accept a state of things it was +beyond his power to change: he signed cheerfully and kept dutifully +the peace of Constance, which left him little but a titular supremacy +over the Lombard towns. + +[Sidenote: Frederick as German king.] + +At home no Emperor since Henry III had been so much respected and so +generally prosperous. Uniting in his person the Saxon and Swabian +families, he healed the long feud of Welf and Waiblingen: his prelates +were faithful to him, even against Rome: no turbulent rebel disturbed +the public peace. Germany was proud of a hero who maintained her +dignity so well abroad, and he crowned a glorious life with a happy +death, leading the van of Christian chivalry against the Mussulman. +Frederick, the greatest of the Crusaders, is the noblest type of +mediæval character in many of its shadows, in all its lights. + +[Sidenote: The German cities.] + +Legal in form, in practice sometimes almost absolute, the government +of Germany was, like that of other feudal kingdoms, restrained chiefly +by the difficulty of coercing refractory vassals. All depended on the +monarch's character, and one so vigorous and popular as Frederick +could generally lead the majority with him and terrify the rest. A +false impression of the real strength of his prerogative might be +formed from the readiness with which he was obeyed. He repaired the +finances of the kingdom, controlled the dukes, introduced a more +splendid ceremonial, endeavoured to exalt the central power by +multiplying the nobles of the second rank, afterwards the 'college of +princes,' and by trying to substitute the civil law and Lombard feudal +code for the old Teutonic customs, different in every province. If not +successful in this project, he fared better with another. Since Henry +the Fowler's day towns had been growing up through Southern and +Western Germany, especially where rivers offered facilities for trade. +Cologne, Treves, Mentz, Worms, Speyer, Nürnberg, Ulm, Regensburg, +Augsburg, were already considerable cities, not afraid to beard their +lord or their bishop, and promising before long to counterbalance the +power of the territorial oligarchy. Policy or instinct led Frederick +to attach them to the throne, enfranchising many, granting, with +municipal institutions, an independent jurisdiction, conferring +various exemptions and privileges; while receiving in turn their +good-will and loyal aid, in money always, in men when need should +come. His immediate successors trode in his steps, and thus there +arose in the state a third order, the firmest bulwark, had it been +rightly used, of imperial authority; an order whose members, the Free +Cities, were through many ages the centres of German intellect and +freedom, the only haven from the storms of civil war, the surest hope +of future peace and union. In them national congresses to this day +sometimes meet: from them aspiring spirits strive to diffuse those +ideas of Germanic unity and self-government, which they alone have +kept alive. Out of so many flourishing commonwealths, four[199] have +been spared by foreign conquerors and faithless princes. To the +primitive order of German freemen, scarcely existing out of the towns, +except in Swabia and Switzerland, Frederick further commended himself +by allowing them to be admitted to knighthood, by restraining the +licence of the nobles, imposing a public peace, making justice in +every way more accessible and impartial. To the south-west of the +green plain that girdles in the rock of Salzburg, the gigantic mass of +the Untersberg frowns over the road which winds up a long defile to +the glen and lake of Berchtesgaden. There, far up among its limestone +crags, in a spot scarcely accessible to human foot, the peasants of +the valley point out to the traveller the black mouth of a cavern, and +tell him that within Barbarossa lies amid his knights in an enchanted +sleep[200], waiting the hour when the ravens shall cease to hover +round the peak, and the pear-tree blossom in the valley, to descend +with his Crusaders and bring back to Germany the golden age of peace +and strength and unity. Often in the evil days that followed the fall +of Frederick's house, often when tyranny seemed unendurable and +anarchy endless, men thought on that cavern, and sighed for the day +when the long sleep of the just Emperor should be broken, and his +shield be hung aloft again as of old in the camp's midst, a sign of +help to the poor and the oppressed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[181] A great deal of importance seems to have been attached to this +symbolic act of courtesy. See Art. I of the Sachsenspiegel. + +[182] Letter to the German bishops in Radewic; Mur., _S. R. I._, t. +vi. p. 833. + +[183] A picture in the great hall of the ducal palace (the Sala del +Maggio Consiglio) represents the scene. See Rogers' Italy. + +[184] Psalm xci. + +[185] Document of 1230, quoted by Von Raumer, v. p. 81. + +[186] Speech of archbishop of Milan, in Radewic; Mur. vi. + +[187] Frederick's election (at Frankfort) was made 'non sine quibusdam +Italiæ baronibus.'--Otto Fris. i. But this was the exception. + +[188] See also _post_, Chapter XVI. + +[189] 'Senatus Populusque Romanus urbis et orbis totius domino +Conrado.' + +[190] Otto of Freysing. + +[191] Later in his reign, Frederick condescended to negotiate with +these Roman magistrates against a hostile Pope, and entered into a +sort of treaty by which they were declared exempt from all +jurisdiction but his own. + +[192] See the first note to Shelley's _Hellas_. Sismondi is mainly +answerable for this conception of Barbarossa's position. + +[193] They say rebelliously, says Frederick, 'Nolumus hunc regnare +super nos ... at nos maluimus honestam mortem quam ut,' &c.--Letter in +Pertz. _M. G. H._ legg. ii. + +[194] + + 'De tributo Cæsaris nemo cogitabat; + Omnes erant Cæsares, nemo censum dabat; + Civitas Ambrosii, velut Troia, stabat, + Deos parum, homines minus formidabat.' + +Poems relating to the Emperor Frederick of Hohenstaufen, published by +Grimm. + +[195] Charles the Great was canonized by Frederick's anti-pope and +confirmed afterwards. + +[196] _Acta Concil. Hartzhem._ iii., quoted by Von Raumer, ii. 6. + +[197] Poems relating to Frederick I, _ut supra_. + +[198] The carroccio was a waggon with a flagstaff planted on it, which +served the Lombards for a rallying-point in battle. + +[199] Lübeck, Hamburg, Bremen, and Frankfort. + +[Since this was first written Frankfort has been annexed by Prussia, +and her three surviving sisters have, by their entrance into the North +German confederation, lost something of their independence.] + +[200] The legend is one which appears under various forms in many +countries. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +IMPERIAL TITLES AND PRETENSIONS. + + +The era of the Hohenstaufen is perhaps the fittest point at which to +turn aside from the narrative history of the Empire to speak shortly +of the legal position which it professed to hold to the rest of +Europe, as well as of certain duties and observances which throw a +light upon the system it embodied. This is not indeed the era of its +greatest power: that was already past. Nor is it conspicuously the era +when its ideal dignity stood highest: for that remained scarcely +impaired till three centuries had passed away. But it was under the +Hohenstaufen, owing partly to the splendid abilities of the princes of +that famous line, partly to the suddenly-gained ascendancy of the +Roman law, that the actual power and the theoretical influence of the +Empire most fully coincided. There can therefore be no better +opportunity for noticing the titles and claims by which it announced +itself the representative of Rome's universal dominion, and for +collecting the various instances in which they were (either before or +after Frederick's time) more or less admitted by the other states of +Europe. + +The territories over which Barbarossa would have declared his +jurisdiction to extend may be classed under four heads:-- + +First, the German lands, in which, and in which alone, the Emperor +was, up till the death of Frederick the Second, effective sovereign. + +Second, the non-German districts of the Holy Empire, where the Emperor +was acknowledged as sole monarch, but in practice little regarded. + +Third, certain outlying countries, owing allegiance to the Empire, but +governed by kings of their own. + +Fourth, the other states of Europe, whose rulers, while in most cases +admitting the superior rank of the Emperor, were virtually independent +of him. + +[Sidenote: Limits of the Empire.] + +Thus within the actual boundaries of the Holy Empire were included +only districts coming under the first and second of the above classes, +i.e. Germany, the northern half of Italy, and the kingdom of Burgundy +or Arles--that is to say, Provence, Dauphiné, the Free County of +Burgundy (Franche Comté), and Western Switzerland. Lorraine, Alsace, +and a portion of Flanders were of course parts of Germany. To the +north-east, Bohemia and the Slavic principalities in Mecklenburg and +Pomerania were as yet not integral parts of its body, but rather +dependent outliers. Beyond the march of Brandenburg, from the Oder to +the Vistula, dwelt pagan Lithuanians or Prussians[201], free till the +establishment among them of the Teutonic knights. + +[Sidenote: Hungary.] + +Hungary had owed a doubtful allegiance since the days of Otto I. +Gregory VII had claimed it as a fief of the Holy See; Frederick wished +to reduce it completely to subjection, but could not overcome the +reluctance of his nobles. After Frederick II, by whom it was recovered +from the Mongol hordes, no imperial claims were made for so many years +that at last they became obsolete, and were confessed to be so by the +Constitution of Augsburg, A.D. 1566[202]. + +[Sidenote: Poland.] + +Under Duke Misico, Poland had submitted to Otto the Great, and +continued, with occasional revolts, to obey the Empire, till the +beginning of the Great Interregnum (as it is called) in 1254. Its duke +was present at the election of Richard, A.D. 1258. Thereafter +Primislas called himself king, in token of emancipation, and the +country became independent, though some of its provinces were long +afterwards reunited to the German state. Silesia, originally Polish, +was attached to Bohemia by Charles IV, and so became part of the +Empire; Posen and Galicia were seized by Prussia and Austria, A.D. +1772. Down to her partition in that year, the constitution of Poland +remained a copy of that which had existed in the German kingdom in the +twelfth century[203]. + +[Sidenote: Denmark.] + +Lewis the Pious had received the homage of the Danish king Harold, on +his baptism at Mentz, A.D. 826; Otto the Great's victories over Harold +Blue Tooth made the country regularly subject, and added the march of +Schleswig to the immediate territory of the Empire: but the boundary +soon receded to the Eyder, on whose banks might be seen the +inscription,-- + + 'Eidora Romani terminus imperii.' + +King Peter[204] attended at Frederick I's coronation, to do homage, +and receive from the Emperor, as suzerain, his own crown. Since the +Interregnum Denmark has been always free[205]. + +[Sidenote: France.] + +Otto the Great was the last Emperor whose suzerainty the French kings +had admitted; nor were Henry VI and Otto IV successful in their +attempts to enforce it. Boniface VIII, in his quarrel with Philip the +Fair, offered the French throne, which he had pronounced vacant, to +Albert I; but the wary Hapsburg declined the dangerous prize. The +precedence, however, which the Germans continued to assert, irritated +Gallic pride, and led to more than one contest. Blondel denies the +Empire any claim to the Roman name; and in A.D. 1648 the French envoys +at Münster refused for some time to admit what no other European state +disputed. Till recent times the title of the Archbishop of Treves, +'Archicancellarius per Galliam atque regnum Arelatense,' preserved the +memory of an obsolete supremacy which the constant aggressions of +France might seem to have reversed. + +[Sidenote: Sweden.] + +No reliance can be placed on the author who tells us that Sweden was +granted by Frederick I to Waldemar the Dane[206]; the fact is +improbable, and we do not hear that such pretensions were ever put +forth before or after. + +[Sidenote: Spain.] + +Nor does it appear that authority was ever exercised by any Emperor in +Spain. Nevertheless the choice of Alfonso X by a section of the German +electors, in A.D. 1258, may be construed to imply that the Spanish +kings were members of the Empire. And when, A.D. 1053, Ferdinand the +Great of Castile had, in the pride of his victories over the Moors, +assumed the title of 'Hispaniæ Imperator,' the remonstrance of Henry +III declared the rights of Rome over the Western provinces indelible, +and the Spaniard, though protesting his independence, was forced to +resign the usurped dignity[207]. + +[Sidenote: England.] + +No act of sovereignty is recorded to have been done by any of the +Emperors in England, though as heirs of Rome they might be thought to +have better rights over it than over Poland or Denmark[208]. There +was, however, a vague notion that the English, like other kingdoms, +must depend on the Empire: a notion which appears in Conrad III's +letter to John of Constantinople[209]; and which was countenanced by +the submissive tone in which Frederick I was addressed by the +Plantagenet Henry II[210]. English independence was still more +compromised in the next reign, when Richard I, according to Hoveden, +'Consilio matris suæ deposuit se de regno Angliæ et tradidit illud +imperatori (Henrico VIto) sicut universorum domino.' But as Richard +was at the same time invested with the kingdom of Arles by Henry VI, +his homage may have been for that fief only; and it was probably in +that capacity that he voted, as a prince of the Empire, at the +election of Frederick II. The case finds a parallel in the claims of +England over the Scottish king, doubtful, to say the least, as regards +the domestic realm of the latter, certain as regards Cumbria, which he +had long held from the Southern crown[211]. But Germany had no Edward +I. Henry VI is said at his death to have released Richard from his +submission (this too may be compared with Richard's release to the +Scottish William the Lion), and Edward II declared, 'regnum Angliæ ab +omni subiectione imperiali esse liberrimum[212].' Yet the idea +survived: the Emperor Lewis the Bavarian, when he named Edward III his +vicar in the great French war, demanded, though in vain, that the +English monarch should kiss his feet[213]. Sigismund[214], visiting +Henry V at London, before the meeting of the council of Constance, was +met by the Duke of Gloucester, who, riding into the water to the ship +where the Emperor sat, required him, at the sword's point, to declare +that he did not come purposing to infringe on the king's authority in +the realm of England[215]. One curious pretension of the imperial +crown called forth many protests. It was declared by civilians and +canonists that no public notary could have any standing, or attach any +legality to the documents he drew, unless he had received his diploma +from the Emperor or the Pope. A strenuous denial of a doctrine so +injurious was issued by the parliament of Scotland under James +III[216]. + +[Sidenote: Naples.] + +The kingdom of Naples and Sicily, although of course claimed as a part +of the Empire, was under the Norman dynasty (A.D. 1060-1189) not +merely independent, but the most dangerous enemy of the German power +in Italy. Henry VI, the son and successor of Barbarossa, obtained +possession of it by marrying Constantia the last heiress of the Norman +kings. But both he and Frederick II treated it as a separate +patrimonial state, instead of incorporating it with their more +northerly dominions. After the death of Conradin, the last of the +Hohenstaufen, it passed away to an Angevin, then to an Aragonese +dynasty, continuing under both to maintain itself independent of the +Empire, nor ever again, except under Charles V, united to the Germanic +crown. + +[Sidenote: Venice.] + +One spot in Italy there was whose singular felicity of situation +enabled her through long centuries of obscurity and weakness, slowly +ripening into strength, to maintain her freedom unstained by any +submission to the Frankish and Germanic Emperors. Venice glories in +deducing her origin from the fugitives who escaped from Aquileia in +the days of Attila: it is at least probable that her population never +received an intermixture of Teutonic settlers, and continued during +the ages of Lombard and Frankish rule in Italy to regard the Byzantine +sovereigns as the representatives of their ancient masters. In the +tenth century, when summoned to submit by Otto, they had said, 'We +wish to be the servants of the Emperors of the Romans' (the +Constantinopolitan), and though they overthrew this very Eastern +throne in A.D. 1204, the pretext had served its turn, and had aided +them in defying or evading the demands of obedience made by the +Teutonic princes. Alone of all the Italian republics, Venice never, +down to her extinction by France and Austria in A.D. 1796, recognized +within her walls any secular authority save her own. + +[Sidenote: The East.] + +The kings of Cyprus and Armenia sent to Henry VI to confess themselves +his vassals and ask his help. Over remote Eastern lands, where +Frankish foot had never trod, Frederick Barbarossa asserted the +indestructible rights of Rome, mistress of the world. A letter to +Saladin, amusing from its absolute identification of his own Empire +with that which had sent Crassus to perish in Parthia, and had blushed +to see Mark Antony 'consulum nostrum'[217] at the feet of Cleopatra, +is preserved by Hoveden: it bids the Soldan withdraw at once from the +dominions of Rome, else will she, with her new Teutonic defenders, of +whom a pompous list follows, drive him from them with all her ancient +might. + +[Sidenote: The Byzantine Emperors.] + +[Sidenote: Rivalry of the two Empires.] + +Unwilling as were the great kingdoms of Western Europe to admit the +territorial supremacy of the Emperor, the proudest among them never +refused, until the end of the Middle Ages, to recognize his precedence +and address him in a tone of respectful deference. Very different was +the attitude of the Byzantine princes, who denied his claim to be an +Emperor at all. The separate existence of the Eastern Church and +Empire was not only, as has been said above, a blemish in the title of +the Teutonic sovereigns; it was a continuing and successful protest +against the whole system of an Empire Church of Christendom, centering +in Rome, ruled by the successor of Peter and the successor of +Augustus. Instead of the one Pope and one Emperor whom mediæval theory +presented as the sole earthly representatives of the invisible head of +the Church, the world saw itself distracted by the interminable feud +of rivals, each of whom had much to allege on his behalf. It was easy +for the Latins to call the Easterns schismatics and their Emperor an +usurper, but practically it was impossible to dethrone him or reduce +them to obedience: while even in controversy no one could treat the +pretensions of communities who had been the first to embrace +Christianity and retained so many of its most ancient forms, with the +contempt which would have been felt for any Western sectaries. +Seriously, however, as the hostile position of the Greeks seems to us +to affect the claims of the Teutonic Empire, calling in question its +legitimacy and marring its pretended universality, those who lived at +the time seem to have troubled themselves little about it, finding +themselves in practice seldom confronted by the difficulties it +raised. The great mass of the people knew of the Greeks not even by +name; of those who did, the most thought of them only as perverse +rebels, Samaritans who refused to worship at Jerusalem, and were +little better than infidels. The few ecclesiastics of superior +knowledge and insight had their minds preoccupied by the established +theory, and accepted it with too intense a belief to suffer anything +else to come into collision with it: they do not seem to have even +apprehended all that was involved in this one defect. Nor, what is +still stranger, in all the attacks made upon the claims of the +Teutonic Empire, whether by its Papal or its French antagonists, do we +find the rival title of the Greek sovereigns adduced in argument +against it. Nevertheless, the Eastern Church was then, as she is to +this day, a thorn in the side of the Papacy; and the Eastern Emperors, +so far from uniting for the good of Christendom with their Western +brethren, felt towards them a bitter though not unnatural jealousy, +lost no opportunity of intriguing for their evil, and never ceased to +deny their right to the imperial name. The coronation of Charles was +in their eyes an act of unholy rebellion; his successors were +barbarian intruders, ignorant of the laws and usages of the ancient +state, and with no claim to the Roman name except that which the +favour of an insolent pontiff might confer. The Greeks had themselves +long since ceased to use the Latin tongue, and were indeed become more +than half Orientals in character and manners. But they still continued +to call themselves Romans, and preserved most of the titles and +ceremonies which had existed in the time of Constantine or Justinian. +They were weak, although by no means so weak as modern historians have +been till lately wont to paint them, and the weaker they grew the +higher rose their conceit, and the more did they plume themselves upon +the uninterrupted legitimacy of their crown, and the ceremonial +splendour wherewith custom had surrounded its wearer. It gratified +their spite to pervert insultingly the titles of the Frankish princes. +Basil the Macedonian reproached Lewis II with presuming to use the +name of 'Basileus,' to which Lewis retorted that he was as good an +emperor as Basil himself, but that, anyhow, _Basileus_ was only the +Greek for _rex_, and need not mean 'Emperor' at all. Nicephorus would +not call Otto I anything but 'King of the Lombards[218],' Conrad III +was addressed by Calo-Johannes as 'amice imperii mei Rex[219];' Isaac +Angelus had the impudence to style Frederick I 'chief prince of +Alemannia[220].' The great Emperor, half-resentful, half-contemptuous, +told the envoys that he was 'Romanorum imperator,' and bade their +master call himself 'Romaniorum' from his Thracian province. Though +these ebullitions were the most conclusive proof of their weakness, +the Byzantine rulers sometimes planned the recovery of their former +capital, and seemed not unlikely to succeed under the leadership of +the conquering Manuel Comnenus. He invited Alexander III, then in the +heat of his strife with Frederick, to return to the embrace of his +rightful sovereign, but the prudent pontiff and his synod courteously +declined[221]. The Greeks were, however, too unstable and too much +alienated from Latin feeling to have held Rome, could they even have +seduced her allegiance. A few years later they were themselves the +victims of the French and Venetian crusaders. + +[Sidenote: Dignities and titles.] + +[Sidenote: The four crowns.] + +Though Otto the Great and his successors had dropped all titles save +their highest (the tedious lists of imperial dignities were happily +not yet in being), they did not therefore endeavour to unite their +several kingdoms, but continued to go through four distinct +coronations at the four capitals of their Empire[222]. These are +concisely given in the verses of Godfrey of Viterbo, a notary of +Frederick's household[223]:-- + + 'Primus Aquisgrani locus est, post hæc Arelati, + Inde Modoetiæ regali sede locari + Post solet Italiæ summa corona dari: + Cæsar Romano cum vult diademate fungi + Debet apostolicis manibus reverenter inungi.' + +By the crowning at Aachen, the old Frankish capital, the monarch +became 'king;' formerly 'king of the Franks,' or, 'king of the Eastern +Franks;' now, since Henry II's time, 'king of the Romans, always +Augustus.' At Monza, (or, more rarely, at Milan) in later times, at +Pavia in earlier times, he became king of Italy, or of the +Lombards[224]; at Rome he received the double crown of the Roman +Empire, 'double,' says Godfrey, as 'urbis et orbis:'-- + + 'Hoc quicunque tenet, summus in orbe sedet;' + +though others hold that, uniting the mitre to the crown, it typifies +spiritual as well as secular authority. The crown of Burgundy[225] or +the kingdom of Arles, first gained by Conrad II, was a much less +splendid matter, and carried with it little effective power. Most +Emperors never assumed it at all, Frederick I not till late in life, +when an interval of leisure left him nothing better to do. These four +crowns[226] furnish matter of endless discussion to the old writers; +they tell us that the Roman was golden, the German silver, the Italian +iron, the metal corresponding to the dignity of each realm[227]. +Others say that that of Aachen is iron, and the Italian silver, and +give elaborate reasons why it should be so[228]. There seems to be no +doubt that the allegory created the fact, and that all three crowns +were of gold, though in that of Italy there was and is inserted a +piece of iron, a nail, it was believed, of the true Cross. + +[Sidenote: Meaning of the four coronations.] + +Why, it may well be asked, seeing that the Roman crown made the +Emperor ruler of the whole habitable globe, was it thought necessary +for him to add to it minor dignities which might be supposed to have +been already included in it? The reason seems to be that the imperial +office was conceived of as something different in kind from the regal, +and as carrying with it not the immediate government of any particular +kingdom, but a general suzerainty over and right of controlling all. +Of this a pertinent illustration is afforded by an anecdote told of +Frederick Barbarossa. Happening once to inquire of the famous jurists +who surrounded him whether it was really true that he was 'lord of the +world,' one of them simply assented, another, Bulgarus, answered, 'Not +as respects ownership.' In this dictum, which is evidently conformable +to the philosophical theory of the Empire, we have a pointed +distinction drawn between feudal sovereignty, which supposes the +prince original owner of the soil of his whole kingdom, and imperial +sovereignty, which is irrespective of place, and exercised not over +things but over men, as God's rational creatures. But the Emperor, as +has been said already, was also the East Frankish king, uniting in +himself, to use the legal phrase, two wholly distinct 'persons,' and +hence he might acquire more direct and practically useful rights over +a portion of his dominions by being crowned king of that portion, just +as a feudal monarch was often duke or count of lordships whereof he +was already feudal superior; or, to take a better illustration, just +as a bishop may hold livings in his own diocese. That the Emperors, +while continuing to be crowned at Milan and Aachen, did not call +themselves kings of the Lombards and of the Franks, was probably +merely because these titles seemed insignificant compared to that of +Roman Emperor. + +[Sidenote: 'Emperor' not assumed till the Roman coronation.] + +[Sidenote: Origin and results of this practice.] + +In this supreme title, as has been said, all lesser honours were blent +and lost, but custom or prejudice forbade the German king to assume it +till actually crowned at Rome by the Pope[229]. Matters of phrase and +title are never unimportant, least of all in an age ignorant and +superstitiously antiquarian: and this restriction had the most +important consequences. The first barbarian kings had been +tribe-chiefs; and when they claimed a dominion which was universal, +yet in a sense territorial, they could not separate their title from +the spot which it was their boast to possess, and by virtue of whose +name they ruled. 'Rome,' says the biographer of St. Adalbert, 'seeing +that she both is and is called the head of the world and the mistress +of cities, is alone able to give to kings imperial power, and since +she cherishes in her bosom the body of the Prince of the Apostles, she +ought of right to appoint the Prince of the whole earth[230].' The +crown was therefore too sacred to be conferred by any one but the +supreme Pontiff, or in any city less august than the ancient capital. +Had it become hereditary in any family, Lothar I's, for instance, or +Otto's, this feeling might have worn off; as it was, each successive +transfer, to Guido, to Otto, to Henry II, to Conrad the Salic, +strengthened it. The force of custom, tradition, precedent, is +incalculable when checked neither by written rules nor free +discussion. What sheer assertion will do is shewn by the success of a +forgery so gross as the Isidorian decretals. No arguments are needed +to discredit the alleged decree of Pope Benedict VIII[231], which +prohibited the German prince from taking the name or office of Emperor +till approved and consecrated by the pontiff, but a doctrine so +favourable to papal pretensions was sure not to want advocacy; Hadrian +IV proclaims it in the broadest terms, and through the efforts of the +clergy and the spell of reverence in the Teutonic princes, it passed +into an unquestioned belief. That none ventured to use the title till +the Pope conferred it, made it seem in some manner to depend on his +will, enabled him to exact conditions from every candidate, and gave a +colour to his pretended suzerainty. Since by feudal theory every +honour and estate is held from some superior, and since the divine +commission has been without doubt issued directly to the Pope, must +not the whole earth be his fief, and he the lord paramount, to whom +even the Emperor is a vassal? This argument, which derived +considerable plausibility from the rivalry between the Emperor and +other monarchs, as compared with the universal and undisputed[232] +authority of the Pope, was a favourite with the high sacerdotal party: +first distinctly advanced by Hadrian IV, when he set up the +picture[233] representing Lothar's homage, which had so irritated the +followers of Barbarossa, though it had already been hinted at in +Gregory VII's gift of the crown to Rudolf of Suabia, with the line,-- + + 'Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rudolfo.' + +Nor was it only by putting him at the pontiff's mercy that this +dependence of the imperial name on a coronation in the city injured +the German sovereign[234]. With strange inconsistency it was not +pretended that the Emperor's rights were any narrower before he +received the rite: he could summon synods, confirm papal elections, +exercise jurisdiction over the citizens: his claim of the crown itself +could not, at least till the times of the Gregorys and the Innocents, +be positively denied. For no one thought of contesting the right of +the German nation to the Empire, or the authority of the electoral +princes, strangers though they were, to give Rome and Italy a master. +The republican followers of Arnold of Brescia might murmur, but they +could not dispute the truth of the proud lines in which the poet who +sang the glories of Barbarossa[235], describes the result of the +conquest of Charles the Great:-- + + 'Ex quo Romanum nostra virtute redemptum + Hostibus expulsis, ad nos iustissimus ordo + Transtulit imperium, Romani gloria regni + Nos penes est. Quemcunque sibi Germania regem + Præficit, hunc dives summisso vertice Roma + Suscipit, et verso Tiberim regit ordine Rhenus.' + +But the real strength of the Teutonic kingdom was wasted in the +pursuit of a glittering toy: once in his reign each Emperor undertook +a long and dangerous expedition, and dissipated in an inglorious and +ever to be repeated strife the forces that might have achieved +conquest elsewhere, or made him feared and obeyed at home. + +[Sidenote: The title 'Holy Empire.'] + +At this epoch appears another title, of which more must be said. To +the accustomed 'Roman Empire' Frederick Barbarossa adds the epithet of +'Holy.' Of its earlier origin, under Conrad II (the Salic), which some +have supposed[236], there is no documentary trace, though there is +also no proof to the contrary[237]. So far as is known it occurs first +in the famous Privilege of Austria, granted by Frederick in the fourth +year of his reign, the second of his empire, 'terram Austriæ quæ +clypeus et cor sacri imperii esse dinoscitur[238]:' then afterwards, +in other manifestos of his reign; for example, in a letter to Isaac +Angelus of Byzantium[239], and in the summons to the princes to help +him against Milan: 'Quia ... urbis et orbis gubernacula tenemus ... +sacro imperio et divæ reipublicæ consulere debemus[240];' where the +second phrase is a synonym explanatory of the first. Used occasionally +by Henry VI and Frederick II, it is more frequent under their +successors, William, Richard, Rudolf, till after Charles IV's time it +becomes habitual, for the last few centuries indispensable. Regarding +the origin of so singular a title many theories have been advanced. +Some declared it a perpetuation of the court style of Rome and +Byzantium, which attached sanctity to the person of the monarch: thus +David Blondel, contending for the honour of France, calls it a mere +epithet of the Emperor, applied by confusion to his government[241]. +Others saw in it a religious meaning, referring to Daniel's prophecy, +or to the fact that the Empire was contemporary with Christianity, or +to Christ's birth under it[242]. Strong churchmen derived it from the +dependence of the imperial crown on the Pope. There were not wanting +persons to maintain that it meant nothing more than great or splendid. +We need not, however, be in any great doubt as to its true meaning and +purport. The ascription of sacredness to the person, the palace, the +letters, and so forth, of the sovereign, so common in the later ages +of Rome, had been partly retained in the German court. Liudprand calls +Otto 'imperator sanctissimus[243].' Still this sanctity, which the +Greeks above all others lavished on their princes, is something +personal, is nothing more than the divinity that always hedges a king. +Far more intimate and peculiar was the relation of the revived Roman +Empire to the church and religion. As has been said already, it was +neither more nor less than the visible Church, seen on its secular +side, the Christian society organized as a state under a form divinely +appointed, and therefore the name 'Holy Roman Empire' was the needful +and rightful counterpart to that of 'Holy Catholic Church.' Such had +long been the belief, and so the title might have had its origin as +far back as the tenth or ninth century, might even have emanated from +Charles himself. Alcuin in one of his letters uses the phrase +'imperium Christianum.' But there was a further reason for its +introduction at this particular epoch. Ever since Hildebrand had +claimed for the priesthood exclusive sanctity and supreme +jurisdiction, the papal party had not ceased to speak of the civil +power as being, compared with that of their own chief, merely secular, +earthly, profane. It may be conjectured that to meet this reproach, no +less injurious than insulting, Frederick or his advisers began to use +in public documents the expression 'Holy Empire;' thereby wishing to +assert the divine institution and religious duties of the office he +held. Previous Emperors had called themselves 'Catholici,' +'Christiani,' 'ecclesiæ defensores[244];' now their State itself is +consecrated an earthly theocracy. 'Deus Romanum imperium adversus +schisma ecclesiæ præparavit[245],' writes Frederick to the English +Henry II. The theory was one which the best and greatest Emperors, +Charles, Otto the Great, Henry III, had most striven to carry out; it +continued to be zealously upheld when it had long ceased to be +practicable. In the proclamations of mediæval kings there is a +constant dwelling on their Divine commission. Power in an age of +violence sought to justify while it enforced its commands, to make +brute force less brutal by appeals to a higher sanction. This is seen +nowhere more than in the style of the German sovereigns: they delight +in the phrases 'maiestas sacrosancta[246],' 'imperator divina +ordinante providentia,' 'divina pietate,' 'per misericordiam Dei;' +many of which were preserved till, like those used now by other +European kings, like our own 'Defender of the Faith,' they had become +at last more grotesque than solemn. The Emperor Joseph II, at the end +of the eighteenth century, was 'Advocate of the Christian Church,' +'Vicar of Christ,' 'Imperial head of the faithful,' 'Leader of the +Christian army,' 'Protector of Palestine, of general councils, of the +Catholic faith[247].' + +The title, if it added little to the power, yet certainly seems to +have increased the dignity of the Empire, and by consequence the +jealousy of other states, of France especially. This did not, however, +go so far as to prevent its recognition by the Pope and the French +king[248], and after the sixteenth century it would have been a breach +of diplomatic courtesy to omit it. Nor have imitators been +wanting[249]: witness such titles as 'Most Christian king,' 'Catholic +king,' 'Defender of the Faith[250].' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[201] 'Pruzzi,' says the biographer of St. Adalbert, 'quorum Deus est +venter et avaritia iuncta cum morte.'--_M. G. H._ t. iv. + +It is curious that this non-Teutonic people should have given their +name to the great German kingdom of the present. + +[202] Conring, _De Finibus Imperii_. It is hardly necessary to observe +that the connection of Hungary with the Hapsburgs is of comparatively +recent origin, and of a purely dynastic nature. The position of the +archdukes of Austria as kings of Hungary had nothing to do legally +with the fact that many of them were also chosen Emperors, although +practically their possession of the imperial crown had greatly aided +them in grasping and retaining the thrones of Hungary and Bohemia. + +[203] Cf. Pfeffel, _Abrégé Chronologique_. + +[204] Letter of Frederick I to Otto of Freising, prefixed to the +latter's History. This king is also called Sweyn. + +[205] See Appendix, Note B. + +[206] Albertus Stadensis apud Conringium, _De Finibus Imperii_. + +[207] There is an allusion to this in the poems of the Cid. Arthur +Duck, _De Usu et Authoritate Iuris Civilis_, quotes the view of some +among the older jurists, that Spain having been, as far as the Romans +were concerned, a _res derelicta_, recovered by the Spaniards +themselves from the Moors, and thus acquired by _occupatio_, ought not +to be subject to the Emperors. + +[208] One of the greatest of English kings appears performing an act +of courtesy to the Emperor which was probably construed into an +acknowledgment of his own inferior position. Describing the Roman +coronation of the Emperor Conrad II, Wippo (c. 16) tells us 'His ita +peractis in duorum regum præsentia Ruodolfi regis Burgundiæ et +Chnutonis regis Anglorum divino officio finito imperator duorum regum +medius ad cubiculum suum honorifice ductus est.' + +[209] Letter in Otto Fris. i.: 'Nobis submittuntur Francia et +Hispania, Anglia et Dania.' + +[210] Letter in Radewic says, 'Regnum nostrum vobis exponimus.... +Vobis imperandi cedat auctoritas, nobis non deerit voluntas +obsequendi.' + +[211] The alleged instances of homage by the Scots to the Saxon and +early Norman kings are almost all complicated in some such way. They +had once held also the earldom of Huntingdon from the English crown, +and some have supposed (but on no sufficient grounds) that homage was +also done by them for Lothian. + +[212] Selden, _Titles of Honour_, part i. chap. ii. + +[213] Edward refused upon the ground that he was '_rex inunctus_.' + +[214] Sigismund had shortly before given great offence in France by +dubbing knights. + +[215] Sigismund answered, 'Nihil se contra superioritatem regis +prætexere.' + +[216] Selden, _Titles of Honour_, part i. chap. ii. Nevertheless, +notaries in Scotland, as elsewhere, continued for a long time to style +themselves 'Ego M. auctoritate imperiali (or papali) notarius.' + +[217] It is not necessary to prove this letter to have been the +composition of Frederick or his ministers. If it be (as it doubtless +is) contemporary, it is equally to the purpose as an evidence of the +feelings and ideas of the age. As a reviewer of a former edition of +this book has questioned its authenticity, I may mention that it is to +be found not only in Hoveden, but also in the 'Itinerarium regis +Ricardi,' in Ralph de Diceto, and in the 'Chronicon Terrae Sanctae.' +[See Mr. Stubbs' edition of Hoveden, vol. ii. p. 356.] + +[218] Liutprand, _Legatio Constantinopolitana_. Nicephorus says, 'Vis +maius scandalum quam quod se imperatorem vocat.' + +[219] Otto of Freising, i. + +[220] 'Isaachius a Deo constitutus Imperator, sacratissimus, +excellentissimus, potentissimus, moderator Romanorum, Angelus totius +orbis, heres coronæ magni Constantini, dilecto fratri imperii sui, +maximo principi Alemanniæ.' A remarkable speech of Frederick's to the +envoys of Isaac, who had addressed a letter to him as 'Rex Alemaniæ' +is preserved by Ansbert (_Historia de Expeditione Friderici +Imperatoris_):--'Dominus Imperator divina se illustrante gratia +ulterius dissimulare non valens temerarium fastum regis (_sc._ +Græcorum) et usurpantem vocabulum falsi imperatoris Romanorum, hæc +inter cætera exorsus est:--"Omnibus qui sanæ mentis sunt constat, quia +unus est Monarchus Imperator Romanorum, sicut et unus est pater +universitatis, pontifex videlicet Romanus; ideoque cum ego Romani +imperii sceptrum plusquam per annos XXX absque omnium regum vel +principum contradictione tranquille tenuerim et in Romana urbe a summo +pontifice imperiali benedictione unctus sim et sublimatus, quia +denique Monarchiam prædecessores mei imperatores Romanorum plusquam +per CCCC annos etiam gloriose transmiserint, utpote a Constantinopolitana +urbe ad pristinam sedem imperii, caput orbis Romam, acclamatione +Romanorum et principum imperii, auctoritate quoque summi pontificis et +S. catholicæ ecclesiæ translatam, propter tardum et infructuosum +Constantinopolitani imperatoris auxilium contra tyrannos ecclesiæ, +mirandum est admodum cur frater meus dominus vester Constantinopolitanus +imperator usurpet inefficax sibi idem vocabulum et glorietur stulte +alieno sibi prorsus honore, cum liquido noverit me et nomine dici et +re esse Fridericum Romanorum imperatorem semper Augustum."' + +Isaac was so far moved by Frederick's indignation that in his next +letter he addressed him as 'generosissimum imperatorem Alemaniæ,' and +in a third thus:-- + +'Isaakius in Christo fidelis divinitus coronatus, sublimis, potens, +excelsus, hæres coronæ magni Constantini et Moderator Romeon Angelus +nobilissimo Imperatori antiquæ Romæ, regi Alemaniæ et dilecto fratri +imperii sui, salutem,' &c., &c. (Ansbert, _ut supra_.) + +[221] Baronius, ad ann. + +[222] See Appendix, Note C. + +[223] Godefr. Viterb., _Pantheon_, in Mur., _S. R. I._, tom. vii. + +[224] Dönniges, _Deutsches Staatsrecht_, thinks that the crown of +Italy, neglected by the Ottos, and taken by Henry II, was a +recognition of the separate nationality of Italy. But Otto I seems to +have been crowned king of Italy, and Muratori (_Ant. It._ Dissert. +iii.) believes that Otto II and Otto III were likewise. + +[225] See Appendix, note A. + +[226] Some add a fifth crown, of Germany (making that of Aachen +Frankish), which they say belonged to Regensburg--Marquardus Freherus. + +[227] 'Dy erste ist tho Aken: dar kronet men mit der Yseren Krone, so +is he Konig over alle Dudesche Ryke. Dy andere tho Meylan, de is +Sulvern, so is he Here der Walen. Dy drüdde is tho Rome; dy is guldin, +so is he Keyser over alle dy Werlt.'--Gloss to the _Sachsenspiegel_, +quoted by Pfeffinger. Similarly Peter de Andlo. + +[228] Cf. Gewoldus, _De Septemviratu imperii Romani_. One would expect +some ingenious allegorizer to have discovered that the crown of +Burgundy must be, and therefore is, of copper or bronze, making the +series complete, like the four ages of men in Hesiod. But I have not +been able to find any such. + +[229] Hence the numbers attached to the names of the Emperors are +often different in German and Italian writers, the latter not +reckoning Henry the Fowler nor Conrad I. So Henry III (of Germany) +calls himself 'Imperator Henricus Secundus;' and all distinguish the +years of their _regnum_ from those of the _imperium_. Cardinal +Baronius will not call Henry V anything but Henry III, not recognizing +Henry IV's coronation, because it was performed by an antipope. + +[230] Life of S. Adalbert (written at Rome early in the eleventh +century, probably by a brother of the monastery of SS. Boniface and +Alexius) in Pertz, _M. G. H._ iv. + +[231] Given by Glaber Rudolphus. It is on the face of it a most +impudent forgery: 'Ne quisquam audacter Romani Imperii sceptrum +præpostere gestare princeps appetat neve Imperator dici aut esse +valeat nisi quem Papa Romanus morum probitate aptum elegerit, eique +commiserit insigne imperiale.' + +[232] Universal and undisputed in the West, which, for practical +purposes, meant the world. The denial of the supreme jurisdiction of +Peter's chair by the eastern churches affected very slightly the +belief of Latin Christendom, just as the existence of a rival emperor +at Constantinople with at least as good a legal title as the Teutonic +Cæsar, was readily forgotten or ignored by the German and Italian +subjects of the latter. + +[233] Odious especially for the inscription,-- + + 'Rex venit ante fores nullo prius urbis honore; + Post homo fit Papæ, sumit quo dante coronam.'--Radewic. + +[234] Mediæval history is full of instances of the superstitious +veneration attached to the rite of coronation (made by the Church +almost a sacrament), and to the special places where, or even utensils +with which it was performed. Everyone knows the importance in France +of Rheims and its sacred _ampulla_; so the Scottish king must be +crowned at Scone, an old seat of Pictish royalty--Robert Bruce risked +a great deal to receive his crown there; so no Hungarian coronation +was valid unless made with the crown of St. Stephen; the possession +whereof is still accounted so valuable by the Austrian court. + +Great importance seems to have been attached to the imperial globe +(Reichsapfel) which the Pope delivered to the Emperor at his +coronation. + +[235] Whether the poem which passes under the name of Gunther +Ligurinus be his work or that of some scholar in a later age is for +the present purpose indifferent. + +[236] Zedler, _Universal Lexicon_, s. v. _Reich_. + +[237] It does not occur before Frederick I's time in any of the +documents printed by Pertz; and this is the date which Boeclerus also +assigns in his treatise, _De Sacro Imperio Romano_, vindicating the +terms 'sacrum' and 'Romanum' against the aspersions of Blondel. + +[238] Pertz, _M. G. H._, tom. iv. (legum ii.) + +[239] Ibid. iv. + +[240] Radewic. _ap._ Pertz. + +[241] Blondellus adv. Chiffletium. Most of these theories are stated +by Boeclerus. Jordanes (_Chronica_) says, 'Sacri imperii quod non est +dubium sancti Spiritus ordinatione, secundum qualitatem ipsam et +exigentiam meritorum humanorum disponi.' + +[242] Marquard Freher's notes to Peter de Andlo, book i. chap. vii. + +[243] So in the song on the capture of the Emperor Lewis II by +Adalgisus of Benevento, we find the words, 'Ludhuicum comprenderunt +sancto, pio, Augusto.' (Quoted by Gregorovius, _Geschichte der Stadt +Rom im Mittelalter_, iii. p. 185.) + +[244] Goldast, _Constitutiones_. + +[245] Pertz, _M. G. H._, legg. ii. + +[246] 'Apostolic majesty' was the proper title of the king of Hungary. +The Austrian court has recently revived it. + +[247] Moser, _Römische Kayser_. + +[248] Urban IV used the title in 1259: Francis I (of France) calls the +Empire 'sacrosanctum.' + +[249] Cf. 'Holy Russia.' + +[250] It is almost superfluous to observe that the beginning of the +title 'Holy' has nothing to do with the beginning of the Empire +itself. Essentially and substantially, the Holy Roman Empire was, as +has been shewn already, the creation of Charles the Great. Looking at +it more technically, as the monarchy, not of the whole West, like that +of Charles, but of Germany and Italy, with a claim, which was never +more than a claim, to universal sovereignty, its beginning is fixed by +most of the German writers, whose practice has been followed in the +text, at the coronation of Otto the Great. But the title was at least +one, and probably two centuries later. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +FALL OF THE HOHENSTAUFEN. + + +In the three preceding chapters the Holy Empire has been described in +what is not only the most brilliant but the most momentous period of +its history; the period of its rivalry with the Popedom for the chief +place in Christendom. For it was mainly through their relations with +the spiritual power, by their friendship and protection at first, no +less than by their subsequent hostility, that the Teutonic Emperors +influenced the development of European politics. The reform of the +Roman Church which went on during the reigns of Otto I and his +successors down to Henry III, and which was chiefly due to the efforts +of those monarchs, was the true beginning of the grand period of the +Middle Ages, the first of that long series of movements, changes, and +creations in the ecclesiastical system of Europe which was, so to +speak, the master current of history, secular as well as religious, +during the centuries which followed. The first result of Henry III's +purification of the Papacy was seen in Hildebrand's attempt to subject +all jurisdiction to that of his own chair, and in the long struggle of +the Investitures, which brought out into clear light the opposing +pretensions of the temporal and spiritual powers. Although destined in +the end to bear far other fruit, the immediate effect of this struggle +was to evoke in all classes an intense religious feeling; and, in +opening up new fields of ambition to the hierarchy, to stimulate +wonderfully their power of political organization. It was this impulse +that gave birth to the Crusades, and that enabled the Popes, stepping +forth as the rightful leaders of a religious war, to bend it to serve +their own ends: it was thus too that they struck the alliance--strange +as such an alliance seems now--with the rebellious cities of Lombardy, +and proclaimed themselves the protectors of municipal freedom. But the +third and crowning triumph of the Holy See was reserved for the +thirteenth century. In the foundation of the two great orders of +ecclesiastical knighthood, the all-powerful all-pervading Dominicans +and Franciscans, the religious fervour of the Middle Ages culminated: +in the overthrow of the only power which could pretend to vie with her +in antiquity, in sanctity, in universality, the Papacy saw herself +exalted to rule alone over the kings of the earth. Of that overthrow, +following with terrible suddenness on the days of strength and glory +which we have just been witnessing, this chapter has now to speak. + +[Sidenote: Henry VI, 1190-1197.] + +[Sidenote: Philip, 1198-1208.] + +[Sidenote: Innocent III and Otto IV.] + +[Sidenote: Otto IV, 1208 (1198)-1212.] + +It happened strangely enough that just while their ruin was preparing, +the house of Swabia gained over their ecclesiastical foes what seemed +likely to prove an advantage of the first moment. The son and +successor of Barbarossa was Henry VI, a man who had inherited all his +father's harshness with none of his father's generosity. By his +marriage with Constance, the heiress of the Norman kings, he had +become master of Naples and Sicily. Emboldened by the possession of +what had been hitherto the stronghold of his predecessors' bitterest +enemies, and able to threaten the Pope from south as well as north, +Henry conceived a scheme which might have wonderfully changed the +history of Germany and Italy. He proposed to the Teutonic magnates to +lighten their burdens by uniting these newly-acquired countries to the +Empire, to turn their feudal lands into allodial, and to make no +further demands for money on the clergy, on condition that they should +pronounce the crown hereditary in his family. Results of the highest +importance would have followed this change, which Henry advocated by +setting forth the perils of interregna, and which he doubtless meant +to be but part of an entirely new system of polity. Already so strong +in Germany, and with an absolute command of their new kingdom, the +Hohenstaufen might have dispensed with the renounced feudal services, +and built up a firm centralized system, like that which was already +beginning to develope itself in France. First, however, the Saxon +princes, then some ecclesiastics headed by Conrad of Mentz, opposed +the scheme; the pontiff retracted his consent, and Henry had to +content himself with getting his infant son Frederick the Second +chosen king of the Romans. On Henry's untimely death the election was +set aside, and the contest which followed between Otto of Brunswick +and Philip of Hohenstaufen, brother of Henry the Sixth, gave the +Popedom, now guided by the genius of Innocent the Third, an +opportunity of extending its sway at the expense of its antagonist. +The Pope moved heaven and earth on behalf of Otto, whose family had +been the constant rivals of the Hohenstaufen, and who was himself +willing to promise all that Innocent required; but Philip's personal +merits and the vast possessions of his house gave him while he lived +the ascendancy in Germany. His death by the hand of an assassin, while +it seemed to vindicate the Pope's choice, left the Swabian party +without a head, and the Papal nominee was soon recognized over the +whole Empire. But Otto IV became less submissive as he felt his throne +more secure. If he was a Guelf by birth, his acts in Italy, whither he +had gone to receive the imperial crown, were those of a Ghibeline, +anxious to reclaim the rights he had but just forsworn. The Roman +Church at last deposed and excommunicated her ungrateful son, and +Innocent rejoiced in a second successful assertion of pontifical +supremacy, when Otto was dethroned by the youthful Frederick the +Second, whom a tragic irony sent into the field of politics as the +champion of the Holy See, whose hatred was to embitter his life and +extinguish his house. + +[Sidenote: Frederick the Second, 1212-1250.] + +Upon the events of that terrific strife, for which Emperor and Pope +girded themselves up for the last time, the narrative of Frederick the +Second's career, with its romantic adventures, its sad picture of +marvellous powers lost on an age not ripe for them, blasted as by a +curse in the moment of victory, it is not necessary, were it even +possible, here to enlarge. That conflict did indeed determine the +fortunes of the German kingdom no less than of the republics of Italy, +but it was upon Italian ground that it was fought out and it is to +Italian history that its details belong. So too of Frederick himself. +Out of the long array of the Germanic successors of Charles, he is, +with Otto III, the only one who comes before us with a genius and a +frame of character that are not those of a Northern or a Teuton[251]. +There dwelt in him, it is true, all the energy and knightly valour of +his father Henry and his grandfather Barbarossa. But along with these, +and changing their direction, were other gifts, inherited perhaps from +his Italian mother and fostered by his education among the +orange-groves of Palermo--a love of luxury and beauty, an intellect +refined, subtle, philosophical. Through the mist of calumny and fable +it is but dimly that the truth of the man can be discerned, and the +outlines that appear serve to quicken rather than appease the +curiosity with which we regard one of the most extraordinary +personages in history. A sensualist, yet also a warrior and a +politician; a profound lawgiver and an impassioned poet; in his youth +fired by crusading fervour, in later life persecuting heretics while +himself accused of blasphemy and unbelief; of winning manners and +ardently beloved by his followers, but with the stain of more than one +cruel deed upon his name, he was the marvel of his own generation, and +succeeding ages looked back with awe, not unmingled with pity, upon +the inscrutable figure of the last Emperor who had braved all the +terrors of the Church and died beneath her ban, the last who had ruled +from the sands of the ocean to the shores of the Sicilian sea. But +while they pitied they condemned. The undying hatred of the Papacy +threw round his memory a lurid light; him and him alone of all the +imperial line, Dante, the worshipper of the Empire, must perforce +deliver to the flames of hell[252]. + +[Sidenote: Struggle of Frederick with the Papacy.] + +Placed as the Empire was, it was scarcely possible for its head not to +be involved in war with the constantly aggressive Popedom--aggressive +in her claims of territorial dominion in Italy as well as of +ecclesiastical jurisdiction throughout the world. But it was +Frederick's peculiar misfortune to have given the Popes a hold over +him which they well knew how to use. In a moment of youthful +enthusiasm he had taken the cross from the hands of an eloquent monk, +and his delay to fulfil the vow was branded as impious neglect. +Excommunicated by Gregory IX for not going to Palestine, he went, and +was excommunicated for going: having concluded an advantageous peace, +he sailed for Italy, and was a third time excommunicated for +returning. To Pope Gregory he was at last after a fashion reconciled, +but with the accession of Innocent IV the flame burst out afresh. Upon +the special pretexts which kindled the strife it is not worth while to +descant: the real causes were always the same, and could only be +removed by the submission of one or other combatant. Chief among them +was Frederick's possession of Sicily. Now were seen the fruits which +Barbarossa had stored up for his house when he gained for Henry his +son the hand of the Norman heiress. Naples and Sicily had been for +some two hundred years recognized as a fief of the Holy See, and the +Pope, who felt himself in danger while encircled by the powers of his +rival, was determined to use his advantage to the full and make it the +means of extinguishing imperial authority throughout Italy. But +although the struggle was far more of a territorial and political one +than that of the previous century had been, it reopened every former +source of strife, and passed into a contest between the civil and the +spiritual potentate. The old war-cries of Henry and Hildebrand, of +Barbarossa and Alexander, roused again the unquenchable hatred of +Italian factions: the pontiff asserted the transference of the Empire +as a fief, and declared that the power of Peter, symbolized by the two +keys, was temporal as well as spiritual: the Emperor appealed to law, +to the indelible rights of Cæsar; and denounced his foe as the +antichrist of the New Testament, since it was God's second vicar whom +he was resisting. The one scoffed at anathema, upbraided the avarice +of the Church, and treated her soldiery, the friars, with a severity +not seldom ferocious. The other solemnly deposed a rebellious and +heretical prince, offered the imperial crown to Robert of France, to +the heir of Denmark, to Haco the Norse king; succeeded at last in +raising up rivals in Henry of Thuringia and William of Holland. Yet +throughout it is less the Teutonic Emperor who is attacked than the +Sicilian king, the unbeliever and friend of Mohammedans, the +hereditary enemy of the Church, the assailant of Lombard independence, +whose success must leave the Papacy defenceless. And as it was from +the Sicilian kingdom that the strife chiefly arose, so was the +possession of the Sicilian kingdom a source rather of weakness than of +strength, for it distracted Frederick's forces and put him in the +false position of a liegeman resisting his lawful suzerain. Truly, as +the Greek proverb says, the gifts of foes are no gifts, and bring no +profit with them. The Norman kings were more terrible in their death +than in their life: they had sometimes baffled the Teutonic Emperor; +their heritage destroyed him. + +[Sidenote: Conrad IV, 1250-1254.] + +With Frederick fell the Empire. From the ruin that overwhelmed the +greatest of its houses it emerged, living indeed, and destined to a +long life, but so shattered, crippled, and degraded, that it could +never more be to Europe and to Germany what it once had been. In the +last act of the tragedy were joined the enemy who had now blighted its +strength and the rival who was destined to insult its weakness and at +last blot out its name. The murder of Frederick's grandson Conradin--a +hero whose youth and whose chivalry might have moved the pity of any +other foe--was approved, if not suggested, by Pope Clement; it was +done by the minions of Charles of France. + +[Sidenote: Italy lost to the Empire.] + +The Lombard league had successfully resisted Frederick's armies and +the more dangerous Ghibeline nobles: their strong walls and swarming +population made defeats in the open field hardly felt; and now that +South Italy too had passed away from a German line--first to an +Angevin, afterwards to an Aragonese dynasty--it was plain that the +peninsula was irretrievably lost to the Emperors. Why, however, should +they not still be strong beyond the Alps? was their position worse +than that of England when Normandy and Aquitaine no longer obeyed a +Plantagenet? The force that had enabled them to rule so widely would +be all the greater in a narrower sphere. + +[Sidenote: Decline of imperial power in Germany.] + +[Sidenote: The Great Interregnum] + +[Sidenote: Double election, of Richard of England and Alfonso of +Castile.] + +[Sidenote: State of Germany during the Interregnum.] + +[Sidenote: Rudolf of Hapsburg, 1272-1292.] + +So indeed it might once have been, but now it was too late. The German +kingdom broke down beneath the weight of the Roman Empire. To be +universal sovereign Germany had sacrificed her own political +existence. The necessity which their projects in Italy and disputes +with the Pope laid the Emperors under of purchasing by concessions the +support of their own princes, the ease with which in their absence the +magnates could usurp, the difficulty which the monarch returning found +in resuming the privileges of his crown, the temptation to revolt and +set up pretenders to the throne which the Holy See held out, these +were the causes whose steady action laid the foundation of that +territorial independence which rose into a stable fabric at the era of +the Great Interregnum[253]. Frederick II had by two Pragmatic +Sanctions, A.D. 1220 and 1232, granted, or rather confirmed, rights +already customary, such as to give the bishops and nobles legal +sovereignty in their own towns and territories, except when the +Emperor should be present; and thus his direct jurisdiction became +restricted to his narrowed domain, and to the cities immediately +dependent on the crown. With so much less to do, an Emperor became +altogether a less necessary personage; and hence the seven magnates of +the realm, now by law or custom sole electors, were in no haste to +fill up the place of Conrad IV, whom the supporters of his father +Frederick had acknowledged. William of Holland was in the field, but +rejected by the Swabian party: on his death a new election was called +for, and at last set on foot. The archbishop of Cologne advised his +brethren to choose some one rich enough to support the dignity, not +strong enough to be feared by the electors: both requisites met in the +Plantagenet Richard, earl of Cornwall, brother of the English Henry +III. He received three, eventually four votes, came to Germany, and +was crowned at Aachen. But three of the electors, finding that his +bribe to them was lower than to the others, seceded in disgust, and +chose Alfonso X of Castile[254], who, shrewder than his competitor, +continued to watch the stars at Toledo, enjoying the splendours of his +title while troubling himself about it no further than to issue now +and then a proclamation. Meantime the condition of Germany was +frightful. The new Didius Julianus, the chosen of princes baser than +the prætorians whom they copied, had neither the character nor the +outward power and resources to make himself respected. Every floodgate +of anarchy was opened: prelates and barons extended their domains by +war: robber-knights infested the highways and the rivers: the misery +of the weak, the tyranny and violence of the strong, were such as had +not been seen for centuries. Things were even worse than under the +Saxon and Franconian Emperors; for the petty nobles who had then been +in some measure controlled by their dukes were now, after the +extinction of the great houses, left without any feudal superior. Only +in the cities was shelter or peace to be found. Those of the Rhine had +already leagued themselves for mutual defence, and maintained a +struggle in the interests of commerce and order against universal +brigandage. At last, when Richard had been some time dead, it was felt +that such things could not go on for ever: with no public law, and no +courts of justice, an Emperor, the embodiment of legal government, was +the only resource. The Pope himself, having now sufficiently improved +the weakness of his enemy, found the disorganization of Germany +beginning to tell upon his revenues, and threatened that if the +electors did not appoint an Emperor, he would. Thus urged, they chose, +in A.D. 1272, Rudolf, count of Hapsburg, founder of the house of +Austria[255]. + +[Sidenote: Change in the position of the Empire.] + +From this point there begins a new era. We have seen the Roman Empire +revived in A.D. 800, by a prince whose vast dominions gave ground to +his claim of universal monarchy; again erected, in A.D. 962, on the +narrower but firmer basis of the German kingdom. We have seen Otto the +Great and his successors during the three following centuries, a line +of monarchs of unrivalled vigour and abilities, strain every nerve to +make good the pretensions of their office against the rebels in Italy +and the ecclesiastical power. Those efforts had now failed signally +and hopelessly. Each successive Emperor had entered the strife with +resources scantier than his predecessors, each had been more +decisively vanquished by the Pope, the cities, and the princes. The +Roman Empire might, and, so far as its practical utility was +concerned, ought now to have been suffered to expire; nor could it +have ended more gloriously than with the last of the Hohenstaufen. +That it did not so expire, but lived on six hundred years more, till +it became a piece of antiquarianism hardly more venerable than +ridiculous--till, as Voltaire said, all that could be said about it +was that it was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire--was owing +partly indeed to the belief, still unshaken, that it was a necessary +part of the world's order, yet chiefly to its connection, which was by +this time indissoluble, with the German kingdom. The Germans had +confounded the two characters of their sovereign so long, and had +grown so fond of the style and pretensions of a dignity whose +possession appeared to exalt them above the other peoples of Europe, +that it was now too late for them to separate the local from the +universal monarch. If a German king was to be maintained at all, he +must be Roman Emperor; and a German king there must still be. Deeply, +nay, mortally wounded as the event proved his power to have been by +the disasters of the Empire to which it had been linked, the time was +by no means come for its extinction. In the unsettled state of +society, and the conflict of innumerable petty potentates, no force +save feudalism was able to hold society together; and its efficacy for +that purpose depended, as the anarchy of the recent interregnum +shewed, upon the presence of the recognized feudal head. + +[Sidenote: Decline of the regal power in Germany as compared with +France and England.] + +That head, however, was no longer what he had been. The relative +position of Germany and France was now exactly the reverse of that +which they had occupied two centuries earlier. Rudolf was as +conspicuously a weaker sovereign than Philip III of France, as the +Franconian Emperor Henry III had been stronger than the Capetian +Philip I. In every other state of Europe the tendency of events had +been to centralize the administration and increase the power of the +monarch, even in England not to diminish it: in Germany alone had +political union become weaker, and the independence of the princes +more confirmed. The causes of this change are not far to seek. They +all resolve themselves into this one, that the German king attempted +too much at once. The rulers of France, where manners were less rude +than in the other Transalpine lands, and where the Third Estate rose +into power more quickly, had reduced one by one the great feudataries +by whom the first Capetians had been scarcely recognized. The English +kings had annexed Wales, Cumbria, and part of Ireland, had obtained a +prerogative great if not uncontrolled, and exercised no doubtful sway +through every corner of their country. Both had won their successes by +the concentration on that single object of their whole personal +activity, and by the skilful use of every device whereby their feudal +rights, personal, judicial, and legislative, could be applied to +fetter the vassal. Meantime the German monarch, whose utmost efforts +it would have needed to tame his fierce barons and maintain order +through wide territories occupied by races unlike in dialect and +customs, had been struggling with the Lombard cities and the Normans +of South Italy, and had been for full two centuries the object of the +unrelenting enmity of the Roman pontiff. And in this latter contest, +by which more than by any other the fate of the Empire was decided, he +fought under disadvantages far greater than his brethren in England +and France. William the Conqueror had defied Hildebrand, William Rufus +had resisted Anselm; but the Emperors Henry the Fourth and Barbarossa +had to cope with prelates who were Hildebrand and Anselm in one; the +spiritual heads of Christendom as well as the primates of their +special realm, the Empire. And thus, while the ecclesiastics of +Germany were a body more formidable from their possessions than those +of any other European country, and enjoying far larger privileges, the +Emperor could not, or could with far less effect, win them over by +invoking against the Pope that national feeling which made the cry of +Gallican liberties so welcome even to the clergy of France. + +[Sidenote: Relations of the Papacy and the Empire.] + +After repeated defeats, each more crushing than the last, the imperial +power, so far from being able to look down on the papal, could not +even maintain itself on an equal footing. Against no pontiff since +Gregory VII had the monarch's right to name or confirm a pope, +undisputed in the days of the Ottos and of Henry III, been made good. +It was the turn of the Emperor to repel a similar claim of the Holy +See to the function of reviewing his own election, examining into his +merits, and rejecting him if unsound, that is to say, impatient of +priestly tyranny. A letter of Innocent III, who was the first to make +this demand in terms, was inserted by Gregory IX in his digest of the +Canon Law, the inexhaustible armoury of the churchman, and continued +to be quoted thence by every canonist till the end of the sixteenth +century[256]. It was not difficult to find grounds on which to base +such a doctrine. Gregory VII deduced it with characteristic boldness +from the power of the keys, and the superiority over all other +dignities which must needs appertain to the Pope as arbiter of eternal +weal or woe. Others took their stand on the analogy of clerical +ordination, and urged that since the Pope in consecrating the Emperor +gave him a title to the obedience of all Christian men, he must have +himself the right of approving or rejecting the candidate according to +his merits. Others again, appealing to the Old Testament, shewed how +Samuel discarded Saul and anointed David in his room, and argued that +the Pope now must have powers at least equal to those of the Hebrew +prophets. But the ascendancy of the doctrine dates from the time of +Pope Innocent III, whose ingenuity discovered for it an historical +basis. It was by the favour of the Pope, he declared, that the Empire +was taken away from the Greeks and given to the Germans in the person +of Charles[257], and the authority which Leo then exercised as God's +representative must abide thenceforth and for ever in his successors, +who can therefore at any time recall the gift, and bestow it on a +person or a nation more worthy than its present holders. This is the +famous theory of the Translation of the Empire, which plays so large a +part in controversy down till the seventeenth century[258], a theory +with plausibility enough to make it generally successful, yet one +which to an impartial eye appears far removed from the truth of the +facts[259]. Leo III did not suppose, any more than did Charles +himself, that it was by his sole pontifical authority that the crown +was given to the Frank; nor do we find such a notion put forward by +any of his successors down to the twelfth century. Gregory VII in +particular, in a remarkable letter dilating on his prerogative, +appeals to the substitution by papal interference of Pipin for the +last Merovingian king, and even goes back to cite the case of +Theodosius humbling himself before St. Ambrose, but says never a word +about this 'translatio,' excellently as it would have served his +purpose. + +Sound or unsound, however, these arguments did their work, for they +were urged skilfully and boldly, and none denied that it was by the +Pope alone that the crown could be lawfully imposed[260]. In some +instances the rights claimed were actually made good. Thus Innocent +III withstood Philip and overthrew Otto IV; thus another haughty +priest commanded the electors to choose the Landgrave of Thuringia +(A.D. 1246), and was by some of them obeyed; thus Gregory X compelled +the recognition of Rudolf. The further pretensions of the Popes to the +vicariate of the Empire during interregna the Germans never +admitted[261]. Still their place was now generally felt to be higher +than that of the monarch, and their control over the three spiritual +electors and the whole body of the clergy was far more effective than +his. A spark of national feeling was at length kindled by the +exactions and shameless subservience to France of the papal court at +Avignon[262]; and the infant democracy of industry and intelligence +represented by the cities and by the English Franciscan Occam, +supported Lewis IV in his conflict with John XXII, till even the +princes who had risen by the help of the Pope were obliged to oppose +him. The same sentiment dictated the reforms of Constance, but the +imperial power which might have floated onwards and higher on the +turning tide of popular opinion lacked men equal to the occasion: the +Hapsburg Frederick the Third, timid and superstitious, abased himself +before the Romish court, and his house has generally adhered to the +alliance then struck. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[251] I quote from the Liber Augustalis printed among Petrarch's works +the following curious description of Frederick: 'Fuit armorum +strenuus, linguarum peritus, rigorosus, luxuriosus, epicurus, nihil +curans vel credens nisi temporale: fuit malleus Romanae ecclesiae.' + +As Otto III had been called 'mirabilia mundi,' so Frederick II is +often spoken of in his own time as 'stupor mundi Fridericus.' + +[252] 'Quà entro è lo secondo Federico.'--_Inferno_, canto x. + +[253] The interregnum is by some reckoned as the two years before +Richard's election; by others, as the whole period from the death of +Frederick II or that of his son Conrad IV till Rudolf's accession in +1273. + +[254] Surnamed, from his scientific tastes, 'the Wise.' + +[255] Hapsburg is a castle in the Aargau on the banks of the Aar, and +near the line of railway from Olten to Zürich, from a point on which a +glimpse of it may be had. 'Within the ancient walls of Vindonissa,' +says Gibbon, 'the castle of Hapsburg, the abbey of Königsfeld, and the +town of Bruck have successively arisen. The philosophic traveller may +compare the monuments of Roman conquests, of feudal or Austrian +tyranny, of monkish superstition, and of industrious freedom. If he be +truly a philosopher, he will applaud the merit and happiness of his +own time.' + +[256] _Corpus Iuris Canonici_, Decr. Greg. i. 6, cap. 34, +_Venerabilem_: 'Ius et authoritas examinandi personam electam in regem +et promovendam ad imperium, ad nos spectat, qui eum inungimus, +consecramus, et coronamus.' + +[257] 'Illis principibus,' writes Innocent, 'ius et potestatem +eligendi regem [Romanorum] in imperatorem postmodum promovendum +recognoscimus, ad quos de iure ac antiqua consuetudine noscitur +pertinere, præsertim quum ad eos ius et potestas huiusmodi ab +apostolica sede pervenerit, quæ Romanum imperium in persona magnifici +Caroli a Græcis transtulit in Germanos.'--Decr. Greg. i. 6, cap. 34, +_Venerabilem_. + +[258] Its influence, however, as Döllinger (_Das Kaiserthum Karls des +Grossen und seiner Nachfolger_) remarks, first became great when this +letter, some forty or fifty years after Innocent wrote it, was +inserted in the digest of the canon law. + +[259] Vid. supra, pp. 52-58. + +[260] Upon this so-called 'Translation of the Empire,' many books +remain to us: many more have probably perished. A good although far +from impartial summary of the controversy may be found in Vagedes, _De +Ludibriis Aulæ Romanæ in transferendo Imperio Romano_. + +[261] 'Vacante imperio Romano, cum in illo ad sæcularem iudicem +nequeat haberi recursus, ad summum pontificem, cui in persona B. Petri +terreni simul et cœlestis imperii iura Deus ipse commisit, imperii +prædicti iurisdictio regimen et dispositio devolvitur.'--Bull _Si +fratrum_ (of John XXI, in A.D. 1316), in _Bullar. Rom._ So again: +'Attendentes quod Imperii Romani regimen cura et administratio tempore +quo illud vacare contingit ad nos pertinet, sicut dignoscitur +pertinere.' So Boniface VIII, refusing to recognize Albert I, because +he was ugly and one-eyed ('est homo monoculus et vultu sordido, non +potest esse Imperator'), and had taken a wife from the serpent brood +of Frederick II ('de sanguine viperali Friderici'), declared himself +Vicar of the Empire, and assumed the crown and sword of Constantine. + +[262] Avignon was not yet in the territory of France: it lay within +the bounds of the kingdom of Arles. But the French power was nearer +than that of the Emperor; and pontiffs many of them French by +extraction sympathized, as was natural, with princes of their own +race. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE GERMANIC CONSTITUTION: THE SEVEN ELECTORS. + + +[Sidenote: Territorial Sovereignty of the Princes.] + +[Sidenote: Adolf, 1292-1298.] + +[Sidenote: Albert I, 1298-1308.] + +[Sidenote: Henry VII, 1308-1314.] + +[Sidenote: Lewis IV, 1314-1347.] + +The reign of Frederick the Second was not less fatal to the domestic +power of the German king than to the European supremacy of the +Emperor. His two Pragmatic Sanctions had conferred rights that made +the feudal aristocracy almost independent, and the long anarchy of the +Interregnum had enabled them not only to use but to extend and fortify +their power. Rudolf of Hapsburg had striven, not wholly in vain, to +coerce their insolence, but the contest between his son Albert and +Adolf of Nassau which followed his death, the short and troubled reign +of Albert himself, the absence of Henry the Seventh in Italy, the +civil war of Lewis of Bavaria and Frederick duke of Austria, rival +claimants of the imperial throne, the difficulties in which Lewis, the +successful competitor, found himself involved with the Pope--all these +circumstances tended more and more to narrow the influence of the +crown and complete the emancipation of the turbulent nobles. They now +became virtually supreme in their own domains, enjoying full +jurisdiction, certain appeals excepted, the right of legislation, +privileges of coining money, of levying tolls and taxes: some were +without even a feudal bond to remind them of their allegiance. The +numbers of the immediate nobility--those who held directly of the +crown--had increased prodigiously by the extinction of the dukedoms of +Saxony, Franconia, and Swabia: along the Rhine the lord of a single +tower was usually a sovereign prince. The petty tyrants whose boast it +was that they owed fealty only to God and the Emperor, shewed +themselves in practice equally regardless of both powers. Pre-eminent +were the three great houses of Austria, Bavaria, and Luxemburg, this +last having acquired Bohemia, A.D. 1309; next came the electors, +already considered collectively more important than the Emperor, and +forming for themselves the first considerable principalities. +Brandenburg and the Rhenish Palatinate are strong independent states +before the end of this period: Bohemia and the three archbishoprics +almost from its beginning. + +[Sidenote: Policy of the Emperors.] + +The chief object of the magnates was to keep the monarch in his +present state of helplessness. Till the expenses which the crown +entailed were found ruinous to its wearer, their practice was to +confer it on some petty prince, such as were Rudolf and Adolf of +Nassau and Gunther of Schwartzburg, seeking when they could to keep it +from settling in one family. They bound the newly-elected to respect +all their present immunities, including those which they had just +extorted as the price of their votes; they checked all his attempts to +recover lost lands or rights: they ventured at last to depose their +anointed head, Wenzel of Bohemia. Thus fettered, the Emperor sought +only to make the most of his short tenure, using his position to +aggrandize his family and raise money by the sale of crown estates and +privileges. His individual action and personal relation to the subject +was replaced by a merely legal and formal one: he represented order +and legitimate ownership, and so far was still necessary to the +political system. But progresses through the country were abandoned: +unlike his predecessors, who had resigned their patrimony when they +assumed the sceptre, he lived mostly in his own states, often without +the Empire's bounds. Frederick III never entered it for twenty-seven +years. + +[Sidenote: Power of the cities.] + +[Sidenote: Financial distress.] + +How thoroughly the national character of the office was gone is shewn +by the repeated attempts to bestow it on foreign potentates, who could +not fill the place of a German king of the good old vigorous type. Not +to speak of Richard and Alfonso, Charles of Valois was proposed +against Henry VII, Edward III of England actually elected against +Charles IV (his parliament forbade him to accept), George Podiebrad, +king of Bohemia, against Frederick III. Sigismund was virtually a +Hungarian king. The Emperor's only hope would have been in the support +of the cities. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries they had +increased wonderfully in population, wealth, and boldness: the +Hanseatic confederacy was the mightiest power of the North, and cowed +the Scandinavian kings: the towns of Swabia and the Rhine formed great +commercial leagues, maintained regular wars against the +counter-associations of the nobility, and seemed at one time, by an +alliance with the Swiss, on the point of turning West Germany into a +federation of free municipalities. Feudalism, however, was still too +strong; the cavalry of the nobles was irresistible in the field, and +the thoughtless Wenzel let slip a golden opportunity of repairing the +losses of two centuries. After all, the Empire was perhaps past +redemption, for one fatal ailment paralyzed all its efforts. The +Empire was poor. The crown lands, which had suffered heavily under +Frederick II, were further usurped during the confusion that followed; +till at last, through the reckless prodigality of sovereigns who +sought only their immediate interest, little was left of the vast and +fertile domains along the Rhine from which the Saxon and Franconian +Emperors had drawn the chief part of their revenue. Regalian rights, +the second fiscal resource, had fared no better--tolls, customs, +mines, rights of coining, of harbouring Jews, and so forth, were +either seized or granted away: even the advowsons of churches had been +sold or mortgaged; and the imperial treasury depended mainly on an +inglorious traffic in honours and exemptions. Things were so bad under +Rudolf that the electors refused to make his son Albert king of the +Romans, declaring that, while Rudolf lived, the public revenue which +with difficulty supported one monarch, could much less maintain two at +the same time[263]. Sigismund told his Diet, 'Nihil esse imperio +spoliatius, nihil egentius, adeo ut qui sibi ex Germaniæ principibus +successurus esset, qui præter patrimonium nihil aliud habuerit, apud +eum non imperium sed potius servitium sit futurum[264].' Patritius, +the secretary of Frederick III, declared that the revenues of the +Empire scarcely covered the expenses of its ambassadors[265]. Poverty +such as these expressions point to, a poverty which became greater +after each election, not only involved the failure of the attempts +which were sometimes made to recover usurped rights[266], but put +every project of reform within or war without at the mercy of a +jealous Diet. The three orders of which that Diet consisted, electors, +princes, and cities, were mutually hostile, and by consequence +selfish; their niggardly grants did no more than keep the Empire from +dying of inanition. + +[Sidenote: Charles IV (A.D. 1347-1378), and his electoral +constitution.] + +The changes thus briefly described were in progress when Charles the +Fourth, king of Bohemia, son of that blind king John of Bohemia who +fell at Cressy, and grandson of the Emperor Henry VII, was chosen to +ascend the throne. His skilful and consistent policy aimed at settling +what he perhaps despaired of reforming, and the famous instrument +which, under the name of the Golden Bull, became the corner-stone of +the Germanic constitution, confessed and legalized the independence of +the electors and the powerlessness of the crown. The most conspicuous +defect of the existing system was the uncertainty of the elections, +followed as they usually were by a civil war. It was this which +Charles set himself to redress. + +[Sidenote: German kingdom not originally elective.] + +The kingdoms founded on the ruins of the Roman Empire by the Teutonic +invaders presented in their original form a rude combination of the +elective with the hereditary principle. One family in each tribe had, +as the offspring of the gods, an indefeasible claim to rule, but from +among the members of such a family the warriors were free to choose +the bravest or the most popular as king[267]. That the German crown +came to be purely elective, while in France, Castile, Aragon, England, +and most other European states, the principle of strict hereditary +succession established itself, was due to the failure of heirs male in +three successive dynasties; to the restless ambition of the nobles, +who, since they were not, like the French, strong enough to disregard +the royal power, did their best to weaken it; to the intrigues of the +churchmen, zealous for a method of appointment prescribed by their own +law and observed in capitular elections; to the wish of the Popes to +gain an opening for their own influence and make effective the veto +which they claimed; above all, to the conception of the imperial +office as one too holy to be, in the same manner as the regal, +transmissible by blood. Had the German, like other feudal kingdoms, +remained merely local, feudal, and national, it would without doubt +have ended by becoming a hereditary monarchy. Transformed as it was by +the Roman Empire, this could not be. The headship of the human race +being, like the Papacy, the common inheritance of all mankind, could +not be confined to any family, nor pass like a private estate by the +ordinary rules of descent. + +[Sidenote: Electoral body in primitive times.] + +The right to choose the war-chief belonged, in the earliest ages, to +the whole body of freemen. Their suffrage, which must have been very +irregularly exercised, became by degrees vested in their leaders, but +the assent of the multitude, although ensured already, was needed to +complete the ceremony. It was thus that Henry the Fowler, and St. +Henry, and Conrad the Franconian duke were chosen[268]. Though even +tradition might have commemorated what extant records place beyond a +doubt, it was commonly believed, till the end of the sixteenth +century, that the elective constitution had been established, and the +privilege of voting confined to seven persons, by a decree of Gregory +V and Otto III, which a famous jurist describes as 'lex a pontifice de +imperatorum comitiis lata, ne ius eligendi penes populum Romanum in +posterum esset[269].' St. Thomas says, 'Election ceased from the times +of Charles the Great to those of Otto III, when Pope Gregory V +established that of the seven princes, which will last as long as the +holy Roman Church, who ranks above all other powers, shall have judged +expedient for Christ's faithful people[270].' Since it tended to exalt +the papal power, this fiction was accepted, no doubt honestly +accepted, and spread abroad by the clergy. And indeed, like so many +other fictions, it had a sort of foundation in fact. The death of Otto +III, the fourth of a line of monarchs among whom son had regularly +succeeded to father, threw back the crown into the gift of the nation, +and was no doubt one of the chief causes why it did not in the end +become hereditary[271]. + +[Sidenote: Encroachments of the great nobles.] + +Thus, under the Saxon and Franconian sovereigns, the throne was +theoretically elective, the assent of the chiefs and their followers +being required, though little more likely to be refused than it was to +an English or a French king; practically hereditary, since both of +these dynasties succeeded in occupying it for four generations, the +father procuring the son's election during his own lifetime. And so it +might well have continued, had the right of choice been retained by +the whole body of the aristocracy. But at the election of Lothar II, +A.D. 1125, we find a certain small number of magnates exercising the +so-called right of prætaxation; that is to say, choosing alone the +future monarch, and then submitting him to the rest for their +approval. A supreme electoral college, once formed, had both the will +and the power to retain the crown in their own gift, and still further +exclude their inferiors from participation. So before the end of the +Hohenstaufen dynasty, two great changes had passed upon the ancient +constitution. It had become a fundamental doctrine that the Germanic +throne, unlike the thrones of other countries, was purely +elective[272]: nor could the influence and the liberal offers of Henry +VI prevail on the princes to abandon what they rightly judged the +keystone of their powers. And at the same time the right of +prætaxation had ripened into an exclusive privilege of election, +vested in a small body[273]: the assent of the rest of the nobility +being at first assumed, finally altogether dispensed with. On the +double choice of Richard and Alfonso, A.D. 1264, the only question was +as to the majority of votes in the electoral college: neither then nor +afterwards was there a word of the rights of the other princes, counts +and barons, important as their voices had been two centuries earlier. + +[Sidenote: The Seven Electors.] + +[Sidenote: Golden Bull of Charles IV, A.D. 1356.] + +The origin of that college is a matter somewhat intricate and obscure. +It is mentioned A.D. 1152, and in somewhat clearer terms in 1198, as a +distinct body; but without anything to shew who composed it. First in +A.D. 1265 does a letter of Pope Urban IV say that by immemorial custom +the right of choosing the Roman king belonged to seven persons, the +seven who had just divided their votes on Richard of Cornwall and +Alfonso of Castile. Of these seven, three, the archbishops of Mentz, +Treves, and Cologne, pastors of the richest Transalpine sees, +represented the German church: the other four ought, according to the +ancient constitution, to have been the dukes of the four nations, +Franks, Swabians, Saxons, Bavarians, to whom had also belonged the +four great offices of the imperial household. But of these dukedoms +the two first named were now extinct, and their place and power in the +state, as well as the household offices they had held, had descended +upon two principalities of more recent origin, those, namely, of the +Palatinate of the Rhine and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. The Saxon +duke, though with greatly narrowed dominions, retained his vote and +office of arch-marshal, and the claim of his Bavarian compeer would +have been equally indisputable had it not so happened that both he and +the Palsgrave of the Rhine were members of the great house of +Wittelsbach. That one family should hold two votes out of seven seemed +so dangerous to the state that it was made a ground of objection to +the Bavarian duke, and gave an opening to the pretensions of the king +of Bohemia, who, though not properly a Teutonic prince[274], might on +the score of rank and power assert himself the equal of any one of the +electors. The dispute between these rival claimants, as well as all +the rules and requisites of the election, were settled by Charles the +Fourth in the Golden Bull, thenceforward a fundamental law of the +Empire. He decided in favour of Bohemia, of which he was then king; +fixed Frankfort as the place of election; named the archbishop of +Mentz convener of the electoral college; gave to Bohemia the first, to +the Count Palatine the second place among the secular electors. A +majority of votes was in all cases to be decisive. As to each +electorate there was attached a great office, it was supposed that +this was the title by which the vote was possessed; though it was in +truth rather an effect than a cause. The three prelates were +archchancellors of Germany, Gaul and Burgundy, and Italy respectively: +Bohemia cupbearer, the Palsgrave seneschal, Saxony marshal, and +Brandenburg chamberlain[275]. + +[Sidenote: Eighth Electorate.] + +[Sidenote: Ninth Electorate.] + +These arrangements, under which disputed elections became far less +frequent, remained undisturbed till A.D. 1618, when on the breaking +out of the Thirty Years' War the Emperor Ferdinand II by an +unwarranted stretch of prerogative deprived the Palsgrave Frederick +(king of Bohemia, and husband of Elizabeth, the daughter of James I of +England) of his electoral vote, and transferred it to his own +partisan, Maximilian of Bavaria. At the peace of Westphalia the +Palsgrave was reinstated as an eighth elector, Bavaria retaining her +place. The sacred number having been once broken through, less scruple +was felt in making further changes. In A.D. 1692, the Emperor Leopold +I conferred a ninth electorate on the house of Brunswick Lüneburg, +which was then in possession of the duchy of Hanover, and succeeded to +the throne of Great Britain in 1714; and in A.D. 1708, the assent of +the Diet thereto was obtained. It was in this way that English kings +came to vote at the election of a Roman Emperor. + +It is not a little curious that the only potentate who still continues +to entitle himself Elector[276] should be one who never did (and of +course never can now) join in electing an Emperor, having been under +the arrangements of the old Empire a simple Landgrave. In A.D. 1803, +Napoleon, among other sweeping changes in the Germanic constitution, +procured the extinction of the electorates of Cologne and Treves, +annexing their territories to France, and gave the title of Elector, +as the highest after that of king, to the duke of Würtemburg, the +Margrave of Baden, the Landgrave of Hessen-Cassel, and the archbishop +of Salzburg. Three years afterwards the Empire itself ended, and the +title became meaningless. + +As the Germanic Empire is the most conspicuous example of a monarchy +not hereditary that the world has ever seen, it may not be amiss to +consider for a moment what light its history throws upon the character +of elective monarchy in general, a contrivance which has always had, +and will probably always continue to have, seductions for a certain +class of political theorists. + +[Sidenote: Objects of an elective monarchy: how far attained in +Germany.] + +[Sidenote: Choice of the fittest.] + +First of all then it deserves to be noticed how difficult, one might +almost say impossible, it was found to maintain in practice the +elective principle. In point of law, the imperial throne was from the +tenth century to the nineteenth absolutely open to any orthodox +Christian candidate. But as a matter of fact, the competition was +confined to a few very powerful families, and there was always a +strong tendency for the crown to become hereditary in some one of +these. Thus the Franconian Emperors held it from A.D. 1024 till 1125, +the Hohenstaufen, themselves the heirs of the Franconians, for a +century or more; the house of Luxemburg (kings of Bohemia) enjoyed it +through three successive reigns, and when in the fifteenth century it +fell into the tenacious grasp of the Hapsburgs, they managed to retain +it thenceforth (with but one trifling interruption) till it vanished +out of nature altogether. Therefore the chief benefit which the scheme +of elective sovereignty seems to promise, that of putting the fittest +man in the highest place, was but seldom attained, and attained even +then rather by good fortune than design. + +[Sidenote: Restraint of the sovereign.] + +No such objection can be brought against the second ground on which an +elective system has sometimes been advocated, its operation in +moderating the power of the crown, for this was attained in the +fullest and most ruinous measure. We are reminded of the man in the +fable, who opened a sluice to water his garden, and saw his house +swept away by the furious torrent. The power of the crown was not +moderated but destroyed. Each successful candidate was forced to +purchase his title by the sacrifice of rights which had belonged to +his predecessors, and must repeat the same shameful policy later in +his reign to procure the election of his son. Feeling at the same time +that his family could not make sure of keeping the throne, he treated +it as a life-tenant is apt to treat his estate, seeking only to make +out of it the largest present profit. And the electors, aware of the +strength of their position, presumed upon it and abused it to assert +an independence such as the nobles of other countries could never have +aspired to. + +[Sidenote: Recognition of the popular will.] + +[Sidenote: Conception of the electoral function.] + +Modern political speculation supposes the method of appointing a ruler +by the votes of his subjects, as opposed to the system of hereditary +succession, to be an assertion by the people of their own will as the +ultimate fountain of authority, an acknowledgment by the prince that +he is no more than their minister and deputy. To the theory of the +Holy Empire nothing could be more repugnant. This will best appear +when the aspect of the system of election at different epochs in its +history is compared with the corresponding changes in the composition +of the electoral body which have been described as in progress from +the ninth to the fourteenth century. In very early times, the tribe +chose a war chief, who was, even if he belonged to the most noble +family, no more than the first among his peers, with a power +circumscribed by the will of his subjects. Several ages later, in the +tenth and eleventh centuries, the right of choice had passed into the +hands of the magnates, and the people were only asked to assent. In +the same measure had the relation of prince and subject taken a new +aspect. We must not expect to find, in such rude times, any very clear +apprehension of the technical quality of the process, and the throne +had indeed become for a season so nearly hereditary that the election +was often a mere matter of form. But it seems to have been regarded, +not as a delegation of authority by the nobles and people, with a +power of resumption implied, but rather as their subjection of +themselves to the monarch who enjoys, as of his own right, a wide and +ill-defined prerogative. In yet later times, when, as has been shewn +above, the assembly of the chieftains and the applauding shout of the +host had been superseded by the secret conclave of the seven electoral +princes, the strict legal view of election became fully established, +and no one was supposed to have any title to the crown except what a +majority of votes might confer upon him. Meantime, however, the +conception of the imperial office itself had been thoroughly +penetrated by religious ideas, and the fact that the sovereign did +not, like other princes, reign by hereditary right, but by the choice +of certain persons, was supposed to be an enhancement and consecration +of his dignity. The electors, to draw what may seem a subtle, but is +nevertheless a very real distinction, selected, but did not create. +They only named the person who was to receive what it was not theirs +to give. God, say the mediæval writers, not deigning to interfere +visibly in the affairs of this world, has willed that these seven +princes of Germany should discharge the function which once belonged +to the senate and people of Rome, that of choosing his earthly viceroy +in matters temporal. But it is immediately from Himself that the +authority of this viceroy comes, and men can have no relation towards +him except that of obedience. It was in this period, therefore, when +the Emperor was in practice the mere nominee of the electors, that the +belief in this divine right stood highest, to the complete exclusion +of the mutual responsibility of feudalism, and still more of any +notion of a devolution of authority from the sovereign people. + +[Sidenote: General results of Charles IV's policy.] + +Peace and order appeared to be promoted by the institutions of Charles +IV, which removed one fruitful cause of civil war. But these seven +electoral princes acquired, with their extended privileges, a marked +and dangerous predominance in Germany. They were to enjoy full +regalian rights in their territories[277]; causes were not to be +evoked from their courts, save when justice should have been denied: +their consent was necessary to all public acts of consequence. Their +persons were held to be sacred, and the seven mystic luminaries of the +Holy Empire, typified by the seven lamps of the Apocalypse, soon +gained much of the Emperor's hold on popular reverence, as well as +that actual power which he lacked. To Charles, who viewed the German +Empire much as Rudolf had viewed the Roman, this result came not +unforeseen. He saw in his office a means of serving personal ends, and +to them, while appearing to exalt by elaborate ceremonies its ideal +dignity, he deliberately sacrificed what real strength was left. The +object which he sought steadily through life was the prosperity of the +Bohemian kingdom, and the advancement of his own house. In the Golden +Bull, whose seal bears the legend,-- + + 'Roma caput mundi regit orbis frena rotundi[278],' + +there is not a word of Rome or of Italy. To Germany he was indirectly +a benefactor, by the foundation of the University of Prague, the +mother of all her schools: otherwise her bane. He legalized anarchy, +and called it a constitution. The sums expended in obtaining the +ratification of the Golden Bull, in procuring the election of his son +Wenzel, in aggrandizing Bohemia at the expense of Germany, had been +amassed by keeping a market in which honours and exemptions, with what +lands the crown retained, were put up openly to be bid for. In Italy +the Ghibelines saw, with shame and rage, their chief hasten to Rome +with a scanty retinue, and return from it as swiftly, at the mandate +of an Avignonese Pope, halting on his route only to traffic away the +last rights of his Empire. The Guelf might cease to hate a power he +could now despise. + +Thus, alike at home and abroad, the German king had become practically +powerless by the loss of his feudal privileges, and saw the authority +that had once been his parcelled out among a crowd of greedy and +tyrannical nobles. Meantime how had it fared with the rights which he +claimed by virtue of the imperial crown? + +FOOTNOTES: + +[263] Quoted by Moser, _Römische Kayser_, from _Chron. Hirsang._: +'Regni vires temporum iniuria nimium contritæ vix uni alendo regi +sufficerent, tantum abesse ut sumptus in duos reges ferre queant.' + +[264] At Rupert's death, under whom the mischief had increased +greatly, there were, we are told, many bishops better off than the +Emperor. + +[265] 'Proventus Imperii ita minimi sunt ut legationibus vix +suppetant.'--Quoted by Moser. + +[266] Albert I tried in vain to wrest the tolls of the Rhine from the +grasp of the Rhenish electors. + +[267] The Æthelings of the line of Cerdic, among the West Saxons, and +the Bavarian Agilolfings, may thus be compared with the Achæmenids of +Persia or the heroic houses of early Greece. + +[268] Wippo, describing the election of Conrad the Franconian, says, +'Inter confinia Moguntiæ et Wormatiæ convenerunt cuncti primates et, +ut ita dicam, vires et viscera regni.' So Bruno says that Henry IV was +elected by the '_populus_.' So Gunther Ligurinus of Frederick I's +election:-- + + 'Acturi sacræ de successione coronæ + Conveniunt proceres, totius viscera regni.' + +So Amandus, secretary of Frederick Barbarossa, in describing his +election, says, 'Multi illustres heroes ex Lombardia, Tuscia, Ianuensi +et aliis Italiæ dominiis, ac maior et potior pars principum ex +Transalpino regno.'--Quoted by Mur. _Antiq._ Diss. iii. And see many +other authorities to the same effect, collected by Pfeffinger, +_Vitriarius illustratus_. + +[269] Alciatus, _De Formula Romani Imperii_. He adds that the Gauls +and Italians were incensed at the preference shewn to Germany. So too +Radulfus de Columna. + +[270] Quoted by Gewoldus, _De Septemviratu Sacri Imperii Romani_, +himself a violent advocate of Gregory's decree, though living as late +as the days of Ferdinand II. As late as A.D. 1648 we find Pope +Innocent X maintaining that the sacred number _Seven_ of the electors +was 'apostolica auctoritate olim præfinitus.' Bull _Zelo domus_ in +_Bullar. Rom._ + +[271] Sometimes we hear of a decree made by Pope Sergius IV and his +cardinals (of course equally fabulous with Otto's). So John Villani, +iv. 2. + +[272] In 1152 we read, 'Id iuris Romani Imperii apex habere dicitur ut +non per sanguinis propaginem sed per principum electionem reges +creentur.'--Otto Fris. Gulielmus Brito, writing not much later, says +(quoted by Freher),-- + + 'Est etenim talis dynastia Theutonicorum + Ut nullus regnet super illos, ni prius illum + Eligat unanimis cleri populique voluntas.' + +[273] Innocent III, during the contest between Philip and Otto IV, +speaks of 'principes ad quos principaliter spectat regis Romani +electio.' + +[274] 'Rex Bohemiæ non eligit, quia non est Teutonicus,' says a writer +early in the fourteenth century. + +[275] The names and offices of the seven are concisely given in these +lines, which appear in the treatise of Marsilius of Padua, _De Imperio +Romano_:-- + + 'Moguntinensis, Trevirensis, Coloniensis, + Quilibet Imperii sit Cancellarius horum; + Et Palatinus dapifer, Dux portitor ensis, + Marchio præpositus cameræ, pincerna Bohemus, + Hi statuunt dominum cunctis per sæcula summum.' + +It is worth while to place beside this the first stanza of Schiller's +ballad, _Der Graf von Hapsburg_, in which the coronation feast of +Rudolf is described:-- + + 'Zu Aachen in seiner Kaiserpracht + Im alterthümlichen Saale, + Sass König Rudolphs heilige Macht + Beim festlichen Krönungsmahle. + Die Speisen trug der Pfalzgraf des Rheins, + Es schenkte der Böhme des perlenden Weins, + Und alle die Wähler, die Sieben, + Wie der Sterne Chor um die Sonne sich stellt, + Umstanden geschäftig den Herrscher der Welt, + Die Würde des Amtes zu üben.' + +It is a poetical licence, however (as Schiller himself admits), to +bring the Bohemian there, for King Ottocar was far away at home, +mortified at his own rejection, and already meditating war. + +[276] The electoral prince (Kurfürst) of Hessen-Cassel. His retention +of the title has this advantage, that it enables the Germans readily +to distinguish electoral Hesse (Kur-Hessen) from the Grand Duchy +(Hessen-Darmstadt) and the landgraviate (Hessen Homburg). [Since the +above was written (in 1865) this last relic of the electoral system +has passed away, the Elector of Hessen having been dethroned in 1866, +and his territories (to the great satisfaction of the inhabitants, +whom he had worried by a long course of petty tyrannies) annexed to +the Prussian kingdom, along with Hanover, Nassau, and the free city of +Frankfort. Count Bismarck, as he raises his master nearer and nearer +to the position of a Germanic Emperor, destroys one by one the +historical memorials of that elder Empire which people had learned to +associate with the Austrian house.] + +[277] Goethe, whose imagination was wonderfully attracted by the +splendours of the old Empire, has given in the second part of _Faust_ +a sort of fancy sketch of the origin of the great offices and the +territorial independence of the German princes. Two lines express +concisely the fiscal rights granted by the Emperor to the electors:-- + + 'Dann Steuer Zins und Beed, Lehn und Geleit und Zoll, + Berg-, Salz- und Münz-regal euch angehören soll.' + +[278] This line is said to be as old as the time of Otto III. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE EMPIRE AS AN INTERNATIONAL POWER. + + +[Sidenote: Theory of the Roman Empire in the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries.] + +That the Roman Empire survived the seemingly mortal wound it had +received at the era of the Great Interregnum, and continued to put +forth pretensions which no one was likely to make good where the +Hohenstaufen had failed, has been attributed to its identification +with the German kingdom, in which some life was still left. But this +was far from being the only cause which saved it from extinction. It +had not ceased to be upheld in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries +by the same singular theory which had in the ninth and tenth been +strong enough to re-establish it in the West. The character of that +theory was indeed somewhat changed, for if not positively less +religious, it was less exclusively so. In the days of Charles and +Otto, the Empire, in so far as it was anything more than a tradition +from times gone by, rested solely upon the belief that with the +visible Church there must be coextensive a single Christian state +under one head and governor. But now that the Emperor's headship had +been repudiated by the Pope, and his interference in matters of +religion denounced as a repetition of the sin of Uzziah; now that the +memory of mutual injuries had kindled an unquenchable hatred between +the champions of the ecclesiastical and those of the civil power, it +was natural that the latter, while they urged, fervently as ever, the +divine sanction given to the imperial office, should at the same time +be led to seek some further basis whereon to establish its claims. +What that basis was, and how they were guided to it, will best appear +when a word or two has been said on the nature of the change that had +passed on Europe in the course of the three preceding centuries, and +the progress of the human mind during the same period. + +[Sidenote: Revival of learning and literature, A.D. 1100-1400.] + +Such has been the accumulated wealth of literature, and so rapid the +advances of science among us since the close of the Middle Ages, that +it is not now possible by any effort fully to enter into the feelings +with which the relics of antiquity were regarded by those who saw in +them their only possession. It is indeed true that modern art and +literature and philosophy have been produced by the working of new +minds upon old materials: that in thought, as in nature, we see no new +creation. But with us the old has been transformed and overlaid by the +new till its origin is forgotten: to them ancient books were the only +standard of taste, the only vehicle of truth, the only stimulus to +reflection. Hence it was that the most learned man was in those days +esteemed the greatest: hence the creative energy of an age was exactly +proportioned to its knowledge of and its reverence for the written +monuments of those that had gone before. For until they can look +forward, men must look back: till they should have reached the level +of the old civilization, the nations of mediæval Europe must continue +to live upon its memories. Over them, as over us, the common dream of +all mankind had power; but to them, as to the ancient world, that +golden age which seems now to glimmer on the horizon of the future was +shrouded in the clouds of the past. It is to the fifteenth and +sixteenth centuries that we are accustomed to assign that new birth of +the human spirit--if it ought not rather to be called a renewal of its +strength and quickening of its sluggish life--with which the modern +time begins. And the date is well chosen, for it was then first that +the transcendently powerful influence of Greek literature began to +work upon the world. But it must not be forgotten that for a long time +previous there had been in progress a great revival of learning, and +still more of zeal for learning, which being caused by and directed +towards the literature and institutions of Rome, might fitly be called +the Roman Renaissance. The twelfth century saw this revival begin with +that passionate study of the legislation of Justinian, whose influence +on the doctrines of imperial prerogative has been noticed already. The +thirteenth witnessed the rapid spread of the scholastic philosophy, a +body of systems most alien, both in subject and manner, to anything +that had arisen among the ancients, yet one to whose development Greek +metaphysics and the theology of the Latin fathers had largely +contributed, and the spirit of whose reasonings was far more free than +the presumed orthodoxy of its conclusions suffered to appear. In the +fourteenth century there arose in Italy the first great masters of +painting and song; and the literature of the new languages, springing +into the fulness of life in the Divina Commedia, adorned not long +after by the names of Petrarch and Chaucer, assumed at once its place +as a great and ever-growing power in the affairs of men. + +[Sidenote: Growing freedom of spirit.] + +[Sidenote: Influence of thought upon the arrangements of society.] + +Now, along with the literary revival, partly caused by, partly causing +it, there had been also a wonderful stirring and uprising in the mind +of Europe. The yoke of church authority still pressed heavily on the +souls of men; yet some had been found to shake it off, and many more +murmured in secret. The tendency was one which shewed itself in +various and sometimes apparently opposite directions. The revolt of +the Albigenses, the spread of the Cathari and other so-called +heretics, the excitement created by the writings of Wickliffe and +Huss, witnessed to the fearlessness wherewith it could assail the +dominant theology. It was present, however skilfully disguised, among +those scholastic doctors who busied themselves with proving by natural +reason the dogmas of the Church: for the power which can forge fetters +can also break them. It took a form more dangerous because of a more +direct application to facts, in the attacks, so often repeated from +Arnold of Brescia downwards, upon the wealth and corruptions of the +clergy, and above all of the papal court. For the agitation was not +merely speculative. There was beginning to be a direct and rational +interest in life, a power of applying thought to practical ends, which +had not been seen before. Man's life among his fellows was no longer a +mere wild beast struggle; man's soul no more, as it had been, the +victim of ungoverned passion, whether it was awed by supernatural +terrors or captivated by examples of surpassing holiness. Manners were +still rude, and governments unsettled; but society was learning to +organize itself upon fixed principles; to recognize, however faintly, +the value of order, industry, equality; to adapt means to ends, and +conceive of the common good as the proper end of its own existence. In +a word, Politics had begun to exist, and with them there had appeared +the first of a class of persons whom friends and enemies may both, +though with different meanings, call ideal politicians; men who, +however various have been the doctrines they have held, however +impracticable many of the plans they have advanced, have been +nevertheless alike in their devotion to the highest interests of +humanity, and have frequently been derided as theorists in their own +age to be honoured as the prophets and teachers of the next. + +[Sidenote: Separation of the peoples of Europe into hostile kingdoms: +consequent need of an international power.] + +Now it was towards the Roman Empire that the hopes and sympathies of +these political speculators as well as of the jurists and poets of the +fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were constantly directed. The cause +may be gathered from the circumstances of the time. The most +remarkable event in the history of the last three hundred years had +been the formation of nationalities, each distinguished by a peculiar +language and character, and by steadily increasing differences of +habits and institutions. And as upon this national basis there had +been in most cases established strong monarchies, Europe was broken up +into disconnected bodies, and the cherished scheme of a united +Christian state appeared less likely than ever to be realized. Nor was +this all. Sometimes through race-hatred, more often by the jealousy +and ambition of their sovereigns, these countries were constantly +involved in war with one another, violating on a larger scale and with +more destructive results than in time past the peace of the religious +community; while each of them was at the same time torn within by +frequent insurrections, and desolated by long and bloody civil wars. +The new nationalities were too fully formed to allow the hope that by +their extinction a remedy might be applied to these evils. They had +grown up in spite of the Empire and the Church, and were not likely to +yield in their strength what they had won in their weakness. But it +still appeared possible to soften, if not to overcome, their +antagonism. What might not be looked for from the erection of a +presiding power common to all Europe, a power which, while it should +oversee the internal concerns of each country, not dethroning the +king, but treating him as an hereditary viceroy, should be more +especially charged to prevent strife between kingdoms, and to maintain +the public order of Europe by being not only the fountain of +international law, but also the judge in its causes and the enforcer +of its sentences? + +[Sidenote: The Popes as international Judges.] + +To such a position had the Popes aspired. They were indeed excellently +fitted for it by the respect which the sacredness of their office +commanded; by their control of the tremendous weapons of +excommunication and interdict; above all, by their exemption from +those narrowing influences of place, or blood, or personal interest, +which it would be their chiefest duty to resist in others. And there +had been pontiffs whose fearlessness and justice were worthy of their +exalted office, and whose interference was gratefully remembered by +those who found no other helpers. Nevertheless, judging the Papacy by +its conduct as a whole, it had been tried and found wanting. Even when +its throne stood firmest and its purposes were most pure, one motive +had always biassed its decisions--a partiality to the most submissive. +During the greater part of the fourteenth century it was at Avignon +the willing tool of France: in the pursuit of a temporal principality +it had mingled in and been contaminated by the unhallowed politics of +Italy; its supreme council, the college of cardinals, was distracted +by the intrigues of two bitterly hostile factions. And while the power +of the Popes had declined steadily, though silently, since the days of +Boniface the Eighth, the insolence of the great prelates and the vices +of the inferior clergy had provoked throughout Western Christendom a +reaction against the pretensions of all sacerdotal authority. As there +is no theory at first sight more attractive than that which entrusts +all government to a supreme spiritual power, which, knowing what is +best for man, shall lead him to his true good by appealing to the +highest principles of his nature, so there is no disappointment more +bitter than that of those who find that the holiest office may be +polluted by the lusts and passions of its holder; that craft and +hypocrisy lead while fanaticism follows; that here too, as in so much +else, the corruption of the best is worst. Some such disappointment +there was in Europe now, and with it a certain disposition to look +with favour on the secular power: a wish to escape from the unhealthy +atmosphere of clerical despotism to the rule of positive law, harsher, +it might be, yet surely less corrupting. Espousing the cause of the +Roman Empire as the chief opponent of priestly claims, this tendency +found it, with shrunken territory and diminished resources, fitter in +some respects for the office of an international judge and mediator +than it had been as a great national power. For though far less widely +active, it was losing that local character which was fast gathering +round the Papacy. With feudal rights no longer enforcible, and +removed, except in his patrimonial lands, from direct contact with the +subject, the Emperor was not, as heretofore, conspicuously a German +and a feudal king, and occupied an ideal position far less marred by +the incongruous accidents of birth and training, of national and +dynastic interests. + +[Sidenote: Duties attributed to the Empire by the developed theory.] + +[Sidenote: Divine right of the Emperor.] + +To that position three cardinal duties were attached. He who held it +must typify spiritual unity, must preserve peace, must be a fountain +of that by which alone among imperfect men peace is preserved and +restored, law and justice. The first of these three objects was sought +not only on religious grounds, but also from that longing for a wider +brotherhood of humanity towards which, ever since the barrier between +Jew and Gentile, Greek and barbarian, was broken down, the aspirations +of the higher minds of the world have been constantly directed. Placed +in the midst of Europe, the Emperor was to bind its tribes into one +body, reminding them of their common faith, their common blood, their +common interest in each other's welfare. And he was therefore above +all things, professing indeed to be upon earth the representative of +the Prince of Peace, bound to listen to complaints, and to redress the +injuries inflicted by sovereigns or people upon each other; to punish +offenders against the public order of Christendom; to maintain through +the world, looking down as from a serene height upon the schemes and +quarrels of meaner potentates, that supreme good without which neither +arts nor letters, nor the gentler virtues of life, can rise and +flourish. The mediæval Empire was in its essence what the modern +despotisms that mimic it profess themselves: the Empire was +peace[279]: the oldest and noblest title of its head was 'Imperator +pacificus[280].' And that he might be the peacemaker, he must be the +expounder of justice and the author of its concrete embodiment, +positive law; chief legislator and supreme judge of appeal, like his +predecessor the compiler of the Corpus Iuris, the one and only source +of all legitimate authority. In this sense, as governor and +administrator, not as owner, is he, in the words of the jurists, Lord +of the world; not that its soil belongs to him in the same sense in +which the soil of France or England belongs to their respective kings: +he is the steward of Him who has received the heathen for his +possession and the uttermost parts of the earth for his inheritance. +It is, therefore, by him alone that the idea of pure right, acquired +not by force but by legitimate devolution from those whom God himself +had set up, is visibly expressed upon earth. To find an external and +positive basis for that idea is a problem which it has at all times +been more easy to evade than to solve, and one peculiarly distressing +to those who could neither explain the phenomena of society by +reducing it to its original principles, nor inquire historically how +its existing arrangements had grown up. Hence the attempt to represent +human government as an emanation from divine: a view from which all +the similar but far less logically consistent doctrines of divine +right which have prevailed in later times are borrowed. As has been +said already, there is not a trace of the notion that the Emperor +reigns by an hereditary right of his own or by the will of the people, +for such a theory would have seemed to the men of the middle ages an +absurd and wicked perversion of the true order. Nor do his powers come +to him from those who choose him, but from God, who uses the electoral +princes as mere instruments of nomination. Having such an origin, his +rights exist irrespective of their actual exercise, and no voluntary +abandonment, not even an express grant, can impair them. Boniface the +Eighth[281] reminds the king of France, and imperialist lawyers till +the seventeenth century repeated the claim, that he, like other +princes, is of right and must ever remain subject to the Roman +Emperor. And the sovereigns of Europe long continued to address the +Emperor in language, and yield to him a precedence, which admitted the +inferiority of their own position[282]. + +There was in this theory nothing that was absurd, though much that was +impracticable. The ideas on which it rested are still unapproached in +grandeur and simplicity, still as far in advance of the average +thought of Europe, and as unlikely to find men or nations fit to apply +them, as when they were promulgated five hundred years ago. The +practical evil which the establishment of such a universal monarchy +was intended to meet, that of wars and hardly less ruinous +preparations for war between the states of Europe, remains what it was +then. The remedy which mediæval theory proposed has been in some +measure applied by the construction and reception of international +law; the greater difficulty of erecting a tribunal to arbitrate and +decide, with the power of enforcing its decisions, is as far from a +solution as ever. + +[Sidenote: Roman Empire why an international power.] + +It is easy to see how it was to the Roman Emperor, and to him only, +that the duties and privileges above mentioned could be attributed. +Being Roman, he was of no nation, and therefore fittest to judge +between contending states, and appease the animosities of race. His +was the imperial tongue of Rome, not only the vehicle of religion and +law, but also, since no other was understood everywhere in Europe, the +necessary medium of diplomatic intercourse. As there was no Church but +the Holy Roman Church, and he its temporal head, it was by him that +the communion of the saints in its outward form, its secular side, was +represented, and to his keeping that the sanctity of peace must be +entrusted. As direct heir of those who from Julius to Justinian had +shaped the existing law of Europe[283], he was, so to speak, legality +personified[284]; the only sovereign on earth who, being possessed of +power by an unimpeachable title, could by his grant confer upon others +rights equally valid. And as he claimed to perpetuate the greatest +political system the world had known, a system which still moves the +wonder of those who see before their eyes empires as much wider than +the Roman as they are less symmetrical, and whose vast and complex +machinery far surpassed anything the fourteenth century possessed or +could hope to establish, it was not strange that he and his government +(assuming them to be what they were entitled to be) should be taken as +the ideal of a perfect monarch and a perfect state. + +[Sidenote: Illustrations.] + +[Sidenote: Right of creating Kings.] + +Of the many applications and illustrations of these doctrines which +mediæval documents furnish, it will suffice to adduce two or three. No +imperial privilege was prized more highly than the power of creating +kings, for there was none which raised the Emperor so much above them. +In this, as in other international concerns, the Pope soon began to +claim a jurisdiction, at first concurrent, then separate and +independent. But the older and more reasonable view assigned it, as +flowing from the possession of supreme secular authority, to the +Emperor; and it was from him that the rulers of Burgundy, Bohemia, +Hungary, perhaps Poland and Denmark, received the regal title[285]. +The prerogative was his in the same manner in which that of conferring +titles is still held to belong to the sovereign in every modern +kingdom. And so when Charles the Bold, last duke of French Burgundy, +proposed to consolidate his wide dominions into a kingdom, it was from +Frederick III that he sought permission to do so. The Emperor, +however, was greedy and suspicious, the Duke uncompliant; and when +Frederick found that terms could not be arranged between them, he +stole away suddenly, and left Charles to carry back, with +ill-concealed mortification, the crown and sceptre which he had +brought ready-made to the place of interview. + +[Sidenote: Chivalry.] + +In the same manner, as representing what was common to and valid +throughout all Europe, nobility, and more particularly knighthood, +centred in the Empire. The great Orders of Chivalry were international +institutions, whose members, having consecrated themselves a military +priesthood, had no longer any country of their own, and could +therefore be subject to no one save the Emperor and the Pope. For +knighthood was constructed on the analogy of priesthood, and knights +were conceived of as being to the world in its secular aspect exactly +what priests, and more especially the monastic orders, were to it in +its religious aspect: to the one body was given the sword of the +flesh, to the other the sword of the spirit; each was universal, each +had its autocratic head[286]. Singularly, too, were these notions +brought into harmony with the feudal polity. Cæsar was lord paramount +of the world: its countries great fiefs whose kings were his tenants +in chief, the suitors of his court, owing to him homage, fealty, and +military service against the infidel. + +[Sidenote: Persons eligible as Emperors.] + +One illustration more of the way in which the empire was held to be +something of and for all mankind, cannot be omitted. Although from the +practical union of the imperial with the German throne none but +Germans were chosen to fill it[287], it remained in point of law +absolutely free from all restrictions of country or birth. In an age +of the most intense aristocratic exclusiveness, the highest office in +the world was the only secular one open to all Christians. The old +writers, after debating at length the qualifications that are or may +be desirable in an Emperor, and relating how in pagan times Gauls and +Spaniards, Moors and Pannonians, were thought worthy of the purple, +decide that two things, and no more, are required of the candidate for +Empire: he must be free-born, and he must be orthodox[288]. + +[Sidenote: The Empire and the new learning.] + +[Sidenote: The doctrine of the Empire's rights and functions never +carried out in fact.] + +It is not without a certain surprise that we see those who were +engaged in the study of ancient letters, or felt indirectly their +stimulus, embrace so fervently the cause of the Roman Empire. Still +more difficult is it to estimate the respective influence exerted by +each of the three revivals which it has been attempted to distinguish. +The spirit of the ancient world by which the men who led these +movements fancied themselves animated, was in truth a pagan, or at +least a strongly secular spirit, in many respects inconsistent with +the associations which had now gathered round the imperial office. And +this hostility did not fail to shew itself when at the beginning of +the sixteenth century, in the fulness of the Renaissance, a direct and +for the time irresistible sway was exercised by the art and literature +of Greece, when the mythology of Euripides and Ovid supplanted that +which had fired the imagination of Dante and peopled the visions of +St. Francis; when men forsook the image of the saint in the cathedral +for the statue of the nymph in the garden; when the uncouth jargon of +scholastic theology was equally distasteful to the scholars who formed +their style upon Cicero and the philosophers who drew their +inspiration from Plato. That meanwhile the admirers of antiquity did +ally themselves with the defenders of the Empire, was due partly +indeed to the false notions that were entertained regarding the early +Cæsars, yet still more to the common hostility of both sects to the +Papacy. It was as successor of old Rome, and by virtue of her +traditions, that the Holy See had established so wide a dominion; yet +no sooner did Arnold of Brescia and his republicans arise, claiming +liberty in the name of the ancient constitution of the republic, than +they found in the Popes their bitterest foes, and turned for help to +the secular monarch against the clergy. With similar aversion did the +Romish court view the revived study of the ancient jurisprudence, so +soon as it became, in the hands of the school of Bologna and +afterwards of the jurists of France, a power able to assert its +independence and resist ecclesiastical pretensions. In the ninth +century, Pope Nicholas the First had himself judged in the famous case +of Teutberga, wife of Lothar, according to the civil law: in the +thirteenth, his successors[289] forbade its study, and the canonists +strove to expel it from Europe[290]. And as the current of educated +opinion among the laity was beginning, however imperceptibly at first, +to set against sacerdotal tyranny, it followed that the Empire would +find sympathy in any effort it could make to regain its lost position. +Thus the Emperors became, or might have become had they seen the +greatness of the opportunity and been strong enough to improve it, the +exponents and guides of the political movement, the pioneers, in part +at least, of the Reformation. But the revival came too late to arrest, +if not to adorn, the decline of their office. The growth of a national +sentiment in the several countries of Europe, which had already gone +too far to be arrested, and was urged on by forces far stronger than +the theories of Catholic unity which opposed it, imprinted on the +resistance to papal usurpation, and even on the instincts of political +freedom, that form of narrowly local patriotism which they still +retain. It can hardly be said that upon any occasion, except the +gathering of the council of Constance by Sigismund, did the Emperor +appear filling a truly international place. For the most part he +exerted in the politics of Europe no influence greater than that of +other princes. In actual resources he stood below the kings of France +and England, far below his vassals the Visconti of Milan[291]. Yet +this helplessness, such was men's faith or their timidity, and such +their unwillingness to make prejudice bend to facts, did not prevent +his dignity from being extolled in the most sonorous language by +writers whose imaginations were enthralled by the halo of traditional +glory which surrounded it. + +[Sidenote: Attitude of the men of letters.] + +We are thus brought back to ask, What was the connection between +imperialism and the literary revival? + +[Sidenote: Petrarch.] + +To moderns who think of the Roman Empire as the heathen persecuting +power, it is strange to find it depicted as the model of a Christian +commonwealth. It is stranger still that the study of antiquity should +have made men advocates of arbitrary power. Democratic Athens, +oligarchic Rome, suggest to us Pericles and Brutus: the moderns who +have striven to catch their spirit have been men like Algernon Sidney, +and Vergniaud, and Shelley. The explanation is the same in both +cases[292]. The ancient world was known to the earlier middle ages by +tradition, freshest for what was latest, and by the authors of the +Empire. Both presented to them the picture of a mighty despotism and a +civilization brilliant far beyond their own. Writings of the fourth +and fifth centuries, unfamiliar to us, were to them authorities as +high as Tacitus or Livy; yet Virgil and Horace too had sung the +praises of the first and wisest of the Emperors. To the enthusiasts of +poetry and law, Rome meant universal monarchy[293]; to those of +religion, her name called up the undimmed radiance of the Church under +Sylvester and Constantine. Petrarch, the apostle of the dawning +Renaissance, is excited by the least attempt to revive even the shadow +of imperial greatness: as he had hailed Rienzi, he welcomes Charles IV +into Italy, and execrates his departure. The following passage is +taken from his letter to the Roman people asking them to receive back +Rienzi:--'When was there ever such peace, such tranquillity, such +justice, such honour paid to virtue, such rewards distributed to the +good and punishments to the bad, when was ever the state so wisely +guided, as in the time when the world had obtained one head, and that +head Rome; the very time wherein God deigned to be born of a virgin +and dwell upon earth. To every single body there has been given a +head; the whole world therefore also, which is called by the poet a +great body, ought to be content with one temporal head. For every +two-headed animal is monstrous; how much more horrible and hideous a +portent must be a creature with a thousand different heads, biting and +fighting against one another! If, however, it is necessary that there +be more heads than one, it is nevertheless evident that there ought to +be one to restrain all and preside over all, that so the peace of the +whole body may abide unshaken. Assuredly both in heaven and in earth +the sovereignty of one has always been best.' + +[Sidenote: Dante.] + +His passion for the heroism of Roman conquest and the ordered peace to +which it brought the world, is the centre of Dante's political hopes: +he is no more an exiled Ghibeline, but a patriot whose fervid +imagination sees a nation arise regenerate at the touch of its +rightful lord. Italy, the spoil of so many Teutonic conquerors, is the +garden of the Empire which Henry is to redeem: Rome the mourning +widow, whom Albert is denounced for neglecting[294]. Passing through +purgatory, the poet sees Rudolf of Hapsburg seated gloomily apart, +mourning his sin in that he left unhealed the wounds of Italy[295]. In +the deepest pit of hell's ninth circle lies Lucifer, huge, +three-headed; in each mouth a sinner whom he crunches between his +teeth, in one mouth Iscariot the traitor to Christ, in the others the +two traitors to the first Emperor of Rome, Brutus and Cassius[296]. To +multiply illustrations from other parts of the poem would be an +endless task; for the idea is ever present in Dante's mind, and +displays itself in a hundred unexpected forms. Virgil himself is +selected to be the guide of the pilgrim through hell and purgatory, +not so much as being the great poet of antiquity, as because he 'was +born under Julius and lived beneath the good Augustus;' because he was +divinely charged to sing of the Empire's earliest and brightest +glories. Strange, that the shame of one age should be the glory of +another. For Virgil's melancholy panegyrics upon the destroyer of the +republic are no more like Dante's appeals to the coming saviour of +Italy than is Cæsar Octavianus to Henry count of Luxemburg. + +[Sidenote: Attitude of the Jurists.] + +The visionary zeal of the man of letters was seconded by the more +sober devotion of the lawyer. Conqueror, theologian, and jurist, +Justinian is a hero greater than either Julius or Constantine, for his +enduring work bears him witness. Absolutism was the civilian's +creed[297]: the phrases 'legibus solutus,' 'lex regia,' whatever else +tended in the same direction, were taken to express the prerogative of +him whose official style of Augustus, as well as the vernacular name +of 'Kaiser,' designated the legitimate successor of the compiler of +the Corpus Juris. Since it was upon that legitimacy that his claim to +be the fountain of law rested, no pains were spared to seek out and +observe every custom and precedent by which old Rome seemed to be +connected with her representative. + +[Sidenote: Imitations of old Rome.] + +Of the many instances that might be collected, it would be tedious to +enumerate more than a few. The offices of the imperial household, +instituted by Constantine the Great, were attached to the noblest +families of Germany. The Emperor and Empress, before their coronation +at Rome, were lodged in the chambers called those of Augustus and +Livia[298]; a bare sword was borne before them by the prætorian +prefect; their processions were adorned by the standards, eagles, +wolves and dragons, which had figured in the train of Hadrian or +Theodosius[299]. The constant title of the Emperor himself, according +to the style introduced by Probus, was 'semper Augustus,' or +'perpetuus Augustus,' which erring etymology translated 'at all times +increaser of the Empire[300].' Edicts issued by a Franconian or +Swabian sovereign were inserted as Novels[301] in the Corpus Juris, in +the latest editions of which custom still allows them a place. The +_pontificatus maximus_ of his pagan predecessors was supposed to be +preserved by the admission of each Emperor as a canon of St. Peter's +at Rome and St. Mary's at Aachen[302]. Sometimes we even find him +talking of his consulship[303]. Annalists invariably number the place +of each sovereign from Augustus downwards[304]. The notion of an +uninterrupted succession, which moves the stranger's wondering smile +as he sees ranged round the magnificent Golden Hall of Augsburg the +portraits of the Cæsars, laurelled, helmeted, and periwigged, from +Julius the conqueror of Gaul to Joseph the partitioner of Poland, was +to those generations not an article of faith only because its denial +was inconceivable. + +[Sidenote: Reverence for ancient forms and phrases in the Middle +Ages.] + +[Sidenote: Absence of the idea of change or progress.] + +And all this historical antiquarianism, as one might call it, which +gathers round the Empire, is but one instance, though the most +striking, of that eager wish to cling to the old forms, use the old +phrases, and preserve the old institutions to which the annals of +mediæval Europe bear witness. It appears even in trivial expressions, +as when a monkish chronicler says of evil bishops deposed, _Tribu moti +sunt_, or talks of the 'senate and people of the Franks,' when he +means a council of chiefs surrounded by a crowd of half-naked +warriors. So throughout Europe charters and edicts were drawn up on +Roman precedents; the trade-guilds, though often traceable to a +different source, represented the old _collegia_; villenage was the +offspring of the system of _coloni_ under the later Empire. Even in +remote Britain, the Teutonic invaders used Roman ensigns, and stamped +their coins with Roman devices; called themselves 'Basileis' and +'Augusti[305].' Especially did the cities perpetuate Rome through her +most lasting boon to the conquered, municipal self-government; those +of later origin emulating in their adherence to antique style others +who, like Nismes and Cologne, Zürich and Augsburg, could trace back +their institutions to the _coloniæ_ and _municipia_ of the first +centuries. On the walls and gates of hoary Nürnberg[306] the traveller +still sees emblazoned the imperial eagle, with the words 'Senatus +populusque Norimbergensis,' and is borne in thought from the quiet +provincial town of to-day to the stirring republic of the middle ages: +thence to the Forum and the Capitol of her greater prototype. For, in +truth, through all that period which we call the Dark and Middle Ages, +men's minds were possessed by the belief that all things continued as +they were from the beginning, that no chasm never to be recrossed lay +between them and that ancient world to which they had not ceased to +look back. We who are centuries removed can see that there had passed +a great and wonderful change upon thought, and art, and literature, +and politics, and society itself: a change whose best illustration is +to be found in the process whereby there arose out of the primitive +basilica the Romanesque cathedral, and from it in turn the endless +varieties of Gothic. But so gradual was the change that each +generation felt it passing over them no more than a man feels that +perpetual transformation by which his body is renewed from year to +year; while the few who had learning enough to study antiquity through +its contemporary records, were prevented by the utter want of +criticism and of that which we call historical feeling, from seeing +how prodigious was the contrast between themselves and those whom they +admired. There is nothing more modern than the critical spirit which +dwells upon the difference between the minds of men in one age and in +another; which endeavours to make each age its own interpreter, and +judge what it did or produced by a relative standard. Such a spirit +was, before the last century or two, wholly foreign to art as well as +to metaphysics. The converse and the parallel of the fashion of +calling mediæval offices by Roman names, and supposing them therefore +the same, is to be found in those old German pictures of the siege of +Carthage or the battle between Porus and Alexander, where in the +foreground two armies of knights, mailed and mounted, are charging +each other like Crusaders, lance, in rest, while behind, through the +smoke of cannon, loom out the Gothic spires and towers of the +beleaguered city. And thus, when we remember that the notion of +progress and development, and of change as the necessary condition +thereof, was unwelcome or unknown in mediæval times, we may better +understand, though we do not cease to wonder, how men, never doubting +that the political system of antiquity had descended to them, modified +indeed, yet in substance the same, should have believed that the +Frank, the Saxon, and the Swabian ruled all Europe by a right which +seems to us not less fantastic than that fabled charter whereby +Alexander the Great[307] bequeathed his empire to the Slavic race for +the love of Roxolana. + +It is a part of that perpetual contradiction of which the history of +the Middle Ages is full, that this belief had hardly any influence on +practical politics. The more abjectly helpless the Emperor becomes, so +much the more sonorous is the language in which the dignity of his +crown is described. His power, we are told, is eternal, the provinces +having resumed their allegiance after the barbarian irruptions[308]; +it is incapable of diminution or injury: exemptions and grants by him, +so far as they tend to limit his own prerogative, are invalid[309]: +all Christendom is still of right subject to him, though it may +contumaciously refuse obedience[310]. The sovereigns of Europe are +solemnly warned that they are resisting the power ordained of +God[311]. No laws can bind the Emperor, though he may choose to live +according to them: no court can judge him, though he may condescend to +be sued in his own: none may presume to arraign the conduct or +question the motives of him who is answerable only to God[312]. So +writes Æneas Sylvius, while Frederick the Third, chased from his +capital by the Hungarians, is wandering from convent to convent, an +imperial beggar; while the princes, whom his subserviency to the Pope +has driven into rebellion, are offering the imperial crown to +Podiebrad the Bohemian king. + +[Sidenote: Henry VII, A.D. 1308-1313.] + +[Sidenote: Death of Henry VII.] + +But the career of Henry the Seventh in Italy is the most remarkable +illustration of the Emperor's position: and imperialist doctrines are +set forth most strikingly in the treatise which the greatest spirit of +the age wrote to herald the advent of that hero, the _De Monarchia_ of +Dante[313]. Rudolf, Adolf of Nassau, Albert of Hapsburg, none of them +crossed the Alps or attempted to aid the Italian Ghibelines who +battled away in the name of their throne. Concerned only to restore +order and aggrandize his house, and thinking apparently that nothing +more was to be made of the imperial crown, Rudolf was content never to +receive it, and purchased the Pope's goodwill by surrendering his +jurisdiction in the capital, and his claims over the bequest of the +Countess Matilda. Henry the Luxemburger ventured on a bolder course; +urged perhaps only by his lofty and chivalrous spirit, perhaps in +despair at effecting anything with his slender resources against the +princes of Germany. Crossing from his Burgundian dominions with a +scanty following of knights, and descending from the Cenis upon Turin, +he found his prerogative higher in men's belief after sixty years of +neglect than it had stood under the last Hohenstaufen. The cities of +Lombardy opened their gates; Milan decreed a vast subsidy; Guelf and +Ghibeline exiles alike were restored, and imperial vicars appointed +everywhere: supported by the Avignonese pontiff, who dreaded the +restless ambition of his French neighbour, king Philip IV, Henry had +the interdict of the Church as well as the ban of the Empire at his +command. But the illusion of success vanished as soon as men, +recovering from their first impression, began to be again governed by +their ordinary passions and interests, and not by an imaginative +reverence for the glories of the past. Tumults and revolts broke out +in Lombardy; at Rome the king of Naples held St. Peter's, and the +coronation must take place in St. John Lateran, on the southern bank +of the Tiber. The hostility of the Guelfic league, headed by the +Florentines, Guelfs even against the Pope, obliged Henry to depart +from his impartial and republican policy, and to purchase the aid of +the Ghibeline chiefs by granting them the government of cities. With +few troops, and encompassed by enemies, the heroic Emperor sustained +an unequal struggle for a year longer, till, in A.D. 1313, he sank +beneath the fevers of the deadly Tuscan summer. His German followers +believed, nor has history wholly rejected the tale, that poison was +given him by a Dominican monk, in sacramental wine. + +[Sidenote: Later Emperors in Italy.] + +Others after him descended from the Alps, but they came, like Lewis +the Fourth, Rupert, Sigismund, at the behest of a faction, which found +them useful tools for a time, then flung them away in scorn; or like +Charles the Fourth and Frederick the Third, as the humble minions of a +French or Italian priest. With Henry the Seventh ends the history of +the Empire in Italy, and Dante's book is an epitaph instead of a +prophecy. A sketch of its argument will convey a notion of the +feelings with which the noblest Ghibelines fought, as well as of the +spirit in which the Middle Age was accustomed to handle such subjects. + +[Sidenote: Dante's feelings and theories.] + +Weary of the endless strife of princes and cities, of the factions +within every city against each other, seeing municipal freedom, the +only mitigation of turbulence, vanish with the rise of domestic +tyrants, Dante raises a passionate cry for some power to still the +tempest, not to quench liberty or supersede local self-government, but +to correct and moderate them, to restore unity and peace to hapless +Italy. His reasoning is throughout closely syllogistic: he is +alternately the jurist, the theologian, the scholastic metaphysician: +the poet of the Divina Commedia is betrayed only by the compressed +energy of diction, by his clear vision of the unseen, rarely by a +glowing metaphor. + +[Sidenote: The 'De Monarchia.'] + +Monarchy is first proved to be the true and rightful form of +government. Men's objects are best attained during universal peace: +this is possible only under a monarch. And as he is the image of the +Divine unity, so man is through him made one, and brought most near to +God. There must, in every system of forces, be a 'primum mobile;' to +be perfect, every organization must have a centre, into which all is +gathered, by which all is controlled[314]. Justice is best secured by +a supreme arbiter of disputes, himself unsolicited by ambition, since +his dominion is already bounded only by ocean. Man is best and +happiest when he is most free; to be free is to exist for one's own +sake. To this grandest end does the monarch and he alone guide us; +other forms of government are perverted[315], and exist for the +benefit of some class; he seeks the good of all alike, being to that +very end appointed[316]. + +Abstract arguments are then confirmed from history. Since the world +began there has been but one period of perfect peace, and but one of +perfect monarchy, that, namely, which existed at our Lord's birth, +under the sceptre of Augustus; since then the heathen have raged, and +the kings of the earth have stood up; they have set themselves against +their Lord, and his anointed the Roman prince[317]. The universal +dominion, the need for which has been thus established, is then proved +to belong to the Romans. Justice is the will of God, a will to exalt +Rome shewn through her whole history[318]. Her virtues deserved +honour: Virgil is quoted to prove those of Æneas, who by descent and +marriage was the heir of three continents: of Asia through Assaracus +and Creusa; of Africa by Electra (mother of Dardanus and daughter of +Atlas) and Dido; of Europe by Dardanus and Lavinia. God's favour was +approved in the fall of the shields to Numa, in the miraculous +deliverance of the capital from the Gauls, in the hailstorm after +Cannæ. Justice is also the advantage of the state: that advantage was +the constant object of the virtuous Cincinnatus, and the other heroes +of the republic. They conquered the world for its own good, and +therefore justly, as Cicero attests[319]; so that their sway was not +so much 'imperium' as 'patrocinium orbis terrarum.' Nature herself, +the fountain of all right, had, by their geographical position and by +the gift of a genius so vigorous, marked them out for universal +dominion:-- + + 'Excudent alii spirantia mollius æra, + Credo equidem: vivos ducent de marmore vultus; + Orabunt causas melius, cœlique meatus + Describent radio, et surgentia sidera dicent: + Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento; + Hæ tibi erunt artes; pacisque imponere morem, + Parcere subiectis, et debellare superbos.' + +Finally, the right of war asserted, Christ's birth, and death under +Pilate, ratified their government. For Christian doctrine requires +that the procurator should have been a lawful judge[320], which he was +not unless Tiberius was a lawful Emperor. + +The relations of the imperial and papal power are then examined, and +the passages of Scripture (tradition being rejected), to which the +advocates of the Papacy appeal, are elaborately explained away. The +argument from the sun and moon[321] does not hold, since both lights +existed before man's creation, and at a time when, as still sinless, +he needed no controlling powers. Else _accidentia_ would have preceded +_propria_ in creation. The moon, too, does not receive her being nor +all her light from the sun, but so much only as makes her more +effective. So there is no reason why the temporal should not be aided +in a corresponding measure by the spiritual authority. This difficult +text disposed of, others fall more easily; Levi and Judah, Samuel and +Saul, the incense and gold offered by the Magi[322]; the two swords, +the power of binding and loosing given to Peter. Constantine's +donation was illegal: no single Emperor nor Pope can disturb the +everlasting foundations of their respective thrones: the one had no +right to bestow, nor the other to receive, such a gift. Leo the Third +gave the Empire to Charles wrongfully: '_usurpatio iuris non facit +ius_.' It is alleged that all things of one kind are reducible to one +individual, and so all men to the Pope. But Emperor and Pope differ in +kind, and so far as they are men, are reducible only to God, on whom +the Empire immediately depends; for it existed before Peter's see, and +was recognized by Paul when he appealed to Cæsar. The temporal power +of the Papacy can have been given neither by natural law, nor divine +ordinance, nor universal consent: nay, it is against its own Form and +Essence, the life of Christ, who said, 'My kingdom is not of this +world.' + +Man's nature is twofold, corruptible and incorruptible: he has +therefore two ends, active virtue on earth, and the enjoyment of the +sight of God hereafter; the one to be attained by practice conformed +to the precepts of philosophy, the other by the theological virtues. +Hence two guides are needed, the pontiff and the Emperor, the latter +of whom, in order that he may direct mankind in accordance with the +teachings of philosophy to temporal blessedness, must preserve +universal peace in the world. Thus are the two powers equally ordained +of God, and the Emperor, though supreme in all that pertains to the +secular world, is in some things dependent on the pontiff, since +earthly happiness is subordinate to eternal. 'Let Cæsar, therefore, +shew towards Peter the reverence wherewith a firstborn son honours his +father, that, being illumined by the light of his paternal favour, he +may the more excellently shine forth upon the whole world, to the rule +of which he has been appointed by Him alone who is of all things, both +spiritual and temporal, the King and Governor.' So ends the treatise. + +Dante's arguments are not stranger than his omissions. No suspicion is +breathed against Constantine's donation; no proof is adduced, for no +doubt is felt, that the Empire of Henry the Seventh is the legitimate +continuation of that which had been swayed by Augustus and Justinian. +Yet Henry was a German, sprung from Rome's barbarian foes, the elected +of those who had neither part nor share in Italy and her capital. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[279] See esp. Ægidi, _Der Fürstenrath nach dem Luneviller Frieden_, +and the passages by him quoted. + +[280] The archbishop of Mentz addresses Conrad II on his election +thus: 'Deus quum a te multa requirat tum hoc potissimum desiderat ut +facias iudicium et iustitiam et pacem patriæ quæ respicit ad te, ut +sis defensor ecclesiarum et clericorum, tutor viduarum et +orphanorum.'--Wippo, Vita Chuonradi, c. 3, _ap._ Pertz. So Pope Urban +IV writes to Richard: 'Ut consternatis Imperii Romani inimicis, in +pacis pulchritudine sedeat populus Christianus et requie opulenta +quiescat.' Compare also the 'Edictum de crimine læsæ maiestatis' +issued by Henry VII in Italy: 'Ad reprimenda multorum facinora qui +ruptis totius debitæ fidelitatis habenis adversus Romanum imperium, in +cuius tranquillitate totius orbis regularitas requiescit, hostili +animo armati conentur nedum humana, verum etiam divina præcepta, +quibus iubetur quod omnis anima Romanorum principi sit subiecta, +scelestissimis facinoribus et rebellionibus demoliri,' &c.--Pertz, _M. +G. H._, legg. ii. p. 544. + +See also a curious passage in the Life of St. Adalbert, describing the +beginning of the reign at Rome of the Emperor Otto III, and his cousin +and nominee Pope Gregory V: 'Lætantur cum primatibus minores +civitatis: cum afflicto paupere exultant agmina viduarum, quia novus +imperator dat iura populis; dat iura novus papa.' + +[281] 'Imperator est monarcha omnium regum et principum terrenorum ... +nec insurgat superbia Gallicorum quæ dicat quod non recognoscit +superiorem, mentiuntur, quia de iure sunt et esse debent sub rege +Romanorum et Imperatore.'--Speech of Boniface VIII. It is curious to +compare with this the words addressed nearly five centuries earlier by +Pope John VIII to Lewis, king of Bavaria: 'Si sumpseritis Romanum +imperium, omnia regna vobis subiecta existent.' + +[282] So Alfonso, king of Naples, writes to Frederick III: 'Nos reges +omnes debemus reverentiam Imperatori, tanquam summo regi, qui est +Caput et Dux regum.'--Quoted by Pfeffinger, _Vitriarius illustratus_, +i. 379. And Francis I (of France), speaking of a proposed combined +expedition against the Turks, says, 'Cæsari nihilominus principem ea +in expeditione locum non gravarer ex officio cedere.'--For a long time +no European sovereign save the Emperor ventured to use the title of +'Majesty.' The imperial chancery conceded it in 1633 to the kings of +England and Sweden; in 1641 to the king of France.--Zedler, _Universal +Lexicon_, _s. v._ Majestät. + +[283] For with the progress of society and the growth of commerce the +old feudal customs were through the greater part of Western Europe, +and especially in Germany, either giving way to or being remodelled +and supplemented by the civil law. + +[284] 'Imperator est animata lex in terris.'--Quoted by Von Raumer, v. +81. + +[285] Thus we are told of the Emperor Charles the Bald, when he +confirmed the election of Boso, king of Burgundy and Provence, 'Dedit +Bosoni Provinciam (_sc._ Carolus Calvus), et corona in vertice capitis +imposita, eum regem appellari iussit, ut more priscorum imperatorum +regibus videretur dominari.'--_Regin. Chron._ Frederick II made his +son Enzio (that famous Enzio whose romantic history every one who has +seen Bologna will remember) king of Sardinia, and also erected the +duchy of Austria into a kingdom, although for some reason the title +seems never to have been used; and Lewis IV gave to Humbert of +Dauphiné the title of King of Vienne, A.D. 1336. + +[286] It is probably for this reason that the _Ordo Romanus_ directs +the Emperor and Empress to be crowned (in St. Peter's) at the altar of +St. Maurice, the patron saint of knighthood. + +[287] See especially Gerlach Buxtorff, _Dissertatio ad Auream Bullam_; +and Augustinus Stenchus, _De Imperio Romano_; quoted by Marquard +Freher. It was keenly debated, while Charles V and Francis I (of +France) were rival candidates, whether any one but a German was +eligible. By birth Charles was either a Spaniard or a Fleming; but +this difficulty his partisans avoided by holding that he had been, +according to the civil law, _in potestate_ of Maximilian his +grandfather. However, to say nothing of the Guidos and Berengars of +earlier days, the examples of Richard and Alfonso are conclusive as to +the eligibility of others than Germans. Edward III of England was, as +has been said, actually elected; Henry VIII was a candidate. And +attempts were frequently made to elect the kings of France. + +[288] The mediæval practice seems to have been that which still +prevails in the Roman Catholic Church--to presume the doctrinal +orthodoxy and external conformity of every citizen, whether lay or +clerical, until the contrary be proved. Of course when heresy was rife +it went hard with suspected men, unless they could either clear +themselves or submit to recant. But no one was required to pledge +himself beforehand, as a qualification for any office, to certain +doctrines. And thus, important as an Emperor's orthodoxy was, he does +not appear to have been subjected to any test, although the Pope +pretended to the right of catechizing him in the faith and rejecting +him if unsound. In the _Ordo Romanus_ we find a long series of +questions which the Pontiff was to administer, but it does not appear, +and is in the highest degree unlikely, that such a programme was ever +carried out. + +The charge of heresy was one of the weapons used with most effect +against Frederick II. + +[289] Honorius II in 1229 forbade it to be studied or taught in the +University of Paris. Innocent IV published some years later a still +more sweeping prohibition. + +[290] See Von Savigny, _History of Roman Law in the Middle Ages_, vol. +iii. pp. 81, 341-347. + +[291] Charles the Bold of Burgundy was a potentate incomparably +stronger than the Emperor Frederick III from whom he sought the regal +title. + +[292] Cf. Sismondi, _Républiques Italiennes_, iv. chap. xxvii. + +[293] See Dante, _Paradiso_, canto vi. + +[294] + + 'Vieni a veder la tua Roma, che piange + Vedova, sola, e di e notte chiama: + "Cesare mio, perchè non m' accompagne?"' + _Purgatorio_, canto vi. + +[295] _Purgatorio_, canto vii. + +[296] _Inferno_, canto xxxiv. + +[297] Not that the doctors of the civil law were necessarily political +partisans of the Emperors. Savigny says that there were on the +contrary more Guelfs than Ghibelines among the jurists of +Bologna.--_Roman Law in the Middle Ages_, vol. iii. p. 80. + +[298] Cf. Palgrave, _Normandy and England_, vol. ii. (of Otto and +Adelheid). The _Ordo Romanus_ talks of a 'Camera Iuliæ' in the Lateran +palace, reserved for the Empress. + +[299] See notes to _Chron. Casin._ in Muratori, _S. R. I._ iv. 515. + +[300] Zu aller Zeiten Mehrer des Reichs. + +[301] _Novellæ Constitutiones_. + +[302] Marquard Freher. The question whether the seven electors vote as +_singuli_ or as a _collegium_, is solved by shewing that they have +stepped into the place of the senate and people of Rome, whose duty it +was to choose the Emperor, though (it is naïvely added) the soldiers +sometimes usurped it.--Peter de Andlo, _De Imperio Romano_. + +[303] Thus Charles, in a capitulary added to a revised edition of the +Lombard law issued in A.D. 801, says, 'Anno consulatus nostri primo.' +So Otto III calls himself 'Consul Senatus populique Romani.' + +[304] Francis II, the last Emperor, was one hundred and twentieth from +Augustus. Some chroniclers call Otto the Great Otto II, counting in +Salvius Otho, the successor of Galba. + +[305] See p. 45 and note to p. 143. + +[306] Nürnberg herself was not of Roman foundation. But this makes the +imitation all the more curious. The fashion even passed from the +cities to rural communities like some of the Swiss cantons. Thus we +find 'Senatus populusque Uronensis.' + +[307] See Palgrave, _Normandy and England_, i. p. 379. + +[308] Æneas Sylvius, _De Ortu et Authoritate Imperii Romani_. + +[309] Thus some civilians held Constantine's Donation null; but the +canonists, we are told, were clear as to its legality. + +[310] 'Et idem dico de istis aliis regibus et principibus, qui negant +se esse subditos regi Romanorum, ut rex Franciæ, Angliæ, et similes. +Si enim fatentur ipsum esse Dominum universalem, licet ab illo +universali domino se subtrahant ex privilegio vel ex præscriptione vel +consimili, non ergo desunt esse cives Romani, per ea quæ dicta sunt. +Et per hoc omnes gentes quæ obediunt S. matri ecclesiæ sunt de populo +Romano. Et forte si quis diceret dominum Imperatorem non esse dominum +et monarcham totius orbis, esset hæreticus, quia diceret contra +determinationem ecclesiæ et textum S. evangelii, dum dicit, "Exivit +edictum a Cæsare Augusto ut describeretur universus orbis." Ita et +recognovit Christus Imperatorem ut dominum.'--Bartolus, _Commentary on +the Pandects_, xlviii. i. 24; _De Captivis et postliminio reversis_. + +[311] Peter de Andlo, _multis locis_ (see esp. cap. viii.), and other +writings of the time. Cf. Dante's letter to Henry VII: 'Romanorum +potestas nec metis Italiæ nec tricornis Siciliæ margine coarctatur. +Nam etsi vim passa in angustum gubernacula sua contraxit undique, +tamen de inviolabili iure fluctus Amphitritis attingens vix ab inutili +unda Oceani se circumcingi dignatur. Scriptum est enim + + "Nascetur pulchra Troianus origine Cæsar, + Imperium Oceano, famam qui terminet astris."' + +So Fr. Zoannetus, in the sixteenth century, declares it to be a mortal +sin to resist the Empire, as the power ordained of God. + +[312] Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini (afterwards Pope Pius II), _De Ortu et +Authoritate Imperii Romani_. Cf. Gerlach Buxtorff, _Dissertatio ad +Auream Bullam_. + +[313] It has hitherto been the common opinion that the _De Monarchia_ +was written in the view of Henry's expedition. But latterly weighty +reasons have been advanced for believing that its date must be placed +some years later. + +[314] Suggesting the celestial hierarchies of Dionysius the +Areopagite. + +[315] Quoting Aristotle's _Politics_. + +[316] 'Non enim cives propter consules nec gens propter regem, sed e +converso consules propter cives, rex propter gentem.' + +[317] 'Reges et principes in hoc unico concordantes, ut adversentur +Domino suo et uncto suo Romano Principi,' having quoted 'Quare +fremuerunt gentes.' + +[318] Especially in the opportune death of Alexander the Great. + +[319] Cic., _De Off._, ii. 'Ita ut illud patrocinium orbis terrarum +potius quam imperium poterat nominari.' + +[320] 'Si Pilati imperium non de iure fuit, peccatum in Christo non +fuit adeo punitum.' + +[321] There is a curious seal of the Emperor Otto IV (figured in J. M. +Heineccius, _De veteribus Germanorum atque aliarum nationum +sigillis_), on which the sun and moon are represented over the head of +the Emperor. Heineccius says he cannot explain it, but there seems to +be no reason why we should not take the device as typifying the accord +of the spiritual and temporal powers which was brought about at the +accession of Otto, the Guelfic leader, and the favoured candidate of +Pope Innocent III. + +The analogy between the lights of heaven and the princes of earth is +one which mediæval writers are very fond of. It seems to have +originated with Gregory VII. + +[322] Typifying the spiritual and temporal powers. Dante meets this by +distinguishing the homage paid to Christ from that which his Vicar can +rightfully demand. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE CITY OF ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. + + +'It is related,' says Sozomen in the ninth book of his Ecclesiastical +History, 'that when Alaric was hastening against Rome, a holy monk of +Italy admonished him to spare the city, and not to make himself the +cause of such fearful ills. But Alaric answered, "It is not of my own +will that I do this; there is One who forces me on, and will not let +me rest, bidding me spoil Rome[323]."' + +Towards the close of the tenth century the Bohemian Woitech, famous in +after legend as St. Adalbert, forsook his bishopric of Prague to +journey into Italy, and settled himself in the Roman monastery of +Sant' Alessio. After some few years passed there in religious +solitude, he was summoned back to resume the duties of his see, and +laboured for awhile among his half-savage countrymen. Soon, however, +the old longing came over him: he resought his cell upon the brow of +the Aventine, and there, wandering among the ancient shrines, and +taking on himself the menial offices of the convent, he abode happily +for a space. At length the reproaches of his metropolitan, the +archbishop of Mentz, and the express commands of Pope Gregory the +Fifth, drove him back over the Alps, and he set off in the train of +Otto the Third, lamenting, says his biographer, that he should no more +enjoy his beloved quiet in the mother of martyrs, the home of the +Apostles, golden Rome. A few months later he died a martyr among the +pagan Lithuanians of the Baltic[324]. + +Nearly four hundred years later, and nine hundred after the time of +Alaric, Francis Petrarch writes thus to his friend John Colonna:-- + +'Thinkest thou not that I long to see that city to which there has +never been any like nor ever shall be; which even an enemy called a +city of kings; of whose people it hath been written, "Great is the +valour of the Roman people, great and terrible their name;" concerning +whose unexampled glory and incomparable empire, which was, and is, and +is to be, divine prophets have sung; where are the tombs of the +apostles and martyrs and the bodies of so many thousands of the saints +of Christ[325]?' + +It was the same irresistible impulse that drew the warrior, the monk, +and the scholar towards the mystical city which was to mediæval Europe +more than Delphi had been to the Greek or Mecca to the Islamite, the +Jerusalem of Christianity, the city which had once ruled the earth, +and now ruled the world of disembodied spirits[326]. For there was +then, as there is now, something in Rome to attract men of every +class. The devout pilgrim came to pray at the shrine of the Prince of +the Apostles, too happy if he could carry back to his monastery in the +forests of Saxony or by the bleak Atlantic shore the bone of some holy +martyr; the lover of learning and poetry dreamed of Virgil and Cicero +among the shattered columns of the Forum; the Germanic kings, in spite +of pestilence, treachery and seditions, came with their hosts to seek +in the ancient capital of the world the fountain of temporal dominion. +Nor has the spell yet wholly lost its power. To half the Christian +nations Rome is the metropolis of religion, to all the metropolis of +art. In her streets, and hers alone among the cities of the world, may +every form of human speech be heard: she is more glorious in her decay +and desolation than the stateliest seats of modern power. + +But while men thought thus of Rome, what was Rome herself? + +The modern traveller, after his first few days in Rome, when he has +looked out upon the Campagna from the summit of St. Peter's, paced the +chilly corridors of the Vatican, and mused under the echoing dome of +the Pantheon, when he has passed in review the monuments of regal and +republican and papal Rome, begins to seek for some relics of the +twelve hundred years that lie between Constantine and Pope Julius the +Second. 'Where,' he asks, 'is the Rome of the Middle Ages, the Rome of +Alberic and Hildebrand and Rienzi? the Rome which dug the graves of so +many Teutonic hosts; whither the pilgrims flocked; whence came the +commands at which kings bowed? Where are the memorials of the +brightest age of Christian architecture, the age which reared Cologne +and Rheims and Westminster, which gave to Italy the cathedrals of +Tuscany and the wave-washed palaces of Venice?' + +To this question there is no answer. Rome, the mother of the arts, has +scarcely a building to commemorate those times, for to her they were +times of turmoil and misery, times in which the shame of the present +was embittered by recollections of a brighter past. Nevertheless a +minute scrutiny may still discover, hidden in dark corners or +disguised under an unbecoming modern dress, much that carries us back +to the mediæval town, and helps us to realize its social and political +condition. Therefore a brief notice of the state of Rome during the +Middle Ages, with especial reference to those monuments which the +visitor may still examine for himself, may not be without its use, and +is at any rate no unfitting pendant to an account of the institution +which drew from the city its name and its magnificent pretensions. +Moreover, as will appear more fully in the sequel, the history of the +Roman people is an instructive illustration of the influence of those +ideas upon which the Empire itself rested, as well in their weakness +as in their strength[327]. + +[Sidenote: Causes of the rapid decay of the city.] + +It is not from her capture by Alaric, nor even from the more +destructive ravages of the Vandal Genseric, that the material and +social ruin of Rome must be dated, but rather from the repeated sieges +which she sustained in the war of Belisarius with the Ostrogoths. This +struggle however, long and exhausting as it was, would not have proved +so fatal had the previous condition of the city been sound and +healthy. Her wealth and population in the middle of the fifth century +were probably little inferior to what they had been in the most +prosperous days of the imperial government. But this wealth was +entirely gathered into the hands of a small and effeminate +aristocracy. The crowd that filled her streets was composed partly of +poor and idle freemen, unaccustomed to arms and debarred from +political rights; partly of a far more numerous herd of slaves, +gathered from all parts of the world, and morally even lower than +their masters. There was no middle class, and no system of municipal +institutions, for although the senate and consuls with many of the +lesser magistracies continued to exist, they had for centuries enjoyed +no effective power, and were nowise fitted to lead and rule the +people. Hence it was that when the Gothic war and the subsequent +inroads of the Lombards had reduced the great families to beggary, the +framework of society dissolved and could not be replaced. In a state +rotten to the core there was no vital force left for reconstruction. +The old forms of political activity had been too long dead to be +recalled to life: the people wanted the moral force to produce new +ones, and all the authority that could be said to exist in the midst +of anarchy tended to centre itself in the chief of the new religious +society. + +[Sidenote: Peculiarities in the position of Rome.] + +So far Rome's condition was like that of the other great towns of +Italy and Gaul. But in two points her case differed from theirs, and +to these the difference of her after fortunes may be traced. Her +bishop had no temporal potentate to overshadow his dignity or check +his ambition, for the vicar of the Eastern court lived far away at +Ravenna, and seldom interfered except to ratify a papal election or +punish a more than commonly outrageous sedition. Her population +received an all but imperceptible infusion of that Teutonic blood and +those Teutonic customs by whose stern discipline the inhabitants of +northern Italy were in the end renovated. Everywhere the old +institutions had perished of decay: in Rome alone there was nothing +except the ecclesiastical system out of which new ones could arise. +Her condition was therefore the most pitiable in which a community can +find itself, one of struggle without purpose or progress. The citizens +were divided into three orders: the military class, including what was +left of the ancient aristocracy; the clergy, a host of priests, monks +and nuns, attached to the countless churches and convents; and the +people or _plebs_, as they are called, a poverty-stricken rabble +without trade, without industry, without any municipal organization to +bind them together. Of these two latter classes the Pope was the +natural leader, the first was divided into factions headed by some +three or four of the great families, whose quarrels kept the town in +incessant bloodshed. The internal history of Rome from the sixth to +the twelfth century is an obscure and tedious record of the contest of +these factions with each other, and of the aristocracy as a whole with +the slowly growing power of the Church. + +[Sidenote: Her condition in the ninth and tenth centuries.] + +The revolt of the Romans from the Iconoclastic Emperors of the East, +followed as it was by the reception of the Franks as patricians and +emperors, is an event of the highest importance in the history of +Italy and of the popedom. In the domestic constitution of Rome it made +little change. With the instinct of a profound genius, Charles the +Great saw that Rome, though it might be ostensibly the capital, could +not be the real centre of his dominions. He continued to reside in +Germany, and did not even build a palace at Rome. For a time the awe +of his power, the presence of his _missus_ or lieutenant, and the +occasional visits of his successors Lothar and Lewis II to the city, +repressed her internal disorders. But after the death of the prince +last named, and still more after the dissolution of the Carolingian +Empire itself, Rome relapsed into a state of profligacy and barbarism +to which, even in that age, Europe supplied no parallel, a barbarism +which had inherited all the vices of civilization without any of its +virtues. The papal office in particular seems to have lost its +religious character, as it had certainly lost all claim to moral +purity. For more than a century the chief priest of Christendom was no +more than a tool of some ferocious faction among the nobles. Criminal +means had raised him to the throne; violence, sometimes going the +length of mutilation or murder, deprived him of it. The marvel is, a +marvel in which papal historians have not unnaturally discovered a +miracle, that after sinking so low, the Papacy should ever have risen +again. Its rescue and exaltation to the pinnacle of glory was +accomplished not by the Romans but by the efforts of the Transalpine +Church, aiding and prompting the Saxon and Franconian Emperors. Yet +even the religious reform did not abate intestine turmoil, and it was +not till the twelfth century that a new spirit began to work in +politics, which ennobled if it could not heal the sufferings of the +Roman people. + +[Sidenote: Growth of a republican feeling: hostility to the Popes.] + +[Sidenote: Arnold of Brescia.] + +[Sidenote: Short-sighted policy of the Emperors.] + +Ever since the time of Alberic their pride had revolted against the +haughty behaviour of the Teutonic emperors. From still earlier times +they had been jealous of sacerdotal authority, and now watched with +alarm the rapid extension of its influence. The events of the twelfth +century gave these feelings a definite direction. It was the time of +the struggle of the Investitures, in which Hildebrand and his +disciples had been striving to draw all the things of this world as +well as of the next into their grasp. It was the era of the revived +study of Roman law, by which alone the extravagant pretensions of the +decretalists could be resisted. The Lombard and Tuscan towns had +become flourishing municipalities, independent of their bishops, and +at open war with their Emperor. While all these things were stirring +the minds of the Romans, Arnold of Brescia came preaching reform, +denouncing the corrupt life of the clergy, not perhaps, like some +others of the so-called schismatics of his time, denying the need of a +sacerdotal order, but at any rate urging its restriction to purely +spiritual duties. On the minds of the Romans such teaching fell like +the spark upon dry grass; they threw off the yoke of the Pope[328], +drove out the imperial prefect, reconstituted the senate and the +equestrian order, appointed consuls, struck their own coins, and +professed to treat the German Emperors as their nominees and +dependants. To have successfully imitated the republican constitution +of the cities of northern Italy would have been much, but with this +they were not content. Knowing in a vague ignorant way that there had +been a Roman republic before there was a Roman empire, they fed their +vanity with visions of a renewal of all their ancient forms, and saw +in fancy their senate and people sitting again upon the Seven Hills +and ruling over the kings of the earth. Stepping, as it were, into the +arena where Pope and Emperor were contending for the headship of the +world, they rejected the one as a priest, and declaring the other to +be only their creature, they claimed as theirs the true and lawful +inheritance of the world-dominion which their ancestors had won. +Antiquity was in one sense on their side, and to us now it seems less +strange that the Roman people should aspire to rule the earth than +that a German barbarian should rule it in their name. But practically +the scheme was absurd, and could not maintain itself against any +serious opposition. As a modern historian aptly expresses it, 'they +were setting up ruins:' they might as well have raised the broken +columns that strewed their Forum and hoped to rear out of them a +strong and stately temple. The reverence which the men of the Middle +Ages felt for Rome was given altogether to the name and to the place, +nowise to the people. As for power, they had none: so far from holding +Italy in subjection, they could scarcely maintain themselves against +the hostility of Tusculum. But it would have been well worth the while +of the Teutonic Emperors to have made the Romans their allies, and +bridled by their help the temporal ambition of the Popes. The offer +was actually made to them, first to Conrad the Third, who seems to +have taken no notice of it; and afterwards, as has been already +stated, to Frederick the First, who repelled in the most contumelious +fashion the envoys of the senate. Hating and fearing the Pope, he +always respected him: towards the Romans he felt all the contempt of a +feudal king for burghers, and of a German warrior for Italians. At the +demand of Pope Hadrian, whose foresight thought no heresy so dangerous +as one which threatened the authority of the clergy, Arnold of Brescia +was seized by the imperial prefect, put to death, and his ashes cast +into the Tiber, lest the people should treasure them up as relics. But +the martyrdom of their leader did not quench the hopes of his +followers. The republican constitution continued to exist, and rose +from time to time, during the weakness or the absence of the Popes, +into a brief and fitful activity[329]. Once awakened, the idea, +seductive at once to the imagination of the scholar and the vanity of +the Roman citizen, could not wholly disappear, and two centuries after +Arnold's time it found a more brilliant if less disinterested exponent +in the tribune Nicholas Rienzi. + +[Sidenote: Character and career of the tribune Rienzi.] + +The career of this singular personage is misunderstood by those who +suppose him to have been possessed of profound political insight, a +republican on modern principles. He was indeed, despite his +overweening conceit, and what seems to us his charlatanry, both a +patriot and a man of genius, in temperament a poet, filled with +soaring ideas. But those ideas, although dressed out in gaudier +colours by his lively fancy, were after all only the old ones, +memories of the long-faded glories of the heathen republic, and a +series of scornful contrasts levelled at her present oppressors, both +of them shewing no vista of future peace except through the revival of +those ancient names to which there were no things to correspond. It +was by declaiming on old texts and displaying old monuments that the +tribune enlisted the support of the Roman populace, not by any appeal +to democratic principles; and the whole of his acts and plans, though +they astonished men by their boldness, do not seem to have been +regarded as novel or impracticable[330]. In the breasts of men like +Petrarch, who loved Rome even more than they hated her people, the +enthusiasm of Rienzi found a sympathetic echo: others scorned and +denounced him as an upstart, a demagogue, and a rebel. Both friends +and enemies seem to have comprehended and regarded as natural his +feelings and designs, which were altogether those of his age. Being, +however, a mere matter of imagination, not of reason, having no +anchor, so to speak, in realities, no true relation to the world as it +then stood, these schemes of republican revival were as transient and +unstable as they were quick of growth and gay of colour. As the +authority of the Popes became consolidated, and free municipalities +disappeared elsewhere throughout Italy, the dream of a renovated Rome +at length withered up and fell and died. Its last struggle was made in +the conspiracy of Stephen Porcaro, in the time of Pope Nicholas the +Fifth; and from that time onward there was no question of the +supremacy of the bishop within his holy city. + +[Sidenote: Causes of the failure of the struggle for independence.] + +It is never without a certain regret that we watch the disappearance +of a belief, however illusive, around which the love and reverence for +mankind once clung. But this illusion need be the less regretted that +it had only the feeblest influence for good on the state of mediæval +Rome. During the three centuries that lie between Arnold of Brescia +and Porcaro, the disorders of Rome were hardly less violent than they +had been in the Dark Ages, and to all appearance worse than those of +any other European city. There was a want not only of fixed authority, +but of those elements of social stability which the other cities of +Italy possessed. In the greater republics of Lombardy and Tuscany the +bulk of the population were artizans, hard working orderly people; +while above them stood a prosperous middle class, engaged mostly in +commerce, and having in their system of trade-guilds an organization +both firm and flexible. It was by foreign trade that Genoa, Venice, +and Pisa became great, as it was the wealth acquired by manufacturing +industry that enabled Milan and Florence to overcome and incorporate +the territorial aristocracies which surrounded them. + +[Sidenote: Internal condition of the city.] + +[Sidenote: The people.] + +[Sidenote: The nobility.] + +[Sidenote: The bishop.] + +Rome possessed neither source of riches. She was ill-placed for trade; +having no market she produced no goods to be disposed of, and the +unhealthiness which long neglect had brought upon her Campagna made +its fertility unavailable. Already she stood as she stands now, lonely +and isolated, a desert at her very gates. As there was no industry, so +there was nothing that deserved to be called a citizen class. The +people were a mere rabble, prompt to follow the demagogue who +flattered their vanity, prompter still to desert him in the hour of +danger. Superstition was with them a matter of national pride, but +they lived too near sacred things to feel much reverence for them: +they ill-treated the Pope and fleeced the pilgrims who crowded to +their shrines: they were probably the only community in Europe who +sent no recruit to the armies of the Cross. Priests, monks, and all +the nondescript hangers on of an ecclesiastical court formed a large +part of the population; while of the rest many were supported in a +state of half mendicancy by the countless religious foundations, +themselves enriched by the gifts or the plunder of Latin Christendom. +The noble families were numerous, powerful, ferocious; they were +surrounded by bands of unruly retainers, and waged a constant war +against each other from their castles in the adjoining country or in +the streets of the city itself. Had things been left to take their +natural course, one of these families, the Colonna, for instance, or +the Orsini, would probably have ended by overcoming its rivals, and +have established, as was the case in the republics of Romagna and +Tuscany, a 'signoria' or local tyranny, like those which had once +prevailed in the cities of Greece. But the presence of the sacerdotal +power, as it had hindered the growth of feudalism, so also it stood in +the way of such a development as this, and in so far aggravated the +confusion of the city. Although the Pope was not as yet recognized as +legitimate sovereign, he was not only the most considerable person in +Rome, but the only one whose authority had anything of an official +character. But the reign of each pontiff was short; he had no military +force, he was frequently absent from his see. He was, moreover, very +often a member of one of the great families, and, as such, no better +than a faction leader at home, while venerated by the rest of Europe +as the universal priest. + +[Sidenote: The Emperor.] + +[Sidenote: Visits of the Emperors to Rome.] + +It remains only to speak of the person who should have been to Rome +what the national king was to the cities of France, or England, or +Germany, that is to say, of the Emperor. As has been said already, his +power was a mere chimera, chiefly important as furnishing a pretext to +the Colonna and other Ghibeline chieftains for their opposition to the +papal party. Even his abstract rights were matter of controversy. The +Popes, whose predecessors had been content to govern as the +lieutenants of Charles and Otto, now maintained that Rome as a +spiritual city could not be subject to any temporal jurisdiction, and +that she was therefore no part of the Roman Empire, though at the same +time its capital. Not only, it was urged, had Constantine yielded up +Rome to Sylvester and his successors, Lothar the Saxon had at his +coronation formally renounced his sovereignty by doing homage to the +pontiff and receiving the crown as his vassal. The Popes felt then as +they feel now, that their dignity and influence would suffer if they +should even appear to admit in their place of residence the +jurisdiction of a civil potentate, and although they could not secure +their own authority, they were at least able to exclude any other. +Hence it was that they were so uneasy whenever an Emperor came to them +to be crowned, that they raised up difficulties in his path, and +endeavoured to be rid of him as soon as possible. And here something +must be said of the programme, as one may call it, of these imperial +visits to Rome, and of the marks of their presence which the Germans +left behind them, remembering always that after the time of Frederick +the Second it was rather the exception than the rule for an Emperor to +be crowned in his capital at all. + +[Sidenote: Their approach.] + +The traveller who enters Rome now, if he comes, as he most commonly +does, by way of Civita Vecchia, slips in by the railway before he is +aware, is huddled into a vehicle at the terminus, and set down at his +hotel in the middle of the modern town before he has seen anything at +all. If he comes overland from Tuscany along the bleak road that +passes near Veii and crosses the Milvian bridge, he has indeed from +the slopes of the Ciminian range a splendid prospect of the sea-like +Campagna, girdled in by glittering hills, but of the city he sees no +sign, save the pinnacle of St. Peter's, until he is within the walls. +Far otherwise was it in the Middle Ages. Then travellers of every +grade, from the humble pilgrim to the new-made archbishop who came in +the pomp of a lengthy train to receive from the Pope the pallium of +his office, approached from the north or north-east side; following a +track along the hilly ground on the Tuscan side of the Tiber until +they halted on the brow of Monte Mario[331]--the Mount of Joy--and saw +the city of their solemnities lie spread before them, from the great +pile of the Lateran far away upon the Cœlian hill, to the basilica of +St. Peter's at their feet. They saw it not, as now, a sea of billowy +cupolas, but a mass of low red-roofed houses, varied by tall brick +towers, and at rarer intervals by masses of ancient ruin, then larger +far than now; while over all rose those two monuments of the best of +the heathen Emperors, monuments that still look down, serenely +changeless, on the armies of new nations and the festivals of a new +religion--the columns of Marcus Aurelius and Trajan. + +[Sidenote: Their entrance.] + +[Sidenote: Hostility of Pope and people to the Germans.] + +From Monte Mario the Teutonic host descended, when they had paid their +orisons, into the Neronian field, the piece of flat land that lies +outside the gate of St. Angelo. Here it was the custom for the elders +of the Romans to meet the elected Emperor, present their charters for +confirmation, and receive his oath to preserve their good +customs[332]. Then a procession was formed: the priests and monks, who +had come out with hymns to greet the Emperor, led the way; the knights +and soldiers of Rome, such as they were, came next; then the monarch, +followed by a long array of Transalpine chivalry. Passing into the +city they advanced to St. Peter's, where the Pope, surrounded by his +clergy, stood on the great staircase of the basilica to welcome and +bless the Roman king. On the next day came the coronation, with +ceremonies too elaborate for description[333], ceremonies which, we +may well believe, were seldom duly completed. Far more usual were +other rites, of which the book of ritual makes no mention, unless they +are to be counted among the 'good customs of the Romans;' the clang of +war bells, the battle cry of German and Italian combatants. The Pope, +when he could not keep the Emperor from entering Rome, required him to +leave the bulk of his host without the walls, and if foiled in this, +sought his safety in raising up plots and seditions against his too +powerful friend. The Roman people, on the other hand, violent as they +often were against the Pope, felt nevertheless a sort of national +pride in him. Very different were their feelings towards the Teutonic +chieftain, who came from a far land to receive in their city, yet +without thanking them for it, the ensign of a power which the prowess +of their forefathers had won. Despoiled of their ancient right to +choose the universal bishop, they clung all the more desperately to +the belief that it was they who chose the universal prince; and were +mortified afresh when each successive sovereign contemptuously scouted +their claims, and paraded before their eyes his rude barbarian +cavalry. Thus it was that a Roman sedition was the all but invariable +accompaniment of a Roman coronation. The three revolts against Otto +the Great have been already described. His grandson Otto the Third, in +spite of his passionate fondness for the city, was met by the same +faithlessness and hatred, and departed at last in despair at the +failure of his attempts at conciliation[334]. A century afterwards +Henry the Fifth's coronation produced violent tumults, which ended in +his seizing the Pope and cardinals in St. Peter's, and keeping them +prisoners till they submitted to his terms. Remembering this, Pope +Hadrian the Fourth would fain have forced the troops of Frederick +Barbarossa to remain without the walls, but the rapidity of their +movements disconcerted his plans and anticipated the resistance of the +Roman populace. Having established himself in the Leonine city[335], +Frederick barricaded the bridge over the Tiber, and was duly crowned +in St. Peter's. But the rite was scarcely finished when the Romans, +who had assembled in arms on the Capitol, dashed over the bridge, fell +upon the Germans, and were with difficulty repulsed by the personal +efforts of Frederick. Into the city he did not venture to pursue them, +nor was he at any period of his reign able to make himself master of +the whole of it. Finding themselves similarly baffled, his successors +at last accepted their position, and were content to take the crown on +the Pope's conditions and depart without further question. + +[Sidenote: Memorials of the Germanic Emperors in Rome.] + +[Sidenote: Of Otto the Third.] + +Coming so seldom and remaining for so short a time, it is not +wonderful that the Teutonic Emperors should, in the seven centuries +from Charles the Great to Charles the Fifth, have left fewer marks of +their presence in Rome than Titus or Hadrian alone have done; fewer +and less considerable even than those which tradition attributes to +those whom it calls Servius Tullius and the elder Tarquin. Those +monuments which do exist are just sufficient to make the absence of +all others more conspicuous. The most important dates from the time of +Otto the Third, the only Emperor who attempted to make Rome his +permanent residence. Of the palace, probably nothing more than a +tower, which he built on the Aventine, no trace has been discovered; +but the church, founded by him to receive the ashes of his friend the +martyred St. Adalbert, may still be seen upon the island in the Tiber. +Having received from Benevento relics supposed to be those of +Bartholomew the Apostle[336], it became dedicated to that saint, and +is now the church of San Bartolommeo in Isola, whose quaintly +picturesque bell-tower of red brick, now grey with extreme age, looks +out from among the orange trees of a convent garden over the +swift-eddying yellow waters of the Tiber. + +[Sidenote: Of Otto the Second.] + +[Sidenote: Of Frederick the Second.] + +Otto the Second, son of Otto the Great, died at Rome, and lies buried +in the crypt of St. Peter's, the only Emperor who has found a +resting-place among the graves of the Popes[337]. His tomb is not far +from that of his nephew Pope Gregory the Fifth: it is a plain one of +roughly chiselled marble. The lid of the superb porphyry sarcophagus +in which he lay for a time now serves as the great font of St. +Peter's, and may be seen in the baptismal chapel, on the left of the +entrance of the church, not far from the tombs of the Stuarts. Last of +all must be mentioned a curious relic of the Emperor Frederick the +Second, the prince whom of all others one would least expect to see +honoured in the city of his foes. It is an inscription in the palace +of the Conservators upon the Capitoline hill, built into the wall of +the great staircase, and relates the victory of Frederick's army over +the Milanese, and the capture of the carroccio[338] of the rebel city, +which he sends as a trophy to his faithful Romans. These are all or +nearly all the traces of her Teutonic lords that Rome has preserved +till now. Pictures indeed there are in abundance, from the mosaic of +the Scala Santa at the Lateran[339] and the curious frescoes in the +church of Santi Quattro Incoronati[340], down to the paintings of the +Sistine antechapel and the Stanze of Raphael in the Vatican, where the +triumphs of the Popedom over all its foes are set forth with matchless +art and equally matchless unveracity. But these are mostly long +subsequent to the events they describe, and these all the world knows. + +Associations of the highest interest would have attached to the +churches in which the imperial coronation was performed--a ceremony +which, whether we regard the dignity of the performers or the +splendour of the adjuncts, was probably the most imposing that modern +Europe has known. But old St. Peter's disappeared in the end of the +fifteenth century, not long after the last Roman coronation, that of +Frederick the Third, while the basilica of St. John Lateran, in which +Lothar the Saxon and Henry the Seventh were crowned, has been so +wofully modernized that we can hardly figure it to ourselves as the +same building[341]. + +[Sidenote: Causes of the want of mediæval monuments in Rome.] + +[Sidenote: Barbarism of the aristocracy.] + +Bearing in mind what was the social condition of Rome during the +middle ages, it becomes easier to understand the architectural +barrenness which at first excites the visitor's surprise. Rome had no +temporal sovereign, and there were therefore only two classes who +could build at all, the nobles and the clergy. Of these, the former +had seldom the wealth, and never the taste, which would have enabled +them to construct palaces graceful as the Venetian or massively grand +as the Florentine and Genoese. Moreover, the constant practice of +domestic war made defence the first object of a house, beauty and +convenience the second. The nobility, therefore, either adapted +ancient edifices to their purpose or built out of their materials +those huge square towers of brick, a few of which still frown over the +narrow streets in the older parts of Rome. We may judge of their +number from the statement that the senator Brancaleone destroyed one +hundred and forty of them. With perhaps no more than one exception, +that of the so-called House of Rienzi, these towers are the only +domestic buildings in the city older than the middle of the fifteenth +century. The vast palaces to which strangers now flock for the sake of +the picture galleries they contain, have been most of them erected in +the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, some even later. Among the +earliest is that Palazzo Cenci[342], whose gloomy low-browed arch so +powerfully affected the imagination of Shelley. + +[Sidenote: Ambition, weakness, and corruption of the clergy.] + +It was no want of wealth that hampered the architectural efforts of +the clergy, for vast revenues flowed in upon them from every corner of +Christendom. A good deal was actually spent upon the erection or +repairs of churches and convents, although with a less liberal hand +than that of such great Transalpine prelates as Hugh of Lincoln or +Conrad of Cologne. But the Popes always needed money for their +projects of ambition, and in times when disorder or corruption were at +their height the work of building stopped altogether. Thus it was that +after the time of the Carolingians scarcely a church was erected until +the beginning of the twelfth century, when the reforms of Hildebrand +had breathed new zeal into the priesthood. The Babylonish captivity of +Avignon, as it was called, with the great schism of the West that +followed upon it, was the cause of a second similar intermission, +which lasted nearly a century and a half. + +[Sidenote: Tendency of the Roman builders to adhere to the ancient +manner.] + +[Sidenote: Absence of Gothic in Rome.] + +At every time, however, even when his work went on most briskly, the +labours of the Roman architect took the direction of restoring and +readorning old churches rather than of erecting new ones. While the +Transalpine countries, except in a few favoured spots, such as +Provence and part of the Rhineland, remained during several ages with +few and rudely built stone churches, Rome possessed, as the +inheritance of the earlier Christian centuries, a profusion of houses +of worship, some of them still unsurpassed in splendour, and far more +than adequate to the needs of her diminished population. In repairing +these from time to time, their original form and style of work were +usually as far as possible preserved, while in constructing new ones, +the abundance of models beautiful in themselves and hallowed as well +by antiquity as by religious feeling, enthralled the invention of the +workman, bound him down to be at best a faithful imitator, and forbade +him to deviate at pleasure from the old established manner. Thus it +befel that while his brethren throughout the rest of Europe were +passing by successive steps from the old Roman and Byzantine styles to +Romanesque, and from Romanesque to Gothic, the Roman architect +scarcely departed from the plan and arrangements of the primitive +basilica. This is one chief reason why there is so little of Gothic +work in Rome, so little even of Romanesque like that of Pisa. What +there is appears chiefly in the pointed window, more rarely in the +arch, seldom or never in spire or tower or column. Only one of the +existing churches of Rome is Gothic throughout, and that, the +Dominican church of S. Maria sopra Minerva, was built by foreign +monks. In some of the other churches, and especially in the cloisters +of the convents, instances may be observed of the same style: in +others slight traces, by accident or design almost obliterated[343]. + +[Sidenote: Destruction and alteration of the old buildings:] + +[Sidenote: By invaders.] + +[Sidenote: By the Romans of the Middle Ages.] + +[Sidenote: By modern restorers of churches.] + +The mention of obliteration suggests a third cause of the comparative +want of mediæval buildings in the city--the constant depredations and +changes of which she has been the subject. Ever since the time of +Constantine Rome has been a city of destruction, and Christians have +vied with pagans, citizens with enemies, in urging on the fatal work. +Her siege and capture by Robert Guiscard[344], the ally of Hildebrand +against Henry the Fourth, was far more ruinous than the attacks of the +Goths or Vandals: and itself yields in atrocity to the sack of Rome in +A.D. 1526 by the soldiers of the Catholic king and most pious Emperor +Charles the Fifth[345]. Since the days of the first barbarian +invasions the Romans have gone on building with materials taken from +the ancient temples, theatres, law-courts, baths and villas, stripping +them of their gorgeous casings of marble, pulling down their walls for +the sake of the blocks of travertine, setting up their own hovels on +the top or in the midst of these majestic piles. Thus it has been with +the memorials of paganism: a somewhat different cause has contributed +to the disappearance of the mediæval churches. What pillage, or +fanaticism, or the wanton lust of destruction did in the one case, the +ostentatious zeal of modern times has done in the other. The era of +the final establishment of the Popes as temporal sovereigns of the +city, is also that of the supremacy of the Renaissance style in +architecture. After the time of Nicholas the Fifth, the pontiff +against whom, it will be remembered, the spirit of municipal freedom +made its last struggle in the conspiracy of Porcaro, nothing was built +in Gothic, and the prevailing enthusiasm for the antique produced a +corresponding dislike to everything mediæval, a dislike conspicuous in +men like Julius the Second and Leo the Tenth, from whom the grandeur +of modern Rome may be said to begin. Not long after their time the +great religious movement of the sixteenth century, while triumphing in +the north of Europe, was in the south met and overcome by a +counter-reformation in the bosom of the old church herself, and the +construction or restoration of ecclesiastical buildings became again +the passion of the devout[346]. No employment, whether it be called an +amusement or a duty, could have been better suited to the court and +aristocracy of Rome. They were indolent; wealthy, and fond of +displaying their wealth; full of good taste, and anxious, especially +when advancing years had chased away youth's pleasures, to be full of +good works also. Popes and cardinals and the heads of the great +families vied with one another in building new churches and restoring +or enlarging those they found till little of the old was left; raising +over them huge cupolas, substituting massive pilasters for the +single-shafted columns, adorning the interior with a profusion of rare +marbles, of carving and gilding, of frescoes and altar-pieces by the +best masters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. None but a +bigoted mediævalist can refuse to acknowledge the warmth of tone, the +repose, the stateliness, of the churches of modern Rome; but even in +the midst of admiration the sated eye turns away from the wealth of +ponderous ornament, and we long for the clear pure colour, the simple +yet grand proportions that give a charm to the buildings of an earlier +age. + +[Sidenote: Existing relics of the Dark and Middle Ages.] + +[Sidenote: The Mosaics.] + +[Sidenote: The Bell-towers.] + +Few of the ancient churches have escaped untouched; many have been +altogether rebuilt. There are also some, however, in which the +modernizers of the sixteenth and subsequent centuries have spared two +features of the old structure, its round apse or tribune and its +bell-tower. The apse has its interior usually covered with mosaics, +exceedingly interesting, both from the ideas they express and as the +only monuments of pictorial art that remain to us from the Dark Ages. +To speak of them, however, as they deserve to be spoken of, would +involve a digression for which there is no space here. The campanile +or bell-tower is a quaint little square brick tower, of no great +height, usually standing detached from the church, and having in its +topmost, sometimes also in its other upper stories, several arcade +windows, divided by tiny marble pillars[347]. What with these +campaniles, then far more numerous than they are now, and with the +huge brick fortresses of the nobles, towers must have held in the +landscape of the mediæval city very much the part which domes do now. +Although less imposing, they were probably more picturesque, the +rather as in the earlier part of the Middle Ages the houses and +churches, which are now mostly crowded together on the flat of the +Campus Martius, were scattered over the heights and slopes of the +Cœlian, Aventine, and Esquiline hills[348]. Modern Rome lies chiefly +on the opposite or north-eastern side of the Capitol, and the change +from the old to the new site of the city, which can hardly be said to +have distinctly begun before the destruction of the south-western part +of the town by Robert Guiscard, was not completed until the sixteenth +century. In A.D. 1536 the Capitol was rebuilt by Michael Angelo, in +anticipation of the entry of Charles the Fifth, upon foundations that +had been laid by the first Tarquin; and the palace of the Senator, the +greatest municipal edifice of Rome, which had hitherto looked towards +the Forum and the Coliseum, was made to front in the direction of St. +Peter's and the modern town. + +[Sidenote: Changed aspect of the city of Rome.] + +[Sidenote: Analogy between her architecture and her civil and +ecclesiastical constitution.] + +[Sidenote: Preservation of an antique character in both.] + +The Rome of to-day is no more like the city of Rienzi than she is to +the city of Trajan; just as the Roman church of the nineteenth century +differs profoundly, however she may strive to disguise it, from the +church of Hildebrand. But among all their changes, both church and +city have kept themselves wonderfully free from the intrusion of +foreign, at least of Teutonic, elements, and have faithfully preserved +at all times something of an old Roman character. Latin Christianity +inherited from the imperial system of old that firmly knit yet +flexible organization, which was one of the grand secrets of its +power: the great men whom mediæval Rome gave to or trained up for the +Papacy were, like their progenitors, administrators, legislators, +statesmen; seldom enthusiasts themselves, but perfectly understanding +how to use and guide the enthusiasm of others--of the French and +German crusaders, of men like Francis of Assisi and Dominic and +Ignatius. Between Catholicism in Italy and Catholicism in Germany or +England there was always, as there is still, a very perceptible +difference. So also, if the analogy be not too fanciful, was it with +Rome the city. Socially she seemed always drifting towards feudalism; +yet she never fell into its grasp. Materially, her architecture was at +one time considerably influenced by Gothic forms, yet Gothic never +became, as in the rest of Europe, the dominant style. It approached +Rome late, and departed from her early, so that we scarcely notice its +presence, and seem to pass almost without a break from the old +Romanesque[349] to the Græco-Roman of the Renaissance. Thus regarded, +the history of the city, both in her political state and in her +buildings, is seen to be intimately connected with that of the Holy +Empire itself. The Empire in its title and its pretensions expressed +the idea of the permanence of the institutions of the ancient world; +Rome the city had, in externals at least, carefully preserved their +traditions: the names of her magistracies, the character of her +buildings, all spoke of antiquity, and gave it a strange and shadowy +life in the midst of new races and new forms of faith. + +[Sidenote: Relation of the City and the Empire.] + +In its essence the Empire rested on the feeling of the unity of +mankind; it was the perpetuation of the Roman dominion by which the +old nationalities had been destroyed, with the addition of the +Christian element which had created a new nationality that was also +universal. By the extension of her citizenship to all her subjects +heathen Rome had become the common home, and, figuratively, even the +local dwelling-place of the civilized races of man. By the theology of +the time Christian Rome had been made the mystical type of humanity, +the one flock of the faithful scattered over the whole earth, the holy +city whither, as to the temple on Moriah, all the Israel of God should +come up to worship. She was not merely an image of the mighty world, +she was the mighty world itself in miniature. The pastor of her local +church is also the universal bishop; the seven suffragans who +consecrate him are the overseers of petty sees in Ostia, Antium, and +the like, towns lying close round Rome: the cardinal priests and +deacons who join these seven in electing him derive their title to be +princes of the Church, the supreme spiritual council of the Christian +world, from the incumbency of a parochial cure within the precincts of +the city. Similarly, her ruler, the Emperor, is ruler of mankind; he +is chosen by the acclamations of her people[350]: he can be lawfully +crowned nowhere but in one of her basilicas. She is, like Jerusalem of +old, the mother of us all. + +[Sidenote: Extinction of the Florentine republic, A.D. 1530.] + +There is yet another way in which the record of the domestic contests +of Rome throws light upon the history of the Empire. From the eleventh +century to the fifteenth her citizens ceased not to demand in the name +of the old republic their freedom from the tyranny of the nobles and +the Pope, and their right to rule over the world at large. These +efforts--selfish and fantastic we may call them, yet men like Petrarch +did not disdain to them their sympathy--issued from the same theories +and were directed to the same ends as those which inspired Otto the +Third and Frederick Barbarossa and Dante himself. They witness to the +same incapacity to form any ideal for the future except a revival of +the past; the same belief that one universal state is both desirable +and possible, but possible only through the means of Rome: the same +refusal to admit that a right which has once existed can ever be +extinguished. In the days of the Renaissance these notions were +passing silently away: the succeeding century brought with it +misfortunes that broke the spirit of the nation. Italy was the +battle-field of Europe: her wealth became the prey of a rapacious +soldiery: the last and greatest of her republics was enslaved by an +unfeeling Emperor, and handed over as the pledge of amity to a selfish +Medicean Pope. When the hope of independence had been lost, the people +turned away from politics to live for art and literature, and found, +before many generations had passed, how little such exclusive devotion +could compensate for the departure of freedom, and a national spirit, +and the activity of civic life. A century after the golden days of +Ariosto and Raphael, Italian literature had become frigid and +affected, while Italian art was dying of mannerism. + +[Sidenote: Feelings of the modern Italians towards Rome.] + +At length, after long ages of sloth, the stagnant waters were +troubled. The Romans, who had lived in listless contentment under the +paternal sway of the Popes, received new ideas from the advent of the +revolutionary armies of France, and have found the Papal system, since +its re-establishment fifty years ago as a modern bureaucratic +despotism, far less tolerable than it was of yore. Our own days have +seen the name of Rome become again a rallying-cry for the patriots of +Italy, but in a sense most unlike the old one. The contemporaries of +Arnold and Rienzi desired freedom only as a step to universal +domination: their descendants, more wisely, yet not more from +patriotism than from a pardonable civic pride, seek only to be the +capital of the Italian kingdom. Dante prayed for a monarchy of the +world, a reign of peace and Christian brotherhood: those who invoke +his name as the earliest prophet of their creed strive after an idea +that never crossed his mind--the national union of Italy[351]. + +Plain common-sense politicians in other countries do not understand +this passion for Rome as a capital, and think it their duty to lecture +the Italians on their flightiness. The latter do not themselves +pretend that the shores of the Tiber are a suitable site for a +capital: Rome is lonely, unhealthy, and in a bad strategical position; +she has no particular facilities for trade: her people, with some fine +qualities, are less orderly and industrious than the Tuscans or the +Piedmontese. Nevertheless all Italy cries with one voice for Rome, +firmly believing that national life can never thrill with a strong and +steady pulsation till the ancient capital has become the nation's +heart. They feel that it is owing to Rome--Rome pagan as well as +Christian--that they once played so grand a part in the drama of +European history, and that they have now been able to attain that +fervid sentiment of unity which has brought them at last together +under one government. Whether they are right, whether if right they +are likely to be successful, need not be inquired here. But it +deserves to be noted that this enthusiasm for a famous name--for it is +nothing more--is substantially the same feeling as that which created +and hallowed the Holy Empire of the Middle Ages. The events of the +last few years on both sides of the Atlantic have proved that men are +not now, any more than they ever were, chiefly governed by +calculations of material profit and loss. Sentiments, fancies, +theories, have not lost their power; the spirit of poetry has not +wholly passed away from politics. And strange as seems to us the +worship paid to the name of mediæval Rome by those who saw the sins +and the misery of her people, it can hardly have been an intenser +feeling than is the imaginative reverence wherewith the Italians of +to-day look on the city whence, as from a fountain, all the streams of +their national life have sprung, and in which, as in an ocean, they +are all again to mingle. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[323] Hist. Eccl. l. ix. c. 6: τὸν δὲ φάναι, ὡς οὐχ ἑκὼν τάδε +ἐπιχειρεῖ, ἀλλά τις συνεχῶς ἐνοχλῶν αὐτὸν βιάζεται, καὶ ἐπιτάττει τὴν +Ῥώμην πορθεῖν. + +[324] See the two Lives of St. Adalbert in Pertz, _M. G. H._, iv., +evidently compiled soon after his death. + +[325] Another letter of Petrarch's to John Colonna, written +immediately after his arrival in the city, deserves to be quoted, it +is so like what a stranger would now write off after his first day in +Rome:--'In præsens nihil est quod inchoare ausim, miraculo rerum +tantarum et stuporis mole obrutus ... præsentia vero, mirum dictu, +nihil imminuit sed auxit omnia: vere maior fuit Roma maioresque sunt +reliquiæ quam rebar: iam non orbem ab hac urbe domitum sed tam sero +domitum miror. Vale.' + +[326] The idea of the continuance of the sway of Rome under a new +character is one which mediæval writers delight to illustrate. In +Appendix, Note D, there is quoted as a specimen a poem upon Rome, by +Hildebert (bishop of Le Mans, and afterwards archbishop of Tours), +written in the beginning of the twelfth century. + +[327] In writing this chapter I have derived much assistance from the +admirable work of Ferdinand Gregorovius, _Geschichte der Stadt Rom im +Mittelalter_. Unfortunately no English translation of it exists; but I +am informed by the author that one is likely ere long to appear. + +[328] Republican forms of some sort had existed before Arnold's +arrival, but we hear the name of no other leader mentioned; and +doubtless it was by him chiefly that the spirit of hostility to the +clerical power was infused into the minds of the Romans. + +[329] The series of papal coins is interrupted (with one or two slight +exceptions) from A.D. 984 (not long after the time of Alberic) to A.D. +1304. In their place we meet with various coins struck by the +municipal authorities, some of which bear on the obverse the head of +the Apostle Peter, with the legend Roman. Pricipe: on the reverse the +head of the Apostle Paul, legend, Senat. Popul. Q. R. Gregorovius, _ut +supra_. + +[330] Rienzi called himself Augustus as well as tribune; 'tribuno +Augusto de Roma.' (He pretended, or his friends pretended for him--it +was at any rate believed--that he was an illegitimate son of the +Emperor Henry the Seventh.) He cited, on his appointment, the Pope and +cardinals to appear before the people of Rome and give an account of +their conduct; and after them the Emperor. 'Ancora citao lo Bavaro +(Lewis the Fourth). Puoi citao li elettori de lo imperio in Alemagna, +e disse "Voglio vedere che rascione haco nella elettione," che +trovasse scritto che passato alcuno tempo la elettione recadeva a li +Romani.'--_Vita di Cola di Rienzi_, c. xxvi (written by a +contemporary). I give the spelling as it stands in Muratori's edition. + +[331] The Germans called this hill, which is the highest in or near +Rome, conspicuous from a beautiful group of stone-pines upon its brow, +Mons Gaudii; the origin of the Italian name, Monte Mario, is not +known, unless it be, as some think, a corruption of Mons Malus. + +It was on this hill that Otto the Third hanged Crescentius and his +followers. + +[332] I quote this from the _Ordo Romanus_ as it stands in Muratori's +third Dissertation in the _Antiquitates Italiæ medii ævi_. + +[333] Great stress was laid on one part of the procedure,--the holding +by the Emperor of the Pope's stirrup for him to mount, and the leading +of his palfrey for some distance. Frederick Barbarossa's omission of +this mark of respect when Pope Hadrian IV met him on his way to Rome, +had nearly caused a breach between the two potentates, Hadrian +absolutely refusing the kiss of peace until Frederick should have gone +through the form, which he was at last forced to do in a somewhat +ignominious way. + +[334] A remarkable speech of expostulation made by Otto III to the +Roman people (after one of their revolts) from the tower of his house +on the Aventine has been preserved to us. It begins thus: 'Vosne estis +mei Romani? Propter vos quidem meam patriam, propinquos quoque +reliqui; amore vestro Saxones et cunctos Theotiscos, sanguinem meum, +proieci; vos in remotas partes imperii nostri adduxi, quo patres +vestri cum orbem ditione premerent numquam pedem posuerunt; scilicet +ut nomen vestrum et gloriam ad fines usque dilatarem; vos filios +adoptavi: vos cunctis prætuli.'--_Vita S. Bernwardi_; in Pertz, _M. G. +H._, t. iv. + +(It is from this form 'Theotiscus' that the Italian 'Tedesco' seems to +have been derived.) + +[335] The Leonine city, so called from Pope Leo IV, lay between the +Vatican and St. Peter's and the river. + +[336] It would seem that Otto was deceived, and that in reality they +are the bones of St. Paulinus of Nola. + +[337] The only other of the Teutonic Emperors buried in Italy were, so +far as I know, Lewis the Second (whose tomb, with an inscription +commemorating his exploits, is built into the wall of the north aisle +of the famous church of S. Ambrose at Milan), Henry the Sixth and +Frederick the Second, who lie at Palermo, Conrad IV, buried at Foggia, +and Henry the Seventh, whose sarcophagus may be seen in the Campo +Santo of Pisa, a city always conspicuous for her zeal on the imperial +side. + +Six Emperors lie buried at Speyer, three or four at Prague, two at +Aachen, two at Bamberg, one at Innsbruck, one at Magdeburg, one at +Quedlinburg, two at Munich, and most of the later ones at Vienna. + +[338] See note 198, p. 178. + +[339] See p. 117. + +[340] These highly curious frescoes are in the chapel of St. Sylvester +attached to the very ancient church of Quattro Santi on the Cœlian +hill, and are supposed to have been executed in the time of Pope +Innocent III. They represent scenes in the life of the Saint, more +particularly the making of the famous donation to him by Constantine, +who submissively holds the bridle of his palfrey. + +[341] The last imperial coronation, that of Charles the Fifth, took +place in the church of St. Petronius at Bologna, Pope Clement VII +being unwilling to receive Charles in Rome. It is a grand church, but +the choir, where the ceremony took place, seems to have been +'restored,' that is to say modernized, since Charles' time. + +[342] The name of Cenci is a very old one at Rome: it is supposed to +be an abbreviation of Crescentius. We hear in the eleventh century of +a certain Cencius, who on one occasion made Gregory VII prisoner. + +[343] Thus in the church of San Lorenzo without the walls there are +several pointed windows, now bricked up; and similar ones may be seen +in the church of Ara Cœli on the summit of the Capitol. So in the apse +of St. John Lateran there are three or four windows of Gothic form: +and in its cloister, as well as in that of St. Paul without the walls, +a great deal of beautiful Lombard work. The elegant porch of the +church of Sant' Antonio Abate is Lombard. In the apse of the church of +San Giovanni e Paolo on the Cœlian hill there is an external arcade +exactly like those of the Duomo at Pisa. Nor are these the only +instances. + +The ruined chapel attached to the fortress of the Caetani family--the +family to which Boniface the Eighth belonged, and whose head is now +the first of the Roman nobility--is a pretty little building, more +like northern Gothic than anything within the walls of Rome. It stands +upon the Appian Way, opposite the tomb of Cæcilia Metella, which the +Caetani used as a stronghold. + +[344] A good deal of the mischief done by Robert Guiscard, from which +the parts of the city lying beyond the Coliseum towards the river and +St. John Lateran never recovered, is attributed to the Saracenic +troops in his service. Saracen pirates are said to have once before +sacked Rome. Genseric was not a heathen, but he was a furious Arian, +which, as far as respect to the churches of the orthodox went, was +nearly the same thing. He is supposed to have carried off the +seven-branched candlestick and other vessels of the Temple, which +Titus had brought from Jerusalem to Rome. + +[345] We are told that one cause of the ferocity of the German part of +the army of Charles was their anger at the ruinous condition of the +imperial palace. + +[346] Under the influence, partly of this anti-pagan spirit, partly of +his own restless vanity, partly of a passion to be doing something, +Pope Sixtus the Fifth did a great deal of mischief in the way of +destroying or spoiling the monuments of antiquity. + +[347] These campaniles are generally supposed to date from the ninth +and tenth centuries. I am informed, however, by Mr. J. H. Parker, of +Oxford, whose antiquarian skill is well known, that he is led to +believe by an examination of their mouldings that few or none, unless +it be that of San Prassede, are older than the twelfth century. + +This of course applies only to the existing buildings. The type of +tower may be, and indeed no doubt is, older. + +Somewhat similar towers may be observed in many parts of the Italian +Alps, especially in the wonderful mountain land north of Venice, where +such towers are of all dates from the eleventh or twelfth down to the +nineteenth century, the ancient type having in these remote valleys +been adhered to because the builder had no other models before him. In +the valley of Cimolais I have seen such a campanile in course of +erection, precisely similar to others in the neighbouring villages +some eight centuries old. + +The very curious round towers of Ravenna, some four or five of which +are still standing, seem to have originally had similar windows, +though these have been all, or nearly all, stopped up. The Roman +towers are all square. + +[348] The Palatine hill seems to have been then, as it is for the most +part now, a waste of stupendous ruins. In the great imperial palace +upon its northern and eastern sides was the residence of an official +of the Eastern court in the beginning of the eighth century. In the +time of Charles, some seventy years later, this palace was no longer +habitable. + +[349] Such as we see it in the later and lesser churches of basilica +form. + +[350] It was thus that most of the earlier Teutonic Emperors, and +notably Charles and Otto, professed to have obtained the crown; +although practically it was partly a matter of conquest and partly of +private arrangement with the Pope. In later times, the seven Germanic +princes were recognized as the legally qualified electoral body, but +their appearance on the stage was a result of the confusion of the +German kingdom with the Roman Empire, and in strictness they had +nothing to do with the Roman crown at all. The right to bestow it +could only--on principle--belong to some Roman authority, and those +who felt the difficulty were driven to suppose a formal cession of +their privilege by the Roman people to the seven electors. See p. 227 +_supra_: and cf. Matthew Villani (iv. 77), 'Il popolo Romano, non da +se, ma la chiesa per lui, concedette la elezione degli Imperadori a +sette principi della Magna.' + +[351] That which Dante, Arnold of Brescia, and the rest really have in +common with the modern Italian 'party of movement' is their hostility +to the temporal power of the Popes. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE RENAISSANCE: CHANGE IN THE CHARACTER OF THE EMPIRE. + + +[Sidenote: Wenzel, 1378-1400.] + +[Sidenote: Rupert, 1400-1410.] + +[Sidenote: Sigismund, 1410-1438.] + +[Sidenote: Council of Constance.] + +In Frederick the Third's reign the Empire sank to its lowest point. It +had shot forth a fitful gleam under Sigismund, who in convoking and +presiding over the council of Constance had revived one of the highest +functions of his predecessors. The precedents of the first great +œcumenical councils, and especially of the council of Nicæa, had +established the principle that it belonged to the Emperor, even more +properly than to the Pope, to convoke ecclesiastical assemblies from +the whole Christian world[352]. The tenet commended itself to the +reforming party in the church, headed by Gerson, the chancellor of +Paris, whose aim it was, while making no changes in matters of faith, +to correct the abuses which had grown up in discipline and government, +and limit the power of the Popes by exalting the authority of general +councils, to whom there was now attributed an immunity from error +superior even to that which resided in the successor of Peter. And +although it was only the sacerdotal body, not the whole Christian +people, who were thus made the exponents of the universal religious +consciousness, the doctrine was nevertheless a foreshadowing of that +fuller freedom which was soon to follow. The existence of the Holy +Empire and the existence of general councils were, as has been already +remarked, necessary parts of one and the same theory[353], and it was +therefore more than a coincidence that the last occasion on which the +whole of Latin Christendom met to deliberate and act as a single +commonwealth[354] was also the last on which that commonwealth's +lawful temporal head appeared in the exercise of his international +functions. Never afterwards was he, in the eyes of Europe, anything +more than a German monarch. + +[Sidenote: Weakness of Germany as compared with the other states of +Europe.] + +[Sidenote: Albert II. 1438-1440. Frederick III. 1440-1493.] + +It might seem doubtful whether he would long remain a monarch at all. +When in A.D. 1493 the calamitous reign of Frederick the Third ended, +it was impossible for the princes to see with unconcern the condition +into which their selfishness and turbulence had brought the Empire. +The time was indeed critical. Hitherto the Germans had been protected +rather by the weakness of their enemies than by their own strength. +From France there had been little to fear while the English menaced +her on one side and the Burgundian dukes on the other: from England +still less while she was torn by the strife of York and Lancaster. But +now throughout Western Europe the power of the feudal oligarchies was +broken; and its chief countries were being, by the establishment of +fixed rules of succession and the absorption of the smaller into the +larger principalities, rapidly built up into compact and aggressive +military monarchies. Thus Spain became a great state by the union of +Castile and Aragon, and the conquest of the Moors of Granada. Thus in +England there arose the popular despotism of the Tudors. Thus France, +enlarged and consolidated under Lewis the Eleventh and his successors, +began to acquire that predominant influence on the politics of Europe +which her commanding geographical position, the martial spirit of her +people, and, it must be added, the unscrupulous ambition of her +rulers, have secured to her in every succeeding century. Meantime +there had appeared in the far East a foe still more terrible. The +capture of Constantinople gave Turks a firm hold on Europe, and +inspired them with the hope of effecting in the fifteenth century what +Abderrahman and his Saracens had so nearly effected in the eighth--of +establishing the faith of Islam through all the provinces that obeyed +the Western as well as the Eastern Cæsars. The navies of the Ottoman +Sultans swept the Mediterranean; their well-appointed armies pierced +Hungary and threatened Vienna. + +[Sidenote: Loss of imperial territories.] + +Nor was it only that formidable enemies had arisen without: the +frontiers of Germany herself were exposed by the loss of those +adjoining territories which had formerly owned allegiance to the +Emperors. Poland, once tributary, had shaken off the yoke at the +interregnum, and had recently wrested Prussia and Lusatz from the +Teutonic knights. Bohemia, where German culture had struck deeper +roots, remained a member of the Empire; but the privileges she had +obtained from Charles the Fourth, and the subsequent acquisition of +Silesia and Moravia, made her virtually independent. The restless +Hungarians avenged their former vassalage to Germany by frequent +inroads on her eastern border. + +[Sidenote: Italy.] + +Imperial power in Italy ended with the life of Henry the Seventh. +Rupert did indeed cross the Alps, but it was as the hireling of +Florence; Frederick the Third received the Lombard crown, but it no +longer conveyed the slightest power. In the beginning of the +fourteenth century Dante still hopes the renovation of his country +from the action of the Teutonic Emperors. Some fifty years later +Matthew Villani sees clearly that they do not and cannot reign to any +purpose south of the Alps[355]. Nevertheless the phantom of imperial +authority lingers on for a time. It is put forward by the Ghibeline +tyrants of the cities to justify their attacks on their Guelfic +neighbours: even resolute republicans like the Florentines do not yet +venture altogether to reject it, however unwilling to permit its +exercise. Before the middle of the fifteenth century, the names of +Guelf and Ghibeline had ceased to have any sense or meaning; the Pope +was no longer the protector nor the Emperor the assailant of municipal +freedom, for municipal freedom itself had well-nigh disappeared. But +the old war-cries of the Church and the Empire were still repeated as +they had been three centuries before, and the rival principles that +had once enlisted the noblest spirits of Italy on one or other side +had now sunk into a pretext for wars of aggrandizement or of mere +unmeaning hate. That which had been remarked long before in Greece was +seen to be true here; the spirit of faction outlived the cause of +faction, and became itself the new and prolific source of a useless, +endless strife. + +[Sidenote: Burgundy.] + +After Frederick the Third no Emperor was crowned in Rome, and almost +the only trace of that connection between Germany and Italy to +maintain which so much had been risked and lost, was to be found in +the obstinate belief of the Hapsburg Emperors, that their own claims, +though often purely dynastic and personal, could be enforced by an +appeal to the imperial rights of their predecessors. Because +Barbarossa had overrun Lombardy with a Transalpine host they fancied +themselves entitled to demand duchies for themselves and their +relatives, and to entangle the Empire in wars wherein no interest but +their own was involved. + +The kingdom of Arles, if it had never added much strength to the +Empire, had been useful as an outwork against France. And thus its +loss--Dauphiné passing over, partly in A.D. 1350, finally in 1457, +Provence in 1486--proved a serious calamity, for it brought the French +nearer to Switzerland, and opened to them a tempting passage into +Italy. The Emperors did not for a time expressly renounce their feudal +suzerainty over these lands, but if it was hard to enforce a feudal +claim over a rebellious landgrave in Germany, how much harder to +control a vassal who was also the mightiest king in Europe. + +On the north-west frontier, the fall in A.D. 1477 of the great +principality which the dukes of French Burgundy were building up, was +seen with pleasure by the Rhinelanders whom Charles the last duke had +incessantly alarmed. But the only effect of its fall was to leave +France and Germany directly confronting each other, and it was soon +seen that the balance of strength lay on the side of the less numerous +but better organized and more active nation. + +[Sidenote: Switzerland.] + +Switzerland, too, could no longer be considered a part of the Germanic +realm. The revolt of the Forest Cantons, in A.D. 1313, was against the +oppressions practised in the name of Albert count of Hapsburg, rather +than against the legitimate authority of Albert the Emperor. But +although several subsequent sovereigns, and among them conspicuously +Henry the Seventh and Sigismund, favoured the Swiss liberties, yet +while the antipathy between the Confederates and the territorial +nobility gave a peculiar direction to their policy, the accession of +new cantons to their body, and their brilliant success against Charles +the Bold in A.D. 1477, made them proud of a separate national +existence, and not unwilling to cast themselves loose from the +stranded hulk of the Empire. Maximilian tried to reconquer them, but +after a furious struggle, in which the valleys of Western Tyrol were +repeatedly laid waste by the peasants of the Engadin, he was forced to +give way, and in A.D. 1500 recognized them by treaty as practically +independent. Not, however, till the peace of Westphalia, in A.D. 1648, +was the Swiss Confederation in the eye of public law a sovereign +state, and even after that date some of the towns continued to stamp +their coins with the double eagle of the Empire. + +[Sidenote: Internal weakness.] + +If those losses of territory were serious, far more serious was the +plight in which Germany herself lay. The country had now become not so +much an empire as an aggregate of very many small states, governed by +sovereigns who would neither remain at peace with each other nor +combine against a foreign enemy, under the nominal presidency of an +Emperor who had little lawful authority, and could not exert what he +had[356]. + +[Sidenote: Influence of the theory of the Empire as an international +power upon the Germanic constitution.] + +[Sidenote: Position of the Emperor in Germany, compared with that of +his predecessors in Europe.] + +There was another cause, besides those palpable and obvious ones +already enumerated, to which this state of things must be ascribed. +That cause is to be found in the theory which regarded the Empire as +an international power, supreme among Christian states. From the day +when Otto the Great was crowned at Rome, the characters of German king +and Roman Emperor were united in one person, and it has been shewn how +that union tended more and more to become a fusion. If the two +offices, in their nature and origin so dissimilar, had been held by +different persons, the Roman Empire would most probably have soon +disappeared, while the German kingdom grew into a robust national +monarchy. Their connection gave a longer life to the one and a feebler +life to the other, while at the same time it transformed both. So long +as Germany was only one of the many countries that bowed beneath their +sceptre it was possible for the Emperors, though we need not suppose +they troubled themselves with speculations on the matter, to +distinguish their imperial authority, as international and more than +half religious, from their royal, which was, or was meant to be, +exclusively local and feudal. But when within the narrowed bounds of +Germany these international functions had ceased to have any meaning, +when the rulers of England, Spain, France, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, +Italy, Burgundy, had in succession repudiated their control, and the +Lord of the World found himself obeyed by none but his own people, he +would not sink from being lord of the world into a simple Teutonic +king, but continued to play in the more contracted theatre the part +which had belonged to him in the wider. Thus did Germany instead of +Europe become the sphere of his international jurisdiction; and her +electors and princes, originally mere vassals, no greater than a Count +of Champagne in France, or an Earl of Chester in England, stepped into +the place which it had been meant that the several monarchs of +Christendom should fill. If the power of their head had been what it +was in the eleventh century, the additional dignity so assigned to +them might have signified very little. But coming in to confirm and +justify the liberties already won, this theory of their relation to +the sovereign had a great though at the time scarcely perceptible +influence in changing the German Empire, as we may now begin to call +it, from a state into a sort of confederation or body of states, +united indeed for some of the purposes of government, but separate and +independent for others more important. Thus, and that in its +ecclesiastical as well as its civil organization, Germany became a +miniature of Christendom[357]. The Pope, though he retained the wider +sway which his rival had lost, was in an especial manner the head of +the German clergy, as the Emperor was of the laity: the three Rhenish +prelates sat in the supreme college beside the four temporal electors: +the nobility of prince-bishops and abbots was as essential a part of +the constitution and as influential in the deliberations of the Diet +as were the dukes, counts, and margraves of the Empire. The +world-embracing Christian state was to have been governed by a +hierarchy of spiritual pastors, whose graduated ranks of authority +should exactly correspond with those of the temporal magistracy, who +were to be like them endowed with worldly wealth and power, and to +enjoy a jurisdiction co-ordinate although distinct. This system, which +it was in vain attempted to establish in Europe during the eleventh +and twelfth centuries, was in its main features that which prevailed +in the Germanic Empire from the fourteenth century onwards. And +conformably to the analogy which may be traced between the position of +the archdukes of Austria in Germany and the place which the four Saxon +and the two first Franconian Emperors had held in Europe, both being +recognized as leaders and presidents in all that concerned the common +interest, in the one case of the Christian, in the other of the whole +German people, while neither of them had any power of direct +government in the territories of local kings and lords; so the plan by +which those who chose Maximilian emperor sought to strengthen their +national monarchy was in substance that which the Popes had followed +when they conferred the crown of the world on Charles and Otto. The +pontiffs then, like the electors now, finding that they could not give +with the title the power which its functions demanded, were driven to +the expedient of selecting for the office persons whose private +resources enabled them to sustain it with dignity. The first Frankish +and the first Saxon Emperors were chosen because they were already the +mightiest potentates in Europe; Maximilian because he was the +strongest of the German princes. The parallel may be carried one step +further. Just as under Otto and his successors the Roman Empire was +Teutonized, so now under the Hapsburg dynasty, from whose hands the +sceptre departed only once thenceforth, the Teutonic Empire tends more +and more to lose itself in an Austrian monarchy. + +[Sidenote: Beginning of the Hapsburg influence in Germany.] + +Of that monarchy and of the power of the house of Hapsburg, Maximilian +was, even more than Rudolph his ancestor, the founder[358]. Uniting in +his person those wide domains through Germany which had been dispersed +among the collateral branches of his house, and claiming by his +marriage with Mary of Burgundy most of the territories of Charles the +Bold, he was a prince greater than any who had sat on the Teutonic +throne since the death of Frederick the Second. But it was as archduke +of Austria, count of Tyrol, duke of Styria and Carinthia, feudal +superior of lands, in Swabia, Alsace, and Switzerland, that he was +great, not as Roman Emperor. For just as from him the Austrian +monarchy begins, so with him the Holy Empire in its old meaning ends. +That strange system of doctrines, half religious half political, which +had supported it for so many ages, was growing obsolete, and the +theory which had wrought such changes on Germany and Europe, passed +ere long so completely from remembrance that we can now do no more +than call up a faint and wavering image of what it must once have +been. + +[Sidenote: Character of the epoch of Maximilian.] + +[Sidenote: The discovery of America.] + +For it is not only in imperial history that the accession of +Maximilian is a landmark. That time--a time of change and movement in +every part of human life, a time when printing had become common, and +books were no longer confined to the clergy, when drilled troops were +replacing the feudal militia, when the use of gunpowder was changing +the face of war--was especially marked by one event, to which the +history of the world offers no parallel before or since, the discovery +of America. The cloud which from the beginning of things had hung +thick and dark round the borders of civilization was suddenly lifted: +the feeling of mysterious awe with which men had regarded the firm +plain of earth and her encircling ocean ever since the days of Homer, +vanished when astronomers and geographers taught them that she was an +insignificant globe, which, so far from being the centre of the +universe, was itself swept round in the motion of one of the least of +its countless systems. The notions that had hitherto prevailed +regarding the life of man and his relations to nature and the +supernatural, were rudely shaken by the knowledge that was soon gained +of tribes in every stage of culture and living under every variety of +condition, who had developed apart from all the influences of the +Eastern hemisphere. In A.D. 1453 the capture of Constantinople and +extinction of the Eastern Empire had dealt a fatal blow to the +prestige of tradition and an immemorial name: in A.D. 1492 there was +disclosed a world whither the eagles of all-conquering Rome had never +winged their flight. No one could now have repeated the arguments of +the _De Monarchia_. + +[Sidenote: The Renaissance.] + +Another movement, too, widely different, but even more momentous, was +beginning to spread from Italy beyond the Alps. Since the barbarian +tribes settled in the Roman provinces, no change had come to pass in +Europe at all comparable to that which followed the diffusion of the +new learning in the latter half of the fifteenth century. Enchanted by +the beauty of the ancient models of art and poetry, more particularly +those of the Greeks, men came to regard with aversion and contempt all +that had been done or produced from the days of Trajan to those of +Pope Nicholas the Fifth. The Latin style of the writers who lived +after Tacitus was debased: the architecture of the Middle Ages was +barbarous: the scholastic philosophy was an odious and unmeaning +jargon: Aristotle himself, Greek though he was, Aristotle who had been +for three centuries more than a prophet or an apostle, was hurled from +his throne, because his name was associated with the dismal quarrels +of Scotists and Thomists. That spirit, whether we call it analytical +or sceptical, or earthly, or simply secular, for it is more or less +all of these--the spirit which was the exact antithesis of mediæval +mysticism, had swept in and carried men away, with all the force of a +pent-up torrent. People were content to gratify their tastes and their +senses, caring little for worship, and still less for doctrine: their +hopes and ideas were no longer such as had made their forefathers +crusaders or ascetics: their imagination was possessed by associations +far different from those which had inspired Dante: they did not revolt +against the church, but they had no enthusiasm for her, and they had +enthusiasm for whatever was fresh and graceful and intelligible. From +all that was old and solemn, or that seemed to savour of feudalism or +monkery, they turned away, too indifferent to be hostile. And so, in +the midst of the Renaissance, so, under the consciousness that former +things were passing from the earth, and a new order opening, so, with +the other beliefs and memories of the Middle Age, the shadowy rights +of the Roman Empire melted away in the fuller modern light. Here and +there a jurist muttered that no neglect could destroy its universal +supremacy, or a priest declaimed to listless hearers on its duty to +protect the Holy See; but to Germany it had become an ancient device +for holding together the discordant members of her body, to its +possessors an engine for extending the power of the house of Hapsburg. + +[Sidenote: Empire henceforth German.] + +Henceforth, therefore, we must look upon the Holy Roman Empire as lost +in the German; and after a few faint attempts to resuscitate +old-fashioned claims, nothing remains to indicate its origin save a +sounding title and a precedence among the states of Europe. It was not +that the Renaissance exerted any direct political influence either +against the Empire or for it; men were too busy upon statues and coins +and manuscripts to care what befel Popes or Emperors. It acted rather +by silently withdrawing the whole system of doctrines upon which the +Empire had rested, and thus leaving it, since it had previously no +support but that of opinion, without any support at all. + +[Sidenote: Attempts to reform the Germanic Constitution.] + +[Sidenote: Causes of the failure of the projects of reform.] + +During Maximilian's eventful reign several efforts were made to +construct a new constitution, but it is to German, rather than to +imperial history that they properly belong. Here, indeed, the history +of the Holy Empire might close, did not the title unchanged beckon us +on, and were it not that the events of these later centuries may in +their causes be traced back to times when the name of Roman was not +wholly a mockery. It may be enough to remark that while the +preservation of peace and the better administration of justice were in +some measure attained by the Public Peace and Imperial Chamber, +established in A.D. 1495, schemes still more important failed through +the bad constitution of the Diet, and the unconquerable jealousy of +the Emperor and the Estates. Maximilian refused to have his +prerogative, indefinite though weak, restricted by the appointment of +an administrative council[359], and when the Estates extorted it from +him, did his best to ensure its failure. In the Diet, which consisted +of three colleges, electors, princes, and cities, the lower nobility +and knights of the Empire were unrepresented, and resented every +decree that affected their position, refusing to pay taxes in voting +which they had no voice. The interests of the princes and the cities +were often irreconcilable, while the strength of the crown would not +have been sufficient to make its adhesion to the latter of any effect. +The policy of conciliating the commons, which Sigismund had tried, +succeeding Emperors seldom cared to repeat, content to gain their +point by raising factions among the territorial magnates, and so to +stave off the unwelcome demand for reform. After many earnest attempts +to establish a representative system, such as might resist the +tendency to local independence and cure the evils of separate +administration, the hope so often baffled died away. Forces were too +nearly balanced: the sovereign could not extend his personal control, +nor could the reforming party limit him by a strong council of +government, for such a measure would have equally trenched on the +independence of the states. So ended the first great effort for German +unity, interesting from its bearing on the events and aspirations of +our own day; interesting, too, as giving the most convincing proof of +the decline of the imperial office. For the projects of reform did not +propose to effect their objects by restoring to Maximilian the +authority his predecessors had once enjoyed, but by setting up a body +which would resemble far more nearly the senate of a federal state +than the administrative council which surrounds a monarch. The +existing system developed itself further: relieved from external +pressure, the princes became more despotic in their own territories: +distinct codes were framed, and new systems of administration +introduced: the insurgent peasantry were crushed down with more +confident harshness. Already had leagues of princes and cities been +formed[360] (that of Swabia was one of the strongest forces in +Germany, and often the monarch's firmest support); now alliances begin +to be contracted with foreign powers, and receive a direction of +formidable import from the rivalry which the pretensions on Naples and +Milan of Charles the Eighth and Lewis the Twelfth of France kindled +between their house and the Austrian. It was no slight gain to have +friends in the heart of the enemy's country, such as French intrigue +found in the Elector Palatine and the count of Würtemberg. + +[Sidenote: Germanic nationality.] + +[Sidenote: Change of Titles.] + +[Sidenote: The title 'Imperator Electus.'] + +Nevertheless this was also the era of the first conscious feeling of +German nationality, as distinct from imperial. Driven in on all hands, +with Italy and the Slavic lands and Burgundy hopelessly lost, +Teutschland learnt to separate itself from Welschland[361]. The Empire +became the representative of a narrower but more practicable national +union. It is not a mere coincidence that at this date there appear +several notable changes of style. 'Nationis Teutonicæ' (Teutscher +Nation) is added to the simple 'sacrum imperium Romanum.' The title of +'Imperator electus,' which Maximilian obtains leave from Pope Julius +the Second to assume, when the Venetians prevent him from reaching his +capital, marks the severance of Germany from Rome. No subsequent +Emperor received his crown in the ancient capital (Charles the Fifth +was indeed crowned by the Pope's hands, but the ceremony took place at +Bologna, and was therefore of at least questionable validity); each +assumed after his German coronation[362] the title of Emperor +Elect[363], and employed this in all documents issued in his name. But +the word 'elect' being omitted when he was addressed by others, partly +from motives of courtesy, partly because the old rules regarding the +Roman coronation were forgotten, or remembered only by antiquaries, he +was never called, even when formality was required, anything but +Emperor. The substantial import of another title now first introduced +is the same. Before Otto the First, the Teutonic king had called +himself either 'rex' alone, or 'Francorum orientalium rex,' or +'Francorum atque Saxonum rex:' after A.D. 962, all lesser dignities +had been merged in the 'Romanorum Imperator[364].' To this Maximilian +appended 'Germaniæ rex,' or, adding Frederick the Second's +bequest[365], 'König in Germanien und Jerusalem.' It has been thought +that from a mixture of the title King of Germany, and that of Emperor, +has been formed the phrase 'German Emperor,' or less correctly, +'Emperor of Germany[366].' But more probably the terms 'German +Emperor' and 'Emperor of Germany' are nothing but convenient +corruptions of the technical description of the Germanic +sovereign[367]. + +That the Empire was thus sinking into a merely German power cannot be +doubted. But it was only natural that those who lived at the time +should not discern the tendency of events. Again and again did the +restless and sanguine Maximilian propose the recovery of Burgundy and +Italy,--his last scheme was to adjust the relations of Papacy and +Empire by becoming Pope himself: nor were successive Diets less +zealous to check private war, still the scandal of Germany, to set +right the gear of the imperial chamber, to make the imperial officials +permanent, and their administration uniform throughout the country. +But while they talked the heavens darkened, and the flood came and +destroyed them all. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[352] See Dean Stanley's _Lectures on the History of the Eastern +Church_, Lecture II. + +[353] It is not without interest to observe that the council of Basel +shewed signs of reciprocating imperial care by claiming those very +rights over the Empire to which the Popes were accustomed to pretend. + +[354] The councils of Basel and Florence were not recognized from +first to last by all Europe, as was the council of Constance. When the +assembly of Trent met, the great religious schism had already made a +general council, in the true sense of the word, impossible. + +[355] 'E pero venendo gl'imperadori della Magna col supremo titolo, e +volendo col senno e colla forza della Magna reggiere gli Italiani, non +lo fanno e non lo possono fare.'--M. Villani, iv. 77. + +Matthew Villani's etymology of the two great faction names of Italy is +worth quoting, as a fair sample of the skill of mediævals in such +matters:--'La Italia tutta e divisa mistamente in due parti, l'una che +seguita ne' fatti del mondo la santa chiesa--e questi son dinominati +Guelfi; cioè, guardatori di fè. E l'altra parte seguitano lo 'mperio o +fedele o enfedele che sia delle cose del mondo a santa chiesa. E +chiamansi Ghibellini, quasi guida belli; cioè, guidatori di +battaglie.' + +[356] 'Nam quamvis Imperatorem et regem et dominum vestrum esse +fateamini, precario tamen ille imperare videtur: nulla ei potentia +est; tantum ei paretis quantum vultis, vultis autem minimum.'--Æneas +Sylvius to the princes of Germany, quoted by Hippolytus a Lapide. + +[357] See Ægidi, _Der Fürstenrath nach dem Luneviller Frieden_; a book +which throws more light than any other with which I am acquainted on +the inner nature of the Empire. + +[358] The two immediately preceding Emperors, Albert II (1438-1439) +and Frederick III, father of Maximilian (1439-1493), had been +Hapsburgs. It is nevertheless from Maximilian that the ascendancy of +that family must be dated. + +[359] Reichsregiment. + +[360] Wenzel had encouraged the leagues of the cities, and incurred +thereby the hatred of the nobles. + +[361] The Germans, like our own ancestors, called foreign, _i. e._ +non-Teutonic nations, Welsh. Yet apparently not all such nations, but +only those which they in some way associated with the Roman Empire, +the Cymry of Roman Britain, the Romanized Kelts of Gaul, the Italians, +the Roumans or Wallachs of Transylvania and the Principalities. It +does not appear that either the Magyars or any Slavonic people were +called by any form of the name Welsh. + +[362] The German crown was received at Aachen, the ancient Frankish +capital, where may still be seen, in the gallery of the basilica, the +marble throne on which the Emperors from the days of Charles to those +of Ferdinand I were crowned. It was upon this chair that Otto III had +found the body of Charles seated, when he opened his tomb in A.D. +1001. After Ferdinand I, the coronation as well as the election took +place at Frankfort. An account of the ceremony may be found in +Goethe's _Wahrheit und Dichtung_. Aachen, though it remained and +indeed is still a German town, lay in too remote a corner of the +country to be a convenient capital, and was moreover in dangerous +proximity to the West Franks, as stubborn old Germans continue to call +them. As early as A.D. 1353 we find bishop Leopold of Bamberg +complaining that the French had arrogated to themselves the honours of +the Frankish name, and called themselves 'reges Franciæ,' instead of +'reges Franciæ occidentalis.'--Lupoldus Bebenburgensis, apud +Schardium, _Sylloge Tractatuum_. + +[363] Erwählter Kaiser. See Appendix, Note C. + +[364] Romanorum rex (after Henry II) till the coronation at Rome. + +[365] But the Emperor was only one of many claimants to this kingdom; +they multiplied as the prospect of regaining it died away. + +[366] The latter does not occur, even in English books, till +comparatively recent times. English writers of the seventeenth century +always call him 'The Emperor,' pure and simple, just as they +invariably say 'the French king.' But the phrase 'Empereur d'Almayne' +may be found in very early French writers. + +[367] See Moser, _Römische Kayser_; Goldast's and other collections of +imperial edicts and proclamations. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE REFORMATION AND ITS EFFECTS UPON THE EMPIRE. + + +The Reformation falls to be mentioned here, of course not as a +religious movement, but as the cause of political changes, which still +further rent the Empire, and struck at the root of the theory by which +it had been created and upheld. Luther completed the work of +Hildebrand. Hitherto it had seemed not impossible to strengthen the +German state into a monarchy, compact if not despotic; the very Diet +of Worms, where the monk of Wittenberg proclaimed to an astonished +church and Emperor that the day of spiritual tyranny was past, had +framed and presented a fresh scheme for the construction of a central +council of government. The great religious schism put an end to all +such hopes, for it became a source of political disunion far more +serious and permanent than any that had existed before, and it taught +the two factions into which Germany was henceforth divided to regard +each other with feelings more bitter than those of hostile nations. + +[Sidenote: Accession of Charles V (1519-1558).] + +The breach came at the most unfortunate time possible. After an +election, more memorable than any preceding, an election in which +Francis the First of France and Henry the Eighth of England had been +his competitors, a prince had just ascended the imperial throne who +united dominions vaster than any Europe had seen since the days of his +great namesake. Spain and Naples, Flanders, and other parts of the +Burgundian lands, as well as large regions in Eastern Germany, obeyed +Charles: he drew inexhaustible revenues from a new empire beyond the +Atlantic. Such a power, directed by a mind more resolute and profound +than that of Maximilian his grandfather, might have well been able, +despite the stringency of his coronation engagements[368], and the +watchfulness of the electors[369], to override their usurped +privileges, and make himself practically as well as officially the +head of the nation. Charles the Fifth, though from the coldness of his +manner[370] and his Flemish speech never a favourite among the +Germans, was in point of fact far stronger than Maximilian or any +other Emperor who had reigned for three centuries. In Italy he +succeeded, after long struggles with the Pope and the French, in +rendering himself supreme: England he knew how to lead, by flattering +Henry and cajoling Wolsey: from no state but France had he serious +opposition to fear. To this strength his imperial dignity was indeed a +mere accident: its sources were the infantry of Spain, the looms of +Flanders, the sierras of Peru. But the conquest once achieved, might +could lose itself in right; and as an earlier Charles had veiled the +terror of the Frankish sword under the mask of Roman election, so +might his successor sway a hundred provinces with the sole name of +Roman Emperor, and transmit to his race a dominion as wide and more +enduring. + +[Sidenote: Attitude of Charles towards the religious movement.] + +One is tempted to speculate as to what might have happened had Charles +espoused the reforming cause. His reverence for the Pope's person is +sufficiently seen in the sack of Rome and the captivity of Clement; +the traditions of his office might have led him to tread in the steps +of the Henrys and the Fredericks, into which even the timid Lewis the +Fourth and the unstable Sigismund had sometimes ventured; the +awakening zeal of the German people, exasperated by the exactions of +the Romish court, would have strengthened his hands, and enabled him, +while moderating the excesses of change, to fix his throne on the deep +foundations of national love. It may well be doubted--Englishmen at +least have reason for the doubt--whether the Reformation would not +have lost as much as it could have gained by being entangled in the +meshes of royal patronage. But, setting aside Charles's personal +leaning to the old faith, and forgetting that he was king of the most +bigoted race of Europe, his position as Emperor made him almost +perforce the Pope's ally. The Empire had been called into being by +Rome, had vaunted the protection of the Apostolic See as its highest +earthly privilege, had latterly been wont, especially in Hapsburg +hands, to lean on the papacy for support. Itself founded entirely on +prescription and the traditions of immemorial reverence, how could it +abandon the cause which the longest prescription and the most solemn +authority had combined to consecrate? With the German clergy, despite +occasional quarrels, it had been on better terms than with the lay +aristocracy; their heads had been the chief ministers of the crown; +the advocacies of their abbeys were the last source of imperial +revenue to disappear. To turn against them now, when furiously +assailed by heretics; to abrogate claims hallowed by antiquity and a +hundred laws, would be to pronounce its own sentence, and the fall of +the eternal city's spiritual dominion must involve the fall of what +still professed to be her temporal. Charles would have been glad to +see some abuses corrected; but a broad line of policy was called for, +and he cast in his lot with the Catholics[371]. + +[Sidenote: Ultimate failure of the repressive policy of Charles.] + +[Sidenote: Ferdinand I, 1558-1564.] + +[Sidenote: Maximilian II, 1564-1576.] + +[Sidenote: Destruction of the Germanic state-system.] + +Of many momentous results only a few need be noticed here. The +reconstruction of the old imperial system, upon the basis of Hapsburg +power, proved in the end impossible. Yet for some years it had seemed +actually accomplished. When the Smalkaldic league had been dissolved +and its leaders captured, the whole country lay prostrate before +Charles. He overawed the Diet at Augsburg by the Spanish soldiery: he +forced formularies of doctrine upon the vanquished Protestants: he set +up and pulled down whom he would throughout Germany, amid the muttered +discontent of his own partisans. Then, as in the beginning of the year +1552, he lay at Innsbruck, fondly dreaming that his work was done, +waiting the spring weather to cross to Trent, where the Catholic +fathers had again met to settle the world's faith for it, news was +suddenly brought that North Germany was in arms, and that the revolted +Maurice of Saxony had seized Donauwerth, and was hurrying through the +Bavarian Alps to surprise his sovereign. Charles rose and fled +southwards over the snows of the Brenner, then eastwards, under the +blood-red cliffs of dolomite that wall in the Pusterthal, far away +into the valleys of Carinthia: the council of Trent broke up in +consternation: Europe saw and the Emperor acknowledged that in his +fancied triumph over the spirit of revolution he had done no more than +block up for the moment an irresistible torrent. When this last effort +to produce religious uniformity by violence had failed as hopelessly +as the previous devices of holding discussions of doctrine and calling +a general council, a sort of armistice was agreed to in 1554, which +lasted in mutual fear and suspicion for more than sixty years. Four +years after this disappointment of the hopes and projects which had +occupied his busy life, Charles, weighed down by cares and with the +shadow of coming death already upon him, resigned the sovereignty of +Spain and the Indies, of Flanders and Naples, into the hands of his +son Philip the Second; while the imperial sceptre passed to his +brother Ferdinand, who had been some time before chosen King of the +Romans. Ferdinand was content to leave things much as he found them, +and the amiable Maximilian II, who succeeded him, though personally +well inclined to the Protestants, found himself fettered by his +position and his allies, and could do little or nothing to quench the +flame of religious and political hatred. Germany remained divided into +two omnipresent factions, and so further than ever from harmonious +action, or a tightening of the long-loosened bond of feudal +allegiance. The states of either creed being gathered into a league, +there could no longer be a recognized centre of authority for judicial +or administrative purposes. Least of all could a centre be sought in +the Emperor, the leader of the papal party, the suspected foe of every +Protestant. Too closely watched to do anything of his own authority, +too much committed to one party to be accepted as a mediator by the +other, he was driven to attain his own objects by falling in with the +schemes and furthering the selfish ends of his adherents, by becoming +the accomplice or the tool of the Jesuits. The Lutheran princes +addressed themselves to reduce a power of which they had still an +over-sensitive dread, and found when they exacted from each successive +sovereign engagements more stringent than his predecessor's, that in +this, and this alone, their Catholic brethren were not unwilling to +join them. Thus obliged to strip himself one by one of the ancient +privileges of his crown, the Emperor came to have little influence on +the government except that which his intrigues might exercise. Nay, it +became almost impossible to maintain a government at all. For when the +Reformers found themselves outvoted at the Diet, they declared that in +matters of religion a majority ought not to bind a minority. As the +measures were few which did not admit of being reduced to this +category, for whatever benefited the Emperor or any other Catholic +prince injured the Protestants, nothing could be done save by the +assent of two bitterly hostile factions. Thus scarce anything was +done; and even the courts of justice were stopped by the disputes that +attended the appointment of every judge or assessor. + +[Sidenote: Alliance of the Protestants with France.] + +In the foreign politics of Germany another result followed. Inferior +in military force and organization, the Protestant princes at first +provided for their safety by forming leagues among themselves. The +device was an old one, and had been employed by the monarch himself +before now, in despair at the effete and cumbrous forms of the +imperial system. Soon they began to look beyond the Vosges, and found +that France, burning heretics at home, was only too happy to smile on +free opinions elsewhere. The alliance was easily struck; Henry the +Second assumed in 1552 the title of 'Protector of the Germanic +liberties,' and a pretext for interference was never wanting in +future. + +[Sidenote: The Reformation spirit, and its influence upon the Empire.] + +[Sidenote: Effect of the Reformation on the doctrines regarding the +Visible Church.] + +These were some of the visible political consequences of the great +religious schism of the sixteenth century. But beyond and above them +there was a change far more momentous than any of its immediate +results. There is perhaps no event in history which has been represented +in so great a variety of lights as the Reformation. It has been called +a revolt of the laity against the clergy, or of the Teutonic races +against the Italians, or of the kingdoms of Europe against the +universal monarchy of the Popes. Some have seen in it only a burst of +long-repressed anger at the luxury of the prelates and the manifold +abuses of the ecclesiastical system; others a renewal of the youth of +the church by a return to primitive forms of doctrine. All these +indeed to some extent it was; but it was also something more profound, +and fraught with mightier consequences than any of them. It was in its +essence the assertion of the principle of individuality--that is to +say, of true spiritual freedom. Hitherto the personal consciousness +had been a faint and broken reflection of the universal; obedience had +been held the first of religious duties; truth had been conceived as a +something external and positive, which the priesthood who were its +stewards were to communicate to the passive layman, and whose saving +virtue lay not in its being felt and known by him to be truth, but in +a purely formal and unreasoning acceptance. The great principles which +mediæval Christianity still cherished were obscured by the limited, +rigid, almost sensuous forms which had been forced on them in times of +ignorance and barbarism. That which was in its nature abstract, had +been able to survive only by taking a concrete expression. The +universal consciousness became the Visible Church: the Visible Church +hardened into a government and degenerated into a hierarchy. Holiness +of heart and life was sought by outward works, by penances and +pilgrimages, by gifts to the poor and to the clergy, wherein there +dwelt often little enough of a charitable mind. The presence of divine +truth among men was symbolized under one aspect by the existence on +earth of an infallible Vicar of God, the Pope; under another, by the +reception of the present Deity in the sacrifice of the mass; in a +third, by the doctrine that the priest's power to remit sins and +administer the sacraments depended upon a transmission of miraculous +gifts which can hardly be called other than physical. All this system +of doctrine, which might, but for the position of the church as a +worldly and therefore obstructive power, have expanded, renewed, and +purified itself during the four centuries that had elapsed since its +completion[372], and thus remained in harmony with the growing +intelligence of mankind, was suddenly rent in pieces by the convulsion +of the Reformation, and flung away by the more religious and more +progressive peoples of Europe. That which was external and concrete, +was in all things to be superseded by that which was inward and +spiritual. It was proclaimed that the individual spirit, while it +continued to mirror itself in the world-spirit, had nevertheless an +independent existence as a centre of self-issuing force, and was to be +in all things active rather than passive. Truth was no longer to be +truth to the soul until it should have been by the soul recognized, +and in some measure even created; but when so recognized and felt, it +is able under the form of faith to transcend outward works and to +transform the dogmas of the understanding; it becomes the living +principle within each man's breast, infinite itself, and expressing +itself infinitely through his thoughts and acts. He who as a spiritual +being was delivered from the priest, and brought into direct relation +with the Divinity, needed not, as heretofore, to be enrolled a member +of a visible congregation of his fellows, that he might live a pure +and useful life among them. Thus by the Reformation the Visible Church +as well as the priesthood lost that paramount importance which had +hitherto belonged to it, and sank from being the depositary of all +religious tradition, the source and centre of religious life, the +arbiter of eternal happiness or misery, into a mere association of +Christian men, for the expression of mutual sympathy and the better +attainment of certain common ends. Like those other doctrines which +were now assailed by the Reformation, this mediæval view of the nature +of the Visible Church had been naturally, and so, it may be said, +necessarily developed between the third and the twelfth century, and +must therefore have represented the thoughts and satisfied the wants +of those times. By the Visible Church the flickering lamp of knowledge +and literary culture, as well as of religion, had been fed and tended +through the long night of the Dark Ages. But, like the whole +theological fabric of which it formed a part, it was now hard and +unfruitful, identified with its own worst abuses, capable apparently +of no further development, and unable to satisfy minds which in +growing stronger had grown more conscious of their strength. Before +the awakened zeal of the northern nations it stood a cold and lifeless +system, whose organization as a hierarchy checked the free activity of +thought, whose bestowal of worldly power and wealth on spiritual +pastors drew them away from their proper duties, and which by +maintaining alongside of the civil magistracy a co-ordinate and rival +government, maintained also that separation of the spiritual element +in man from the secular, which had been so complete and so pernicious +during the Middle Ages, which debases life, and severs religion from +morality. + +[Sidenote: Consequent effect upon the Empire.] + +The Reformation, it may be said, was a religious movement: and it is +the Empire, not the Church, that we have here to consider. The +distinction is only apparent. The Holy Empire is but another name for +the Visible Church. It has been shewn already how mediæval theory +constructed the State on the model of the Church; how the Roman Empire +was the shadow of the Popedom--designed to rule men's bodies as the +pontiff ruled their souls. Both alike claimed obedience on the ground +that Truth is One, and that where there is One faith there must be One +government[373]. And, therefore, since it was this very principle of +Formal Unity that the Reformation overthrew, it became a revolt +against despotism of every kind; it erected the standard of civil as +well as of religious liberty, since both of them are needed, though +needed in a different measure, for the worthy development of the +individual spirit. The Empire had never been conspicuously the +antagonist of popular freedom, and was, even under Charles the Fifth, +far less formidable to the commonalty than were the petty princes of +Germany. But submission, and submission on the ground of indefeasible +transmitted right, upon the ground of Catholic traditions and the duty +of the Christian magistrate to suffer heresy and schism as little as +the parallel sins of treason and rebellion, had been its constant +claim and watchword. Since the days of Julius Cæsar it had passed +through many phases, but in none of them had it ever been a +constitutional monarchy, pledged to the recognition of popular rights. +And hence the indirect tendency of the Reformation to narrow the +province of government and exalt the privileges of the subject was as +plainly adverse to the Empire as the Protestant claim of the right of +private judgment was to the pretensions of the Papacy and the +priesthood. + +[Sidenote: Immediate influence of the Reformation on political and +religious liberty.] + +[Sidenote: Conduct of the Protestant States.] + +The remark must not be omitted in passing, how much less than might +have been expected the religious movement did at first actually effect +in the way of promoting either political progress or freedom of +conscience. The habits of centuries were not to be unlearnt in a few +years, and it was natural that ideas struggling into existence and +activity should work erringly and imperfectly for a time. By a few +inflammable minds liberty was carried into antinomianism, and produced +the wildest excesses of life and doctrine. Several fantastic sects +arose, refusing to conform to the ordinary rules without which human +society could not subsist. But these commotions neither spread widely +nor lasted long. Far more pervading and more remarkable was the other +error, if that can be called an error which was the almost unavoidable +result of the circumstances of the time. The principles which had led +the Protestants to sever themselves from the Roman Church, should have +taught them to bear with the opinions of others, and warned them from +the attempt to connect agreement in doctrine or manner of worship with +the necessary forms of civil government. Still less ought they to have +enforced that agreement by civil penalties; for faith, upon their own +shewing, had no value save when it was freely given. A church which +does not claim to be infallible is bound to allow that some part of +the truth may possibly be with its adversaries: a church which permits +or encourages human reason to apply itself to revelation has no right +first to argue with people and then to punish them if they are not +convinced. But whether it was that men only half saw what they had +done, or that finding it hard enough to unrivet priestly fetters, they +welcomed all the aid a temporal prince could give, the result was that +religion, or rather religious creeds, began to be involved with +politics more closely than had ever been the case before. Through the +greater part of Christendom wars of religion raged for a century or +more, and down to our own days feelings of theological antipathy +continue to affect the relations of the powers of Europe. In almost +every country the form of doctrine which triumphed associated itself +with the state, and maintained the despotic system of the Middle Ages, +while it forsook the grounds on which that system had been based. It +was thus that there arose National Churches, which were to be to the +several countries of Europe that which the Church Catholic had been to +the world at large; churches, that is to say, each of which was to be +co-extensive with its respective state, was to enjoy landed wealth and +exclusive political privilege, and was to be armed with coercive +powers against recusants. It was not altogether easy to find a set of +theoretical principles on which such churches might be made to rest, +for they could not, like the old church, point to the historical +transmission of their doctrines; they could not claim to have in any +one man or body of men an infallible organ of divine truth; they could +not even fall back upon general councils, or the argument, whatever it +may be worth, '_Securus iudicat orbis terrarum_.' But in practice +these difficulties were soon got over, for the dominant party in each +state, if it was not infallible, was at any rate quite sure that it +was right, and could attribute the resistance of other sects to +nothing but moral obliquity. The will of the sovereign, as in England, +or the will of the majority, as in Holland, Scandinavia, and Scotland, +imposed upon each country a peculiar form of worship, and kept up the +practices of mediæval intolerance without their justification. +Persecution, which might be at least excused in an infallible Catholic +and Apostolic Church, was peculiarly odious when practised by those +who were not catholic, who were no more apostolic than their +neighbours, and who had just revolted from the most ancient and +venerable authority in the name of rights which they now denied to +others. If union with the visible church by participation in a +material sacrament be necessary to eternal life, persecution may be +held a duty, a kindness to perishing souls. But if the kingdom of +heaven be in every sense a kingdom of the spirit, if saving faith be +possible out of one visible body and under a diversity of external +forms, persecution becomes at once a crime and a folly. Therefore the +intolerance of Protestants, if the forms it took were less cruel than +those practised by the Roman Catholics, was also far less defensible; +for it had seldom anything better to allege on its behalf than motives +of political expediency, or, more often, the mere headstrong passion +of a ruler or a faction to silence the expressions of any opinions but +their own. To enlarge upon this theme, did space permit it, would not +be to digress from the proper subject of this narrative. For the +Empire, as has been said more than once already, was far less an +institution than a theory or doctrine. And hence it is not too much to +say, that the ideas which have but recently ceased to prevail +regarding the duty of the magistrate to compel uniformity in doctrine +and worship by the civil arm, may all be traced to the relation which +that doctrine established between the Roman Church and the Roman +Empire; to the conception, in fact, of an Empire Church itself. + +[Sidenote: Influence of the Reformation on the name and associations +of the Empire.] + +Two of the ways in which the Reformation affected the Empire have been +now described: its immediate political results, and its far more +profound doctrinal importance, as implanting new ideas regarding the +nature of freedom and the province of government. A third, though +apparently almost superficial, cannot be omitted. Its name and its +traditions, little as they retained of their former magic power, were +still such as to excite the antipathy of the German reformers. The +form which the doctrine of the supreme importance of one faith and one +body of the faithful had taken was the dominion of the ancient capital +of the world through her spiritual head, the Roman bishop, and her +temporal head, the Emperor. As the names of Roman and Christian had +been once convertible, so long afterwards were those of Roman and +Catholic. The Reformation, separating into its parts what had hitherto +been one conception, attacked Romanism but not Catholicity, and formed +religious communities which, while continuing to call themselves +Christian, repudiated the form with which Christianity had been so +long identified in the West. As the Empire was founded upon the +assumption that the limits of Church and State are exactly +co-extensive, a change which withdrew half of its subjects from the +one body while they remained members of the other, transformed it +utterly, destroyed the meaning and value of its old arrangements, and +forced the Emperor into a strange and incongruous position. To his +Protestant subjects he was merely the head of the administration, to +the Catholics he was also the Defender and Advocate of their church. +Thus from being chief of the whole state he became the chief of a +party within it, the Corpus Catholicorum, as opposed to the Corpus +Evangelicorum; he lost what had been hitherto his most holy claim to +the obedience of the subject; the awakened feeling of German +nationality was driven into hostility to an institution whose title +and history bound it to the centre of foreign tyranny. After exulting +for seven centuries in the heritage of Roman rule, the Teutonic +nations cherished again the feelings with which their ancestors had +resisted Julius Cæsar and Germanicus. Two mutually repugnant systems +could not exist side by side without striving to destroy one another. +The instincts of theological sympathy overcame the duties of political +allegiance, and men who were subjects both of the Empire and of their +local prince, gave all their loyalty to him who espoused their +doctrines and protected their worship. For in North Germany, princes +as well as people were mostly Lutheran: in the southern and especially +the south-eastern lands, where the magnates held to the old faith, +Protestants were scarcely to be found except in the free cities. The +same causes which injured the Emperor's position in Germany swept away +the last semblance of his authority through other countries. In the +great struggle which followed, the Protestants of England and France, +of Holland and Sweden, thought of him only as the ally of Spain, of +the Vatican, of the Jesuits; and he of whom it had been believed a +century before that by nothing but his existence was the coming of +Antichrist on earth delayed, was in the eyes of the northern divines +either Antichrist himself or Antichrist's foremost champion. The +earthquake that opened a chasm in Germany was felt through Europe; its +states and peoples marshalled themselves under two hostile banners, +and with the Empire's expiring power vanished that united Christendom +it had been created to lead[374]. + +[Sidenote: Troubles of Germany.] + +[Sidenote: Rudolf II, 1576-1612.] + +[Sidenote: Matthias, 1612-1619.] + +Some of the effects thus sketched began to shew themselves as early as +that famous Diet of Worms, from Luther's appearance at which, in A.D. +1521, we may date the beginning of the Reformation. But just as the +end of the religious conflict in England can hardly be placed earlier +than the Revolution of 1688, nor in France than the Revocation of the +Edict of Nantes in 1685, so it was not till after more than a century +of doubtful strife that the new order of things was fully and finally +established in Germany. The arrangements of Augsburg, like most +treaties on the basis of _uti possidetis_, were no better than a +hollow truce, satisfying no one, and consciously made to be broken. +The church lands which Protestants had seized, and Jesuit confessors +urged the Catholic princes to reclaim, furnished an unceasing ground +of quarrel: neither party yet knew the strength of its antagonists +sufficiently to abstain from insulting or persecuting their modes of +worship, and the smouldering hate of half a century was kindled by the +troubles of Bohemia into the Thirty Years' War. + +[Sidenote: Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648.] + +[Sidenote: Ferdinand II, A.D. 1619-37.] + +[Sidenote: Plans of Ferdinand II.] + +[Sidenote: Gustavus Adolphus.] + +[Sidenote: Ferdinand III, 1637-1658.] + +[Sidenote: The peace of Westphalia.] + +The imperial sceptre had now passed from the indolent and vacillating +Rudolf II (1576-1612), the corrupt and reckless policy of whose +ministers had done much to exasperate the already suspicious minds of +the Protestants, into the firmer grasp of Ferdinand the Second[375]. +Jealous, bigoted, implacable, skilful in forming and concealing his +plans, resolute to obstinacy in carrying them out in action, the house +of Hapsburg could have had no abler and no more unpopular leader in +their second attempt to turn the German Empire into an Austrian +military monarchy. They seemed for a time as near to the +accomplishment of the project as Charles the Fifth had been. Leagued +with Spain, backed by the Catholics of Germany, served by such a +leader as Wallenstein, Ferdinand proposed nothing less than the +extension of the Empire to its old limits, and the recovery of his +crown's full prerogative over all its vassals. Denmark and Holland +were to be attacked by sea and land: Italy to be reconquered with the +help of Spain: Maximilian of Bavaria and Wallenstein to be rewarded +with principalities in Pomerania and Mecklenburg. The latter general +was all but master of Northern Germany when the successful resistance +of Stralsund turned the wavering balance of the war. Soon after (A.D. +1630), Gustavus Adolphus crossed the Baltic, and saved Europe from an +impending reign of the Jesuits. Ferdinand's high-handed proceedings +had already alarmed even the Catholic princes. Of his own authority he +had put the Elector Palatine and other magnates to the ban of the +Empire: he had transferred an electoral vote to Bavaria; had treated +the districts overrun by his generals as spoil of war, to be portioned +out at his pleasure; had unsettled all possession by requiring the +restitution of church property occupied since A.D. 1555. The +Protestants were helpless; the Catholics, though they complained of +the flagrant illegality of such conduct, did not dare to oppose it: +the rescue of Germany was the work of the Swedish king. In four +campaigns he destroyed the armies and the prestige of the Emperor; +devastated his lands, emptied his treasury, and left him at last so +enfeebled that no subsequent successes could make him again +formidable. Such, nevertheless, was the selfishness and apathy of the +Protestant princes, divided by the mutual jealousy of the Lutheran and +the Calvinist party--some, like the Saxon elector, most inglorious of +his inglorious house, bribed by the cunning Austrian; others afraid to +stir lest a reverse should expose them unprotected to his +vengeance--that the issue of the long protracted contest would have +gone against them but for the interference of France. It was the +leading principle of Richelieu's policy to depress the house of +Hapsburg and keep Germany disunited: hence he fostered Protestantism +abroad while trampling it down at home. The triumph he did not live to +see was sealed in A.D. 1648, on the utter exhaustion of all the +combatants, and the treaties of Münster and Osnabrück were +thenceforward the basis of the Germanic constitution. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[368] The so-called 'Wahlcapitulation.' + +[369] The electors long refused to elect Charles, dreading his great +hereditary power, and were at last induced to do so only by their +overmastering fear of the Turks. + +[370] Nearly all the Hapsburgs seem to have wanted that sort of genial +heartiness which, apt as it is to be stifled by education in the +purple, has nevertheless been possessed by several other royal lines, +greatly contributing to their vitality; as for instance by more than +one prince of the houses of Brunswick and Hohenzollern. + +[371] See this brought out with great force in the very interesting +work of Padre Tosti, _Prolegomeni alla Storia Universale della +Chiesa_, from which I quote one passage, which bears directly on the +matter in hand: 'Il grido della riforma clericale aveva un eco +terribile in tutta la compagnia civile dei popoli: essa percuoteva le +cime del laicale potere, e rimbalzava per tutta la gerarchia sociale. +Se l'imperadore Sigismondo nel concilio di Costanza non avesse +fiutate queste consequenze nella eresia di Hus e di Girolamo di Praga, +forse non avrebbe con tanto zelo mandati alle fiamme que' novatori. +Rotto da Lutero il vincolo di suggezione al Papa ed ai preti in fatti +di religione, avvenne che anche quello che sommetteva il vassallo al +barone, il barone al imperadore si allentasse. Il popolo con la Bibbia +in mano era prete, vescovo, e papa; e se prima contristato della +prepotenza di chi gli soprastava, ricorreva al successore di San +Pietro, ora ricorreva a se stesso, avendogli commesse Fra Martino le +chiavi del regno dei Cieli.'--vol. ii. pp. 398, 9. + +[372] It was not till the end of the eleventh century that +transubstantiation was definitely established as a dogma. + +[373] See the passages quoted in note 113, p. 98; and note 132, p. 110. + +[374] Henry VIII of England when he rebelled against the Pope called +himself King of Ireland (his predecessors had used only the title +'Dominus Hiberniæ') without asking the Emperor's permission, in order +to shew that he repudiated the temporal as well as the spiritual +dominion of Rome. + +So the Statute of Appeals is careful to deny and reject the authority +of 'other foreign potentates,' meaning, no doubt, the Emperor as well +as the Pope. + +[375] Matthias, brother of Rudolf II, reigned from 1612 till 1619. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA: LAST STAGE IN THE DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. + + +The Peace of Westphalia is the first, and, with the exception perhaps +of the Treaties of Vienna in 1815, the most important of those +attempts to reconstruct by diplomacy the European states-system which +have played so large a part in modern history. It is important, +however, not as marking the introduction of new principles, but as +winding up the struggle which had convulsed Germany since the revolt +of Luther, sealing its results, and closing definitively the period of +the Reformation. Although the causes of disunion which the religious +movement called into being had now been at work for more than a +hundred years, their effects were not fully seen till it became +necessary to establish a system which should represent the altered +relations of the German states. It may thus be said of this famous +peace, as of the other so-called 'fundamental law of the Empire,' the +Golden Bull, that it did no more than legalize a condition of things +already in existence, but which by being legalized acquired new +importance. To all parties alike the result of the Thirty Years' War +was thoroughly unsatisfactory: to the Protestants, who had lost +Bohemia, and still were obliged to hold an inferior place in the +electoral college and in the Diet: to the Catholics, who were forced +to permit the exercise of heretical worship, and leave the church +lands in the grasp of sacrilegious spoilers: to the princes, who could +not throw off the burden of imperial supremacy: to the Emperor, who +could turn that supremacy to no practical account. No other conclusion +was possible to a contest in which every one had been vanquished and +no one victorious; which had ceased because while the reasons for war +continued the means of war had failed. Nevertheless, the substantial +advantage remained with the German princes, for they gained the formal +recognition of that territorial independence whose origin may be +placed as far back as the days of Frederick the Second, and the +maturity of which had been hastened by the events of the last +preceding century. It was, indeed, not only recognized but justified +as rightful and necessary. For while the political situation, to use a +current phrase, had changed within the last two hundred years, the +eyes with which men regarded it had changed still more. Never by their +fiercest enemies in earlier times, not once by the Popes or Lombard +republicans in the heat of their strife with the Franconian and +Swabian Cæsars, had the Emperors been reproached as mere German kings, +or their claim to be the lawful heirs of Rome denied. The Protestant +jurists of the sixteenth or rather of the seventeenth century were the +first persons who ventured to scoff at the pretended lordship of the +world, and declare their Empire to be nothing more than a German +monarchy, in dealing with which no superstitious reverence need +prevent its subjects from making the best terms they could for +themselves, and controlling a sovereign whose religious predilections +made him the friend of their enemies. + +[Sidenote: The treatise of Hippolytus a Lapide.] + +[Sidenote: Rights of the Emperor and the Diet, as settled in A.D. +1648.] + +It is very instructive to turn suddenly from Dante or Peter de Andlo +to a book published shortly before A.D. 1648, under the name of +Hippolytus a Lapide[376], and notice the matter-of-fact way, the +almost contemptuous spirit in which, disregarding the traditional +glories of the Empire, he comments on its actual condition and +prospects. Hippolytus, the pseudonym which the jurist Chemnitz +assumed, urges with violence almost superfluous, that the Germanic +constitution must be treated entirely as a native growth: that the +'lex regia' (so much discussed and so often misunderstood) and the +whole system of Justinianean absolutism which the Emperor had used so +dexterously, were in their applications to Germany not merely +incongruous but positively absurd. With eminent learning, Chemnitz +examines the early history of the Empire, draws from the unceasing +contests of the monarch with the nobility the unexpected moral that +the power of the former has been always dangerous, and is now more +dangerous than ever, and then launches out into a long invective +against the policy of the Hapsburgs, an invective which the ambition +and harshness of the late Emperor made only too plausible. The one +real remedy for the evils that menace Germany he states +concisely--'domus Austriacæ extirpatio:' but, failing this, he would +have the Emperor's prerogative restricted in every way, and provide +means for resisting or dethroning him. It was by these views, which +seem to have made a profound impression in Germany, that the states, +or rather France and Sweden acting on their behalf, were guided in the +negotiations of Osnabrück and Münster. By extorting a full recognition +of the sovereignty of all the princes, Catholics and Protestants +alike, in their respective territories, they bound the Emperor from +any direct interference with the administration, either in particular +districts or throughout the Empire. All affairs of public importance, +including the rights of making war or peace, of levying contributions, +raising troops, building fortresses, passing or interpreting laws, +were henceforth to be left entirely in the hands of the Diet. The +Aulic Council, which had been sometimes the engine of imperial +oppression, and always of imperial intrigue, was so restricted as to +be harmless for the future. The 'reservata' of the Emperor were +confined to the rights of granting titles and confirming tolls. In +matters of religion, an exact though not perfectly reciprocal equality +was established between the two chief ecclesiastical bodies, and the +right of 'Itio in partes,' that is to say, of deciding questions in +which religion was involved by amicable negotiations between the +Protestant and Catholic states, instead of by a majority of votes in +the Diet, was definitely conceded. Both Lutherans and Calvinists were +declared free from all jurisdiction of the Pope or any Catholic +prelate. Thus the last link which bound Germany to Rome was snapped, +the last of the principles by virtue of which the Empire had existed +was abandoned. For the Empire now contained and recognized as its +members persons who formed a visible body at open war with the Holy +Roman Church; and its constitution admitted schismatics to a full +share in all those civil rights which, according to the doctrines of +the early Middle Age, could be enjoyed by no one who was out of the +communion of the Catholic Church. The Peace of Westphalia was +therefore an abrogation of the sovereignty of Rome, and of the theory +of Church and State with which the name of Rome was associated. And in +this light was it regarded by Pope Innocent the Tenth, who commanded +his legate to protest against it, and subsequently declared it void by +the bull 'Zelo domus Dei[377].' + +[Sidenote: Loss of imperial territories.] + +The transference of power within the Empire, from its head to its +members, was a small matter compared with the losses which the Empire +suffered as a whole. The real gainers by the treaties of Westphalia +were those who had borne the brunt of the battle against Ferdinand the +Second and his son. To France were ceded Brisac, the Austrian part of +Alsace, and the lands of the three bishoprics in Lorraine--Metz, Toul, +and Verdun, which her armies had seized in A.D. 1552: to Sweden, +northern Pomerania, Bremen, and Verden. There was, however, this +difference between the position of the two, that whereas Sweden became +a member of the German Diet for what she received (as the king of +Holland was, until 1866-7, a member for Dutch Luxemburg, and as the +kings of Denmark, up till the accession of the present sovereign, were +for Holstein), the acquisitions of France were delivered over to her +in full sovereignty, and for ever severed from the Germanic body. And +as it was by their aid that the liberties of the Protestants had been +won, these two states obtained at the same time what was more valuable +than territorial accessions--the right of interfering at imperial +elections, and generally whenever the provisions of the treaties of +Osnabrück and Münster, which they had guaranteed, might be supposed to +be endangered. The bounds of the Empire were further narrowed by the +final separation of two countries, once integral parts of Germany, and +up to this time legally members of her body. Holland and Switzerland +were, in A.D. 1648, declared independent. + +[Sidenote: Germany after the Peace.] + +[Sidenote: Number of petty independent states: effects of such a +system on Germany.] + +The Peace of Westphalia is an era in imperial history not less clearly +marked than the coronation of Otto the Great, or the death of +Frederick the Second. As from the days of Maximilian it had borne a +mixed or transitional character, well expressed by the name +Romano-Germanic, so henceforth it is in everything but title purely +and solely a German Empire. Properly, indeed, it was no longer an +Empire at all, but a Confederation, and that of the loosest sort. For +it had no common treasury, no efficient common tribunals[378], no +means of coercing a refractory member[379]; its states were of +different religions, were governed according to different forms, were +administered judicially and financially without any regard to each +other. The traveller in Central Germany now is amused to find, every +hour or two, by the change in the soldiers' uniforms, and the colour +of the stripes on the railway fences, that he has passed out of one +and into another of its miniature kingdoms. Much more surprised and +embarrassed would he have been a century ago, when, instead of the +present thirty-two there were three hundred petty principalities +between the Alps and the Baltic, each with its own laws, its own +courts (in which the ceremonious pomp of Versailles was faintly +reproduced), its little armies, its separate coinage, its tolls and +custom-houses on the frontier, its crowd of meddlesome and pedantic +officials, presided over by a prime minister who was generally the +unworthy favourite of his prince and the pensioner of some foreign +court. This vicious system, which paralyzed the trade, the literature, +and the political thought of Germany, had been forming itself for some +time, but did not become fully established until the Peace of +Westphalia, by emancipating the princes from imperial control, had +made them despots in their own territories. The impoverishment of the +inferior nobility and the decline of the commercial cities caused by a +war that had lasted a whole generation, removed every counterpoise to +the power of the electors and princes, and made absolutism supreme +just where absolutism wants all its justification, in states too small +to have any public opinion, states in which everything depends on the +monarch, and the monarch depends on his favourites. After A.D. 1648 +the provincial estates or parliaments became obsolete in most of these +principalities, and powerless in the rest. Germany was forced to drink +to its very dregs the cup of feudalism, feudalism from which all the +feelings that once ennobled it had departed. + +[Sidenote: Feudalism in France, England, Germany.] + +It is instructive to compare the results of the system of feudality in +the three chief countries of modern Europe. In France, the feudal head +absorbed all the powers of the state, and left to the aristocracy only +a few privileges, odious indeed, but politically worthless. In +England, the mediæval system expanded into a constitutional monarchy, +where the oligarchy was still strong, but the commons had won the full +recognition of equal civil rights. In Germany, everything was taken +from the sovereign, and nothing given to the people; the +representatives of those who had been fief-holders of the first and +second rank before the Great Interregnum were now independent +potentates; and what had been once a monarchy was now an aristocratic +federation. The Diet, originally an assembly of magnates meeting from +time to time like our early English Parliaments, became in A.D. 1654 a +permanent body, at which the electors, princes, and cities were +represented by their envoys. In other words, it was now not a national +council, but an international congress of diplomatists. + +[Sidenote: Causes of the continuance of the Empire.] + +Where the sacrifice of imperial, or rather federal, rights to state +rights was so complete, we may wonder that the farce of an Empire +should have been retained at all. A mere German Empire would probably +have perished; but the Teutonic people could not bring itself to +abandon the venerable heritage of Rome. Moreover, the Germans were of +all European peoples the most slow-moving and long-suffering; and as, +if the Empire had fallen, something must have been erected in its +place, they preferred to work on with the clumsy machine so long as it +would work at all. Properly speaking, it has no history after this; +and the history of the particular states of Germany which takes its +place is one of the dreariest chapters in the annals of mankind. It +would be hard to find, from the Peace of Westphalia to the French +Revolution, a single grand character or a single noble enterprise; a +single sacrifice made to great public interests, a single instance in +which the welfare of nations was preferred to the selfish passions of +their princes. The military history of those times will always be read +with interest; but free and progressive countries have a history of +peace not less rich and varied than that of war; and when we ask for +an account of the political life of Germany in the eighteenth century, +we hear nothing but the scandals of buzzing courts, and the wrangling +of diplomatists at never-ending congresses. + +[Sidenote: The Empire and the Balance of power.] + +Useless and helpless as the Empire had become, it was not without its +importance to the neighbouring countries, with whose fortunes it had +been linked by the Peace of Westphalia. It was the pivot on which the +political system of Europe was to revolve: the scales, so to speak, +which marked the equipoise of power that had become the grand object +of the policy of all states. This modern caricature of the plan by +which the theorists of the fourteenth century had proposed to keep the +world at peace, used means less noble and attained its end no better +than theirs had done. No one will deny that it was and is desirable to +prevent a universal monarchy in Europe. But it may be asked whether a +system can be considered successful which allowed Frederick of Prussia +to seize Silesia, which did not check the aggressions of Russia and +France upon their neighbours, which was for ever bartering and +exchanging lands in every part of Europe without thought of the +inhabitants, which permitted and has never been able to redress that +greatest of public misfortunes, the partitionment of Poland. And if it +be said that bad as things have been under this system, they would +have been worse without it, it is hard to refrain from asking whether +any evils could have been greater than those which the people of +Europe have suffered through constant wars with each other, and +through the withdrawal, even in time of peace, of so large a part of +their population from useful labour to be wasted in maintaining a +standing army. + +[Sidenote: Position of the Empire in Europe.] + +[Sidenote: Weakness and stagnation of Germany.] + +The result of the extended relations in which Germany now found +herself to Europe, with two foreign kings never wanting an occasion, +one of them never the wish, to interfere, was that a spark from her +set the Continent ablaze, while flames kindled elsewhere were sure to +spread hither. Matters grew worse as her princes inherited or created +so many thrones abroad. The Duke of Holstein acquired Denmark, the +Count Palatine Sweden, the Elector of Saxony Poland, the Elector of +Hanover England, the Archduke of Austria Hungary and Bohemia, while +the Elector (originally Margrave) of Brandenburg obtained, on the +strength of non-imperial territories to the north-eastward which had +come into his hands, the style and title of King of Prussia. Thus the +Empire seemed again about to embrace Europe; but in a sense far +different from that which those words would have expressed under +Charles and Otto. Its history for a century and a half is a dismal +list of losses and disgraces. The chief external danger was from +French influence, for a time supreme, always menacing. For though +Lewis the Fourteenth, on whom, in A.D. 1658, half the electoral +college wished to confer the imperial crown, was before the end of his +life an object of intense hatred, officially entitled 'Hereditary +enemy of the Holy Empire[380],' France had nevertheless a strong party +among the princes always at her beck. The Rhenish and Bavarian +electors were her favourite tools. The '_réunions_' begun in A.D. +1680, a pleasant euphemism for robbery in time of peace, added +Strasburg and other places in Alsace, Lorraine, and Franche Comté to +the monarchy of Lewis, and brought him nearer the heart of the Empire; +his ambition and cruelty were witnessed to by repeated wars, and by +the devastation of the Rhine countries; the ultimate though +short-lived triumph of his policy was attained when Marshal Belleisle +dictated the election of Charles VII in A.D. 1742. In the Turkish +wars, when the princes left Vienna to be saved by the Polish Sobieski, +the Empire's weakness appeared in a still more pitiable light. There +was, indeed, a complete loss of hope and interest in the old system. +The princes had been so long accustomed to consider themselves the +natural foes of a central government, that a request made by it was +sure to be disregarded; they aped in their petty courts the pomp and +etiquette of Vienna or Paris, grumbling that they should be required +to garrison the great frontier fortresses which alone protected them +from an encroaching neighbour. The Free Cities had never recovered the +famines and sieges of the Thirty Years' War: Hanseatic greatness had +waned, and the southern towns had sunk into languid oligarchies. All +the vigour of the people in a somewhat stagnant age either found its +sphere in rising states like the Prussia of Frederick the Great, or +turned away from politics altogether into other channels. The Diet had +become contemptible from the slowness with which it moved, and its +tedious squabbles on matters the most frivolous. Many sittings were +consumed in the discussion of a question regarding the time of keeping +Easter, more ridiculous than that which had distracted the Western +churches in the seventh century, the Protestants refusing to reckon by +the reformed calendar because it was the work of a Pope. Collective +action through the old organs was confessed impossible, when the +common object of defence against France was sought by forming a league +under the Emperor's presidency, and when at European congresses the +Empire was not represented at all[381]. No change could come from the +Emperor, whom the capitulation of A.D. 1658 deposed _ipso facto_ if he +violated its provisions. As Dohm[382] said, to keep him from doing +harm, he was kept from doing anything. + +[Sidenote: Leopold I, 1658-1705.] + +[Sidenote: Joseph I, 1705-1711.] + +[Sidenote: Charles VI, 1711-1742.] + +[Sidenote: The Hapsburg Emperors and their policy.] + +[Sidenote: Causes of the long retention of the throne by Austria.] + +[Sidenote: Charles VII, 1742-1745.] + +[Sidenote: Francis I, 1745-1765.] + +[Sidenote: Seven Years' War.] + +[Sidenote: Joseph II, 1765-1790.] + +[Sidenote: Leopold II, 1790-1792. Last phase of the Empire.] + +[Sidenote: The Diet.] + +Yet little was lost by his inactivity, for what could have been hoped +from his action? From the election of Albert the Second, A.D. 1437, to +the death of Charles the Sixth, A.D. 1742, the sceptre had remained in +the hands of one family. So far from being fit subjects for +undistinguishing invective, the Hapsburg Emperors may be contrasted +favourably with the contemporary dynasties of France, Spain, or +England. Their policy, viewed as a whole from the days of Rudolf +downwards, had been neither conspicuously tyrannical, nor faltering, +nor dishonest. But it had been always selfish. Entrusted with an +office which might, if there be any power in those memories of the +past to which the champions of hereditary monarchy so constantly +appeal, have stirred their sluggish souls with some enthusiasm for the +heroes on whose throne they sat, some wish to advance the glory and +the happiness of Germany, they had cared for nothing, sought nothing, +used the Empire as an instrument for nothing but the attainment of +their own personal or dynastic ends. Placed on the eastern verge of +Germany, the Hapsburgs had added to their ancient lands in Austria +proper and Tyrol, non-German territories far more extensive, and had +thus become the chiefs of a separate and independent state. They +endeavoured to reconcile its interests with the interests of the +Empire, so long as it seemed possible to recover part of the old +imperial prerogative. But when such hopes were dashed by the defeats +of the Thirty Years' War, they hesitated no longer between an elective +crown and the rule of their hereditary states, and comported +themselves thenceforth in European politics not as the representatives +of Germany, but as heads of the great Austrian monarchy. There would +have been nothing culpable in this had they not at the same time +continued to entangle Germany in wars with which she had no concern: +to waste her strength in tedious combats with the Turks, or plunge her +into a new struggle with France, not to defend her frontiers or +recover the lands she had lost, but that some scion of the house of +Hapsburg might reign in Spain or Italy. Watching the whole course of +their foreign policy, marking how in A.D. 1736 they had bartered away +Lorraine for Tuscany, a German for a non-German territory, and seeing +how at home they opposed every scheme of reform which could in the +least degree trench upon their own prerogative, how they strove to +obstruct the imperial chamber lest it should interfere with their own +Aulic council, men were driven to separate the body of the Empire from +the imperial office and its possessors[383], and when plans for +reinvigorating the one failed, to leave the others to their fate. +Still the old line clung to the crown with that Hapsburg gripe which +has almost passed into a proverb. Odious as Austria was, no one could +despise her, or fancy it easy to shake her commanding position in +Europe. Her alliances were fortunate: her designs were steadily +pursued: her dismembered territories always returned to her. Though +the throne continued strictly elective, it was impossible not to be +influenced by long prescription. Projects were repeatedly formed to +set the Hapsburgs aside by electing a prince of some other line[384], +or by passing a law that there should never be more than two, or four, +successive Emperors of the same house. France[385] ever and anon +renewed her warnings to the electors, that their freedom was passing +from them, and the sceptre becoming hereditary in one haughty family. +But it was felt that a change would be difficult and disagreeable, and +that the heavy expense and scanty revenues of the Empire required to +be supported by larger patrimonial domains than most German princes +possessed. The heads of states like Prussia and Hanover, states whose +size and wealth would have made them suitable candidates, were +Protestants, and so excluded both by the connexion of the imperial +office with the Church, and by the majority of Roman Catholics in the +electoral college[386], who, however jealous they might be of Austria, +were led both by habit and sympathy to rally round her in moments of +peril. The one occasion on which these considerations were disregarded +shewed their force. On the extinction of the male line of Hapsburg in +the person of Charles the Sixth, the intrigues of the French envoy, +Marshal Belleisle, procured the election of Charles Albert of Bavaria, +who stood first among the Catholic princes. His reign was a succession +of misfortunes and ignominies. Driven from Munich by the Austrians, +the head of the Holy Empire lived in Frankfort on the bounty of +France, cursed by the country on which his ambition had brought the +miseries of a protracted war[387]. The choice in 1745 of Duke Francis +of Lorraine, husband of the archduchess of Austria and queen of +Hungary, Maria Theresa, was meant to restore the crown to the only +power capable of wearing it with dignity: in Joseph the Second, her +son, it again rested on the brow of a Hapsburg[388]. In the war of the +Austrian succession, which followed on the death of Charles the Sixth, +the Empire as a body took no part; in the Seven Years' War its whole +might broke in vain against one resolute member. Under Frederick the +Great Prussia approved herself at least a match for France and Austria +leagued against her, and the semblance of unity which the predominance +of a single power had hitherto given to the Empire was replaced by the +avowed rivalry of two military monarchies. The Emperor Joseph the +Second, a sort of philosopher-king, than whom few have more narrowly +missed greatness, made a desperate effort to set things right, +striving to restore the disordered finances, to purge and vivify the +Imperial Chamber. Nay, he renounced the intolerant policy of his +ancestors, quarrelled with the Pope[389], and presumed to visit Rome, +whose streets heard once more the shout that had been silent for three +centuries, 'Evviva il nostro imperatore! Siete a casa vostra: siete il +padrone[390].' But his indiscreet haste was met by a sullen +resistance, and he died disappointed in plans for which the time was +not yet ripe, leaving no result save the league of princes which +Frederick the Great had formed to oppose his designs on Bavaria. His +successor, Leopold the Second, abandoned the projected reforms, and a +calm, the calm before the hurricane, settled down again upon Germany. +The existence of the Empire was almost forgotten by its subjects: +there was nothing to remind them of it but a feudal investiture now +and then at Vienna (real feudal rights were obsolete[391]); a +concourse of solemn old lawyers at Wetzlar puzzling over interminable +suits[392]; and some thirty diplomatists at Regensburg[393], the +relics of that Imperial Diet where once a hero-king, a Frederick or a +Henry, enthroned amid mitred prelates and steel-clad barons, had +issued laws for every tribe from the Mediterranean to the Baltic[394]. +The solemn triflings of this so-called 'Diet of Deputation' have +probably never been equalled elsewhere[395]. Questions of precedence +and title, questions whether the envoys of princes should have chairs +of red cloth like those of the electors, or only of the less +honourable green, whether they should be served on gold or on silver, +how many hawthorn boughs should be hung up before the door of each on +May-day; these, and such as these, it was their chief employment not +to settle but to discuss. The pedantic formalism of old Germany passed +that of Spaniards or Turks; it had now crushed under a mountain of +rubbish whatever meaning or force its old institutions had contained. +It is the penalty of greatness that its form should outlive its +substance: that gilding and trappings should remain when that which +they were meant to deck and clothe has departed. So our sloth or our +timidity, not seeing that whatever is false must be also bad, +maintains in being what once was good long after it has become +helpless and hopeless: so now at the close of the eighteenth century, +strings of sounding titles were all that was left of the Empire which +Charles had founded, and Frederick adorned, and Dante sung. + +[Sidenote: Feelings of the German people.] + +The German mind, just beginning to put forth the blossoms of its +wondrous literature, turned away in disgust from the spectacle of +ceremonious imbecility more than Byzantine. National feeling seemed +gone from princes and people alike. Lessing, who did more than any one +else to create the German literary spirit, says, 'Of the love of +country I have no conception: it appears to me at best a heroic +weakness which I am right glad to be without[396].' The Emperor Joseph +II writes to his brother of France: 'You must know that the +annihilation of German nationality is a necessary leading principle of +my policy[397].' There were nevertheless persons who saw how fatal +such a system was, lying like a nightmare on the people's soul. +Speaking of the union of princes formed by Frederick of Prussia to +preserve the existing condition of things, Johannes von Müller +writes[398]: 'If the German Union serves for nothing better than to +maintain the _status quo_, it is against the eternal order of God, by +which neither the physical nor the moral world remains for a moment in +the _status quo_, but all is life and motion and progress. To exist +without law or justice, without security from arbitrary imposts, +doubtful whether we can preserve from day to day our honours, our +liberties, our rights, our lives, helpless before superior force, +without a beneficial connexion between our states, without a national +spirit at all, this is the _status quo_ of our nation. And it was this +that the Union was meant to confirm. If it be this and nothing more, +then bethink you how when Israel saw that Rehoboam would not hearken, +the people gave answer to the king and spake, "What portion have we in +David, or what inheritance in the son of Jesse? to your tents, O +Israel: David, see to thine own house." See then to your own houses, +ye princes.' + +Nevertheless, though the Empire stood like a corpse brought forth from +some Egyptian sepulchre, ready to crumble at a touch, there seemed no +reason why it should not stand so for centuries more. Fate was kind, +and slew it in the light. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[376] _De Ratione Status in Imperio nostro Romano-Germanico_. + +[377] Even then the Roman pontiffs had lapsed into that scolding, +anile tone (so unlike the fiery brevity of Hildebrand, or the stern +precision of Innocent III) which is now seldom absent from their +public utterances. Pope Innocent the Tenth pronounces the provisions +of the treaty, 'ipso iure nulla, irrita, invalida, iniqua, iniusta, +damnata, reprobata, inania, viribusque et effectu vacua, omnino +fuisse, esse, et perpetuo fore.' In spite of which they were observed. + +This bull may be found in vol. xvii. of the _Bullarium_. It bears date +Nov. 20th, A.D. 1648. + +[378] The Imperial Chamber (Kammergericht) continued, with frequent +and long interruptions, to sit while the Empire lasted. But its +slowness and formality passed that of any other legal body the world +has yet seen, and it had no power to enforce its sentences. The Aulic +council was little more efficient, and was generally disliked as the +tool of imperial intrigue. + +[379] The 'matricula' specifying the quota of each state to the +imperial army could not be any longer employed. + +[380] _Erbfeind des heiligen Reichs._ + +[381] Only the envoys of the several states were present at Utrecht in +1713. + +[382] Quoted by Ludwig Haüsser, _Deutsche Geschichte_. + +[383] The distinction is well expressed by the German 'Reich' and +'Kaiserthum,' to which we have unfortunately no terms to correspond. + +[384] So the Elector of Saxony proposed in 1532 that Albert II, +Frederick III, and Maximilian having been all of one house, Charles +V's successor should be chosen from some other.--Moser, _Römische +Kayser_. See the various attempts of France in Moser. The coronation +engagements (Wahlcapitulation) of every Emperor bound him not to +attempt to make the throne hereditary in his family. + +[385] In 1658 France offered to subsidize the Elector of Bavaria if he +would become Emperor. + +[386] Whether an Evangelical was eligible for the office of Emperor +was a question often debated, but never actually raised by the +candidature of any but a Roman Catholic prince. The 'exacta æqualitas' +conceded by the Peace of Westphalia might appear to include so +important a privilege. But when we consider that the peculiar relation +in which the Emperor stood to the Holy Roman Church was one which no +heretic could hold, and that the coronation oaths could not have been +taken by, nor the coronation ceremonies (among which was a sort of +ordination) performed upon a Protestant, the conclusion must be +unfavourable to the claims of any but a Catholic. + +[387] + + 'The bold Bavarian, in a luckless hour, + Tries the dread summits of Cæsarian power. + With unexpected legions bursts away, + And sees defenceless realms receive his sway.... + The baffled prince in honour's flattering bloom + Of hasty greatness finds the fatal doom; + His foes' derision and his subjects' blame, + And steals to death from anguish and from shame.' + JOHNSON, _Vanity of Human Wishes_. + +[388] The following nine reasons for the long continuance of the +Empire in the House of Hapsburg are given by Pfeffinger (_Vitriarius +Illustratus_), writing early in the eighteenth century:-- + + 1. The great power of Austria. + + 2. Her wealth, now that the Empire was so poor. + + 3. The majority of Catholics among the electors. + + 4. Her fortunate matrimonial alliances. + + 5. Her moderation. + + 6. The memory of benefits conferred by her. + + 7. The example of evils that had followed a departure from + the blood of former Cæsars. + + 8. The fear of the confusion that would ensue if she were + deprived of the crown. + + 9. Her own eagerness to have it. + +[389] The Pope undertook a journey to Vienna to mollify Joseph, and +met with a sufficiently cold reception. When he saw the famous +minister Kaunitz and gave him his hand to kiss, Kaunitz took it and +shook it. + +[390] 'You are in your own house: be the master.' + +[391] Joseph II was foiled in his attempt to assert them. + +[392] Goethe spent some time in studying law at Wetzlar among those +who practised in the Kammergericht. + +[393] Cf. Pütter, _Historical Developement of the Political +Constitution of the German Empire_, vol. iii. + +[394] Frederick the Great said of the Diet, 'Es ist ein Schattenbild, +eine Versammlung aus Publizisten die mehr mit Formalien als mit Sachen +sich beschäftigen, und, wie Hofhunde, den Mond anbellen.' + +[395] Cf. Haüsser, _Deutsche Geschichte_; Introduction. + +[396] Quoted by Haüsser. + +[397] Rotteck and Welcker, _Staats Lexikon_, s. v. 'Deutsches Reich.' + +[398] _Deutschlands Erwartungen vom Fürstenbunde_, quoted in the +_Staats Lexikon_. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +FALL OF THE EMPIRE. + + +[Sidenote: Francis II, 1792-1806.] + +[Sidenote: Napoleon, Emperor of the West.] + +[Sidenote: Belief of Napoleon that he was the successor of +Charlemagne.] + +[Sidenote: Attitude of the Papacy towards Napoleon.] + +Goethe has described the uneasiness with which, in the days of his +childhood, the burghers of his native Frankfort saw the walls of the +Roman Hall covered with the portraits of Emperor after Emperor, till +space was left for few, at last for one[399]. In A.D. 1792 Francis the +Second mounted the throne of Augustus, and the last place was filled. +Three years before there had arisen on the western horizon a little +cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, and now the heaven was black with +storms of ruin. There was a prophecy[400], dating from the first days +of the Empire's decline, that when all things were falling to ruin, +and wickedness rife in the world, a second Frankish Charles should +rise as Emperor to purge and heal, to bring back peace and purify +religion. If this was not exactly the mission of the new ruler of the +West Franks, he was at least anxious to tread in the steps and revive +the glories of the hero whose crown he professed to have inherited. It +were a task superfluously easy to shew how delusive is that minute +historical parallel of which every Parisian was full in A.D. 1804, the +parallel between the heir of a long line of fierce Teutonic +chieftains, whose vigorous genius had seized what it could of the +monkish learning of the eighth century, and the son of the Corsican +lawyer, with all the brilliance of a Frenchman and all the resolute +profundity of an Italian, reared in, yet only half believing, the +ideas of the Encyclopædists, swept up into the seat of absolute power +by the whirlwind of a revolution. Alcuin and Talleyrand are not more +unlike than are their masters. But though in the characters and temper +of the men there is little resemblance, though their Empires agree in +this only, and hardly even in this, that both were founded on +conquest, there is nevertheless a sort of grand historical similarity +between their positions. Both were the leaders of fiery and warlike +nations, the one still untamed as the creatures of their native woods, +the other drunk with revolutionary fury. Both aspired to found, and +seemed for a time to have succeeded in founding, universal monarchies. +Both were gifted with a strong and susceptible imagination, which if +it sometimes overbore their judgment, was yet one of the truest and +highest elements of their greatness. As the one looked back to the +kings under the Jewish theocracy and the Emperors of Christian Rome, +so the other thought to model himself after Cæsar and Charlemagne. +For, useful as was the fancied precedent of the title and career of +the great Carolingian to a chief determined to be king, yet unable to +be king after the fashion of the Bourbons, and seductive as was such a +connexion to the imaginative vanity of the French people, it was no +studied purpose or simulating art that led Napoleon to remind his +subjects so frequently of the hero he claimed to represent. No one who +reads the records of his life can doubt that he believed, as fully as +he believed anything, that the same destiny which had made France the +centre of the modern world had also appointed him to sit on the throne +and carry out the projects of Charles the Frank, to rule all Europe +from Paris, as the Cæsars had ruled it from Rome[401]. It was in this +belief that he went to the ancient capital of the Frankish Emperors to +receive there the Austrian recognition of his imperial title: that he +talked of 'revendicating' Catalonia and Aragon, because they had +formed a part of the Carolingian realm, though they had never obeyed +the descendants of Hugh Capet: that he undertook a journey to +Nimeguen, where he had ordered the ancient palace to be restored, and +inscribed on its walls his name below that of Charles: that he +summoned the Pope to attend his coronation as Stephen had come ten +centuries before to instal Pipin in the throne of the last +Merovingian[402]. The same desire to be regarded as lawful Emperor of +the West shewed itself in his assumption of the Lombard crown at +Milan; in the words of the decree by which he annexed Rome to the +Empire, revoking 'the donations which my predecessors, the French +Emperors, have made[403];' in the title 'King of Rome,' which he +bestowed on his ill-fated son, in imitation of the German 'King of the +Romans[404].' We are even told that it was at one time his intention +to eject the Hapsburgs, and be chosen Roman Emperor in their stead. +Had this been done, the analogy would have been complete between the +position which the French ruler held to Austria now, and that in which +Charles and Otto had stood to the feeble Cæsars of Byzantium. It was +curious to see the head of the Roman church turning away from his +ancient ally to the reviving power of France--France, where the +Goddess of Reason had been worshipped eight years before--just as he +had sought the help of the first Carolingians against his Lombard +enemies[405]. The difference was indeed great between the feelings +wherewith Pius the Seventh addressed his 'very dear son in Christ,' +and those that had pervaded the intercourse of Pope Hadrian the First +with the son of Pipin; just as the contrast is strange between the +principles that shaped Napoleon's policy and the vision of a theocracy +that had floated before the mind of Charles. Neither comparison is +much to the advantage of the modern; but Pius might be pardoned for +catching at any help in his distress, and Napoleon found that the +protectorship of the church strengthened his position in France, and +gave him dignity in the eyes of Christendom[406]. + +[Sidenote: The French Empire.] + +[Sidenote: Napoleon in Germany.] + +[Sidenote: The Confederation of the Rhine.] + +[Sidenote: Abdication of the Emperor Francis II.] + +[Sidenote: End of the Empire.] + +A swift succession of triumphs had left only one thing still +preventing the full recognition of the Corsican warrior as sovereign +of Western Europe, and that one was the existence of the old +Romano-Germanic Empire. Napoleon had not long assumed his new title +when he began to mark a distinction between 'la France' and 'l'Empire +Française.' France had, since A.D. 1792, advanced to the Rhine, and, +by the annexation of Piedmont, had overstepped the Alps; the French +Empire included, besides the kingdom of Italy, a mass of dependent +states, Naples, Holland, Switzerland, and many German principalities, +the allies of France in the same sense in which the 'socii populi +Romani' were allies of Rome[407]. When the last of Pitt's coalitions +had been destroyed at Austerlitz, and Austria had made her submission +by the peace of Presburg, the conqueror felt that his hour was come. +He had now overcome two Emperors, those of Austria and Russia, +claiming to represent the old and the new Rome respectively, and had +in eighteen months created more kings than the occupants of the +Germanic throne in as many centuries. It was time, he thought, to +sweep away obsolete pretensions, and claim the sole inheritance of +that Western Empire, of which the titles and ceremonies of his court +presented a grotesque imitation[408]. The task was an easy one after +what had been already accomplished. Previous wars and treaties had so +redistributed the territories and changed the constitution of the +Germanic Empire that it could hardly be said to exist in anything but +name. In French history Napoleon appears as the restorer of peace, the +rebuilder of the shattered edifice of social order: the author of a +code and an administrative system which the Bourbons who dethroned him +were glad to preserve. Abroad he was the true child of the Revolution, +and conquered only to destroy. It was his mission--a mission more +beneficent in its result than in its means[409]--to break up in +Germany and Italy the abominable system of petty states, to reawaken +the spirit of the people, to sweep away the relics of an effete +feudalism, and leave the ground clear for the growth of newer and +better forms of political life. Since A.D. 1797, when Austria at Campo +Formio perfidiously exchanged the Netherlands for Venetia, the work of +destruction had gone on apace. All the German sovereigns west of the +Rhine had been dispossessed, and their territories incorporated with +France, while the rest of the country had been revolutionized by the +arrangements of the peace of Luneville and the 'Indemnities,' dictated +by the French to the Diet in February 1803. New kingdoms were erected, +electorates created and extinguished, the lesser princes mediatized, +the free cities occupied by troops and bestowed on some neighbouring +potentate. More than any other change, the secularization of the +dominions of the prince-bishops and abbots proclaimed the fall of the +old constitution, whose principles had required the existence of a +spiritual alongside of the temporal aristocracy. The Emperor Francis, +partly foreboding the events that were at hand, partly in order to +meet Napoleon's assumption of the imperial name by depriving that name +of its peculiar meaning, began in A.D. 1805 to style himself +'Hereditary Emperor of Austria,' while retaining at the same time his +former title[410]. The next act of the drama was one in which we may +more readily pardon the ambition of a foreign conqueror than the +traitorous selfishness of the German princes, who broke every tie of +ancient friendship and duty to grovel at his throne. By the Act of the +Confederation[411] of the Rhine, signed at Paris, July 12th, 1806, +Bavaria, Würtemberg, Baden, and several other states, sixteen in all, +withdrew from the body and repudiated the laws of the Empire, while on +August 1st the French envoy at Regensburg announced to the Diet that +his master, who had consented to become Protector of the Confederate +princes, no longer recognized the existence of the Empire. Francis the +Second resolved at once to anticipate this new Odoacer, and by a +declaration, dated August 6th, 1806, resigned the imperial dignity. +His deed states that finding it impossible, in the altered state of +things, to fulfil the obligations imposed by his capitulation, he +considers as dissolved the bonds which attached him to the Germanic +body, releases from their allegiance the states who formed it, and +retires to the government of his hereditary dominions under the title +of 'Emperor of Austria[412].' Throughout, the term 'German Empire' +(_Deutsches Reich_) is employed. But it was the crown of Augustus, of +Constantine, of Charles, of Maximilian, that Francis of Hapsburg laid +down, and a new era in the world's history was marked by the fall of +its most venerable institution. One thousand and six years after Leo +the Pope had crowned the Frankish king, eighteen hundred and +fifty-eight years after Cæsar had conquered at Pharsalia, the Holy +Roman Empire came to its end. + +[Sidenote: Congress of Vienna.] + +There was a time when this event would have been thought a sign that +the last days of the world were at hand. But in the whirl of change +that had bewildered men since A.D. 1789, it passed almost unnoticed. +No one could yet fancy how things would end, or what sort of a new +order would at last shape itself out of chaos. When Napoleon's +universal monarchy had dissolved, and old landmarks shewed themselves +again above the receding waters, it was commonly supposed that the +Empire would be re-established on its former footing[413]. Such was +indeed the wish of many states, and among them of Hanover, +representing Great Britain[414]. Though a simple revival of the old +Romano-Germanic Empire was plainly out of the question, it still +appeared to them that Germany would be best off under the presidency +of a single head, entrusted with the ancient office of maintaining +peace among the members of the confederation. But the new kingdoms, +Bavaria especially, were unwilling to admit a superior; Prussia, +elated at the glory she had won in the war of independence, would have +disputed the crown with Austria; Austria herself cared little to +resume an office shorn of much of its dignity, with duties to perform +and no resources to enable her to discharge them. Use was therefore +made of an expression in the Peace of Paris which spoke of uniting +Germany by a federative bond[415], and the Congress of Vienna was +decided by the wishes of Austria to establish a Confederation. Thus +was brought about the present German federal constitution, which is +itself confessed, by the attempts so often made to reform it, to be a +mere temporary expedient, oppressive in the hands of the strong, and +useless for the protection of the weak. Of late years, one school of +liberal politicians, justly indignant at their betrayal by the princes +after the enthusiastic uprising of A.D. 1814, has aspired to the +restoration of the Empire, either as an hereditary kingdom in the +Prussian or some other family, or in a more republican fashion under a +head elected by the people[416]. The obstacles in the way of such +plans are evidently very great; but even were the horizon more clear +than it is, this would not be the place from which to scan it[417]. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[399] _Wahrheit und Dichtung_, book i. The Römer Saal is still one of +the sights of Frankfort. The portraits, however, which one now sees in +it, seem to be all or nearly all of them modern; and few have any +merit as works of art. + +[400] _Jordanis Chronica_, ap. Schardium, _Sylloge Tractatuum_. + +[401] In an address by Napoleon to the Senate in 1804, bearing date +10th Frimaire (1st Dec.), are the words, 'Mes descendans conserveront +longtemps ce trône, le premier de l'univers.' Answering a deputation +from the department of the Lippe, Aug. 8th, 1811, 'La Providence, qui +a voulu que je rétablisse le trône de Charlemagne, vous a fait +naturellement rentrer, avec la Hollande et les villes anséatiques, +dans le sein de l'Empire.'--_Œuvres de Napoléon_, tom. v. p. 521. + +'Pour le Pape, je suis Charlemagne, parce que, comme Charlemagne, je +réunis la couronne de France à celle des Lombards, et que mon Empire +confine avec l'Orient.' (Quoted by Lanfrey, _Vie de Napoleon_, iii. +417.) + +'Votre Sainteté est souveraine de Rome, mais j'en suis l'Empereur.' +(Letter of Napoleon to Pope Pius, Feb. 13th, 1806. Lanfrey.) + +'Dites bien,' says Napoleon to Cardinal Fesch, 'que je suis +Charlemagne, leur Empereur [of the Papal Court] que je dois être +traité de même. Je fais connaitre au Pape mes intentions en peu de +mots, s'il n'y acquiesce pas, je le réduirai à la même condition qu'il +était avant Charlemagne.' (Lanfrey, _Vie de Napoleon_, iii. 420.) + +[402] Napoleon said on one occasion, 'Je n'ai pas succédé a Louis +Quatorze, mais à Charlemagne.'--Bourrienne, _Vie de Napoléon_, iv. In +1804, shortly before he was crowned, he had the imperial insignia of +Charles brought from the old Frankish capital, and exhibited them in a +jeweller's shop in Paris, along with those which had just been made +for his own coronation;--(Bourrienne, _ut supra_.) Somewhat in the +same spirit in which he displayed the Bayeux tapestry, in order to +incite his subjects to the conquest of England. + +[403] 'Je n'ai pu concilier ces grands interêts (of political order +and the spiritual authority of the Pope) qu'en annulant les donations +des Empereurs Français, mes predecesseurs, et en réunissant les états +romains à la France.'--Proclamation issued in 1809: _Œuvres_, iv. + +[404] See Appendix, Note C. + +[405] Pope Pius VII wrote to the First Consul, 'Carissime in Christo +Fili noster ... tam perspecta sunt nobis tuæ voluntatis studia erga +nos, ut _quotiescunque_ ope aliqua in rebus nostris indigemus, eam a +te fidenter petere non dubitare debeamus.'--Quoted by Ægidi. + +[406] Let us place side by side the letters of Hadrian to Charles in +the _Codex Carolinus_, and the following preamble to the Concordat of +A.D. 1801, between the First Consul and the Pope (which I quote from +the _Bullarium Romanum_), and mark the changes of a thousand years. + +'Gubernium reipublicæ [Gallicæ] recognoscit religionem Catholicam +Apostolicam Romanam eam esse religionem quam longe maxima pars civium +Gallicæ reipublicæ profitetur. + +'Summus pontifex pari modo recognoscit eandem religionem maximam +utilitatem maximumque decus percepisse et hoc quoque tempore +præstolari ex catholico cultu in Gallia constituto, necnon ex +peculiari eius professione quam faciunt reipublicæ consules.' + +[407] Cf. Heeren, _Political System_, vol. iii. 273. + +[408] He had arch-chancellors, arch-treasurers, and so forth. The +Legion of Honour, which was thought important enough to be mentioned +in the coronation oath, was meant to be something like the mediæval +orders of knighthood: whose connexion with the Empire has already been +mentioned. + +[409] Napoleon's feelings towards Germany may be gathered from the +phrase he once used, 'Il faut depayser l'Allemagne.' + +[410] Thus in documents issued by the Emperor during these two years +he is styled 'Roman Emperor Elect, Hereditary Emperor of Austria' +(erwählter Römischer Kaiser, Erbkaiser von Oesterreich). + +[411] This Act of Confederation of the Rhine (Rheinbund) is printed in +Koch's _Traités_ (continued by Schöll), vol. viii., and Meyer's +_Corpus Iuris Confœderationis Germanicæ_, vol. i. It has every +appearance of being a translation from the French, and was no doubt +originally drawn up in that language. Napoleon is called in one place +'Der nämliche Monarch, dessen Absichten sich stets mit den wahren +Interessen Deutschlands übereinstimmend gezeigt haben.' The phrase +'Roman Empire' does not occur: we hear only of the 'German Empire,' +'body of German states' (Staatskörper), and so forth. This +Confederation of the Rhine was eventually joined by every German State +except Austria, Prussia, Electoral Hesse, and Brunswick. + +[412] _Histoire des Traités_, vol. viii. The original may be found in +Meyer's _Corpus Iuris Confœderationis Germanicæ_, vol. i. p. 70. It is +a document in no way remarkable, except from the ludicrous resemblance +which its language suggests to the circular in which a tradesman, +announcing the dissolution of an old partnership, solicits, and hopes +by close attention to merit, a continuance of his customers' patronage +to his business, which will henceforth be carried on under the name +of, &c., &c. + +[413] Koch (Schöll), _Histoire des Traités_, vol. xi. p. 257, sqq.; +Haüsser, _Deutsche Geschichte_, vol. iv. + +[414] Great Britain had refused in 1806 to recognize the dissolution +of the Empire. And it may indeed be maintained that in point of law +the Empire was never extinguished at all, but lives on as a +disembodied spirit to this day. For it is clear that, technically +speaking, the abdication of a sovereign can destroy only his own +rights, and does not dissolve the state over which he presides. + +[415] 'Les états d'Allemagne seront independans et unis par un lien +federatif.'--_Histoire des Traités_, xi. p. 257. + +[416] The late king of Prussia was actually elected Emperor by the +revolutionary Diet at Frankfort in 1848. He refused the crown. + +[417] [Since the above was written (in A.D. 1865) sudden and momentous +changes have been effected in Germany by the war of 1866; the Prussian +kingdom has been enlarged by the annexation of Hanover, Hessen-Cassel, +Nassau, and Frankfort; the establishment of the North German +Confederation has brought all the states north of the Main under +Prussian control; while even the potentates of the south have +virtually accepted the hegemony of the house of Hohenzollern. It was +the author's intention to have added here a chapter examining these +changes by the light of the past history of Germany and the Empire, +and tracing out the causes to which the success of Prussia is to be +ascribed. But at this moment (July 15th, 1870) the French Emperor +declares war against Prussia, and there rises to meet the challenge an +united German people,--united for the time, at least, by the folly of +the enemy who has so long plotted for and profited by its disunion. +Whatever the result of the struggle may be, it is almost certain to +alter still further the internal constitution of Germany; and there is +therefore little use in discussing the existing system, and tracing +the progress hitherto of a development which, if not suddenly +arrested, is likely to be greatly accelerated by the events which we +see passing.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +CONCLUSION. + + +[Sidenote: General summary.] + +[Sidenote: Perpetuation of the name of Rome.] + +After the attempts already made to examine separately each of the +phases of the Empire, little need be said, in conclusion, upon its +nature and results in general. A general character can hardly help +being either vague or false. For the aspects which the Empire took are +as many and as various as the ages and conditions of society during +which it continued to exist. Among the exhausted peoples around the +Mediterranean, whose national feeling had died out, whose faith was +extinct or turned to superstition, whose thought and art was a faint +imitation of the Greek, there arises a huge despotism, first of a +city, then of an administrative system, which presses with equal +weight on all its subjects, and becomes to them a religion as well as +a government. Just when the mass is at length dissolving, the tribes +of the North come down, too rude to maintain the institutions they +found subsisting, too few to introduce their own, and a weltering +confusion follows, till the strong hand of the first Frankish Emperor +raises the fallen image and bids the nations bow down to it once more. +Under him it is for some brief space a theocracy; under his German +successors the first of feudal kingdoms, the centre of European +chivalry. As feudalism wanes, it is again transformed, and after +promising for a time to become an hereditary Hapsburg monarchy, sinks +at last into the presidency, not more dignified than powerless, of an +international league. To us moderns, a perpetuation under conditions +so diverse of the same name and the same pretensions, appears at first +sight absurd, a phantom too vain to impress the most superstitious +mind. Closer examination will correct such a notion. No power was ever +based on foundations so sure and deep as those which Rome laid during +three centuries of conquest and four of undisturbed dominion. If her +empire had been an hereditary or local kingdom, it might have fallen +with the extinction of the royal line, the conquest of the tribe, the +destruction of the city to which it was attached. But it was not so +limited. It was imperishable because it was universal; and when its +power had ceased, it was remembered with awe and love by the races +whose separate existence it had destroyed, because it had spared the +weak while it smote down the strong; because it had granted equal +rights to all, and closed against none of its subjects the path of +honourable ambition. When the military power of the conquering city +had departed, her sway over the world of thought began: by her the +theories of the Greeks had been reduced to practice; by her the new +religion had been embraced and organized; her language, her theology, +her laws, her architecture made their way where the eagles of war had +never flown, and with the spread of civilization have found new homes +on the Ganges and the Mississippi. + +[Sidenote: Parallel instances.] + +[Sidenote: Claims to represent the Roman Empire.] + +[Sidenote: Austria.] + +[Sidenote: France.] + +[Sidenote: Russia.] + +[Sidenote: Greece.] + +[Sidenote: The Turks.] + +Nor is such a claim of government prolonged under changed conditions +by any means a singular phenomenon. Titles sum up the political +history of nations, and are as often causes as effects: if not +insignificant now, how much less so in ages of ignorance and unreason. +It would be an instructive, if it were not a tedious task, to examine +the many pretensions that are still put forward to represent the +Empire of Rome, all of them baseless, none of them effectless. Austria +clings to a name which seems to give her a sort of precedence in +Europe, and was wont, while she held Lombardy, to justify her position +there by invoking the feudal rights of the Hohenstaufen. With no more +legal right than the prince of Reuss or the landgrave of Homburg might +pretend to, she has assumed the arms and devices of the old Empire, +and being almost the youngest of European monarchies, is respected as +the oldest and most conservative. Bonapartean France, as the +self-appointed heir of the Carolingians, grasped for a time the +sceptre of the West, and still aspires to hold the balance of European +politics, and be recognized as the leader and patron of the so-called +Latin races on both sides of the Atlantic[418]. Professing the creed +of Byzantium, Russia claims the crown of the Byzantine Cæsars, and +trusts that the capital which prophecy has promised for a thousand +years will not be long withheld. The doctrine of Panslavism, under an +imperial head of the whole Eastern church, has become a formidable +engine of aggression in the hands of a crafty and warlike despotism. +Another testimony to the enduring influence of old political +combinations is supplied by the eagerness with which modern Hellas has +embraced the notion of gathering all the Greek races into a revived +Empire of the East, with its capital on the Bosphorus. Nay, the +intruding Ottoman himself, different in faith as well as in blood, has +more than once declared himself the representative of the Eastern +Cæsars, whose dominion he extinguished. Solyman the Magnificent +assumed the name of Emperor, and refused it to Charles the Fifth: his +successors were long preceded through the streets of Constantinople by +twelve officers, bearing straws aloft, a faint semblance of the +consular fasces that had escorted a Quinctius or a Fabius through the +Roman forum. Yet in no one of these cases has there been that apparent +legality of title which the shouts of the people and the benediction +of the pontiff conveyed to Charles and Otto[419]. + +[Sidenote: Parallel of the Papacy.] + +These examples, however, are minor parallels: the complement and +illustration of the history of the Empire is to be found in that of +the Holy See. The Papacy, whose spiritual power was itself the +offspring of Rome's temporal dominion, evoked the phantom of her +parent, used it, obeyed it, rebelled and overthrew it, in its old age +once more embraced it, till in its downfall she has heard the knell of +her own approaching doom[420]. + +Both Papacy and Empire rose in an age when the human spirit was +utterly prostrated before authority and tradition, when the exercise +of private judgment was impossible to most and sinful to all. Those +who believed the miracles recorded in the _Acta Sanctorum_, and did +not question the Isidorian decretals, might well recognize as ordained +of God the twofold authority of Rome, founded, as it seemed to be, on +so many texts of Scripture, and confirmed by five centuries of +undisputed possession. + +Both sanctioned and satisfied the passion of the Middle Ages for +unity. Ferocity, violence, disorder, were the conspicuous evils of +that time: hence all the aspirations of the good were for something +which, breaking the force of passion and increasing the force of +sympathy, should teach the stubborn wills to sacrifice themselves in +the view of a common purpose. To those men, moreover, unable to rise +above the sensuous, not seeing the true connexion or the true +difference of the spiritual and the secular, the idea of the Visible +Church was full of awful meaning. Solitary thought was helpless, and +strove to lose itself in the aggregate, since it could not create for +itself that which was universal. The schism that severed a man from +the congregation of the faithful on earth was hardly less dreadful +than the heresy which excluded him from the company of the blessed in +heaven. He who kept not his appointed place in the ranks of the church +militant had no right to swell the rejoicing anthems of the church +triumphant. Here, as in so many other cases, the continued use of +traditional language seems to have prevented us from seeing how great +is the difference between our own times and those in which the phrases +we repeat were first used, and used in full sincerity. Whether the +world is better or worse for the change which has passed upon its +feelings in these matters is another question: all that it is +necessary to note here is that the change is a profound and pervading +one. Obedience, almost the first of mediæval virtues, is now often +spoken of as if it were fit only for slaves or fools. Instead of +praising, men are wont to condemn the submission of the individual +will, the surrender of the individual belief, to the will or the +belief of the community. Some persons declare variety of opinion to be +a positive good. The great mass have certainly no longing for an +abstract unity of faith. They have no horror of schism. They do not, +cannot, understand the intense fascination which the idea of one +all-pervading church exercised upon their mediæval forefathers. A life +in the church, for the church, through the church; a life which she +blessed in mass at morning and sent to peaceful rest by the vesper +hymn; a life which she supported by the constantly recurring stimulus +of the sacraments, relieving it by confession, purifying it by +penance, admonishing it by the presentation of visible objects for +contemplation and worship,--this was the life which they of the Middle +Ages conceived of as the rightful life for man; it was the actual life +of many, the ideal of all. The unseen world was so unceasingly pointed +to, and its dependence on the seen so intensely felt, that the barrier +between the two seemed to disappear. The church was not merely the +portal to heaven; it was heaven anticipated; it was already +self-gathered and complete. In one sentence from a famous mediæval +document may be found a key to much which seems strangest to us in the +feelings of the Middle Ages: 'The church is dearer to God than heaven. +For the church does not exist for the sake of heaven, but conversely, +heaven for the sake of the church[421].' + +Again, both Empire and Papacy rested on opinion rather than on +physical force, and when the struggle of the eleventh century came, +the Empire fell, because its rival's hold over the souls of men was +firmer, more direct, enforced by penalties more terrible than the +death of the body. The ecclesiastical body under Alexander and +Innocent was animated by a loftier spirit and more wholly devoted to a +single aim than the knights and nobles who followed the banner of the +Swabian Cæsars. Its allegiance was undivided; it comprehended the +principles for which it fought: they trembled at even while they +resisted the spiritual power. + +[Sidenote: Papacy and Empire compared as perpetuations of a name.] + +Both sprang from what might be called the accident of name. The power +of the great Latin patriarchate was a Form: the ghost, it has been +said, of the older Empire, favoured in its growth by circumstances, +but really vital because capable of wonderful adaptation to the +character and wants of the time. So too, though far less perfectly, +was the Empire. Its Form was the tradition of the universal rule of +Rome; it met the needs of successive centuries by civilizing barbarous +peoples, by maintaining unity in confusion and disorganization, by +controlling brute violence through the sanctions of a higher power, by +being made the keystone of a gigantic feudal arch, by assuming in its +old age the presidency of a European confederation. And the history of +both, as it shews the power of ancient names and forms, shews also +within what limits such a perpetuation is possible, and how it +sometimes deceives men, by preserving the shadow while it loses the +substance. This perpetuation itself, what is it but the expression of +the belief of mankind, a belief incessantly corrected yet never +weakened, that their old institutions do and may continue to subsist +unchanged, that what has served their fathers will do well enough for +them, that it is possible to make a system perfect and abide in it for +ever? Of all political instincts this is perhaps the strongest; often +useful, often grossly abused, but never so natural and so fitting as +when it leads men who feel themselves inferior to their predecessors, +to save what they can from the wreck of a civilization higher than +their own. It was thus that both Papacy and Empire were maintained by +the generations who had no type of greatness and wisdom save that +which they associated with the name of Rome. And therefore it is that +no examples shew so convincingly how hopeless are all such attempts to +preserve in life a system which arose out of ideas and under +conditions that have passed away. Though it never could have existed +save as a prolongation, though it was and remained through the Middle +Ages an anachronism, the Empire of the tenth century had little in +common with the Empire of the second. Much more was the Papacy, though +it too hankered after the forms and titles of antiquity, in reality a +new creation. And in the same proportion as it was new, and +represented the spirit not of a past age but of its own, was it a +power stronger and more enduring than the Empire. More enduring, +because younger, and so in fuller harmony with the feelings of its +contemporaries: stronger, because at the head of the great +ecclesiastical body, in and through which, rather than through secular +life, all the intelligence and political activity of the Middle Ages +sought its expression. The famous simile of Gregory the Seventh is +that which best describes the Empire and the Popedom. They were indeed +the 'two lights in the firmament of the militant church,' the lights +which illumined and ruled the world all through the Middle Ages. And +as moonlight is to sunlight, so was the Empire to the Papacy. The rays +of the one were borrowed, feeble, often interrupted: the other shone +with an unquenchable brilliance that was all her own. + +[Sidenote: In what sense was the Empire Roman?] + +The Empire, it has just been said, was never truly mediæval. Was it +then Roman in anything but name? and was that name anything better +than a piece of fantastic antiquarianism? It is easy to draw a +comparison between the Antonines and the Ottos which should shew +nothing but unlikeness. What the Empire was in the second century +every one knows. In the tenth it was a feudal monarchy, resting on a +strong territorial oligarchy. Its chiefs were barbarians, the sons of +those who had destroyed Varus and baffled Germanicus, sometimes unable +even to use the tongue of Rome. Its powers were limited. It could +scarcely be said to have a regular organization at all, whether +judicial or administrative. It was consecrated to the defence, nay, it +existed by virtue of the religion which Trajan and Marcus had +persecuted. Nevertheless, when the contrast has been stated in the +strongest terms, there will remain points of resemblance. The +thoroughly Roman idea of universal denationalization survived, and +drew with it that of a certain equality among all free subjects. It +has been remarked already, that the world's highest dignity was for +many centuries the only civil office to which any free-born Christian +was legally eligible. And there was also, during the earlier ages, +that indomitable vigour which might have made Trajan or Severus seek +their true successors among the woods of Germany rather than in the +palaces of Byzantium, where every office and name and custom had +floated down from the court of Constantine in a stream of unbroken +legitimacy. The ceremonies of Henry the Seventh's coronation would +have been strange indeed to Caius Julius Cæsar Octavianus Augustus; +but how much nobler, how much more Roman in force and truth than the +childish and unmeaning forms with which a Palæologus was installed! It +was not in purple buskins that the dignity of the Luxemburger +lay[422]. To such a boast the Germanic Empire had long ere its death +lost right: it had lived on, when honour and nature bade it die: it +had become what the Empire of the Moguls was, and that of the Ottomans +is now, a curious relic of antiquity, over which the imaginative might +muse, but which the mass of men would push aside with impatient +contempt. But institutions, like men, should be judged by their prime. + +[Sidenote: 'Imperialism:' Roman, French, and mediæval.] + +[Sidenote: Political character of the Teutonic and Gallic races.] + +The comparison of the old Roman Empire with its Germanic +representative raises a question which has been a good deal canvassed +of late years. That wonderful system which Julius Cæsar and his subtle +nephew erected upon the ruins of the republican constitution of Rome +has been made the type of a certain form of government and of a +certain set of social as well as political arrangements, to which, or +rather to the theory whereof they are a part, there has been given the +name of Imperialism. The sacrifice of the individual to the mass, the +concentration of all legislative and judicial powers in the person of +the sovereign, the centralization of the administrative system, the +maintenance of order by a large military force, the substitution of +the influence of public opinion for the control of representative +assemblies, are commonly taken, whether rightly or wrongly, to +characterize that theory. Its enemies cannot deny that it has before +now given and may again give to nations a sudden and violent access of +aggressive energy; that it has often achieved the glory (whatever that +may be) of war and conquest; that it has a better title to respect in +the ease with which it may be made, as it was by the Flavian and +Antonine Cæsars of old, and at the beginning of this century by +Napoleon in France, the instrument of comprehensive reforms in law and +government. The parallel between the Roman world under the Cæsars and +the French people now is indeed less perfect than those who dilate +upon it fancy. That equalizing despotism which was a good to a medley +of tribes, the force of whose national life had spent itself and left +them languid, yet restless, with all the evils of isolation and none +of its advantages, is not necessarily a good to a country already the +strongest and most united in Europe, a country where the +administration is only too perfect, and the pressure of social +uniformity only too strong. But whether it be a good or an evil, no +one can doubt that France represents, and has always represented, the +imperialist spirit of Rome far more truly than those whom the Middle +Ages recognized as the legitimate heirs of her name and dominion. In +the political character of the French people, whether it be the result +of the five centuries of Roman rule in Gaul, or rather due to the +original instincts of the Gallic race, is to be found their claim, a +claim better founded than any which Napoleon put forward, to be the +Romans[423] of the modern world. The tendency of the Teuton was and is +to the independence of the individual life, to the mutual repulsion, +if the phrase may be permitted, of the social atoms, as contrasted +with Keltic and so-called Romanic peoples, among which the unit is +more completely absorbed in the mass, who live possessed by a common +idea which they are driven to realize in the concrete. Teutonic states +have been little more successful than their neighbours in the +establishment of free constitutions. Their assemblies meet, and vote, +and are dissolved, and nothing comes of it: their citizens endure +without greatly resenting outrages that would raise the more excitable +French or Italians in revolt. But, whatever may have been the form of +government, the body of the people have in Germany always enjoyed a +freedom of thought which has made them comparatively careless of +politics; and the absolutism of the Elbe is at this day no more like +that of the Seine than a revolution at Dresden is to a revolution at +Paris. The rule of the Hohenstaufen had nothing either of the good or +the evil of the imperialism which Tacitus painted, or of that which +the panegyrists of the present system in France paint in colours +somewhat different from his. + +[Sidenote: Essential principles of the mediæval Empire.] + +There was, nevertheless, such a thing as mediæval imperialism, a +theory of the nature of the state and the best form of government, +which has been described once already, and need not be described +again. It is enough to say, that from three leading principles all its +properties may be derived. The first and the least essential was the +existence of the state as a monarchy. The second was the exact +coincidence of the state's limits, and the perfect harmony of its +workings with the limits and the workings of the church. The third was +its universality. These three were vital. Forms of political +organization, the presence or absence of constitutional checks, the +degree of liberty enjoyed by the subject, the rights conceded to local +authorities, all these were matters of secondary importance. But +although there brooded over all the shadow of a despotism, it was a +despotism not of the sword but of law; a despotism not chilling and +blighting, but one which, in Germany at least, looked with favour on +municipal freedom, and everywhere did its best for learning, for +religion, for intelligence; a despotism not hereditary, but one which +constantly maintained in theory the principle that he should rule who +was found the fittest. To praise or to decry the Empire as a despotic +power is to misunderstand it altogether. We need not, because an +unbounded prerogative was useful in ages of turbulence, advocate it +now; nor need we, with Sismondi, blame the Frankish conqueror because +he granted no 'constitutional charter' to all the nations that obeyed +him. Like the Papacy, the Empire expressed the political ideas of a +time, and not of all time: like the Papacy, it decayed when those +ideas changed; when men became more capable of rational liberty; when +thought grew stronger, and the spiritual nature shook itself more free +from the bonds of sense. + +[Sidenote: Influence of the Holy Empire on Germany.] + +The influence of the Empire upon Germany is a subject too wide to be +more than glanced at here. There is much to make it appear altogether +unfortunate. For many generations the flower of Teutonic chivalry +crossed the Alps to perish by the sword of the Lombards, or the +deadlier fevers of Rome. Italy terribly avenged the wrongs she +suffered. Those who destroyed the national existence of another people +forfeited their own: the German kingdom, crushed beneath the weight of +the Roman Empire, could never recover strength enough to form a +compact and united monarchy, such as arose elsewhere in Europe: the +race whom their neighbours had feared and obeyed till the fourteenth +century saw themselves, down even to our own day, the prey of +intestine feuds and their country the battlefield of Europe. Spoiled +and insulted by a neighbour restlessly aggressive and superior in all +the arts of success, they came to regard France as the persecuted +Slave regards them. The want of national union and political liberty +from which Germany has suffered, and to some extent suffers still, +cannot be attributed to the differences of her races; for, conspicuous +as that difference was in the days of Otto the Great, it was no +greater than in France, where intruding Franks, Goths, Burgundians, +and Northmen were mingled with primitive Kelts and Basques; not so +great as in Spain, or Italy, or Britain. Rather is it due to the +decline of the central government, which was induced by its strife +with the Popedom, its endless Italian wars, and the passion for +universal dominion which made it the assailant of all the neighbouring +countries. The absence or the weakness of the monarch enabled his +feudal vassals to establish petty despotisms, debarring the nation +from united political action, and greatly retarding the emancipation +of the commons. Thus, while the princes became shamelessly selfish, +justifying their resistance to the throne as the defence of their own +liberty--liberty to oppress the subject--and ready on the least +occasion to throw themselves into the arms of France, the body of the +people were deprived of all political training, and have found the +lack of such experience impede their efforts to this day. + +For these misfortunes, however, there has not been wanting some +compensation. The inheritance of the Roman Empire made the Germans the +ruling race of Europe, and the brilliance of that glorious dawn can +never fade entirely from their name. A peaceful people now, peaceful +in sentiment even now when they have become a great military power, +submissive to paternal government, and given to the quiet enjoyments +of art, music, and meditation, they delight themselves with memories +of the time when their conquering chivalry was the terror of the Gaul +and the Slave, the Lombard and the Saracen. The national life received +a keen stimulus from the sense of exaltation which victory brought, +and from the intercourse with countries where the old civilization had +not wholly perished. It was this connexion with Italy that raised the +German lands out of barbarism, and did for them the work which Roman +conquest had performed in Gaul, Spain, and Britain. From the Empire +flowed all the richness of their mediæval life and literature: it +first awoke in them a consciousness of national existence; its history +has inspired and served as material to their poetry; to many ardent +politicians the splendours of the past have become the beacon of the +future[424]. There is a bright side even to their political disunion. +When they complain that they are not a nation, and sigh for the +harmony of feeling and singleness of aim which their great rival +displays, the example of the Greeks may comfort them. To the variety +which so many small governments have produced may be partly attributed +the breadth of development in German thought and literature, by virtue +of which it transcends the French hardly less than the Greek surpassed +the Roman. Paris no doubt is great, but a country may lose as well as +gain by the predominance of a single city; and Germany need not mourn +that she alone among modern states has not and never has had a +capital. + +[Sidenote: Austria as heir of the Holy Empire.] + +The merits of the old Empire were not long since the subject of a +brisk controversy among several German professors of history[425]. The +spokesmen of the Austrian or Roman Catholic party, a party which ten +years ago was not less powerful in some of the minor South German +States than in Vienna, claimed for the Hapsburg monarchy the honour of +being the legitimate representative of the mediæval Empire, and +declared that only by again accepting Hapsburg leadership could +Germany win back the glory and the strength that once were hers. The +North German liberals ironically applauded the comparison. 'Yes,' they +replied, 'your Austrian Empire, as it calls itself, is the true +daughter of the old despotism: not less tyrannical, not less +aggressive, not less retrograde; like its progenitor, the friend of +priests, the enemy of free thought, the trampler upon the national +feeling of the peoples that obey it. It is you whose selfish and +anti-national policy blasts the hope of German unity now, as Otto and +Frederick blasted it long ago by their schemes of foreign conquest. +The dream of Empire has been our bane from first to last.' It is +possible, one may hope, to escape the alternative of admiring the +Austrian Empire or denouncing the Holy Roman. Austria has indeed, in +some things, but too faithfully reproduced the policy of the Saxon and +Swabian Cæsars. Like her, they oppressed and insulted the Italian +people: but it was in the defence of rights which the Italians +themselves admitted. Like her, they lusted after a dominion over the +races on their borders, but that dominion was to them a means of +spreading civilization and religion in savage countries, not of +pampering upon their revenues a hated court and aristocracy. Like her, +they strove to maintain a strong government at home, but they did it +when a strong government was the first of political blessings. Like +her, they gathered and maintained vast armies; but those armies were +composed of knights and barons who lived for war alone, not of +peasants torn away from useful labour and condemned to the cruel task +of perpetuating their own bondage by crushing the aspirations of +another nationality. They sinned grievously, no doubt, but they sinned +in the dim twilight of a half-barbarous age, not in the noonday blaze +of modern civilization. The enthusiasm for mediæval faith and +simplicity which was so fervid some years ago has run its course, and +is not likely soon to revive. He who reads the history of the Middle +Ages will not deny that its heroes, even the best of them, were in +some respects little better than savages. But when he approaches more +recent times, and sees how, during the last three hundred years, kings +have dealt with their subjects and with each other, he will forget the +ferocity of the Middle Ages, in horror at the heartlessness, the +treachery, the injustice all the more odious because it sometimes +wears the mask of legality, which disgraces the annals of the military +monarchies of Europe. With regard, however, to the pretensions of +modern Austria, the truth is that this dispute about the worth of the +old system has no bearing upon them at all. The day of imperial +greatness was already past when Rudolf the first Hapsburg reached the +throne; while during what may be called the Austrian period, from +Maximilian to Francis II, the Holy Empire was to Germany a mere clog +and incumbrance, which the unhappy nation bore because she knew not +how to rid herself of it. The Germans are welcome to appeal to the old +Empire to prove that they were once a united people. Nor is there any +harm in their comparing the politics of the twelfth century with those +of the nineteenth, although to argue from the one to the other seems +to betray a want of historical judgment. But the one thing which is +wholly absurd is to make Francis Joseph of Austria the successor of +Frederick of Hohenstaufen, and justify the most sordid and ungenial of +modern despotisms by the example of the mirror of mediæval chivalry, +the noblest creation of mediæval thought. + +[Sidenote: Bearing of the Empire upon the progress of European +civilization.] + +[Sidenote: Influence upon modern jurisprudence.] + +We are not yet far enough from the Empire to comprehend or state +rightly its bearing on European progress. The mountain lies behind us, +but miles must be traversed before we can take in at a glance its +peaks and slopes and buttresses, picture its form, and conjecture its +height. Of the perpetuation among the peoples of the West of the arts +and literature of Rome it was both an effect and a cause, a cause only +less powerful than the church. It would be endless to shew in how many +ways it affected the political institutions of the Middle Ages, and +through them of the whole civilized world. Most of the attributes of +modern royalty, to take the most obvious instance, belonged originally +and properly to the Emperor, and were borrowed from him by other +monarchs. The once famous doctrine of divine right had the same +origin. To the existence of the Empire is chiefly to be ascribed the +prevalence of Roman law through Europe, and its practical importance +in our own days. For while in Southern France and Central Italy, where +the subject population greatly outnumbered their conquerors, the old +system would have in any case survived, it cannot be doubted that in +Germany, as in England, a body of customary Teutonic law would have +grown up, had it not been for the notion that since the German monarch +was the legitimate successor of Justinian, the Corpus Juris must be +binding on all his subjects. This strange idea was received with a +faith so unhesitating that even the aristocracy, who naturally +disliked a system which the Emperors and the cities favoured, could +not but admit its validity, and before the end of the Middle Ages +Roman law prevailed through all Germany[426]. When it is considered +how great are the services which German writers have rendered and +continue to render to the study of scientific jurisprudence, this +result will appear far from insignificant. But another of still wider +import followed. When by the Peace of Westphalia a crowd of petty +principalities were recognized as practically independent states, the +need of a code to regulate their intercourse became pressing. That +code Grotius and his successors formed out of what was then the +private law of Germany, which thus became the foundation whereon the +system of international jurisprudence has been built up during the +last two centuries. That system is, indeed, entirely a German +creation, and could have arisen in no country where the law of Rome +had not been the fountain of legal ideas and the groundwork of +positive codes. In Germany, too, was it first carried out in practice, +and that with a success which is the best, some might say the only, +title of the later Empire to the grateful remembrance of mankind. +Under its protecting shade small princedoms and free cities lived +unmolested beside states like Saxony and Bavaria; each member of the +Germanic body feeling that the rights of the weakest of his brethren +were also his own. + +[Sidenote: Influence of the Empire upon the history of the Church.] + +[Sidenote: Nature of the question at issue between the Emperors and +the Popes.] + +The most important chapter in the history of the Empire is that which +describes its relation to the Church and the Papacy. Of the +ecclesiastical power it was alternately the champion and the enemy. In +the ninth and tenth centuries the Emperors extended the dominion of +Peter's chair: in the tenth and eleventh they rescued it from an abyss +of guilt and shame to be the instrument of their own downfall. The +struggle which Gregory the Seventh began, although it was political +rather than religious, awoke in the Teutonic nations a hostility to +the pretensions of the Romish court. That struggle ended, with the +death of the last Hohenstaufen, in the victory of the priesthood, a +victory whose abuse by the insolent and greedy pontiffs of the +fourteenth and fifteenth centuries made it more ruinous than a defeat. +The anger which had long smouldered in the breasts of the northern +nations of Europe burst out in the sixteenth with a violence which +alarmed those whom it had hitherto defended, and made the Emperors +once more the allies of the Popedom, and the partners of its declining +fortunes. But the nature of that alliance and of the hostility which +had preceded it must not be misunderstood. It is a natural, but not +the less a serious error to suppose, as modern writers often seem to +do, that the pretensions of the Empire and the Popedom were mutually +exclusive; that each claimed all the rights, spiritual and secular, of +a universal monarch. So far was this from being the case, that we find +mediæval writers and statesmen, even Emperors and Popes themselves, +expressly recognizing a divinely appointed duality of government--two +potentates, each supreme in the sphere of his own activity, Peter in +things eternal, Cæsar in things temporal. The relative position of the +two does indeed in course of time undergo a signal alteration. In the +days of Charles, the barbarous age of modern Europe, when men were and +could not but be governed chiefly by physical force, the Emperor was +practically, if not theoretically, the grander figure. Four centuries +later, in the era of Pope Innocent the Third, when the power of ideas +had grown stronger in the world, and was able to resist or to bend to +its service the arms and the wealth of men, we see the balance +inclined the other way. Spiritual authority is conceived of as being +of a nature so high and holy that it must inspire and guide the civil +administration. But it is not proposed to supplant that administration +nor to degrade its head: the great struggle of the eleventh and two +following centuries does not aim at the annihilation of one or other +power, but turns solely upon the character of their connexion. +Hildebrand, the typical representative of the Popedom, requires the +obedience of the Emperor on the ground of his own personal +responsibility for the souls of their common subjects: he demands, not +that the functions of temporal government shall be directly committed +to himself, but that they shall be exercised in conformity with the +will of God, whereof he is the exponent. The imperialist party had no +means of meeting this argument, for they could not deny the spiritual +supremacy of the Pope, nor the transcendant importance of eternal +salvation. They could therefore only protest that the Emperor, being +also divinely appointed, was directly answerable to God, and remind +the Pope that his kingdom was not of this world. There was in truth no +way out of the difficulty, for it was caused by the attempt to sever +things that admit of no severance, life in the soul and life in the +world, life for the future and life in the present. What it is most +pertinent to remark is that neither combatant pushed his theory to +extremities, since he felt that his adversary's title rested on the +same foundations as his own. The strife was keenest at the time when +the whole world believed fervently in both powers; the alliance came +when faith had forsaken the one and grown cold towards the other; from +the Reformation onwards Empire and Popedom fought no longer for +supremacy, but for existence. One is fallen already, the other shakes +with every blast. + +[Sidenote: Ennobling influence of the conception of the World Empire.] + +Nor was that which may be called the inner life of the Empire less +momentous in its influence upon the minds of men than were its outward +dealings with the Roman church upon her greatness and decline. In the +Middle Ages, men conceived of the communion of the saints as the +formal unity of an organized body of worshippers, and found the +concrete realization of that conception in their universal religious +state, which was in one aspect, the Church; in another, the Empire. +Into the meaning and worth of the conception, into the nature of the +connexion which subsists or ought to subsist between the Church and +the State, this is not the place to inquire. That the form which it +took in the Middle Ages was always imperfect and became eventually +rigid and unprogressive was sufficiently proved by the event. But by +it the European peoples were saved from the isolation, and narrowness, +and jealous exclusiveness which had checked the growth of the earlier +civilizations of the world, and which we see now lying like a weight +upon the kingdoms of the East: by it they were brought into that +mutual knowledge and co-operation which is the condition if it be not +the source of all true culture and progress. For as by the Roman +Empire of old the nations were first forced to own a common sway, so +by the Empire of the Middle Ages was preserved the feeling of a +brotherhood of mankind, a commonwealth of the whole world, whose +sublime unity transcended every minor distinction. + +[Sidenote: Principles adverse to the Empire.] + +As despotic monarchs claiming the world for their realm, the Teutonic +Emperors strove from the first against three principles, over all of +which their forerunners of the elder Rome had triumphed,--those of +Nationality, Aristocracy, and Popular Freedom. Their early struggles +were against the first of these, and ended with its victory in the +emancipation, one after another, of England, France, Poland, Hungary, +Denmark, Burgundy, and Italy. The second, in the form of feudalism, +menaced even when seeming to embrace and obey them, and succeeded, +after the Great Interregnum, in destroying their effective strength in +Germany. Aggression and inheritance turned the numerous independent +principalities thus formed out of the greater fiefs, into a few +military monarchies, resting neither on a rude loyalty, like feudal +kingdoms, nor on religious duty and tradition, like the Empire, but on +physical force, more or less disguised by legal forms. That the +hostility to the Empire of the third was accidental rather than +necessary is seen by this, that the very same monarchs who strove to +crush the Lombard and Tuscan cities favoured the growth of the free +towns of Germany. Asserting the rights of the individual in the sphere +of religion, the Reformation weakened the Empire by denying the +necessity of external unity in matters spiritual: the extension of the +same principle to the secular world, whose fulness is still withheld +from the Germans, would have struck at the doctrine of imperial +absolutism had it not found a nearer and deadlier foe in the actual +tyranny of the princes. It is more than a coincidence, that as the +proclamation of the liberty of thought had shaken it, so that of the +liberty of action made by the revolutionary movement, whose beginning +the world saw and understood not in 1789, whose end we see not yet, +should have indirectly become the cause which overthrew the Empire. + +[Sidenote: Change marked by its fall.] + +[Sidenote: Relations of the Empire to the nationalities of Europe.] + +Its fall in the midst of the great convulsion that changed the face of +Europe marks an era in history, an era whose character the events of +every year are further unfolding: an era of the destruction of old +forms and systems and the building up of new. The last instance is the +most memorable. Under our eyes, the work which Theodoric and Lewis the +Second, Guido and Ardoin and the second Frederick essayed in vain, has +been achieved by the steadfast will of the Italian people. The fairest +province of the Empire, for which Franconian and Swabian battled so +long, is now a single monarchy under the Burgundian count, whom +Sigismund created imperial vicar in Italy, and who wants only the +possession of the capital to be able to call himself 'king of the +Romans' more truly than Greek or Frank or Austrian has done since +Constantine forsook the Tiber for the Bosphorus. No longer the prey of +the stranger, Italy may forget the past, and sympathize, as she has +now indeed, since the fortunate alliance of 1866, begun to sympathize, +with the efforts after national unity of her ancient enemy--efforts +confronted by so many obstacles that a few years ago they seemed all +but hopeless. On the new shapes that may emerge in this general +reconstruction it would be idle to speculate. Yet one prediction may +be ventured. No universal monarchy is likely to arise. More frequent +intercourse, and the progress of thought, have done much to change the +character of national distinctions, substituting for ignorant +prejudice and hatred a genial sympathy and the sense of a common +interest. They have not lessened their force. No one who reads the +history of the last three hundred years, no one, above all, who +studies attentively the career of Napoleon, can believe it possible +for any state, however great her energy and material resources, to +repeat in modern Europe the part of ancient Rome: to gather into one +vast political body races whose national individuality has grown more +and more marked in each successive age. Nevertheless, it is in great +measure due to Rome and to the Roman Empire of the Middle Ages that +the bonds of national union are on the whole both stronger and nobler +than they were ever before. The latest historian of Rome, after +summing up the results to the world of his hero's career, closes his +treatise with these words: 'There was in the world as Cæsar found it +the rich and noble heritage of past centuries, and an endless +abundance of splendour and glory, but little soul, still less taste, +and, least of all, joy in and through life. Truly it was an old world, +and even Cæsar's genial patriotism could not make it young again. The +blush of dawn returns not until the night has fully descended. Yet +with him there came to the much-tormented races of the Mediterranean a +tranquil evening after a sultry day; and when, after long historical +night, the new day broke once more upon the peoples, and fresh nations +in free self-guided movement began their course towards new and higher +aims, many were found among them in whom the seed of Cæsar had sprung +up, many who owed him, and who owe him still, their national +individuality[427].' If this be the glory of Julius, the first great +founder of the Empire, so is it also the glory of Charles, the second +founder, and of more than one amongst his Teutonic successors. The +work of the mediæval Empire was self-destructive; and it fostered, +while seeming to oppose, the nationalities that were destined to +replace it. It tamed the barbarous races of the North, and forced them +within the pale of civilization. It preserved the arts and literature +of antiquity. In times of violence and oppression, it set before its +subjects the duty of rational obedience to an authority whose +watchwords were peace and religion. It kept alive, when national +hatreds were most bitter, the notion of a great European Commonwealth. +And by doing all this, it was in effect abolishing the need for a +centralizing and despotic power like itself: it was making men capable +of using national independence aright: it was teaching them to rise to +that conception of spontaneous activity, and a freedom which is above +law but not against it, to which national independence itself, if it +is to be a blessing at all, must be only a means. Those who mark what +has been the tendency of events since A.D. 1789, and who remember how +many of the crimes and calamities of the past are still but half +redressed, need not be surprised to see the so-called principle of +nationalities advocated with honest devotion as the final and perfect +form of political development. But such undistinguishing advocacy is +after all only the old error in a new shape. If all other history did +not bid us beware the habit of taking the problems and the conditions +of our own age for those of all time, the warning which the Empire +gives might alone be warning enough. From the days of Augustus down to +those of Charles the Fifth the whole civilized world believed in its +existence as a part of the eternal fitness of things, and Christian +theologians were not behind heathen poets in declaring that when it +perished the world would perish with it. Yet the Empire is gone, and +the world remains, and hardly notes the change. + +[Sidenote: Difficulties arising from the nature of the subject.] + +This is but a small part of what might be said upon an almost +inexhaustible theme: inexhaustible not from its extent but from its +profundity: not because there is so much to say, but because, pursue +we it never so far, more will remain unexpressed, since incapable of +expression. For that which it is at once most necessary and least +possible to do, is to look at the Empire as a whole: a single +institution, in which centres the history of eighteen centuries--whose +outer form is the same, while its essence and spirit are constantly +changing. It is when we come to consider it in this light that the +difficulties of so vast a subject are felt in all their force. Try to +explain in words the theory and inner meaning of the Holy Empire, as +it appeared to the saints and poets of the Middle Ages, and that which +we cannot but conceive as noble and fertile in its life, sinks into a +heap of barren and scarcely intelligible formulas. Who has been able +to describe the Papacy in the power it once wielded over the hearts +and imaginations of men? Those persons, if such there still be, who +see in it nothing but a gigantic upas-tree of fraud and superstition, +planted and reared by the enemy of mankind, are hardly further from +entering into the mystery of its being than the complacent political +philosopher, who explains in neat phrases the process of its growth, +analyses it as a clever piece of mechanism, enumerates and measures +the interests it appealed to, and gives, in conclusion, a sort of +tabular view of its results for good and for evil. So, too, is the +Holy Empire above all description or explanation; not that it is +impossible to discover the beliefs which created and sustained it, but +that the power of those beliefs cannot be adequately apprehended by +men whose minds have been differently trained, and whose imaginations +are fired by different ideals. Something, yet still how little, we +should know of it if we knew what were the thoughts of Julius Cæsar +when he laid the foundations on which Augustus built: of Charles, when +he reared anew the stately pile: of Barbarossa and his grandson, when +they strove to avert the surely coming ruin. Something more succeeding +generations will know, who will judge the Middle Ages more fairly than +we, still living in the midst of a reaction against all that is +mediæval, can hope to do, and to whom it will be given to see and +understand new forms of political life, whose nature we cannot so much +as conjecture. Seeing more than we do, they will also see some things +less distinctly. The Empire which to us still looms largely on the +horizon of the past, will to them sink lower and lower as they journey +onwards into the future. But its importance in universal history it +can never lose. For into it all the life of the ancient world was +gathered: out of it all the life of the modern world arose. + +THE END. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[418] See Louis Napoleon's letter to General Forey, explaining the +object of the expedition to Mexico. + +[419] One may also compare the retention of the office of consul at +Rome till the time of Justinian: indeed it even survived his formal +abolition. The relinquishment of the title 'King of Great Britain, +France, and Ireland,' seriously distressed many excellent persons. + +[420] I speak, of course, of the Papacy as an autocratic power +claiming a more than spiritual authority. + +[421] 'Ipsa enim ecclesia charior Deo est quam cœlum. Non enim propter +cœlum ecclesia, sed e converso propter ecclesiam cœlum.' From the +tract entitled 'A Letter of the four Universities to Wenzel and Urban +VIII,' quoted in an earlier chapter. + +[422] Von Raumer, _Geschichte der Hohenstaufen_, v. + +[423] Meaning thereby not the citizens of Rome in her republican days, +but the Italo-Hellenic subjects of the Roman Empire. + +[424] Take, among many instances, those of the preface to Giesebrecht, +_Die Deutsche Kaiserzeit_; and Rotteck and Welcker's _Staats Lexikon_. +The German newspapers are indeed sufficient illustration. + +[425] See especially Von Sybel, _Die Deutsche Nation und das +Kaiserreich_; and the answers of Ficker and Von Wydenbrugk. + +[426] Modified of course by the canon law, and not superseding the +feudal law of land. + +[427] Mommsen, _Römische Geschichte_, iii. _sub. fin._ + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +NOTE A. + +ON THE BURGUNDIES. + +It would be hard to mention any geographical name which, by its +application at different times to different districts, has caused, and +continues to cause, more confusion than this name Burgundy. There may, +therefore, be some use in a brief statement of the more important of +those applications. Without going into the minutiæ of the subject, the +following may be given as the ten senses in which the name is most +frequently to be met with:-- + +I. The kingdom of the Burgundians (_regnum Burgundionum_), founded +A.D. 406, occupying the whole valley of the Saone and lower Rhone, +from Dijon to the Mediterranean, and including also the western half +of Switzerland. It was destroyed by the sons of Clovis in A.D. 534. + +II. The kingdom of Burgundy (_regnum Burgundiæ_), mentioned +occasionally under the Merovingian kings as a separate principality, +confined within boundaries apparently somewhat narrower than those of +the older kingdom last named. + +III. The kingdom of Provence or Burgundy (_regnum Provinciæ seu +Burgundiæ_)--also, though less accurately, called the kingdom of +Cis-Jurane Burgundy--was founded by Boso in A.D. 877, and included +Provence, Dauphiné, the southern part of Savoy, and the country +between the Saone and the Jura. + +IV. The kingdom of Trans-Jurane Burgundy (_regnum Iurense_, _Burgundia +Transiurensis_), founded by Rudolf in A.D. 888, recognized in the same +year by the Emperor Arnulf, included the northern part of Savoy, and +all Switzerland between the Reuss and the Jura. + +V. The kingdom of Burgundy or Arles (_regnum Burgundiæ_, _regnum +Arelatense_), formed by the union, under Conrad the Pacific, in A.D. +937, of the kingdoms described above as III and IV. On the death, in +1032, of the last independent king, Rudolf III, it came partly by +bequest, partly by conquest, into the hands of the Emperor Conrad II +(the Salic), and thenceforward formed a part of the Empire. In the +thirteenth century, France began to absorb it, bit by bit, and has now +(since the annexation of Savoy in 1861) acquired all except the Swiss +portion of it. + +VI. The Lesser Duchy (_Burgundia Minor_), (Klein Burgund), +corresponded very nearly with what is now Switzerland west of the +Reuss, including the Valais. It was Trans-Jurane Burgundy (IV) _minus_ +the parts of Savoy which had belonged to that kingdom. It disappears +from history after the extinction of the house of Zahringen in the +thirteenth century. Legally it was part of the Empire till A.D. 1648, +though practically independent long before that date. + +VII. The Free County or Palatinate of Burgundy (Franche Comté), +(Freigrafschaft), (called also Upper Burgundy), to which the name of +Cis-Jurane Burgundy originally and properly belonged, lay between the +Saone and the Jura. It formed a part of III and V, and was therefore a +fief of the Empire. The French dukes of Burgundy were invested with it +in A.D. 1384, and in 1678 it was annexed to the crown of France. + +VIII. The Landgraviate of Burgundy (Landgrafschaft) was in Western +Switzerland, on both sides of the Aar, between Thun and Solothurn. It +was a part of the Lesser Duchy (VI), and, like it, is hardly mentioned +after the thirteenth century. + +IX. The Circle of Burgundy (Kreis Burgund), an administrative division +of the Empire, was established by Charles V in 1548; and included the +Free County of Burgundy (VII) and the seventeen provinces of the +Netherlands, which Charles inherited from his grandmother Mary, +daughter of Charles the Bold. + +X. The Duchy of Burgundy (Lower Burgundy), (Bourgogne), the most +northerly part of the old kingdom of the Burgundians, was always a +fief of the crown of France, and a province of France till the +Revolution. It was of this Burgundy that Philip the Good and Charles +the Bold were Dukes. They were also Counts of the Free County (VII). + + * * * * * + +The most copious and accurate information regarding the obscure +history of the Burgundian kingdoms (III, IV, and V) is to be found in +the contributions of Baron Frederic de Gingins la Sarraz, a Vaudois +historian, to the _Archiv für Schweizer Geschichte_. See also an +admirable article in the _National Review_ for October 1860, entitled +'The Franks and the Gauls.' + + +NOTE B. + +ON THE RELATIONS TO THE EMPIRE OF THE KINGDOM OF DENMARK, AND THE +DUCHIES OF SCHLESWIG AND HOLSTEIN. + +The history of the relations of Denmark and the Duchies to the +Romano-Germanic Empire is a very small part of the great +Schleswig-Holstein controversy. But having been unnecessarily mixed up +with two questions properly quite distinct,--the first, as to the +relation of Schleswig to Holstein, and of both jointly to the Danish +crown; the second, as to the diplomatic engagements which the Danish +kings have in recent times contracted with the German powers,--it has +borne its part in making the whole question the most intricate and +interminable that has vexed Europe for two centuries and a half. +Setting aside irrelevant matter, the facts as to the Empire are as +follows:-- + +I. The Danish kings began to own the supremacy of the Frankish +Emperors early in the ninth century. Having recovered their +independence in the confusion that followed the fall of the +Carolingian dynasty, they were again subdued by Henry the Fowler and +Otto the Great, and continued tolerably submissive till the death of +Frederick II and the period of anarchy which followed. Since that time +Denmark has been always independent, although her king was, until the +treaty of A.D. 1865, a member of the German Confederation for +Holstein. + +II. Schleswig was in Carolingian times Danish; the Eyder being, as +Eginhard tells us, the boundary between Saxonia Transalbiana +(Holstein), and the Terra Nortmannorum (wherein lay the town of +Sliesthorp), inhabited by the Scandinavian heathen. Otto the Great +conquered all Schleswig, and, it is said, Jutland also, and added the +southern part of Schleswig to the immediate territory of the Empire, +erecting it into a margraviate. So it remained till the days of Conrad +II, who made the Eyder again the boundary, retaining of course his +suzerainty over the kingdom of Denmark as a whole. But by this time +the colonization of Schleswig by the Germans had begun; and ever since +the numbers of the Danish population seem to have steadily declined, +and the mass of the people to have grown more and more disposed to +sympathize with their southern rather than their northern neighbours. + +III. Holstein always was an integral part of the Empire, as it is at +this day of the North German Bund. + + +NOTE C. + +ON CERTAIN IMPERIAL TITLES AND CEREMONIES. + +This subject is a great deal too wide and too intricate to be more +than touched upon here. But a few brief statements may have their use; +for the practice of the Germanic Emperors varied so greatly from time +to time, that the reader becomes hopelessly perplexed without some +clue. And if there were space to explain the causes of each change of +title, it would be seen that the subject, dry as it may appear, is +very far from being a barren or a dull one. + +I. TITLES OF EMPERORS. Charles the Great styled himself 'Carolus +serenissimus Augustus, a Deo coronatus, magnus et pacificus imperator, +Romanum (_or_ Romanorum) gubernans imperium, qui et per misericordiam +Dei rex Francorum et Langobardorum.' + +Subsequent Carolingian Emperors were usually entitled simply +'Imperator Augustus.' Sometimes 'rex Francorum et Langobardorum' was +added[428]. + +Conrad I and Henry I (the Fowler) were only German kings. + +A Saxon Emperor was, before his coronation at Rome, 'rex,' or 'rex +Francorum Orientalium,' or 'Francorum atque Saxonum rex;' after it, +simply 'Imperator Augustus.' Otto III is usually said to have +introduced the form 'Romanorum Imperator Augustus,' but some +authorities state that it occurs in documents of the time of Lewis I. + +Henry II and his successors, not daring to take the title of Emperor +till crowned at Rome (in conformity with the superstitious notion +which had begun with Charles the Bald), but anxious to claim the +sovereignty of Rome, as indissolubly attached to the German crown, +began to call themselves 'reges Romanorum.' The title did not, +however, become common or regular till the time of Henry IV, in whose +proclamations it occurs constantly. + +From the eleventh century till the sixteenth, the invariable practice +was for the monarch to be called 'Romanorum rex semper Augustus,' till +his coronation at Rome by the Pope; after it, 'Romanorum Imperator +semper Augustus.' + +In A.D. 1508, Maximilian I, being refused a passage to Rome by the +Venetians, obtained a bull from Pope Julius II permitting him to call +himself 'Imperator electus' (erwählter Kaiser). This title Ferdinand I +(brother of Charles V) and all succeeding Emperors took immediately +upon their German coronation, and it was till A.D. 1806 their strict +legal designation[429], and was always employed by them in +proclamations or other official documents. The term 'elect' was +however omitted, even in formal documents when the sovereign was +addressed or spoken of in the third person; and in ordinary practice +he was simply 'Roman Emperor.' + +Maximilian added the title 'Germaniæ rex,' which had never been known +before, although the phrase 'rex Germanorum' may be found employed +once or twice in early times. 'Rex Teutonicorum,' 'regnum +Teutonicum[430],' occur often in the tenth and eleventh centuries. A +great many titles of less consequence were added from time to time. +Charles the Fifth had seventy-five, not, of course, as Emperor, but in +virtue of his vast hereditary possessions[431]. + +It is perhaps worth remarking that the word Emperor has not at all the +same meaning now that it had even so lately as two centuries ago. It +is now a commonplace, not to say vulgar, title, somewhat more pompous +than that of King, and supposed to belong especially to despots. It is +given to all sorts of barbarous princes, like those of China and +Abyssinia, in default of a better name. It is peculiarly affected by +new dynasties; and has indeed grown so fashionable, that what with +Emperors of Brazil, of Hayti, and of Mexico, the good old title of +King seems in a fair way to become obsolete[432]. But in former times +there was, and could be but one Emperor; he was always mentioned with +a certain reverence: his name summoned up a host of thoughts and +associations, which we cannot comprehend or sympathize with. His +office, unlike that of modern Emperors, was by its very nature +elective, and not hereditary; and, so far from resting on conquest or +the will of the people, rested on and represented pure legality. War +could give him nothing which law had not given him already: the people +could delegate no power to him who was their lord and the viceroy of +God. + +II. THE CROWNS. + +Of the four crowns something has been said in the text. They were +those of Germany, taken at Aachen; of Burgundy, at Arles; of Italy, +sometimes at Pavia, more usually at Milan or Monza; of the world, at +Rome. + +The German crown was taken by every Emperor after the time of Otto the +Great; that of Italy by every one, or almost every one, who took the +Roman down to Frederick III, by none after him; that of Burgundy, it +would appear, by four Emperors only, Conrad II, Henry III, Frederick +I, and Charles IV. The imperial crown was received at Rome by most +Emperors till Frederick III; after him by none save Charles V, who +obtained both it and the Italian at Bologna in a somewhat informal +manner. But down to A.D. 1806, every Emperor bound himself by his +capitulation to proceed to Rome to receive it. + +It should be remembered that none of these inferior crowns was +necessarily connected with that of the Roman Empire, which might have +been held by a simple knight without a foot of land in the world. For +as there had been Emperors (Lothar I, Lewis II, Lewis of Provence (son +of Boso), Guy, Lambert, and Berengar) who were not kings of Germany, +so there were several (all those who preceded Conrad II) who were not +kings of Burgundy, and others (Arnulf, for example) who were not kings +of Italy. And it is also worth remarking, that although no crown save +the German was assumed by the successors of Charles V, their wider +rights remained in full force, and were never subsequently +relinquished. There was nothing, except the practical difficulty and +absurdity of such a project, to prevent Francis II from having himself +crowned at Arles[433], Milan, and Rome. + +III. THE KING OF THE ROMANS (RÖMISCHER KÖNIG). + +It has been shewn above how and why, about the time of Henry II, the +German monarch began to entitle himself 'Romanorum rex.' Now it was +not uncommon in the Middle Ages for the heir-apparent to a throne to +be crowned during his father's lifetime, that at the death of the +latter he might step at once into his place. (Coronation, it must be +remembered, which is now merely a spectacle, was in those days not +only a sort of sacrament, but a matter of great political importance.) +This plan was specially useful in an elective monarchy, such as +Germany was after the twelfth century, for it avoided the delays and +dangers of an election while the throne was vacant. But as it seemed +against the order of nature to have two Emperors at once[434], and as +the sovereign's authority in Germany depended not on the Roman but on +the German coronation, the practice came to be that each Emperor +during his own life procured, if he could, the election of his +successor, who was crowned at Aachen, in later times at Frankfort, and +took the title of 'King of the Romans.' During the presence of the +Emperor in Germany he exercised no more authority than a Prince of +Wales does in England, but on the Emperor's death he succeeded at +once, without any second election or coronation, and assumed (after +the time of Ferdinand I) the title of 'Emperor Elect[435].' Before +Ferdinand's time, he would have been expected to go to Rome to be +crowned there. While the Hapsburgs held the sceptre, each monarch +generally contrived in this way to have his son or some other near +relative chosen to succeed him. But many were foiled in their attempts +to do so; and, in such cases, an election was held after the Emperor's +death, according to the rules laid down in the Golden Bull. + +The first person who thus became king of the Romans in the lifetime of +an Emperor seems to have been Henry VI, son of Frederick I. + +It was in imitation of this title that Napoleon called his son king of +Rome. + + +NOTE D. + +LINES CONTRASTING THE PAST AND PRESENT OF ROME. + + Dum simulacra mihi, dum numina vana placebant, + Militia, populo, mœnibus alta fui: + At simul effigies arasque superstitiosas + Deiiciens, uni sum famulata Deo, + Cesserunt arces, cecidere palatia divûm, + Servivit populus, degeneravit eques. + Vix scio quæ fuerim, vix Romæ Roma recordor; + Vix sinit occasus vel meminisse mei. + Gratior hæc iactura mihi successibus illis; + Maior sum pauper divite, stante iacens: + Plus aquilis vexilla crucis, plus Cæsare Petrus, + Plus cinctis ducibus vulgus inerme dedit. + Stans domui terras, infernum diruta pulso, + Corpora stans, animas fracta iacensque rego. + Tunc miseræ plebi, modo principibus tenebrarum + Impero: tunc urbes, nunc mea regna polus. + +Written by Hildebert, bishop of Le Mans, and afterwards archbishop of +Tours (born A.D. 1057). Extracted from his works as printed by Migne, +_Patrologiæ Cursus Completus_[436]. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[428] Waitz (_Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte_) says that the phrase +'semper Augustus' may be found in the times of the Carolingians, but +not in official documents. + +[429] There is some reason to think that towards the end of the Empire +people had begun to fancy that 'erwählter' did not mean 'elect,' but +'elective.' Cf. note 410, p. 362. + +[430] These expressions seem to have been intended to distinguish the +kingdom of the Eastern or Germanic Franks from that of the Western or +Gallicized Franks (Francigenæ), which having been for some time +'regnum Francorum Occidentalium,' grew at last to be simply 'regnum +Franciæ,' the East Frankish kingdom being swallowed up in the Empire. + +[431] It is right to remark that what is stated here can be taken as +only generally and probably true: so great are the discrepancies among +even the most careful writers on the subject, and so numerous the +forgeries of a later age, which are to be found among the genuine +documents of the early Empire. Goldast's _Collections_, for instance, +are full of forgeries and anachronisms. Detailed information may be +found in Pfeffinger, Moser, and Pütter, and in the host of writers to +whom they refer. + +[432] We in England may be thought to have made some slight movement +in the same direction by calling the united great council of the Three +Kingdoms the Imperial Parliament. + +[433] Although to be sure the Burgundian dominions had all passed from +the Emperor to France, the kingdom of Sardinia, and the Swiss +Confederation. + +[434] Nevertheless, Otto II was crowned Emperor, and reigned for some +time along with his father, under the title of 'Co-Imperator.' So +Lothar I was associated in the Empire with Lewis the Pious, as Lewis +himself had been crowned in the lifetime of Charles. Many analogies to +the practice of the Romano-Germanic Empire in this respect might be +adduced from the history of the old Roman, as well as of the Byzantine +Empire. + +[435] Maximilian had obtained this title, 'Emperor Elect,' from the +Pope. Ferdinand took it as of right, and his successors followed the +example. + +[436] See note 326, p. 270. + + + + +INDEX. + + + A. + + Aachen, 72, 77, 86, 148, 212, 316 note, 403. + + ADALBERT (St.), 245; the church founded at Rome to receive + his ashes, 286. + + ADELHEID (Queen of Italy), account of her adventures, 83. + + ADOLF of Nassau, 221, 222, 262. + + ADSO, his _Vita Antichristi_, 114 note. + + AISTULF the Lombard, 39. + + ALARIC, his desire to preserve the institutions of the + Empire, 17, 19. + + ALBERIC (consul or senator), 83. + + ALBERT I (son of Rudolf of Hapsburg), 221, 224, 262. + + Albigenses, revolt of the, 241. + + ALBOIN, his invasion of Italy, 36. + + ALCUIN of York, 59, 66, 96, 201. + + ALEXANDER III (Pope), Frederick I's contest with, 170; + their meeting at Venice, 171. + + ALFONSO of Castile, his double election with Richard of + England, 212, 229. + + America, discovery of, 311. + + ANASTASIUS, his account of the coronation of Charles, 55. + + ANGELO (Michael), rebuilding of the Capitol by, 295. + + Antichrist, views respecting, in the earlier Middle Ages, + 114 note; in later times, 334. + + Architecture, Roman, 48, 290; analogy between it and the + civil and ecclesiastical constitution, 296; preservation of + an antique character in both, 296. + + ARDOIN (Marquis of Ivrea), 149. + + Aristocracy, barbarism of the, in the Middle Ages, 289; + struggles of the Teutonic Emperors against the, 388. + + Arles; _see_ Burgundy. + + ARNOLD of Brescia, Rome under, 174, 252, 276; put to death + at the instance of Pope Hadrian, 278, 299 note. + + ARNULF (Emperor), 78. + + ATHANARIC, 17. + + ATHANASIUS, the triumph of, 12. + + ATHAULF the Visigoth, his thoughts and purposes respecting + the Roman Empire, 19, 30. + + Augsburg, 259; treaty of, 334. + + AUGUSTINE, 94. + + Aulic Council, the, 340, 342 note. + + Austria, privilege of, 199; her claim to represent the + Roman Empire, 368, 381. + + Austrian succession, war of the, 352. + + Avignon, exactions of the court of, 219; its subservience + to France, 219, 243. + + AVITUS, letter of, on Sigismund's behalf, 18. + + + B. + + Barbarians, feared by the Romans, 14; Roman armies largely + composed of, 14; admitted to Roman titles and honours, 15; + their feelings towards the Roman Empire, 16; their desire + to preserve its institutions, 17; value of the Roman + officials and Christian bishops to the, 19. + + BARTOLOMMEO (San), the church of, 287. + + BASIL the Macedonian and Lewis II, 191. + + 'Basileus,' the title of, 143, 191. + + Basilica, erected at Aachen by Charles the Great, 76 note. + + BELISARIUS, his war with the Ostrogoths, 29, 273. + + Bell-tower, or campanile, in the churches of Rome, 294. + + BENEDICT of Soracte, 51 note. + + BENEDICT VIII (Pope), alleged decree of, 197. + + Benevento, the Annals of, 150. + + BERENGAR of Friuli, 82; his death, 83. + + BERENGAR II (King of Italy), 83. + + BERNARD (St.), 109 note. + + Bible, rights of the Empire proved from the, 112; + perversion of its meaning, 114. + + Bohemia, acquired by Luxemburg A. D. 1309, 222; the king + of, an elector, 230. + + BONIFACE VIII (Pope), his extravagant pretensions, 109, + 247; declares himself Vicar of the Empire, 219 note. + + BOSO, 81, 395. + + Bosphorus, removal of the seat of government to the, 154. + + Britain, abandoned by Imperial Government, 24; Roman Civil + Law not forgotten in, at a late date, 32; Roman ensigns and + devices in, 258. + + Buildings, the old, destruction and alteration of, by + invaders, 291; by the Romans of the Middle Ages, 292; by + modern restorers of churches, 292. + + Bull, the Golden, of Charles IV, 225, 230, 236. + + Burgundy, the kingdom of, Otto's policy towards, 143; added + to the Empire under Conrad II, 151; effect of its loss on + the Empire, 305; confusion caused by the name, 395; ten + senses in which it is met with, 395-7. + + Byzantium, effect of the removal of the seat of power to, + 9; Otto's policy towards, 141; attitude towards Emperor, + 189. + + + C. + + Campanile; _see_ Bell-tower. + + Canon law, correspondence between it and the Corpus Juris + Civilis, 101; its consolidation by Gregory IX, 112, 217. + + CAPET (Hugh), 142. + + Capitol, rebuilding of the, by Michael Angelo, 295. + + Capitulary of A. D. 802, 65. + + CARACALLA (Emperor), effect of his edict, 6. + + Carolingian Emperors, 76. + + Carolingian Empire of the West, its end in A. D. 888, 78; + Florus the Deacon's lament over its dissolution, 85 note. + + Carroccio, the, 178 note, 328. + + Cathari and other heretics, spread of, 241. + + Catholicity or Romanism, 94, 106. + + Celibacy, enforcement of, 158. + + Cenci, name of, 289 note. + + CHARLEMAGNE; _see_ Charles I. + + CHARLES I (the Great), extinguishes the Lombard kingdom, + 41; is received with honours by Pope Hadrian and the + people, 41; his personal ambition, 42; his treatment of + Pope Leo III, 44; title of 'Champion of the Faith and + Defender of the Holy See' conferred upon, 47; crowned at + Rome, 48; important consequences of his coronation, 50, 52; + its real meaning, 52, 80, 81; contemporary accounts, 53, + 64, 65, 84; their uniformity, 56; illegality of the + transaction, 56; three theories respecting it held four + centuries after, 57; was the coronation a surprise? 58; his + reluctance to assume the imperial title, 60; solution + suggested by Döllinger, 60; seeks the hand of Irene, 61; + defect of his imperial title, 61; theoretically the + successor of the whole Eastern line of Emperors, 62, 63; + has nothing to fear from Byzantine Princes, 63; his + authority in matters ecclesiastical, 64; presses Hadrian to + declare Constantine VI a heretic, 64; his spiritual + despotism applauded by subsequent Popes, 64; importance + attached by him to the Imperial name, 65; issues a + Capitulary, 65; draws closer the connexion of Church and + State, 66; new position in civil affairs acquired with the + Imperial title, 67, 68, 69; his position as Frankish king, + 69, 70; partial failure of his attempt to breathe a + Teutonic spirit into Roman forms, 70, 71; his personal + habits and sympathies, 71; groundlessness of the claims of + the modern French to, 71; the conception of his Empire + Roman, not Teutonic, 72; his Empire held together by the + Church, 73; appreciation of his character generally, 73, + 74; impress of his mind on mediæval society, 74; buried at + Aachen, 74; inscription on his tomb, 74; canonised as a + saint, 75; his plan of Empire, 76. + + CHARLES II (the BALD), 77, 156, 157. + + CHARLES III (the FAT), 78, 81. + + CHARLES IV, 223; his electoral constitution, 225; his + Golden Bull, 225, 236; general results of his policy, 236; + his object through life, 236; the University of Prague + founded by, 237; welcomed into Italy by Petrarch, 254. + + CHARLES V, accession of, 319; casts in his lot with the + Catholics, 321; the momentous results, 322; failure of his + repressive policy, 322. + + CHARLES VI, 348, 351, 352. + + CHARLES VII, his disastrous reign, 351. + + CHARLES VIII (King of France), his pretensions on Naples + and Milan, 315. + + CHARLES MARTEL, 36, 38. + + CHARLES of Valois, 223. + + CHARLES the BOLD and Frederick III, 249. + + CHEMNITZ, his comments on the condition and prospects of + the Empire, 339. + + CHILDERIC, his deposition by the Holy See, 39. + + Chivalry, the orders of, 250. + + Church, the, opposed by the Emperors, 10; growth of, 10; + alliance of, with the State, 10, 66, 107, 387; organization + of, framed on the model of the secular administration, 11; + the Emperor the head of, 12; maintains the Imperial idea, + 13; attitude of Charles the Great towards, 65, 66; the bond + that holds together the Empire of Charles, 73; first gives + men a sense of unity, 92; how regarded in Middle Ages, 92, + 370; draws tighter all bonds of outward union, 94; unity + of, felt to be analogous to that of the Empire, 93; becomes + the exact counterpart of the Empire, 99, 101, 107, 328; + position of, in Germany, 128; Otto's position towards, 129; + effect of the Reformation upon, 327; influence of the + Empire upon the history of, 384. + + Churches, national, 95, 330. + + Churches of Rome, destruction of old buildings by modern + restorers of, 292; mosaics and bell-tower in the, 294. + + Cities, in Lombardy, 175; growth of in Germany, 179; their + power, 223. + + Civil law, revival of the study of, 172; its study + forbidden by the Popes in the thirteenth century, 253. + + CIVILIS, the Batavian, 17. + + Clergy, aversion of the Lombards to the, 37; their idea of + political unity, 96; their power in the eleventh century, + 128; Gregory VII's condemnation of feudal investitures to + the, 158; their ambition and corruption in the later Middle + Age, 290. + + CLOVIS, his desire to preserve the institutions of the + Empire, 17, 30; his unbroken success, 35. + + Coins, papal, 278 note. + + COLONNA (John), Petrarch's letters to, 270 and note; the + family of, 281. + + Commons, the, 132, 314. + + Concordat of Worms, 163. + + Confederation of the Rhine, provisions of the, 362. + + CONRAD I (King of the East Franks), 122, 226. + + CONRAD II, the reign of, 151; comparison between the + prerogative at his accession and at the death of Henry V, + 165; the crown of Burgundy first gained by, 194. + + CONRAD III, 165, 277. + + CONRAD IV, 210. + + CONRADIN (Frederick II's grandson), murder of, 211. + + Constance, the Council of, 220, 253, 301; the peace of, + signed by Frederick I, 178. + + CONSTANTINE, his vigorous policy, 8; the Donation of, 43, + 100, 288 note. + + Constantinople, capture of, 303, 311. + + Coronations, ceremonies at, 112; the four, gone through by + the Emperors, 193, 403; their meaning, 195; churches in + which they were performed, 284, 288. + + Corpus Juris Civilis, correspondence between, and the Canon + Law, 101. + + Councils, General, right of Emperors to summon, 111. + + Counts Palatine, Otto's institution of, 125. + + CRESCENTIUS, 146. + + Crown, the Imperial, the right to confer, 57, 61, 81; not + legally attached to Frankish crown or nation, 81; how + treated by the Popes, 82. + + Crowns, the four, 193, 403. + + Crusades, the, 164, 166, 179, 193, 205, 209. + + + D. + + DANTE, 208; his attitude towards the Empire, 255; his + treatise _De Monarchia_, 262; sketch of its argument, 264 + et seq.; its omissions, 268, 299. + + Dark Ages, existing relics of the, 294. + + Decretals, the False, 156. + + Denmark, and the Slaves, 143; imperial authority in, 184; + its relations to the Empire, 398. + + Diet, the, 126, 314, 353; its rights as settled A. D. 1648, + 340; its altered character A. D. 1654, 344; its triflings, + 353. + + DIOCLETIAN, his vigorous policy, 8. + + Divine right of the Emperor, 246. + + DÖLLINGER (Dr.), 60 note. + + Dominicans, the order of, 205. + + Donation of Constantine, forgery of the, 43, 100, 118 note, + 261 note. + + Dukes, the, in Germany, 125. + + + E. + + East, imperial pretensions in the, 189. + + Eastern Church, the, 191. + + Eastern Empire, its relations with the Western, 24, 25; + decay of its power in the West, 45; how regarded by the + Popes, 46. + + Edict of Caracalla, 6. + + EDWARD II (King of England), his declaration of England's + independence of the Empire, 187. + + EDWARD III (King of England) and Lewis the Bavarian, 187; + his election against Charles IV, 223. + + EGINHARD, his statement respecting Charles's coronation, + 58, 60. + + Elective constitution, the, 227; difficulty of maintaining + the principle in practice, 233; its object the choice of + the fittest man, 233; restraint of the sovereign, 233; + recognition of the popular will, 234. + + Elector, the title of, its advantage, 232 note; personages + upon whom it was conferred by Napoleon, 232. + + Electoral body in primitive times, 226. + + Electoral function, conception of the, 235. + + Electorate, the Eighth, 231; the Ninth, 231. + + Electors, the Seven, 165, 229; their names and offices, 230 + note; the question of their vote, 257 note. + + Emperor, the position of, in the second century, 5, 6; the + head of the Church, 12, 23, 111; sanctity of the name, 22, + 120; correspondence between his position and functions and + those of the Pope, 104; proofs from mediæval documents, + 109; and from the coronation ceremonies, 112; illustrations + from mediæval art, 116; nature of his power, 120; fusion of + his functions with those of German King, 127; his office + feudalized, 130; attitude of Byzantine Emperors towards, + 189; his dignities and titles, 193, 257, 261, 400; the + title not assumed till the Roman coronation, 196; origin + and results of this practice, 196; policy of, 222; his + office as peace-maker, 244, 245; divine right of the, 246; + his right of creating kings, 249; his international place + at the Council of Constance, 253; change in titles of, 316; + his rights as settled A.D. 1648, 340; altered meaning of + the word now-a-days, 402. + + Emperors, meaning of their four coronations, 193, 195, 403; + persons eligible as, 251; after Henry VII, 263; their + short-sighted policy towards Rome, 277; their visits to + Rome, 282; their approach, 283; their entrance, 284; + hostility of the Pope and people to the, 284; their + burial-places, 287 note; nature of the question at issue + between the Popes and the, 385; their titles, 400. + + Emperors, Carolingian, 76. + + Emperors, Franconian, 133. + + Emperors, Hapsburg, beginning of their influence in + Germany, 310; their policy, 305, 348; repeated attempts to + set them aside, 350; causes of the long retention of the + throne by the, 349; modern pretensions of, 368, 381. + + Emperors, Italian, 80. + + Emperors, Saxon, 133. + + Emperors, Swabian or Hohenstaufen, 57, 165, 167. + + Emperors, Teutonic, defects in their title, 61; their + short-sighted policy, 277; their memorials in Rome, 286; + names of those buried in Italy, 287 note; their struggles + against nationality, aristocracy, and popular freedom, 388. + + Empire, the Roman, growth of despotism in, 5; obliteration + of national distinctions in, 6; unity of, threatened from + without and from within, 7, 8; preserved for a time by the + policy of Diocletian and Constantine, 8, 9; partition of, + 9; influence of the Church in supporting, 13; armies of, + composed of barbarians, 15; how regarded by the barbarians, + 16; belief in eternity of, 20; reunion of Italy to, 29; its + influence in the Transalpine provinces, 30; influence of + religion and jurisprudence in supporting, 31, 32; belief + in, not extinct in the eighth century, 44; restoration of + by Charles the Great, 48; the 'translation' of the, 52, + 111, 175, 218; divided between the grandsons of Charles, + 77; dissolution of, 78; ideal state supposed to be embodied + in, 99; never, strictly speaking, restored, 102. + + Empire, the Holy Roman, created by Otto the Great, 80, 103; + a prolongation of the Empire of Charles, 80; wherein it + differed therefrom, 80; motives for establishment of, 84; + identical with Holy Roman Church, 106; its rights proved + from the Bible, 112; its anti-national character, 120; its + union with the German kingdom, 122; dissimilarity between + the two, 127; results of the union, 128; its pretensions in + Hungary, 183; in Poland, 184; in Denmark, 184; in France, + 185; in Sweden, 185; in Spain, 185; in England, 186; in + Naples, 188; in Venice, 188; in the East, 189; the epithet + 'Holy' applied by Frederick I, 199; origin and meaning of + epithet, 200; its fall with Frederick II, 210; Italy lost + to, 211; change in its position, 214; its continuance due + to its connexion with the German kingdom, 214; its + relations with the Papacy, 153, 155, 216; its financial + distress, 223; theory of, in the fourteenth and fifteenth + centuries, 238; its duties as an international judge and + mediator, 244; why an international power, 248; + illustrations, 249; attitude of new learning towards, 251, + 254, 256; doctrine of its rights and functions never + carried out in fact, 253; end of its history in Italy, 263, + 304; relation between it and the city, 297; reaches its + lowest point in Frederick III's reign, 301; its loss of + Burgundy, 305, and of Switzerland, 306; change in its + character, 308, 313; effects of the Renaissance upon, 312; + effects of the Reformation upon, 319, 325; its influence + upon the name and associations of, 332; narrowing of its + bounds, 341; causes of the continuance of, 344; its + relation to the balance of power, 345; its position in + Europe, 346; its last phase, 352; signs of its approaching + fall, 356; its end, 363; the desire for its + re-establishment, 364; unwillingness of certain states, + 364; technically never extinguished, 364 note; summary of + its nature and results, 366; claim of Austria to represent, + 368; of France, 368; of Russia, 368; of Greece, 368; of the + Turks, 368; parallel between the Papacy and, 369, 373; + never truly mediæval, 373; sense in which it was Roman, + 374; its condition in the tenth century, 374; essential + principles of, 377; its influence on Germany, 378; Austria + as heir of, 381; its bearing on the progress of Europe, + 383; ways in which it affected the political institutions + of the Middle Ages, 383; its influence upon modern + jurisprudence, 383; upon the history of the Church, 384; + influence of its inner life on the minds of men, 387; + principles adverse to, 388; change marked by its fall, 389; + its relations to the nationalities of Europe, 390; + difficulty of fully understanding, 392. + + Empire and Papacy, interdependence of, 101; consequences, + 102; struggle between, 153; their relations, 155, 216; + parallel between, 369; compared as perpetuation of a name, + 372. + + Empire Western, last days of the, 24; its extinction by + Odoacer, 26; its restoration, 34. + + Empire, French, under Napoleon, 360. + + ENGELBERT, 113 note. + + England, 45; Otto's position towards, 143; authority not + exercised by any Emperors in, 186; vague notion that it + must depend on the Empire, 186; imperial pretensions + towards, 187; position of the regal power in, as compared + with Germany, 215; feudalism in, 343. + + Estate, Third, did not exist in time of Otto the Great, + 132. + + EUDES (Count of Champagne), 151. + + Europe, bearing of the Empire on the progress of, 383; on + the nationalities of, 390. + + + F. + + False Decretals, the, 156. + + FERDINAND I, 316 note, 323, 401. + + FERDINAND II, accession of, 335; his plans, 335; deprives + the Palsgrave Frederick of his electoral vote, 231. + + Feudal aristocracy, power of the, 221. + + Feudal king, his peculiar relation to his tenants, 124. + + Feudalism, 90, 123; reason of its firm grasp upon society, + 124; hostility between it and imperialism, 131; its results + in France, 343; in England, 343; in Germany, 344; struggles + of the Teutonic Emperors against, 388. + + Financial distress of the Empire, 223. + + FLORUS the Deacon's lament over the dissolution of the + Carolingian Empire, 85 note. + + Fontenay, battle of, 77. + + France, modern, dates from Hugh Capet, 142; imperial + authority exercised in, 185; her irritation at Germany's + precedence, 185; growth of the regal power in, as compared + with Germany, 215; alliance of the Protestants with, 325; + territory gained by treaties of Westphalia, 341; feudalism + in, 343; under Napoleon, 360; her claim to represent the + Roman Empire, 368, 376. + + Francia occidentalis, given to Charles the Bald, 77. + + FRANCIS I, reign of, 351. + + FRANCIS II, accession of, 356; resignation of imperial + crown by, 1, 363. + + Franciscans, the order of, 205. + + Franconia, extinction of the dukedom of, 222. + + Franconian Emperors, 133. + + 'Frank,' sense in which the name was used, 142 note. + + Franks, rise of the, 34; success of their arms, 35; + Catholics from the first, 36; their greatness chiefly due + to the clergy, 36; enter Rome, 48. + + Franks, the West, Otto's policy towards, 142. + + Frankfort, synod held at, 64; coronations at, 316 note, + 404. + + FREDERICK I (Barbarossa), his brilliant reign, 167, 179; + his relations to the Popedom, 167; his contest with Pope + Hadrian IV, 169, 316; incident at their meeting on the way + to Rome, 314 note; his contest with Pope Alexander III, + 170; their meeting at Venice, 171; magnificent ascriptions + of dignity to, 173; assertion of his prerogative in Italy, + 174; his version of the 'Translation of the Empire,' 175; + his dealings with the rebels of Milan and Tortona, 175; his + temporary success, 177; victory of the Lombards over, 178; + his prosperity as German king, 178; his glorious life and + happy death, 179; legend respecting him, 180; extent of his + jurisdiction, 182; his dominion in the East, 189; his + letter to Saladin, 189; anecdote of, 214. + + FREDERICK II, character of, 207; events of his struggle + with the Papacy, 209; results of his reign, 221; the charge + of heresy against, 251 note; memorials left by, in Rome, + 287. + + FREDERICK III, abases himself before the Romish court, 220; + Charles the Bold seeks an arrangement with, 249; his + calamitous reign, 301. + + FREDERICK (Count Palatine and King of Bohemia), deprived by + Ferdinand II of his electoral vote, 231. + + FREDERICK of Prussia (the Great), 347, 352, 353 note. + + Freedom popular, growth of, 240; struggles of the Teutonic + Emperors against, 388. + + + G. + + Gallic race, political character of the, 376. + + Gauverfassung, the so-called, 123. + + GERBERT (Pope Sylvester II), 146. + + 'German Emperor,' the title of, 127, 317. + + Germanic constitution, the, 221; influence upon, of the + theory of the Empire as an international power, 307; + attempted reforms of, 313; means by which it was proposed + to effect them, 314; causes of their failure, 314. + + Germany, beginning of the national existence of, 77; + chooses Arnulf as king, 78; overrun by Hungarians, 79; + establishment of monarchy in, by Henry the Fowler, 79; + desires the restoration of the Carolingian Empire, 86; + position of in the tenth century, 122; union of the Empire + with, 122; results of the union, 128; dissimilarity of the + two systems, 127; feudalism in, 123; the feudal polity of, + generally, 125; nature of the history of, till the twelfth + century, 126; princes of, ally themselves with the Pope + against the Emperor, 162; its hatred of the Romish Court, + 169; the position of under Frederick Barbarossa, 179; + growth of towns in, 179, 223; decline of imperial power in, + 211; state of during Great Interregnum, 213; decline of + regal power in, 215; encroachments of nobles in, 221, 228; + kingdom of, not originally elective, 225; how it ultimately + became elective, 226; changes in the constitution of, 228; + its weakness as compared with other states of Europe, 302; + its loss of imperial territories, 303; its internal + weakness, 306; position of the Emperor in, compared with + that of his predecessors in Europe, 309; beginning of the + Hapsburg influence in, 310; first consciousness of its + nationality, 315; destruction of its State-system, 324; its + troubles, 324; finally severed from Rome, 340; after the + peace of Westphalia, 342; effect of a number of petty + independent states upon, 343; feudalism in, 343; its + political life in the eighteenth century, 345; foreign + thrones acquired by its princes, 346; French aggression + upon, 346; its weakness and stagnation, 347; popular + feeling in at the close of eighteenth century, 354; + Napoleon in, 361; changes in, by war of 1866, 365 note; + influence of the Holy Empire on, 378. + + GERSON, chancellor of Paris, plans of, 301. + + Ghibeline, the name of, 304. + + GOETHE, 236 note, 316 note, 356. + + Golden Bull of Charles IV, 225, 230, 236. + + Goths, wisest and least cruel of the Germanic family, 28; + Arian Goths regarded as enemies by Catholic Italians, 29. + + Greece, her influence in the fifteenth and sixteenth + centuries, 240, 252; her claim to represent the Roman + Empire, 368. + + Greeks and Latins, origin of their separation, 37 note. + + Greeks, effect of their hostility upon the Teutonic Empire, + 210. + + GREGORY THE GREAT, fame of his sanctity and writings, 31; + means by which he advanced Rome's ecclesiastical authority, + 154. + + GREGORY II (Pope), reason of his reluctance to break with + the Byzantine princes, 102. + + GREGORY III (Pope) appeals to Charles Martel for succour + against the Lombards, 39. + + GREGORY V (Pope), 146. + + GREGORY VII (Pope), his condemnation of feudal investitures + to the clergy, 158; war between him and Henry IV, 159; his + letter to William the Conqueror, 160; passage in his second + excommunication of Henry, 161; results of the struggle + between them, 162; his death, 162; his theory as to the + rights of the Pope with respect to the election of + Emperors, 217; his silence about the Translation of the + Empire, 218; his simile between the Empire and the Popedom, + 373; his demands on the Emperor, 386. + + GREGORY IX (Pope), Canon law consolidated by, 102; receives + the title of 'Justinian of the Church,' 102. + + GREGORY X (Pope), 219. + + GROTIUS, 384. + + Guelf, the name of, 304. + + GUIDO, or GUY, of Spoleto, 82. + + GUISCARD, Robert, 292. + + GUNDOBALD the Burgundian, 25. + + GUNTHER of Schwartzburg, 222. + + GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS, 336. + + + H. + + HADRIAN I (Pope), summons Charles (the Great) to resist the + Lombards, 41; motives of his policy, 42; his allusion to + Constantine's Donation, 118 note. + + HADRIAN IV (Pope), Frederick I's contest with, 169, 285; + his pretensions, 197. + + HALLAM, his view of the grant of a Roman dignity to Clovis, + 30 note. + + Hanseatic Confederacy, 223, 347. + + Hapsburg, the castle of, 213 note. + + HAROLD the BLUE-TOOTHED, 143. + + HENRY I (the Fowler), 79, 122, 132, 226. + + HENRY II crowned Emperor, 149. + + HENRY II (King of France), assumes the title of 'Protector + of the German Liberties,' 325. + + HENRY II (King of England), his submissive tone towards + Frederick I, 186. + + HENRY III, power of the Empire at its meridian under, 151; + his reform of the Popedom, 152; fatal results of his + encroachments, 152; his death, 152. + + HENRY IV, election of, 226 note; war between him and + Gregory VII, 159; his humiliation, 159; results of the + struggle, 162; his death, 162. + + HENRY V (Emperor), his claims over ecclesiastics, 163; his + quarrel with Pope Paschal II, 163; his perilous position, + 163; comparison between the prerogative at his death and + that at the accession of Conrad II, 165; tumults produced + by his coronation, 285. + + HENRY V (King of England) refuses submission to the Emperor + Sigismund, 187. + + HENRY VI, 188; his proposal to unite Naples and Sicily to + the Empire, 206; opposition to the scheme, 206; his + untimely death, 206. + + HENRY VII, 221, 223; in Italy, 262; his death, 263. + + HENRY VIII (King of England), 334 note. + + Hessen-Cassel, Elector of, dethroned, 232. + + HILARY, feelings of, towards the Roman Empire, 21 note. + + HILDEBERT (Bishop of Caen), his lines contrasting the past + and present of Rome, 406. + + HILDEBRAND; _see_ Gregory VII. + + HIPPOLYTUS a Lapide, the treatise of, 339. + + Hohenstaufen; _see_ Emperors, Swabian. + + Hohenstaufen, the castle of, 165 note. + + Holland, declared independent, 342. + + Holstein, its relations to the Empire, 398. + + HUGH CAPET, 42. + + HUGH of Burgundy, 83. + + Hungarians, the, 143. + + Hungary, imperial authority exercised in, 183; its + connexion with the Hapsburgs, 184 note. + + HUSS, the writings of, 241. + + + I. + + Iconoclastic controversy, 38. + + 'Imperator electus,' the title of, 316, 405. + + Imperialism, Roman, French, and Mediæval, 375. + + Imperial titles and ceremonies, 193, 400. + + INNOCENT III (Pope), his exertions on behalf of Otto IV, + 206; his pretensions, 209, 217; his struggle with Frederick + II, 208. + + INNOCENT X and the sacred number Seven of the electors, 227 + note; his protest against the Peace of Westphalia, 341. + + International power, the need of an, 242; why the Roman + Empire an, 248. + + Interregnum, the Great, frightful state of Germany during, + 213; enables the feudal aristocracy to extend their power, + 221. + + Investitures, the struggle of the, 162. + + IRENE (Empress), behaviour of, 47, 61, 68. + + Irminsûl, overthrow of, by Charles the Great, 69; meaning + of term, 69 note. + + Italian Emperors, 80. + + Italian nationality, era at which its first rudiments + appeared, 140. + + Italians, modern, their feelings towards Rome, 299. + + Italy, under Odoacer, 26, 27; attempt of Theodoric to + establish a national monarchy in, 27; reconquered by + Justinian, 29; harassed by the Lombards, 37; condition of, + previous to Otto's descent into, 80; Otto the Great's first + expedition into, 84; its connexion with Germany, 87; Otto's + rule in, 139; liberties of the northern cities of, 150; + Frederick I in, 174; Henry VII in, 263; lost to the Empire, + 211, 304; names of Emperors buried in, 287 note; the nation + at the present day, 389. + + Italy, Southern, 150. + + + J. + + JOHN VIII (Pope), 156. + + JOHN XII (Pope), crowns Otto the Great, 87; plots against + him, 134; his reprobate life, 134; Liudprand's list of the + charges against, 135; letter recounting them sent to him, + 136; his reply, 136; Otto's answer, 136; deposed by Otto, + 137; regret of the Romans at his expulsion, 137; his return + and death, 138. + + JOHN XXII (Pope), his conflict with Lewis IV, 220. + + JOSEPH II, reign of, 352. + + JULIUS CÆSAR, 390, 392. + + JULIUS II (Pope), 316. + + Jurisprudence, influence of, in supporting the Empire, 31; + aversion of the Romish court to the ancient, 252; influence + of the Empire on modern, 383. + + Jurists, their attitude towards imperialism, 256. + + JUSTINIAN, Italy reconquered by, 29; study of the + legislation of, 240, 256. + + 'Justinian of the Church,' title of, conferred on Gregory + IX, 102. + + Jutland, Otto penetrates into, 143. + + + K. + + Kings, the Emperor's right of creating, 249. + + Knighthood, analogy between priesthood and, 250. + + + L. + + LACTANTIUS, his belief in the eternity of the Roman Empire, + 21. + + LAMBERT (son of Guido of Spoleto), 82. + + Landgrave of Thuringia, choice of the, commanded by the + Pope, 219. + + Lateran Palace at Rome, mosaic of the, 117, 288. + + Latins and Greeks, origin of their separation, 37 note. + + Lauresheim, Annals of, their account of the coronation of + Charles, 53. + + Law, old, the influence exercised by, 32; era of the + revived study of, 276. + + Learning, revival of, 240; connexion between it and + imperialism, 254. + + LEO I (Pope), his assertion of universal jurisdiction, 154. + + LEO the ISAURIAN (Emperor), his attempt to abolish the + worship of images, 38. + + LEO III (Pope), his accession, 43; his adventures, 44; + crowns Charles at Rome on Christmas Day, A.D. 800, 3, 49; + charter of, issued on same day, 106; relation of, to the + act of coronation, 52, 53; lectured by Charles, 64. + + LEO VIII (Pope), 138. + + Leonine city, the, 286 note. + + LEOPOLD I, ninth electorate conferred by, 231. + + LEOPOLD II, 352. + + LEWIS I (the Pious), 76, 77. + + LEWIS II, 77, 104 note, 191, 403. + + LEWIS III (son of Boso), 82. + + LEWIS IV, his conflict with Pope John XXII, 220. + + LEWIS XII (King of France), his pretensions on Naples and + Milan, 315. + + LEWIS XIV (King of France), 346. + + LEWIS (the German) (son of Lewis the Pious), 77. + + LEWIS the CHILD (son of Arnulf), 121. + + Literature, revival of, 240; connexion between it and + imperialism, 254. + + LIUDPRAND (Bishop of Cremona), his list of the accusations + against John XII, 135; account of his embassy to the + princess Theophano, 141. + + LIUDPRAND (King of the Lombards), attacks Rome and the + exarchate, 38. + + Lombard cities, 175; their victory over Frederick I, 178. + + Lombards, arrival of the, A.D. 568, 29, 37; their aversion + to the clergy, 37; the Popes seek help from the Franks + against the, 39; extinction of their kingdom by + Charlemagne, 41. + + LOTHAR I (son of Lewis the Pious), 77, 403. + + LOTHAR II, election of, 165, 228. + + LOTHAR (son of Hugh of Burgundy), 83. + + Lotharingia or Lorraine, 78, 79, 143, 183, 341, 349. + + Luneville, the Peace of, 361. + + LUTHER, 319. + + + M. + + Majesty, the title of, 247 note. + + Mallum, the popular assembly so called, 126. + + MANUEL COMNENUS, 193. + + Mario (Monte), 283. + + MARSILIUS of Padua, his 'de Imperio Romano,' 231 note. + + MAXIMILIAN I, 231, 310; character of his epoch, 310; events + of his reign, 313; his title of 'Imperator electus,' 316, + 405; his proposals to recover Burgundy and Italy, 317. + + MAXIMILIAN II, 323. + + Mayfield, the popular assembly so called, 126. + + Mediæval art, rights of the Empire set forth in, 116. + + Mediæval monuments, causes of the want of in Rome, 289. + + MICHAEL, 61. + + MICHAEL ANGELO, capital rebuilt by, 295. + + Middle Ages, the state of the human mind in, 90; theology + of, 95; philosophy of, 97; relations of Church and State + during, 107, 387; mode of interpreting Scriptures in, 114; + art of, 116; opposition of theory and practice in, 133, + 261; real beginning of, 204; reverence for ancient forms + and phrases in, 258; absence of the idea of change or + progress in, 259; the city of Rome in, 269; barbarism of + the aristocracy in, 289; ambition and corruption of the + clergy in the latter, 290; destruction of old buildings by + the Romans of, 292; existing relics of, 294; aspiration for + unity during, 370; the Visible Church in the, 370; ferocity + of the heroes of, 382; ways in which the Empire affected the + political institutions of, 383; idea of the communion of + saints during, 387. + + Milan, Frederick I's dealings with the rebels of, 125; the + rebuilding of, 178; victory of Frederick II over, 287; + pretensions of Charles VIII and Lewis XII of France on, + 315. + + Mahommedanism, rise of, 45. + + Moissac, Chronicle of, its account of the coronation of + Charles, 54, 84. + + MOMMSEN, 390. + + Monarchy, universal, doctrine of, 91, 97. + + Monarchy, elective, 232. + + Mosaics in the churches of Rome, 294. + + MÜLLER, Johannes von, 354. + + Münster, the treaty of; _see_ Westphalia. + + + N. + + Naples, imperial authority in, 188, 205; pretensions of + Charles VIII and Lewis XII of France on, 315. + + NAPOLEON, as compared with Charles the Great, 74; + extinction of Electorates by, 232; Emperor of the West, + 357; his belief that he was the successor of Charlemagne, + 358; attitude of the Papacy towards, 359; his mission in + Germany, 361. + + Nationalities of Europe, the formation of, 242; relations + of the Empire to the, 390. + + Nationality, struggles of the Teutonic Emperors against, + 388. + + Neo-Platonism, Alexandrian, effect of, 7. + + Nicæa, first council of, 23, 301; second council of, 64. + + NICEPHORUS, 61, 192. + + NICHOLAS I (Pope) and the case of Teutberga, 252. + + NICHOLAS II (Pope), fixes a regular body to elect the Pope, + 158. + + NICHOLAS V (Pope), 279, 292, 312. + + Nobles, the, in feudal times, 125, 221; encroachments of + the, 228. + + Nürnberg, 259. + + + O. + + OCCAM, the English Franciscan, 220. + + ODO, 81. + + ODOACER, extinction of the Western Empire by, A.D. 476, 25; + his original position, 25 note; his assumption of the title + of King, 26; nature of his government, 27. + + OPTATUS (Bishop of Milevis), his treatise _Contra + Donatistas_, 13 note. + + Orsini, the family of, 281. + + Osnabrück, treaty of; _see_ Westphalia. + + Ostrogoths, 24; war between Belisarius and the, 273. + + OTTO I, the GREAT, appealed to by Adelheid, 83; his first + expedition into Italy, 84; invitation sent by the Pope to, + 84; his victory over the Hungarians, 85; crowned king of + Italy at Rome, 87; his coronation a favourable opening to + sacerdotal claims, 155; causes of the revival of the Empire + under, 84; his coronation feast the inauguration of the + Teutonic realm, 123; consequences of his assumption of the + imperial title, 128; his position towards the Church, 128; + changes in title, 129; his imperial office feudalized, 130; + the Germans made a single people by, 131; incidents which + befel him in Rome, 134; inquires into the character and + manners of Pope John XII, 135; his letters to John, 136; + deposes John, 136; appoints Leo in his stead, 137; his + suppression of the revolts of the Romans on account of + John, 138; his rule in Italy, 139; resumes Charles's plans + of foreign conquest, 140; his policy towards Byzantium, + 141; seeks for his heir the hand of the princess Theophano, + 141; his policy towards the West Franks, 142; his Northern + and Eastern conquests, 143; extent of his empire, 144; + comparison between it and that of Charles, 144; beneficial + results of his rule, 145; how styled by Nicephorus, 211. + + OTTO II, 142; memorials left by, in Rome, 317. + + OTTO III, his plans and ideas, 146, 147, 148; his intense + religious belief in the Emperor's duties, 147; his reason + for using the title 'Romanorum Imperator,' 147; his early + death, 148, 228; his burial at Aachen, 148; respect in + which his life was so memorable, 149; compared with + Frederick II, 207; his expostulation with the Roman people, + 285 note; memorials left by, in Rome, 286. + + OTTO IV, Pope Innocent III's exertions in behalf of, 206; + overthrown by Innocent, 207; explanation of a curious seal + of, 266 note. + + + P. + + PALGRAVE (Sir F.), his view of the grant of a Roman dignity + to Clovis, 30 note. + + PALSGRAVE, deprived of his vote, 231; reinstated, 231. + + Panslavism, Russia's doctrine of, 368. + + Papacy, the Teutonic reform of, 146; Frederick I's bad + relations with, 168; Henry III's purification of, 152, 204; + growth of its power, 153; its relations with the Empire, + 153, 155, 216; its condition after the dissolution of the + Carolingian Empire, 275; its attitude towards Napoleon, + 359. + + Papacy and Empire, interdependence of, 101; its + consequences, 102; struggle between them, 153; their + relations, 155, 216; parallel between, 369; compared as + perpetuation of a name, 372. + + Papal elections, veto of Emperor on, 138, 155. + + Partition treaty of Verdun, 77. + + PASCHAL II (Pope), his quarrel with Henry V, 163. + + Patrician of the Romans, import of the title, 40; date when + it was bestowed on Pipin, 40 note. + + PATRITIUS, secretary of Frederick III, on the poverty of + the Empire, 224. + + Pavia, the Council of, and Charles the Bald, 156. + + Persecution, Protestant, 330. + + Peter's (St.), old, 48. + + PETRARCH, his feelings towards the Empire, 254; towards the + city of Rome, 270. + + PFEFFINGER, 351 note. + + PHILIP of Hohenstaufen, contest between Otto of Brunswick + and, 206; his assassination, 206. + + Philosophy, scholastic, spread of, in the thirteenth + century, 240. + + PIPIN of Herstal, 35. + + PIPIN the SHORT appointed successor to Childeric, 39; twice + rescues Rome from the Lombards, 39; receives the title of + Patrician of the Romans, 40; import of this title, 40; date + at which it was bestowed, 40 note. + + PIUS VII (Pope), 359. + + Placitum, the popular assembly so called, 126. + + PODIEBRAD (George), (King of Bohemia), 223. + + Poland, imperial authority in, 184; partition of, 345. + + Politics, beginning of the existence of, 241. + + Popes, emancipation of the, 27, 37, 281, 282; appeal to the + Franks for succour against the Lombards, 39; their reasons + for desiring the restoration of the Western Empire, 45, 46; + their theory respecting the coronation of Charles, 57; + their profligacy in the tenth century, 82, 85, 275; their + theory respecting the chair of St. Peter, 99; their + position and functions, 104; growth of their pretensions, + 108, 156, 217; and power, 153; their relations to the + Emperor, 155; their temporal power, 157; their position as + international judges, 243; reaction against their + pretensions, 243, 275; their aversion to the study of + ancient jurisprudence, 252; hostility of, to the Germans, + 284; nature of the question at issue between the Emperors + and, 385. + + PORCARO (Stephen), conspiracy of, 279. + + Prætaxation, the so-called right of, 228, 229. + + Pragmatic Sanctions of Frederick II, 212, 221. + + Prague, University of, 237. + + Prerogative, Imperial, contrast of, at accession of Conrad + II and death of Henry V, 165. + + Priesthood, analogy between knighthood and, 250. + + Princes, league of, formed by Frederick the Great, 352. + + Protestant States, their conduct after the Reformation, + 330. + + Protestants of Germany, their alliance with France, 325. + + Public Peace and Imperial Chamber, establishment of the, + 313. + + + R. + + RADULFUS DE COLONNA, his account of the origin of the + separation of Greeks and Latins, 37 note. + + Ravenna, exarch of, 27. + + Reformation, dawnings of the, 240; Charles V's attitude + towards the, 321; influence of its spirit on the Empire, + 319, 325; its real meaning, 325; its effect on the + doctrines regarding the Visible Church, 327; consequent + effect upon the Empire, 328; its small immediate influence + on political and religious liberty, 329; conduct of the + Protestant States after the, 330; its influence on the name + and associations of the Empire, 332. + + Religion, influence of, in supporting the Empire, 31; wars + of, 330. + + Renaissance, the, 240, 311. + + 'Renovatio Romani Imperii,' signification of the seal + bearing legend of, 103. + + Rhine, towns of the, 223; provisions of the Confederation + of the, 362. + + RICHARD I (King of England), pays homage to the Emperor + Henry VI, 186; his release, 187. + + RICHARD (Earl of Cornwall), his double election with + Alfonso X of Castile, 212, 229. + + RICHELIEU, policy of, 336. + + RICIMER (patrician), 25. + + RIENZI, Petrarch's letter to the Roman people respecting, + 255; his character and career, 278. + + Romans, revolts of the, at the expulsion of Pope John XII, + 137, 138; Otto's vigorous measures against the, 138; their + revolt from the Iconoclastic Emperors of the East, 274; the + title of King of the, 404. + + Romanism or Catholicity, 94, 106. + + Rome, commanding position of, in the second century, 7; + prestige of, not destroyed by the partition of the Empire, + 9; lingering influences of her Church and Law, 31, 32; + claim of, to the right of conferring the imperial crown, + 57, 61, 81; republican institutions of, renewed, 83; + profligacy of, in the tenth century, 82, 85; under Arnold + of Brescia, 174; imitations of old, 257; in the Middle + Ages, 269; absence of Gothic in, 271; the modern traveller + in, 271, 283; causes of her rapid decay, 273; peculiarities + of her position, 274; her internal history from the sixth + to the twelfth century, 274; her condition in the ninth and + tenth centuries, 274; growth of a republican feeling in, + 276; short-sighted policy of the Emperors towards, 277; + causes of the failure of the struggle for independence in, + 280; her internal condition, 280; her people, 280; her + nobility, 281; her bishop, 281; relation of the Emperor to, + 282; the Emperors' visits to, 282; dislike of, to the + Germans, 285; memorials of Otto III in, 286; of Otto II, + 287; of Frederick II, 287; causes of the want of mediæval + monuments in, 289; barbarism of the aristocracy of, 289; + ambition, weakness, and corruption of the clergy of, 290; + tendency of her builders to adhere to the ancient manner, + 290; destruction and alteration of old buildings in, 291; + her modern churches, 293; existing relics of Dark and + Middle Ages in, 291; changed aspect of, 295; analogy + between her architecture and the civil and ecclesiastical + constitution, 296; relation of, to the Empire, 297; + feelings of modern Italians towards, 299; perpetuation of + the name of, 367; parallel instances, 367; Hildebert's + lines contrasting the past and present of, 406. + + ROMULUS AUGUSTULUS, his resignation at Odoacer's bidding, + 25. + + RUDOLF (King of Transjurane), 81. + + RUDOLF of Hapsburg, 213, 219, 221, 222; financial distress + under, 224; Schiller's description of the coronation feast + of, 231 note, 262. + + RUDOLF II, 335. + + RUDOLF III, 151. + + RUDOLF of Swabia, 162. + + RUDOLF III (King of Burgundy), his proposal to bequeath + Burgundy to Henry II, 151. + + Russia, her claim to represent the Roman Empire, 368. + + + S. + + Sachsenspiegel, the, 108 note. + + SALADIN (the Sultan), Frederick I's letter to, 189. + + Santa Maria Novella at Florence, fresco in, 118. + + Saxon Emperors, 133. + + Saxony, extinction of the dukedom of, 222. + + Schleswig, its annexation by Otto, 143; its relation to the + Empire, 398. + + Scholastic philosophy, spread of, in the thirteenth + century, 240. + + Seal, ascribed to A. D. 800, 103. + + SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS, concentration of power in his hands, 5, + 6. + + SERGIUS IV (Pope), 228 note. + + Seven Years' War, 352. + + Sicambri, probably the chief source of the Frankish nation, + 34. + + Sicily, imperial authority in, 188, 205. + + SIGISMUND (the Burgundian king), his desire to preserve the + institutions of the Empire, 18. + + SIGISMUND (Emperor), his visit to Henry V, 187; at the + Council of Constance, 253, 301. + + Simony, measures taken against, 158. + + Slavic races, the, 27, 143, 260, 378. + + Smalkaldic league, the, 322. + + Southern Italy, 150. + + Spain, Otto's position towards, 143; authority not + exercised by any Emperor in, 185; compared with Germany, + 303. + + Speyer, Diet of, 111 note. + + STEPHANIA (widow of Crescentius), 148. + + Swabia, extinction of the dukedom of, 222; the towns of, + 223, 313; theory of the Emperors of the house of, + respecting the coronation of Charles, 57. + + Sweden, improbability of imperial pretensions to, 185. + + Swiss Confederation, the, 306; her gains by treaties of + Westphalia, 341. + + Switzerland lost to the Empire, 306, 342. + + SYLVESTER (Pope), 43. + + + T. + + Taxes, mode of collecting in Roman Empire, 9 note. + + TERTULLIAN, his feelings towards the Roman Emperor, 21 + note, 23 note. + + TEUTBERGA (wife of Lothar), the famous case of, 252. + + Teutonic race, political character of the, 376. + + THEODEBERT (son of Clovis), his desire to preserve the + institutions of the Empire, 18. + + THEODORIC the Ostrogoth, his attempt to establish a + national monarchy in Italy, 27, 28; its failure, 29; his + usual place of residence, 28 note; prosperity under his + reign, 29. + + THEODOSIUS (the Emperor), his abasement before St. Ambrose, + 12. + + THEOPHANO (princess), 141. + + Thirty Years' War, 335; its unsatisfactory results, 336; + its substantial advantage to the German princes, 338. + + THOMAS (St.), his statement respecting the election of + Emperors, 227. + + Tithes, first enforced by Charles the Great, 67. + + Titles, change of, 129, 316, 400. + + Tortona, Frederick I's dealing with the rebels of, 175. + + Transalpine provinces, influence of the Empire in, 30. + + 'Translation of the Empire,' 52, 111, 175, 218. + + Transubstantiation, 326 note. + + Turks, the, 303; their claim to represent the Roman Empire, + 368. + + TURPIN (Archbishop), 51 note. + + + U. + + University of Prague, foundation of, 237. + + Unity, political, idea of, upheld by the clergy, 96. + + URBAN IV (Pope), on the right of choosing the Roman king, + 229. + + + V. + + Venice, her attitude, 171; imperial pretensions towards, + 188; maintains her independence, 188. + + Verdun, partition treaty of, 77. + + VESPASIAN, his dying jest, 23 note. + + Vienna, Congress of, 364. + + VILLANI (Matthew), his idea of the Teutonic Emperors, 304; + his etymology of Guelf and Ghibeline, 304 note. + + Visigothic kings of Spain, the Empire's rights admitted by + the, 30. + + + W. + + WALLENSTEIN, 335. + + WENZEL of Bohemia, 223. + + Western Empire, its last days, 24, 25; its extinction by + Odoacer, 26; its restoration, 34. + + Westphalia, the Peace of, 336; its advantages to France, + 341; to Sweden, 341; its importance in imperial history, + 342. + + WICKLIFFE, excitement caused by his writings, 241. + + WILLIAM the Conqueror, letter of Hildebrand to, 160. + + WIPPO, 227 note. + + WITUKIND, 85 note. + + WOITECH (St. Adalbert), 269. + + World-Monarchy, the idea of a, 91; influence of metaphysics + upon the theory, 97. + + World-Religion, the idea of a, 91; coincides with the + World-Empire, 92. + + Worms, Concordant of, 163; Diet of, 319, 334. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Holy Roman Empire, by James Bryce + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE *** + +***** This file should be named 44101-0.txt or 44101-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/1/0/44101/ + +Produced by Melissa McDaniel, Stephen Rowland, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Holy Roman Empire + +Author: James Bryce + +Release Date: November 4, 2013 [EBook #44101] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE *** + + + + +Produced by Melissa McDaniel, Stephen Rowland, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have + been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. + + + + + THE + HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE + + BY + JAMES BRYCE, D.C.L. + + _FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE + and + PROFESSOR OF CIVIL LAW IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD_ + + + THIRD EDITION REVISED + + + London + MACMILLAN AND CO. + 1871 + + + + + OXFORD: + By T. Combe, M.A., E. B. Gardner, and E. Pickard Hall, + PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. + + +The object of this treatise is not so much to give a narrative history +of the countries included in the Romano-Germanic Empire--Italy during +the middle ages, Germany from the ninth century to the nineteenth--as +to describe the Holy Empire itself as an institution or system, the +wonderful offspring of a body of beliefs and traditions which have +almost wholly passed away from the world. Such a description, however, +would not be intelligible without some account of the great events +which accompanied the growth and decay of imperial power; and it has +therefore appeared best to give the book the form rather of a +narrative than of a dissertation; and to combine with an exposition of +what may be called the theory of the Empire an outline of the +political history of Germany, as well as some notices of the affairs +of medival Italy. To make the succession of events clearer, a +Chronological List of Emperors and Popes has been prefixed[1]. + +The present edition has been carefully revised and corrected +throughout; and a good many additions have been made to both text and +notes. + + LINCOLN'S INN, + August 11, 1870. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] The author has in preparation, and hopes before long to complete +and publish, a set of chronological tables which may be made to serve +as a sort of skeleton history of medival Germany and Italy. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. + Introductory. + + + CHAPTER II. + The Roman Empire before the Invasion of the Barbarians. + + The Empire in the Second Century 5 + Obliteration of National distinctions 6 + Rise of Christianity 10 + Its Alliance with the State 10 + Its Influence on the Idea of an Imperial Nationality 13 + + + CHAPTER III. + The Barbarian Invasions. + + Relations between the Primitive Germans and the Romans 15 + Their Feelings towards Rome and her Empire 16 + Belief in its Eternity 20 + Extinction by Odoacer of the Western branch of the Empire 26 + Theodoric the Ostrogothic King 27 + Gradual Dissolution of the Empire 30 + Permanence of the Roman Religion and the Roman Law 31 + + + CHAPTER IV. + Restoration of the Empire in the West. + + The Franks 34 + Italy under Greeks and Lombards 37 + The Iconoclastic Schism 38 + Alliance of the Popes with the Frankish Kings 39 + The Frankish Conquest of Italy 41 + Adventures and Plans of Pope Leo III 43 + Coronation of Charles the Great 48 + + + CHAPTER V. + Empire and Policy of Charles. + + Import of the Coronation at Rome 52 + Accounts given in the Annals of the time 53 + Question as to the Intentions of Charles 58 + Legal Effect of the Coronation 62 + Position of Charles towards the Church 64 + Towards his German Subjects 67 + Towards the other Races of Europe 70 + General View of his Character and Policy 72 + + + CHAPTER VI. + Carolingian and Italian Emperors. + + Reign of Lewis I 76 + Dissolution of the Carolingian Empire 78 + Beginnings of the German Kingdom 79 + Italian Emperors 80 + Otto the Saxon King 84 + Coronation of Otto at Rome 87 + + + CHAPTER VII. + Theory of the Medival Empire. + + The World Monarchy and the World Religion 91 + Unity of the Christian Church 94 + Influence of the Doctrine of Realism 97 + The Popes as heirs to the Roman Monarchy 99 + Character of the revived Roman Empire 102 + Respective Functions of the Pope and the Emperor 104 + Proofs and Illustrations 109 + Interpretations of Prophecy 112 + Two remarkable Pictures 116 + + + CHAPTER VIII. + The Roman Empire and the German Kingdom. + + The German or East Frankish Monarchy 122 + Feudality in Germany 123 + Reciprocal Influence of the Roman and Teutonic Elements on + the Character of the Empire 127 + + + CHAPTER IX. + Saxon and Franconian Emperors. + + Adventures of Otto the Great in Rome 134 + Trial and Deposition of Pope John XII 135 + Position of Otto in Italy 139 + His European Policy 140 + Comparison of his Empire with the Carolingian 144 + Character and Projects of the Emperor Otto III 146 + The Emperors Henry II and Conrad II 150 + The Emperor Henry III 151 + + + CHAPTER X. + Struggle of the Empire and the Papacy. + + Origin and Progress of Papal Power 153 + Relations of the Popes with the early Emperors 155 + Quarrel of Henry IV and Gregory VII 159 + Gregory's Ideas 160 + Concordat of Worms 163 + General Results of the Contest 164 + + + CHAPTER XI. + The Emperors in Italy: Frederick Barbarossa. + + Frederick and the Papacy 167 + Revival of the Study of the Roman Law 172 + Arnold of Brescia and the Roman Republicans 174 + Frederick's Struggle with the Lombard Cities 175 + His Policy as German King 178 + + + CHAPTER XII. + Imperial Titles and Pretensions. + + Territorial Limits of the Empire--Its Claims of Jurisdiction + over other Countries 182 + Hungary 183 + Poland 184 + Denmark 184 + France 185 + Sweden 185 + Spain 185 + England 186 + Scotland 187 + Naples and Sicily 188 + Venice 188 + The East 189 + Rivalry of the Teutonic and Byzantine Emperors 191 + The Four Crowns 193 + Origin and Meaning of the title 'Holy Empire' 199 + + + CHAPTER XIII. + Fall of the Hohenstaufen. + + Reign of Henry VI 205 + Contest of Philip and Otto IV 206 + Character and Career of the Emperor Frederick II 207 + Destruction of Imperial Authority in Italy 211 + The Great Interregnum 212 + Rudolf of Hapsburg 213 + Change in the Character of the Empire 214 + Haughty Demeanour of the Popes 217 + + + CHAPTER XIV. + The Germanic Constitution--the Seven Electors. + + Germany in the Fourteenth Century 222 + Reign of the Emperor Charles IV 225 + Origin and History of the System of Election, and of the + Electoral Body 225 + The Golden Bull 230 + Remarks on the Elective Monarchy of Germany 233 + Results of Charles IV's Policy 236 + + + CHAPTER XV. + The Empire as an International Power. + + Revival of Learning 240 + Beginnings of Political Thought 241 + Desire for an International Power 242 + Theory of the Emperor's Functions as Monarch of Europe 244 + Illustrations 249 + Relations of the Empire and the New Learning 251 + The Men of Letters--Petrarch, Dante 254 + The Jurists 256 + Passion for Antiquity in the Middle Ages: its Causes 258 + The Emperor Henry VII in Italy 262 + The _De Monarchia_ of Dante 264 + + + CHAPTER XVI. + The City of Rome in the Middle Ages. + + Rapid Decline of the City after the Gothic Wars 273 + Her Condition in the Dark Ages 274 + Republican Revival of the Twelfth Century 276 + Character and Ideas of Nicholas Rienzi 278 + Social State of Medival Rome 280 + Visits of the Teutonic Emperors 282 + Revolts against them 284 + Existing Traces of their Presence in Rome 286 + Want of Medival, and especially of Gothic Buildings, in + Modern Rome 289 + Causes of this; Ravages of Enemies and Citizens 291 + Modern Restorations 292 + Surviving Features of truly Medival Architecture--the + Bell-towers 294 + The Roman Church and the Roman City 296 + Rome since the Revolution 299 + + + CHAPTER XVII. + The Renaissance: Change in the Character of the Empire. + + Weakness of Germany 302 + Loss of Imperial Territories 303 + Gradual Change in the Germanic Constitution 307 + Beginning of the Predominance of the Hapsburgs 310 + The Discovery of America 311 + The Renaissance and its Effects on the Empire 311 + Projects of Constitutional Reform 313 + Changes of Title 316 + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + The Reformation and its Effects upon the Empire. + + Accession of Charles V 319 + His Attitude towards the Reformation 321 + Issue of his Attempts at Coercion 322 + Spirit and Essence of the Religious Movement 325 + Its Influence on the Doctrine of the Visible Church 327 + How far it promoted Civil and Religious Liberty 329 + Its Effect upon the Medival Theory of the Empire 332 + Upon the Position of the Emperor in Europe 333 + Dissensions in Germany 334 + The Thirty Years' War 335 + + + CHAPTER XIX. + The Peace of Westphalia: Last Stage in the Decline + of the Empire. + + Political Import of the Peace of Westphalia 337 + Hippolytus a Lapide and his Book 339 + Changes in the Germanic Constitution 340 + Narrowed Bounds of the Empire 341 + Condition of Germany after the Peace 342 + The Balance of Power 345 + The Hapsburg Emperors and their Policy 348 + The Emperor Charles VII 351 + The Empire in its last Phase 352 + Feelings of the German People 354 + + + CHAPTER XX. + Fall of the Empire. + + The Emperor Francis II 356 + Napoleon as the Representative of the Carolingians 357 + The French Empire 360 + Napoleon's German Policy 361 + The Confederation of the Rhine 362 + End of the Empire 363 + The German Confederation 364 + + + CHAPTER XXI. + Conclusion: General Summary. + + Causes of the Perpetuation of the Name of Rome 366 + Parallel instances: Claims now made to represent the Roman + Empire 367 + Parallel afforded by the History of the Papacy 369 + In how far was the Empire really Roman 374 + Imperialism: Ancient and Modern 375 + Essential Principles of the Medival Empire 377 + Influence of the Imperial System in Germany 378 + The Claim of Modern Austria to represent the Medival Empire 381 + Results of the Influence of the Empire upon Europe 383 + Upon Modern Jurisprudence 383 + Upon the Development of the Ecclesiastical Power 384 + Struggle of the Empire with three Hostile Principles 388 + Its Relations, Past and Present, to the Nationalities + of Europe 390 + Conclusion: Difficulties caused by the Nature of the + Subject 392 + + + APPENDIX. + + NOTE A. + On the Burgundies 395 + + NOTE B. + On the Relations to the Empire of the Kingdom of Denmark + and the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein 398 + + NOTE C. + On certain Imperial Titles and Ceremonies 400 + + NOTE D. + Hildebert's Lines contrasting the Past and Present of Rome 406 + + + INDEX 407 + + + + + DATES OF + SEVERAL IMPORTANT EVENTS + IN THE HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE. + + + B.C. + + Battle of Pharsalia 48 + + A.D. + + Council of Nica 325 + + End of the separate Western Empire 476 + + Revolt of the Italians from the Iconoclastic Emperors 728 + + Coronation of Charles the Great 800 + + End of the Carolingian Empire 888 + + Coronation of Otto the Great 962 + + Final Union of Italy to the Empire 1014 + + Quarrel between Henry IV and Gregory VII 1076 + + The First Crusade 1096 + + Battle of Legnano 1176 + + Death of Frederick II 1250 + + League of the three Forest Cantons of Switzerland 1308 + + Career of Rienzi 1347-1354 + + The Golden Bull 1356 + + Council of Constance 1415 + + Extinction of the Eastern Empire 1453 + + Discovery of America 1492 + + Luther at the Diet of Worms 1521 + + Beginning of the Thirty Years' War 1618 + + Peace of Westphalia 1648 + + Prussia recognized as a Kingdom 1701 + + End of the House of Hapsburg 1742 + + Seven Years' War 1756-1763 + + Peace of Luneville 1801 + + Formation of the German Confederation 1815 + + Establishment of the North German Confederation 1866 + + + + + CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE + OF + EMPERORS AND POPES. + + + A. D. B. C. + Augustus. 27 + A. D. + Tiberius. 14 + Caligula. 37 + Claudius. 41 + 42 St. Peter, (according + to Jerome). + Nero. 54 + 67 Linus, (according to + Jerome, Irenus, + Eusebius). + 68 Clement, (according Galba, Otho, Vitellius, + to Tertullian and Vespasian. 68 + Rufinus). + 78 Anacletus (?). + Titus. 79 + Domitian. 81 + 91 Clement, (according + to later writers). + Nerva. 96 + Trajan. 98 + 100 Evaristus (?). + 109 Alexander (?). + Hadrian. 117 + 119 Sixtus I. + 129 Telesphorus. + Antoninus Pius. 138 + 139 Hyginus. + 143 Pius I. + 157 Anicetus. + Marcus Aurelius. 161 + 168 Soter. + 177 Eleutherius. + Commodus. 180 + Pertinax. 190 + Didius Julianus. 191 + Niger. 192 + 193 Victor (?). Septimius Severus. 193 + 202 Zephyrinus (?). + Caracalla, Geta, + Diadumenian. 211 + Opilius Macrinus. 217 + Elagabalus. 218 + 219 Calixtus I. + Alexander Severus. 222 + 223 Urban I. + 230 Pontianus. + 235 Anterius or Anteros. Maximin. 235 + 236 Fabianus. + The two Gordians, Maximus + Pupienus, Balbinus. 237 + Gordian the Younger. 238 + Philip. 244 + Decius. 249 + 251 Cornelius. Gallus. 251 + 252 Lucius I. Volusian. 252 + 253 Stephen I. milian, Valerian, + Gallienus. 253 + 257 Sixtus II. + 259 Dionysius. + Claudius II. 268 + 269 Felix. + Aurelian. 270 + 275 Eutychianus. Tacitus. 275 + Probus. 276 + Carus. 282 + 283 Caius. + Carinus, Numerian, + Diocletian. 284 + Maximian, joint Emperor + with Diocletian. 286 + 296 Marcellinus. [305(?) + 304 Vacancy. Constantius, Galerius. 304(?) + Licinius. or 307] + 308 Marcellus I. Maximin. 308 + Constantine, Galerius, + Licinius, Maximin, + Maxentius, and Maximian + reigning jointly. 309 + 310 Eusebius. + 311 Melchiades. + 314 Sylvester I. + Constantine (the Great) + alone. 323 + 336 Marcus I. + 337 Julius I. Constantine II, + Constantius II, + Constans. 337 + Magnentius. 350 + 352 Liberius. + Constantius alone. 353 + 356 Felix (Anti-pope). + Julian. 361 + Jovian. 363 + Valens and Valentinian I. 364 + 366 Damasus I. + Gratian and Valentinian I. 367 + Valentinian II and + Gratian. 375 + Theodosius. 379 + 384 Siricius. + Arcadius (in the East), + Honorius (in the West). 395 + 398 Anastasius I. + 402 Innocent I. + Theodosius II. (E) 408 + 417 Zosimus. + 418 Boniface I. + 418 Eulalius (Anti-pope). + 422 Celestine I. + Valentinian III. (W) 424 + 432 Sixtus III. + 440 Leo I (the Great). + Marcian. (E) 450 + Maximus, Avitus. (W) 455 + Majorian. (W) 455 + Leo I. (E) 457 + 461 Hilarius. Severus. (W) 461 + Vacancy. (W) 465 + Anthemius. (W) 467 + 468 Simplicius. + Olybrius. (W) 472 + Glycerius. (W) 473 + Julius Nepos. (W) 474 + Leo II, Zeno, Basiliscus + (all E.) 474 + Romulus Augustulus. (W) 475 + (End of the Western Line + in Romulus Augustus. 476) + (Henceforth, till A.D. 800, + Emperors reigning at + 483 Felix III[2]. Constantinople). + Anastasius I. 491 + 492 Gelasius I. + 496 Anastasius II. + 498 Symmachus. + 498 Laurentius (Anti-pope). + 514 Hormisdas. + Justin I. 518 + 523 John I. + 526 Felix IV. + Justinian. 527 + 530 Boniface II. + 530 Dioscorus (Anti-pope). + 532 John II. + 535 Agapetus I. + 536 Silverius. + 537 Vigilius. + 555 Pelagius I. + 560 John III. + Justin II. 565 + 574 Benedict I. + 578 Pelagius II. Tiberius II. 578 + Maurice. 582 + 590 Gregory I (the Great). + Phocas. 602 + 604 Sabinianus. + 607 Boniface III. + 607 Boniface IV. + Heraclius. 610 + 615 Deus dedit. + 618 Boniface V. + 625 Honorius I. + 638 Severinus. + 640 John IV. + Constantine III, + Heracleonas, + Constans II. 641 + 642 Theodorus I. + 649 Martin I. + 654 Eugenius I. + 657 Vitalianus. + Constantine IV (Pogonatus). 668 + 672 Adeodatus. + 676 Domnus or Donus I. + 678 Agatho. + 682 Leo II. + 683(?) Benedict II. + 685 John V. Justinian II. 685 + 685(?) Conon. + 687 Sergius I. + 687 Paschal (Anti-pope). + 687 Theodorus (Anti-pope). + Leontius. 694 + Tiberius. 697 + 701 John VI. + 705 John VII. Justinian II restored. 705 + 708 Sisinnius. + 708 Constantine. + Philippicus Bardanes. 711 + Anastasius II. 713 + 715 Gregory II. + Theodosius III. 716 + Leo III (the Isaurian). 718 + 731 Gregory III. + 741 Zacharias. Constantine V + (Copronymus). 741 + 752 Stephen (II). + 752 Stephen II (or III). + 757 Paul I. + 767 Constantine (Anti-pope). + 768 Stephen III (IV). + 772 Hadrian I. + Leo IV. 775 + Constantine VI. 780 + 795 Leo III. + Deposition of Constantine + VI by Irene. 797 + Charles I (the Great). 800 + (Following henceforth the + new Western line). + Lewis I (the Pious). 814 + 816 Stephen IV. + 817 Paschal I. + 824 Eugenius II. + 827 Valentinus. + 827 Gregory IV. + Lothar I. 840 + 844 Sergius II. + 847 Leo IV. + 855 Benedict III. Lewis II. 855 + 855 Anastasius (Anti-pope). + 858 Nicholas I. + 867 Hadrian II. + 872 John VIII. + Charles II (the Bald). 875 + Charles III (the Fat). 881 + 882 Martin II. + 884 Hadrian III. + 885 Stephen V. + 891 Formosus. Guido. 891 + Lambert. 894 + 896 Boniface VI. Arnulf. 896 + 896 Stephen VI. + 897 Romanus. + 897 Theodore II. + 898 John IX. + Lewis (the Child).[+] 899 + 900 Benedict IV. + Lewis III (of Provence). 901 + 903 Leo V. + 903 Christopher. + 904 Sergius III. + 911 Anastasius III. + Conrad I.[+] 912(?) + 913 Lando. + 914 John X. + Berengar. 915 + Henry I (the Fowler).[+] 918 + 928 Leo VI. + 929 Stephen VII. + 931 John XI. + 936 Leo VII. Otto I (the Great).[+] 936 + 939 Stephen VIII. + 941 Martin III. + 946 Agapetus II. + 955 John XII. + Otto I, crowned at Rome. 962 + 963 Leo VIII. + 964 Benedict V (Anti-Pope?). + 965 John XIII. + 972 Benedict VI. + Otto II. 973 + 974 Boniface VII (Anti-pope?). + 974 Domnus II (?). + 974 Benedict VII. + 983 John XIV. Otto III 983 + 985 John XV. + 996 Gregory V. + 996 John XVI (Anti-pope). + 999 Sylvester II. + Henry II (the Saint). 1002 + 1003 John XVII. + 1003 John XVIII. + 1009 Sergius IV. + 1012 Benedict VIII. + 1024 John XIX. Conrad II (the Salic). 1024 + 1033 Benedict IX. + Henry III. 1039 + 1044 Sylvester (Anti-pope). + 1045( Gregory VI. + 1046 Clement II. + 1048 Damasus II. + 1048 Leo IX. + 1054 Victor II. + Henry IV. 1056 + 1057 Stephen IX. + 1058 Benedict X. + 1059 Nicholas II. + 1061 Alexander II. + 1073 Gregory VII (Hildebrand). + 1080 (Clement, Anti-pope). + 1086 Victor III. + 1087 Urban II. + 1099 Paschal II. + Henry V. 1106 + 1118 Gelasius II. + 1118 Gregory, (Anti-pope). + 1119 Calixtus II. + 1121 (Celestine, Anti-pope). + 1124 Honorius II. + Lothar II (the Saxon). 1125 + 1130 Innocent II. + (Anacletus, Anti-pope). + 1138 Victor (Anti-pope). [*]Conrad III. 1138 + 1143 Celestine II. + 1144 Lucius II. + 1145 Eugenius III. + Frederick I (Barbarossa). 1152 + 1153 Anastasius IV. + 1154 Hadrian IV. + 1159 Alexander III. + 1159 (Victor, Anti-pope). + 1164 (Paschal, Anti-pope). + 1168 (Calixtus, Anti-pope). + 1181 Lucius III. + 1185 Urban III. + 1187 Gregory VIII. + 1187 Clement III. + Henry VI. 1190 + 1191 Celestine III. + 1198 Innocent III. [*]Philip, Otto IV + (rivals). 1198 + Otto IV. 1208 + Frederick II. 1212 + 1216 Honorius III. + 1227 Gregory IX. + 1241 Celestine IV. + 1241 Vacancy. + 1243 Innocent IV. + [*]Conrad IV, [*]William, + (rivals). 1250 + 1254 Alexander IV. Interregnum. 1254 + [*]Richard (earl of + Cornwall). + [*]Alfonso (king of + Castile), (rivals). 1257 + 1261 Urban IV. + 1265 Clement IV. + 1269 Vacancy. + 1271 Gregory X. + [*]Rudolf I (of Hapsburg). 1272 + 1276 Innocent V. + 1276 Hadrian V. + 1277 John XX or XXI. + 1277 Nicholas I + 1281 Martin IV. + 1285 Honorius IV. + 1289 Nicholas IV. + 1292 Vacancy. [*]Adolf (of Nassau). 1292 + 1294 Celestine V. + 1294 Boniface VIII. + [*]Albert I. 1298 + 1303 Benedict XI. + 1305 Clement V. + Henry VII. 1308 + 1314 Vacancy. Lewis IV. 1315 + (Frederick of Austria, + rival). + 1316 John XXI or XXII. + 1334 Benedict XII. + 1342 Clement VI. + Charles IV. 1347 + 1352 Innocent VI. (Gnther of Schwartzburg, + rival). + 1362 Urban V. + 1370 Gregory XI. + 1378 Urban VI, + Clement VII [*]Wenzel. 1378 + (Anti-pope). + 1389 Boniface IX. + 1394 Benedict (Anti-pope). + [*]Rupert. 1400 + 1404 Innocent VII. + 1406 Gregory XII. + 1409 Alexander V. + 1410 John XXII or Sigismund. 1410 + XXIII. (Jobst of Moravia, rival). + + 1417 Martin V. + 1431 Eugene IV. + [*]Albert II. 1438 + 1439 Felix V (Anti-pope). + Frederick III. 1440 + 1447 Nicholas V. + 1455 Calixtus IV. + 1458 Pius II. + 1464 Paul II. + 1471 Sixtus IV. + 1484 Innocent VIII. + 1493 Alexander VI. [*]Maximilian I. 1493 + 1503 Pius III. + 1503 Julius II. + 1513 Leo X. + Charles V.[3] 1519 + 1522 Hadrian VI. + 1523 Clement VII. + 1534 Paul III. + 1550 Julius III. + 1555 Marcellus II. + 1555 Paul IV. + [*]Ferdinand I. 1558 + 1559 Pius IV. + [*]Maximilian II. 1564 + 1566 Pius V. + 1572 Gregory XIII. + [*]Rudolf II. 1576 + 1585 Sixtus V. + 1590 Urban VII. + 1590 Gregory XIV. + 1591 Innocent IX. + 1592 Clement VIII. + 1604 Leo XI. + 1604 Paul V. + [*]Matthias. 1612 + [*]Ferdinand II. 1619 + 1621 Gregory XV. + 1623 Urban VIII. + [*]Ferdinand III. 1637 + 1644 Innocent X. + 1655 Alexander VII. + [*]Leopold I. 1658 + 1667 Clement IX. + 1670 Clement X. + 1676 Innocent XI. + 1689 Alexander VIII. + 1691 Innocent XII. + 1700 Clement XI. + [*]Joseph I. 1705 + [*]Charles VI. 1711 + 1720 Innocent XIII. + 1724 Benedict XIII. + 1740 Benedict XIV. + [*]Charles VII. 1742 + [*]Francis I. 1745 + 1758 Clement XII. + [*]Joseph II. 1765 + 1769 Clement XIII. + 1775 Pius VI. + [*]Leopold II. 1790 + [*]Francis II. 1792 + 1800 Pius VII. + Abdication of Francis II. 1806 + 1823 Leo XII. + 1829 Pius VIII. + 1831 Gregory XVI. + 1846 Pius IX. + +[*] Those marked with an asterisk were never actually crowned at Rome. +[+] The names marked with a + are those of German kings who never made any +claim to the imperial title. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Reckoning the Anti-pope Felix (A.D. 356) as Felix II. + +[3] Crowned Emperor, but at Bologna, not at Rome. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +Of those who in August, 1806, read in the English newspapers that the +Emperor Francis II had announced to the Diet his resignation of the +imperial crown, there were probably few who reflected that the oldest +political institution in the world had come to an end. Yet it was so. +The Empire which a note issued by a diplomatist on the banks of the +Danube extinguished, was the same which the crafty nephew of Julius +had won for himself, against the powers of the East, beneath the +cliffs of Actium; and which had preserved almost unaltered, through +eighteen centuries of time, and through the greatest changes in +extent, in power, in character, a title and pretensions from which all +meaning had long since departed. Nothing else so directly linked the +old world to the new--nothing else displayed so many strange contrasts +of the present and the past, and summed up in those contrasts so much +of European history. From the days of Constantine till far down into +the middle ages it was, conjointly with the Papacy, the recognised +centre and head of Christendom, exercising over the minds of men an +influence such as its material strength could never have commanded. It +is of this influence and of the causes that gave it power rather than +of the external history of the Empire, that the following pages are +designed to treat. That history is indeed full of interest and +brilliance, of grand characters and striking situations. But it is a +subject too vast for any single canvas. Without a minuteness of detail +sufficient to make its scenes dramatic and give us a lively sympathy +with the actors, a narrative history can have little value and still +less charm. But to trace with any minuteness the career of the Empire, +would be to write the history of Christendom from the fifth century to +the twelfth, of Germany and Italy from the twelfth to the nineteenth; +while even a narrative of more restricted scope, which should attempt +to disengage from a general account of the affairs of those countries +the events that properly belong to imperial history, could hardly be +compressed within reasonable limits. It is therefore better, declining +so great a task, to attempt one simpler and more practicable though +not necessarily inferior in interest; to speak less of events than of +principles, and endeavour to describe the Empire not as a State but as +an Institution, an institution created by and embodying a wonderful +system of ideas. In pursuance of such a plan, the forms which the +Empire took in the several stages of its growth and decline must be +briefly sketched. The characters and acts of the great men who +founded, guided, and overthrew it must from time to time be touched +upon. But the chief aim of the treatise will be to dwell more fully on +the inner nature of the Empire, as the most signal instance of the +fusion of Roman and Teutonic elements in modern civilization: to shew +how such a combination was possible; how Charles and Otto were led to +revive the imperial title in the West; how far during the reigns of +their successors it preserved the memory of its origin, and influenced +the European commonwealth of nations. + +Strictly speaking, it is from the year 800 A.D., when a King of the +Franks was crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III, that the +beginning of the Holy Roman Empire must be dated. But in history there +is nothing isolated, and just as to explain a modern Act of Parliament +or a modern conveyance of lands we must go back to the feudal customs +of the thirteenth century, so among the institutions of the Middle +Ages there is scarcely one which can be understood until it is traced +up either to classical or to primitive Teutonic antiquity. Such a mode +of inquiry is most of all needful in the case of the Holy Empire, +itself no more than a tradition, a fancied revival of departed +glories. And thus, in order to make it clear out of what elements the +imperial system was formed, we might be required to scrutinize the +antiquities of the Christian Church; to survey the constitution of +Rome in the days when Rome was no more than the first of the Latin +cities; nay, to travel back yet further to that Jewish theocratic +polity whose influence on the minds of the medival priesthood was +necessarily so profound. Practically, however, it may suffice to begin +by glancing at the condition of the Roman world in the third and +fourth centuries of the Christian era. We shall then see the old +Empire with its scheme of absolutism fully matured; we shall mark how +the new religion, rising in the midst of a hostile power, ends by +embracing and transforming it; and we shall be in a position to +understand what impression the whole huge fabric of secular and +ecclesiastical government which Roman and Christian had piled up made +upon the barbarian tribes who pressed into the charmed circle of the +ancient civilization. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE ROMAN EMPIRE BEFORE THE INVASIONS OF THE BARBARIANS. + + +[Sidenote: The Roman Empire in the second century.] + +[Sidenote: Obliteration of national distinctions.] + +[Sidenote: The Capital.] + +That ostentation of humility which the subtle policy of Augustus had +conceived, and the jealous hypocrisy of Tiberius maintained, was +gradually dropped by their successors, till despotism became at last +recognised in principle as the government of the Roman Empire. With an +aristocracy decayed, a populace degraded, an army no longer recruited +from Italy, the semblance of liberty that yet survived might be swept +away with impunity. Republican forms had never been known in the +provinces at all, and the aspect which the imperial administration had +originally assumed there, soon reacted on its position in the capital. +Earlier rulers had disguised their supremacy by making a slavish +senate the instrument of their more cruel or arbitrary acts. As time +went on, even this veil was withdrawn; and in the age of Septimius +Severus, the Emperor stood forth to the whole Roman world as the +single centre and source of power and political action. The warlike +character of the Roman state was preserved in his title of General; +his provincial lieutenants were military governors; and a more +terrible enforcement of the theory was found in his dependence on the +army, at once the origin and support of all authority. But, as he +united in himself every function of government, his sovereignty was +civil as well as military. Laws emanated from him; all officials acted +under his commission; the sanctity of his person bordered on divinity. +This increased concentration of power was mainly required by the +necessities of frontier defence, for within there was more decay than +disaffection. Few troops were quartered through the country: few +fortresses checked the march of armies in the struggles which placed +Vespasian and Severus on the throne. The distant crash of war from the +Rhine or the Euphrates was scarcely heard or heeded in the profound +quiet of the Mediterranean coasts, where, with piracy, fleets had +disappeared. No quarrels of race or religion disturbed that calm, for +all national distinctions were becoming merged in the idea of a common +Empire. The gradual extension of Roman citizenship through the +_coloni_, the working of the equalized and equalizing Roman law, the +even pressure of the government on all subjects, the movement of +population caused by commerce and the slave traffic, were steadily +assimilating the various peoples. Emperors who were for the most part +natives of the provinces cared little to cherish Italy or conciliate +Rome: it was their policy to keep open for every subject a career by +whose freedom they had themselves risen to greatness, and to recruit +the senate from the most illustrious families in the cities of Gaul, +Spain, and Asia. The edict by which Caracalla extended to all natives +of the Roman world the rights of Roman citizenship, though prompted by +no motives of kindness, proved in the end a boon. Annihilating legal +distinctions, it completed the work which trade and literature and +toleration to all beliefs but one were already performing, and left, +so far as we can tell, only two nations still cherishing a national +feeling. The Jew was kept apart by his religion: the Greek boasted his +original intellectual superiority. Speculative philosophy lent her aid +to this general assimilation. Stoicism, with its doctrine of a +universal system of nature, made minor distinctions between man and +man seem insignificant: and by its teachers the idea of +cosmopolitanism was for the first time proclaimed. Alexandrian +Neo-Platonism, uniting the tenets of many schools, first bringing the +mysticism of the East into connection with the logical philosophies of +Greece, had opened up a new ground of agreement or controversy for the +minds of all the world. Yet Rome's commanding position was scarcely +shaken. Her actual power was indeed confined within narrow limits. +Rarely were her senate and people permitted to choose the sovereign: +more rarely still could they control his policy; neither law nor +custom raised them above other subjects, or accorded to them any +advantage in the career of civil or military ambition. As in time past +Rome had sacrificed domestic freedom that she might be the mistress of +others, so now to be universal, she, the conqueror, had descended to +the level of the conquered. But the sacrifice had not wanted its +reward. From her came the laws and the language that had overspread +the world: at her feet the nations laid the offerings of their labour: +she was the head of the Empire and of civilization, and in riches, +fame, and splendour far outshone as well the cities of that time as +the fabled glories of Babylon or Persepolis. + +[Sidenote: Diocletian and Constantine.] + +Scarcely had these slowly working influences brought about this unity, +when other influences began to threaten it. New foes assailed the +frontiers; while the loosening of the structure within was shewn by +the long struggles for power which followed the death or deposition of +each successive emperor. In the period of anarchy after the fall of +Valerian, generals were raised by their armies in every part of the +Empire, and ruled great provinces as monarchs apart, owning no +allegiance to the possessor of the capital. + +The founding of the kingdoms of modern Europe might have been +anticipated by two hundred years, had the barbarians been bolder, or +had there not arisen in Diocletian a prince active and politic enough +to bind up the fragments before they had lost all cohesion, meeting +altered conditions by new remedies. By dividing and localizing +authority, he confessed that the weaker heart could no longer make its +pulsations felt to the body's extremities. He parcelled out the +supreme power among four persons, and then sought to give it a +factitious strength, by surrounding it with an oriental pomp which his +earlier predecessors would have scorned. The sovereign's person became +more sacred, and was removed further from the subject by the +interposition of a host of officials. The prerogative of Rome was +menaced by the rivalry of Nicomedia, and the nearer greatness of +Milan. Constantine trod in the same path, extending the system of +titles and functionaries, separating the civil from the military, +placing counts and dukes along the frontiers and in the cities, making +the household larger, its etiquette stricter, its offices more +important, though to a Roman eye degraded by their attachment to the +monarch's person. The crown became, for the first time, the fountain +of honour. These changes brought little good. Heavier taxation +depressed the aristocracy[4]: population decreased, agriculture +withered, serfdom spread: it was found more difficult to raise native +troops and to pay any troops whatever. The removal of the seat of +power to Byzantium, if it prolonged the life of a part of the Empire, +shook it as a whole, by making the separation of East and West +inevitable. By it Rome's self-abnegation that she might Romanize the +world, was completed; for though the new capital preserved her name, +and followed her customs and precedents, yet now the imperial sway +ceased to be connected with the city which had created it. Thus did +the idea of Roman monarchy become more universal; for, having lost its +local centre, it subsisted no longer historically, but, so to speak, +naturally, as a part of an order of things which a change in external +conditions seemed incapable of disturbing. Henceforth the Empire would +be unaffected by the disasters of the city. And though, after the +partition of the Empire had been confirmed by Valentinian, and finally +settled on the death of Theodosius, the seat of the Western government +was removed first to Milan and then to Ravenna, neither event +destroyed Rome's prestige, nor the notion of a single imperial +nationality common to all her subjects. The Syrian, the Pannonian, the +Briton, the Spaniard, still called himself a Roman[5]. + +[Sidenote: Christianity.] + +[Sidenote: Its alliance with the State.] + +For that nationality was now beginning to be supported by a new and +vigorous power. The Emperors had indeed opposed it as disloyal and +revolutionary: had more than once put forth their whole strength to +root it out. But the unity of the Empire, and the ease of +communication through its parts, had favoured the spread of +Christianity: persecution had scattered the seeds more widely, had +forced on it a firm organization, had given it martyr-heroes and a +history. When Constantine, partly perhaps from a genuine moral +sympathy, yet doubtless far more in the well-grounded belief that he +had more to gain from the zealous sympathy of its professors than he +could lose by the aversion of those who still cultivated a languid +paganism, took Christianity to be the religion of the Empire, it was +already a great political force, able, and not more able than willing, +to repay him by aid and submission. Yet the league was struck in no +mere mercenary spirit, for the league was inevitable. Of the evils and +dangers incident to the system then founded, there was as yet no +experience: of that antagonism between Church and State which to a +modern appears so natural, there was not even an idea. Among the Jews, +the State had rested upon religion; among the Romans, religion had +been an integral part of the political constitution, a matter far more +of national or tribal or family feeling than of personal[6]. Both in +Israel and at Rome the mingling of religious with civic patriotism had +been harmonious, giving strength and elasticity to the whole body +politic. So perfect a union was now no longer possible in the Roman +Empire, for the new faith had already a governing body of her own in +those rulers and teachers whom the growth of sacramentalism, and of +sacerdotalism its necessary consequence, was making every day more +powerful, and marking off more sharply from the mass of the Christian +people. Since therefore the ecclesiastical organization could not be +identical with the civil, it became its counterpart. Suddenly called +from danger and ignominy to the seat of power, and finding her +inexperience perplexed by a sphere of action vast and varied, the +Church was compelled to frame herself upon the model of the secular +administration. Where her own machinery was defective, as in the case +of doctrinal disputes affecting the whole Christian world, she sought +the interposition of the sovereign; in all else she strove not to sink +in, but to reproduce for herself the imperial system. And just as with +the extension of the Empire all the independent rights of districts, +towns, or tribes had disappeared, so now the primitive freedom and +diversity of individual Christians and local Churches, already +circumscribed by the frequent struggles against heresy, was finally +overborne by the idea of one visible catholic Church, uniform in faith +and ritual; uniform too in her relation to the civil power and the +increasingly oligarchical character of her government. Thus, under the +combined force of doctrinal theory and practical needs, there shaped +itself a hierarchy of patriarchs, metropolitans, and bishops, their +jurisdiction, although still chiefly spiritual, enforced by the laws +of the State, their provinces and dioceses usually corresponding to +the administrative divisions of the Empire. As no patriarch yet +enjoyed more than an honorary supremacy, the head of the Church--so +far as she could be said to have a head--was virtually the Emperor +himself. The inchoate right to intermeddle in religious affairs which +he derived from the office of Pontifex Maximus was readily admitted; +and the clergy, preaching the duty of passive obedience now as it had +been preached in the days of Nero and Diocletian[7], were well pleased +to see him preside in councils, issue edicts against heresy, and +testify even by arbitrary measures his zeal for the advancement of the +faith and the overthrow of pagan rites. But though the tone of the +Church remained humble, her strength waxed greater, nor were occasions +wanting which revealed the future that was in store for her. The +resistance and final triumph of Athanasius proved that the new society +could put forth a power of opinion such as had never been known +before: the abasement of Theodosius the Emperor before Ambrose the +Archbishop admitted the supremacy of spiritual authority. In the +decrepitude of old institutions, in the barrenness of literature and +the feebleness of art, it was to the Church that the life and feelings +of the people sought more and more to attach themselves; and when in +the fifth century the horizon grew black with clouds of ruin, those +who watched with despair or apathy the approach of irresistible foes, +fled for comfort to the shrine of a religion which even those foes +revered. + +[Sidenote: It embraces and preserves the imperial idea.] + +But that which we are above all concerned to remark here is, that this +church system, demanding a more rigid uniformity in doctrine and +organization, making more and more vital the notion of a visible body +of worshippers united by participation in the same sacraments, +maintained and propagated afresh the feeling of a single Roman people +throughout the world. Christianity as well as civilization became +conterminous with the Roman Empire[8]. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] According to the vicious financial system that prevailed, the +_curiales_ in each city were required to collect the taxes, and when +there was a deficit, to supply it from their own property. + +[5] See the eloquent passage of Claudian, _In secundum consulatum +Stilichonis_, 129, _sqq._, from which the following lines are taken +(150-60):-- + + 'Hc est in gremio victos qu sola recepit, + Humanumque genus communi nomine fovit, + Matris, non domin, ritu; civesque vocavit + Quos domuit, nexuque pio longinqua revinxit. + Hujus pacificis debemus moribus omnes + Quod veluti patriis regionibus utitur hospes: + Quod sedem mutare licet: quod cernere Thulen + Lusus, et horrendos quondam penetrare recessus: + Quod bibimus passim Rhodanum, potamus Oronten, + Quod cuncti gens una sumus. Nec terminus unquam + Roman ditionis erit.' + +[6] In the Roman jurisprudence, _ius sacrum_ is a branch of _ius +publicum_. + +[7] Tertullian, writing circ. A.D. 200, says: 'Sed quid ego amplius de +religione atque pietate Christiana in imperatorem quem necesse est +suspiciamus ut eum quem Dominus noster elegerit. Et merito dixerim, +noster est magis Csar, ut a nostro Deo constitutus.'--_Apologet._ +cap. 34. + +[8] See the book of Optatus, bishop of Milevis, _Contra Donatistas_. +'Non enim respublica est in ecclesia, sed ecclesia in republica, id +est, in imperio Romano, cum super imperatorem non sit nisi solus +Deus:' (p. 999 of vol. ii. of Migne's _Patrologi Cursus completus_.) +The treatise of Optatus is full of interest, as shewing the growth of +the idea of the visible Church, and of the primacy of Peter's chair, +as constituting its centre and representing its unity. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS. + + +[Sidenote: The Barbarians.] + +[Sidenote: Admitted to Roman titles and honours.] + +Upon a world so constituted did the barbarians of the North descend. +From the dawn of history they shew as a dim background to the warmth +and light of the Mediterranean coast, changing little while kingdoms +rise and fall in the South: only thought on when some hungry swarm +comes down to pillage or to settle. It is always as foes that they are +known. The Romans never forgot the invasion of Brennus; and their +fears, renewed by the irruption of the Cimbri and Teutones, could not +let them rest till the extension of the frontier to the Rhine and the +Danube removed Italy from immediate danger. A little more perseverance +under Tiberius, or again under Hadrian, would probably have reduced +all Germany as far as the Baltic and the Oder. But the politic or +jealous advice of Augustus[9] was followed, and it was only along the +frontiers that Roman arts and culture affected the Teutonic races. +Commerce was brisk; Roman envoys penetrated the forests to the courts +of rude chieftains; adventurous barbarians entered the provinces, +sometimes to admire, oftener, like the brother of Arminius[10], to +take service under the Roman flag, and rise to a distinction in the +legion which some feud denied them at home. This was found even more +convenient by the hirer than by the employed; till by degrees +barbarian mercenaries came to form the largest, or at least the most +effective, part of the Roman armies. The body-guard of Augustus had +been so composed; the prtorians were generally selected from the +bravest frontier troops, most of them German; the practice could not +but increase with the extinction of the free peasantry, the growth of +villenage, and the effeminacy of all classes. Emperors who were, like +Maximin, themselves foreigners, encouraged a system by whose means +they had risen, and whose advantages they knew. After Constantine, the +barbarians form the majority of the troops; after Theodosius, a Roman +is the exception. The soldiers of the Eastern Empire in the time of +Arcadius are almost all Goths, vast bodies of whom had been settled in +the provinces; while in the West, Stilicho[11] can oppose Rhodogast +only by summoning the German auxiliaries from the frontiers. Along +with this practice there had grown up another, which did still more to +make the barbarians feel themselves members of the Roman state. +Whatever the pride of the old republic might assert, the maxim of the +Empire had always been that birth and race should exclude no subject +from any post which his abilities deserved. This principle, which had +removed all obstacles from the path of the Spaniard Trajan, the +Pannonian Maximin, the Numidian Philip, was afterwards extended to the +conferring of honour and power on persons who did not even profess to +have passed through the grades of Roman service, but remained leaders +of their own tribes. Ariovistus had been soothed by the title of +Friend of the Roman People; in the third century the insignia of the +consulship[12] were conferred on a Herulian chief: Crocus and his +Alemanni entered as an independent body into the service of Rome; +along the Rhine whole tribes received, under the name of Laeti, lands +within the provinces on condition of military service; and the foreign +aid which the Sarmatian had proffered to Vespasian against his rival, +and Marcus Aurelius had indignantly rejected in the war with Cassius, +became the usual, at last the sole support of the Empire, in civil as +well as in external strife. + +Thus in many ways was the old antagonism broken down--Romans admitting +barbarians to rank and office, barbarians catching something of the +manners and culture of their neighbours. And thus when the final +movement came, and the Teutonic tribes slowly established themselves +through the provinces, they entered not as savage strangers, but as +colonists knowing something of the system into which they came, and +not unwilling to be considered its members; despising the degenerate +provincials who struck no blow in their own defence, but full of +respect for the majestic power which had for so many centuries +confronted and instructed them. + +[Sidenote: Their feelings towards the Roman Empire.] + +Great during all these ages, but greatest when they were actually +traversing and settling in the Empire, must have been the impression +which its elaborate machinery of government and mature civilization +made upon the minds of the Northern invaders. With arms whose +fabrication they had learned from their foes, these dwellers in the +forest conquered well-tilled fields, and entered towns whose busy +workshops, marts stored with the productions of distant countries, and +palaces rich in monuments of art, equally roused their wonder. To the +beauty of statuary or painting they might often be blind, but the +rudest mind must have been awed by the massive piles with which vanity +or devotion, or the passion for amusement, had adorned Milan and +Verona, Arles, Treves, and Bordeaux. A deeper awe would strike them as +they gazed on the crowding worshippers and stately ceremonial of +Christianity, most unlike their own rude sacrifices. The exclamation +of the Goth Athanaric, when led into the market-place of +Constantinople, may stand for the feelings of his nation: 'Without +doubt the Emperor is a God upon earth, and he who attacks him is +guilty of his own blood[13].' + +[Sidenote: Their desire to preserve its institutions.] + +The social and political system, with its cultivated language and +literature, into which they came, would impress fewer of the +conquerors, but by those few would be admired beyond all else. Its +regular organization supplied what they most needed and could least +construct for themselves, and hence it was that the greatest among +them were the most desirous to preserve it. The Mongol Attila +excepted, there is among these terrible hosts no destroyer; the wish +of each leader is to maintain the existing order, to spare life, to +respect every work of skill and labour, above all to perpetuate the +methods of Roman administration, and rule the people as the deputy or +successor of their Emperor. Titles conferred by him were the highest +honours they knew: they were also the only means of acquiring +something like a legal claim to the obedience of the subject, and of +turning a patriarchal or military chieftainship into the regular sway +of an hereditary monarch. Civilis had long since endeavoured to govern +his Batavians as a Roman general[14]. Alaric became master-general of +the armies of Illyricum. Clovis exulted in the consulship; his son +Theodebert received Provence, the conquest of his own battle-axe, as +the gift of Justinian. Sigismund the Burgundian king, created count +and patrician by the Emperor Anastasius, professed the deepest +gratitude and the firmest faith to that Eastern court which was +absolutely powerless to help or to hurt him. 'My people is yours,' he +writes, 'and to rule them delights me less than to serve you; the +hereditary devotion of my race to Rome has made us account those the +highest honours which your military titles convey; we have always +preferred what an Emperor gave to all that our ancestors could +bequeath. In ruling our nation we hold ourselves but your lieutenants: +you, whose divinely-appointed sway no barrier bounds, whose blessed +beams shine from the Bosphorus into distant Gaul, employ us to +administer the remoter regions of your Empire: your world is our +fatherland[15].' A contemporary historian has recorded the remarkable +disclosure of his own thoughts and purposes, made by one of the ablest +of the barbarian chieftains, Athaulf the Visigoth, the brother-in-law +and successor of Alaric. 'It was at first my wish to destroy the Roman +name, and erect in its place a Gothic empire, taking to myself the +place and the powers of Csar Augustus. But when experience taught me +that the untameable barbarism of the Goths would not suffer them to +live beneath the sway of law, and that the abolition of the +institutions on which the state rested would involve the ruin of the +state itself, I chose the glory of renewing and maintaining by Gothic +strength the fame of Rome, desiring to go down to posterity as the +restorer of that Roman power which it was beyond my power to replace. +Wherefore I avoid war and strive for peace[16].' + +Historians have remarked how valuable must have been the skill of +Roman officials to princes who from leaders of tribes were become +rulers of wide lands; and in particular how indispensable the aid of +the Christian bishops, the intellectual aristocracy of their new +subjects, whose advice could alone guide their policy and conciliate +the vanquished. Not only is this true; it is but a small part of the +truth; one form of that manifold and overpowering influence which the +old system exercised over its foes not less than its own children. For +it is hardly too much to say that the thought of antagonism to the +Empire and the wish to extinguish it never crossed the mind of the +barbarians[17]. The conception of that Empire was too universal, too +august, too enduring. It was everywhere around them, and they could +remember no time when it had not been so. It had no association of +people or place whose fall could seem to involve that of the whole +fabric; it had that connection with the Christian Church which made it +all-embracing and venerable. + +[Sidenote: The belief in its eternity.] + +There were especially two ideas whereon it rested, and from which it +obtained a peculiar strength and a peculiar direction. The one was the +belief that as the dominion of Rome was universal, so must it be +eternal. Nothing like it had been seen before. The empire of Alexander +had lasted a short lifetime; and within its wide compass were included +many arid wastes, and many tracts where none but the roving savage had +ever set foot. That of the Italian city had for fourteen generations +embraced all the most wealthy and populous regions of the civilized +world, and had laid the foundations of its power so deep that they +seemed destined to last for ever. If Rome moved slowly for a time, her +foot was always planted firmly: the ease and swiftness of her later +conquests proved the solidity of the earlier; and to her, more justly +than to his own city, might the boast of the Athenian historian be +applied: that she advanced farthest in prosperity, and in adversity +drew back the least. From the end of the republican period her poets, +her orators, her jurists, ceased not to repeat the claim of +world-dominion, and confidently predict its eternity[18]. The proud +belief of his countrymen which Virgil had expressed-- + + 'His ego nec metas rerum, nec tempora pono: + Imperium sine fine dedi'-- + +was shared by the early Christians when they prayed for the +persecuting power whose fall would bring Antichrist upon earth. +Lactantius writes: 'When Rome the head of the world shall have fallen, +who can doubt that the end is come of human things, aye, of the earth +itself. She, she alone is the state by which all things are upheld +even until now; wherefore let us make prayers and supplications to the +God of heaven, if indeed his decrees and his purposes can be delayed, +that that hateful tyrant come not sooner than we look for, he for whom +are reserved fearful deeds, who shall pluck out that eye in whose +extinction the world itself shall perish[19].' With the triumph of +Christianity this belief had found a new basis. For as the Empire had +decayed, the Church had grown stronger; and now while the one, +trembling at the approach of the destroyer, saw province after +province torn away, the other, rising in stately youth, prepared to +fill her place and govern in her name, and in doing so, to adopt and +sanctify and propagate anew the notion of a universal and unending +state. + +[Sidenote: Sanctity of the imperial name.] + +The second chief element in this conception was the association of +such a state with one irresponsible governor, the Emperor. The hatred +to the name of King, which their earliest political struggles had left +in the Romans, by obliging their ruler to take a new and strange +title, marked him off from all the other sovereigns of the world. To +the provincials especially he became an awful impersonation of the +great machine of government which moved above and around them. It was +not merely that he was, like a modern king, the centre of power and +the dispenser of honour: his pre-eminence, broken by no comparison +with other princes, by the ascending ranks of no aristocracy, had in +it something almost supernatural. The right of legislation had become +vested in him alone: the decrees of the people, and resolutions of the +senate, and edicts of the magistrates were, during the last three +centuries, replaced by imperial constitutions; his domestic council, +the consistory, was the supreme court of appeal; his interposition, +like that of some terrestrial Providence, was invoked, and legally +provided so to be, to reverse or overleap the ordinary rules of +law[20]. From the time of Julius and Augustus his person had been +hallowed by the office of chief pontiff[21] and the tribunician power; +to swear by his head was considered the most solemn of all oaths[22]; +his effigy was sacred[23], even on a coin; to him or to his Genius +temples were erected and divine honours paid while he lived[24]; and +when, as it was expressed, he ceased to be among men, the title of +Divus was accorded to him, after a solemn consecration[25]. In the +confused multiplicity of mythologies, the worship of the Emperor was +the only worship common to the whole Roman world, and was therefore +that usually proposed as a test to the Christians on their trial. +Under the new religion the form of adoration vanished, the sentiment +of reverence remained: the right to control Church as well as State, +admitted at Nica, and habitually exercised by the sovereigns of +Constantinople, made the Emperor hardly less essential to the new +conception of a world-wide Christian monarchy than he had been to the +military despotism of old. These considerations explain why the men of +the fifth century, clinging to preconceived ideas, refused to believe +in that dissolution of the Empire which they saw with their own eyes. +Because it could not die, it lived. And there was in the slowness of +the change and its external aspect, as well as in the fortunes of the +capital, something to favour the illusion. The Roman name was shared +by every subject; the Roman city was no longer the seat of government, +nor did her capture extinguish the imperial power, for the maxim was +now accepted, Where the Emperor is, there is Rome[26]. But her +continued existence, not permanently occupied by any conqueror, +striking the nations with an awe which the history or the external +splendours of Constantinople, Milan, or Ravenna could nowise inspire, +was an ever new assertion of the endurance of the Roman race and +dominion. Dishonoured and defenceless, the spell of her name was still +strong enough to arrest the conqueror in the moment of triumph. The +irresistible impulse that drew Alaric was one of glory or revenge, not +of destruction: the Hun turned back from Aquileia with a vague fear +upon him: the Ostrogoth adorned and protected his splendid prize. + +[Sidenote: Last days of the Western Empire.] + +[Sidenote: Its extinction by Odoacer, A.D. 476.] + +In the history of the last days of the Western Empire, two points +deserve special remark: its continued union with the Eastern branch, +and the way in which its ideal dignity was respected while its +representatives were despised. After Stilicho's death, and Alaric's +invasion, its fall was a question of time. While one by one the +provinces were abandoned by the central government, left either to be +occupied by invading tribes or to maintain a precarious independence, +like Britain and Armorica[27], by means of municipal unions, Italy lay +at the mercy of the barbarian auxiliaries and was governed by their +leaders. The degenerate line of Theodosius might have seemed to reign +by hereditary right, but after their extinction in Valentinian III +each phantom Emperor--Maximus, Avitus, Majorian, Anthemius, +Olybrius--received the purple from the haughty Ricimer, general of the +troops, only to be stripped of it when he presumed to forget his +dependence. Though the division between Arcadius and Honorius had +definitely severed the two realms for administrative purposes, they +were still supposed to constitute a single Empire, and the rulers of +the East interfered more than once to raise to the Western throne +princes they could not protect upon it. Ricimer's insolence quailed +before the shadowy grandeur of the imperial title: his ambition, and +Gundobald his successor's, were bounded by the name of patrician. The +bolder genius of Odoacer[28], general of the barbarian auxiliaries, +resolved to abolish an empty pageant, and extinguish the title and +office of Emperor of the West. Yet over him too the spell had power; +and as the Gaulish warrior had gazed on the silent majesty of the +senate in a deserted city, so the Herulian revered the power before +which the world had bowed, and though there was no force to check or +to affright him, shrank from grasping in his own barbarian hand the +sceptre of the Csars. When, at Odoacer's bidding, Romulus Augustulus, +the boy whom a whim of fate had chosen to be the last native Csar of +Rome, had formally announced his resignation to the senate, a +deputation from that body proceeded to the Eastern court to lay the +insignia of royalty at the feet of the Eastern Emperor Zeno. The West, +they declared, no longer required an Emperor of its own; one monarch +sufficed for the world; Odoacer was qualified by his wisdom and +courage to be the protector of their state, and upon him Zeno was +entreated to confer the title of patrician and the administration of +the Italian provinces[29]. The Emperor granted what he could not +refuse, and Odoacer, taking the title of King[30], continued the +consular office, respected the civil and ecclesiastical institutions +of his subjects, and ruled for fourteen years as the nominal vicar of +the Eastern Emperor. There was thus legally no extinction of the +Western Empire at all, but only a reunion of East and West. In form, +and to some extent also in the belief of men, things now reverted to +their state during the first two centuries of the Empire, save that +Byzantium instead of Rome was the centre of the civil government. The +joint tenancy which had been conceived by Diocletian, carried further +by Constantine, renewed under Valentinian I and again at the death of +Theodosius, had come to an end; once more did a single Emperor sway +the sceptre of the world, and head an undivided Catholic Church[31]. +To those who lived at the time, this year (476 A.D.) was no such epoch +as it has since become, nor was any impression made on men's minds +commensurate with the real significance of the event. For though it +did not destroy the Empire in idea, nor wholly even in fact, its +consequences were from the first great. It hastened the development of +a Latin as opposed to Greek and Oriental forms of Christianity: it +emancipated the Popes: it gave a new character to the projects and +government of the Teutonic rulers of the West. But the importance of +remembering its formal aspect to those who witnessed it will be felt +as we approach the era when the Empire was revived by Charles the +Frank. + +[Sidenote: Odoacer.] + +[Sidenote: Theodoric.] + +[Sidenote: Italy reconquered, by Justinian.] + +Odoacer's monarchy was not more oppressive than those of his +neighbours in Gaul, Spain, and Africa. But the mercenary _foederati_ +who supported it were a loose swarm of predatory tribes: themselves +without cohesion, they could take no firm root in Italy. During the +eighteen years of his reign no progress seems to have been made +towards the re-organization of society; and the first real attempt to +blend the peoples and maintain the traditions of Roman wisdom in the +hands of a new and vigorous race was reserved for a more famous +chieftain, the greatest of all the barbarian conquerors, the +forerunner of the first barbarian Emperor, Theodoric the Ostrogoth. +The aim of his reign, though he professed allegiance to the Eastern +court which had favoured his invasion[32], was the establishment of a +national monarchy in Italy. Brought up as a hostage in the court of +Byzantium, he learnt to know the advantages of an orderly and +cultivated society and the principles by which it must be maintained; +called in early manhood to roam as a warrior-chief over the plains of +the Danube, he acquired along with the arts of command a sense of the +superiority of his own people in valour and energy and truth. When the +defeat and death of Odoacer had left the peninsula at his mercy, he +sought no further conquest, easy as it would have been to tear away +new provinces from the Eastern realm, but strove only to preserve and +strengthen the ancient polity of Rome, to breathe into her decaying +institutions the spirit of a fresh life, and without endangering the +military supremacy of his own Goths, to conciliate by indulgence and +gradually raise to the level of their masters the degenerate +population of Italy. The Gothic nation appears from the first less +cruel in war and more prudent in council than any of their Germanic +brethren[33]: all that was most noble among them shone forth now in +the rule of the greatest of the Amali. From his palace at Verona[34], +commemorated in the song of the Nibelungs, he issued equal laws for +Roman and Goth, and bade the intruder, if he must occupy part of the +lands, at least respect the goods and the person of his +fellow-subject. Jurisprudence and administration remained in native +hands: two annual consuls, one named by Theodoric, the other by the +Eastern monarch, presented an image of the ancient state; and while +agriculture and the arts revived in the provinces, Rome herself +celebrated the visits of a master who provided for the wants of her +people and preserved with care the monuments of her former splendour. +With peace and plenty men's minds took hope, and the study of letters +revived. The last gleam of classical literature gilds the reign of the +barbarian. By the consolidation of the two races under one wise +government, Italy might have been spared six hundred years of gloom +and degradation. It was not so to be. Theodoric was tolerant, but +toleration was itself a crime in the eyes of his orthodox subjects: +the Arian Goths were and remained strangers and enemies among the +Catholic Italians. Scarcely had the sceptre passed from the hands of +Theodoric to his unworthy offspring, when Justinian, who had viewed +with jealousy the greatness of his nominal lieutenant, determined to +assert his dormant rights over Italy; its people welcomed Belisarius +as a deliverer, and in the struggle that followed the race and name of +the Ostrogoths perished for ever. Thus again reunited in fact, as it +had been all the while united in name, to the Roman Empire, the +peninsula was divided into counties and dukedoms, and obeyed the +exarch of Ravenna, viceroy of the Byzantine court, till the arrival of +the Lombards in A.D. 568 drove him from some districts, and left him +only a feeble authority in the rest. + +[Sidenote: The Transalpine provinces.] + +Beyond the Alps, though the Roman population had now ceased to seek +help from the Eastern court, the Empire's rights still subsisted in +theory, and were never legally extinguished. As has been said, they +were admitted by the conquerors themselves: by Athaulf, when he +reigned in Aquitaine as the vicar of Honorius, and recovered Spain +from the Suevi to restore it to its ancient masters; by the Visigothic +kings of Spain, when they permitted the Mediterranean cities to send +tribute to Byzantium; by Clovis, when, after the representatives of +the old government, Syagrius and the Armorican cities, had been +overpowered or absorbed, he received with delight from the Eastern +emperor Anastasius the grant of a Roman dignity to confirm his +possession. Arrayed like a Fabius or Valerius in the consul's +embroidered robe, the Sicambrian chieftain rode through the streets of +Tours, while the shout of the provincials hailed him Augustus[35]. +They already obeyed him, but his power was now legalised in their +eyes, and it was not without a melancholy pride that they saw the +terrible conqueror himself yield to the spell of the Roman name, and +do homage to the enduring majesty of their legitimate sovereign[36]. + +[Sidenote: Lingering influences of Rome.] + +[Sidenote: Religion.] + +Yet the severed limbs of the Empire forgot by degrees their original +unity. As in the breaking up of the old society, which we trace from +the sixth to the eighth century, rudeness and ignorance grew apace, as +language and manners were changed by the infiltration of Teutonic +settlers, as men's thoughts and hopes and interests were narrowed by +isolation from their fellows, as the organization of the Roman +province and the Germanic tribe alike dissolved into a chaos whence +the new order began to shape itself, dimly and doubtfully as yet, the +memory of the old Empire, its symmetry, its sway, its civilization, +must needs wane and fade. It might have perished altogether but for +the two enduring witnesses Rome had left--her Church and her Law. The +barbarians had at first associated Christianity with the Romans from +whom they learned it: the Romans had used it as their only bulwark +against oppression. The hierarchy were the natural leaders of the +people, and the necessary councillors of the king. Their power grew +with the extinction of civil government and the spread of +superstition; and when the Frank found it too valuable to be abandoned +to the vanquished people, he insensibly acquired the feelings and +policy of the order he entered. + +[Sidenote: Jurisprudence.] + +As the Empire fell to pieces, and the new kingdoms which the +conquerors had founded themselves began to dissolve, the Church clung +more closely to her unity of faith and discipline, the common bond of +all Christian men. That unity must have a centre, that centre was +Rome. A succession of able and zealous pontiffs extended her influence +(the sanctity and the writings of Gregory the Great were famous +through all the West): never occupied by barbarians, she retained her +peculiar character and customs, and laid the foundations of a power +over men's souls more durable than that which she had lost over their +bodies[37]. Only second in importance to this influence was that which +was exercised by the permanence of the old law, and of its creature +the municipality. The barbarian invaders retained the customs of their +ancestors, characteristic memorials of a rude people, as we see them +in the Salic law or in the ordinances of Ina and Alfred. But the +subject population and the clergy continued to be governed by that +elaborate system which the genius and labour of many generations had +raised to be the most lasting monument of Roman greatness. + +The civil law had maintained itself in Spain and Southern Gaul, nor +was it utterly forgotten even in the North, in Britain, on the borders +of Germany. Revised editions of the Theodosian code were issued by the +Visigothic and Burgundian princes. For some centuries it was the +patrimony of the subject population everywhere, and in Aquitaine and +Italy has outlived feudalism. The presumption in later times was that +all men were to be judged by it who could not be proved to be subject +to some other[38]. Its phrases, its forms, its courts, its subtlety +and precision, all recalled the strong and refined society which had +produced it. Other motives, as well as those of kindness to their +subjects, made the new kings favour it; for it exalted their +prerogative, and the submission enjoined by it on one class of their +subjects soon came to be demanded from the other, by their own laws +the equals of the prince. Considering attentively how many of the old +institutions continued to subsist, and studying the feelings of that +time, as they are faintly preserved in its scanty records, it seems +hardly too much to say that in the eighth century the Roman Empire +still existed in the West: existed in men's minds as a power weakened, +delegated, suspended, but not destroyed. + +It is easy for those who read the history of an age in the light of +those that followed it, to perceive that in this men erred; that the +tendency of events was wholly different; that society had entered on a +new phase, wherein every change did more to localize authority and +strengthen the aristocratic principle at the expense of the despotic. +We can see that other forms of life, more full of promise for the +distant future, had already begun to shew themselves: they--with no +type of power or beauty, but that which had filled the imagination of +their forefathers, and now loomed on them grander than ever through +the mist of centuries--mistook, as it has been said of Rienzi in later +days, memories for hopes, and sighed only for the renewal of its +strength. Events were at hand by which these hopes seemed destined to +be gratified. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] 'Addiderat consilium coercendi intra terminos imperii.'--Tac. +_Ann._ i. 2. + +[10] Tac. _Ann._ ii. 9. + +[11] Stilicho, the bulwark of the Empire, seems to have been himself a +Vandal by extraction. + +[12] Of course not the consulship itself, but the _ornamenta +consularia_. + +[13] Jornandes, _De Rebus Geticis_, cap. 28. + +[14] Tac. _Hist._ i. and iv. + +[15] 'Vester quidem est populus meus sed me plus servire vobis quam +illi presse delectat. Traxit istud a proavis generis mei apud vos +decessoresque vestros semper animo Romana devotio, ut illa nobis magis +claritas putaretur, quam vestra per militi titulos porrigeret +celsitudo: cunctisque auctoribus meis semper magis ambitum est quod a +principibus sumerent quam quod a patribus attulissent. Cumque gentem +nostram videamur regere, non aliud nos quam milites vestros credimus +ordinari.... Per nos administratis remotarum spatia regionum: patria +nostra vester orbis est. Tangit Galliam suam lumen orientis, et radius +qui illis partibus oriri creditur, hic refulget. Dominationem vobis +divinitus prstitam obex nulla concludit, nec ullis provinciarum +terminis diffusio felicium sceptrorum limitatur. Salvo divinitatis +honore sit dictum.'--Letter printed among the works of Avitus, Bishop +of Vienne. (Migne's _Patrologia_, vol. lix. p. 285.) + +This letter, as its style shews, is the composition not of Sigismund +himself, but of Avitus, writing on Sigismund's behalf. But this makes +it scarcely less valuable evidence of the feelings of the time. + +[16] 'Referre solitus est (_sc._ Ataulphus) se in primis ardenter +inhiasse: ut obliterato Romanorum nomine Romanum omne solum Gothorum +imperium et faceret et vocaret: essetque, ut vulgariter loquar, Gothia +quod Romania fuisset; fieretque nunc Ataulphus quod quondam Csar +Augustus. At ubi multa experientia probavisset, neque Gothos ullo modo +parere legibus posse propter effrenatam barbariem, neque reipublic +interdici leges oportere sine quibus respublica non est respublica; +elegisse se saltem, ut gloriam sibi de restituendo in integrum +augendoque Romano nomine Gothorum viribus qureret, habereturque apud +posteros Roman restitutionis auctor postquam esse non potuerat +immutator. Ob hoc abstinere a bello, ob hoc inhiare paci +nitebatur.'--Orosius, vii. 43. + +[17] Athaulf formed only to abandon it. + +[18] See, among other passages, Varro, _De lingua Latina_, iv. 34; +Cic., _Pro Domo_, 33; and in the _Corpus Iuris Civilis_, Dig. i. 5, +17; l. 1, 33; xiv. 2, 9; quoted by gidi, _Der Frstenrath nach dem +Luneviller Frieden_. The phrase 'urbs terna' appears in a novel +issued by Valentinian III. + +Tertullian speaks of Rome as 'civitas sacrosancta.' + +[19] Lact. _Divin. Instit._ vii. 25: 'Etiam res ipsa declarat lapsum +ruinamque rerum brevi fore: nisi quod incolumi urbe Roma nihil +istiusmodi videtur esse metuendum. At vero cum caput illud orbis +occident, et [Greek:rhym] esse coeperit quod Sibyll fore aiunt, quis +dubitet venisse iam finem rebus humanis, orbique terrarum? Illa, illa +est civitas qu adhuc sustentat omnia, precandusque nobis et adorandus +est Deus coeli si tamen statuta eius et placita differri possunt, +ne citius quam putemus tyrannus ille abominabilis veniat qui tantum +facinus moliatur, ac lumen illud effodiat cuius interitu mundus ipse +lapsurus est.' + +Cf. Tertull. _Apolog._ cap. xxxii: 'Est et alia maior necessitas nobis +orandi pro imperatoribus, etiam pro omni statu imperii rebusque +Romanis, qui vim maximam universo orbi imminentem ipsamque clausulam +sculi acerbitates horrendas comminantem Romani imperii commeatu +scimus retardari.' Also the same writer, _Ad Scapulam_, cap. ii: +'Christianus sciens imperatorem a Deo suo constitui, necesse est ut +ipsum diligat et revereatur et honoret et salvum velit cum toto Romano +imperio quousque sculum stabit: tamdiu enim stabit.' So too the +author--now usually supposed to be Hilary the Deacon--of the +Commentary on the Pauline Epistles ascribed to S. Ambrose: 'Non prius +veniet Dominus quam regni Romani defectio fiat, et appareat +antichristus qui interficiet sanctos, reddita Romanis libertate, sub +suo tamen nomine.'--Ad II Thess. ii. 4, 7. + +[20] For example, by the 'restitutio natalium,' and the 'adrogatio per +rescriptum principis,' or, as it is expressed, 'per sacrum oraculum.' + +[21] Even the Christian Emperors took the title of Pontifex Maximus, +till Gratian refused it: [Greek: athemiston einai Christian to schma +nomisas].--Zosimus, lib. iv. cap. 36. + +[22] 'Maiore formidine et callidiore timiditate Csarem observatis quam +ipsum ex Olympo Iovem, et merito, si sciatis.... Citius denique apud +vos per omnes Deos quam per unum genium Csaris peieratur.'--Tertull. +_Apolog._ c. xxviii. + +Cf. Zos. v. 51: [Greek: ei men gar pros ton theon tetychkei didomenos +horkos, n an hs eikos paridein endidontas t tou theou philanthrpia +tn epi t asebeia syngnmn. epei de kata tn tou basiles +ommokesan kephals, ouk einai themiton autois eis ton tosouton horkon +examartein.] + +[23] Tac. _Ann._ i. 73; iii. 38, etc. + +[24] It is curious that this should have begun in the first years of +the Empire. See, among other passages that might be cited from the +Augustan poets, Virg. _Georg._ i. 42; iv. 462; Hor. _Od._ iii. 3, 11; +Ovid, _Epp. ex Ponto_, iv. 9. 105. + +[25] Hence Vespasian's dying jest, 'Ut puto, deus fio.' + +[26] [Greek: hopou an ho basileus , ekei h Rhm.]--Herodian. + +[27] If the accounts we find of the Armorican republic can be trusted. + +[28] Odoacer or Odovaker, as it seems his name ought to be written, is +usually, but incorrectly, described as a King of the Heruli, who led +his people into Italy and overthrew the Empire of the West; others +call him King of the Rugii, or Skyrri, or Turcilingi. The truth seems +to be that he was not a king at all, but the son of a Skyrrian +chieftain (Edecon, known as one of the envoys whom Attila sent to +Constantinople), whose personal merits made him chosen by the +barbarian auxiliaries to be their leader. The Skyrri were a small +tribe, apparently akin to the more powerful Heruli, whose name is +often extended to them. + +[29] [Greek: Augoustos ho Orestou huios akousas Znna palin tn +basileian anakektsthai ts he ... nankase tn bouln aposteilai +presbeian Znni smainousan hs idias men autois basileias ou deoi, +koinos de apochrsei monos n autokratr ep' amphoterois tois perasi. +ton mentoi Odoachon hyp' autn probeblsthai hikanon onta szein +ta par' autois pragmata politikn echn noun kai synesin homou kai +machimon. kai deisthai tou Znnos patrikiou te aut aposteilai axian +kai tn tn Italn tout epheinai dioiksin]--Malchus ap. Photium in +_Corp. Hist. Byzant._ + +[30] Not king of Italy, as is often said. The barbarian kings did not +for several centuries employ territorial titles; the title 'king of +France,' for instance, was first used by Henry IV. Jornandes tells us +that Odoacer never so much as assumed the insignia of royalty. + +[31] Sismondi, _Histoire de la Chute de l'Empire Occidentale_. + +[32] 'Nil deest nobis imperio vestro famulantibus.'--Theodoric to +Zeno: Jornandes, _De Rebus Geticis_, cap. 57. + +[33] 'Unde et pne omnibus barbaris Gothi sapientiores exstiterunt +Grcisque pne consimiles.'--Jorn. cap. 5. + +[34] Theodoric (Thiodorich) seems to have resided usually at Ravenna, +where he died and was buried; a remarkable building which tradition +points out as his tomb stands a little way out of the town, near the +railway station, but the porphyry sarcophagus, in which his body is +supposed to have lain, has been removed thence, and may be seen built +up into the wall of the building called his palace, situated close to +the church of Sant' Apollinare, and not far from the tomb of Dante. +There does not appear to be any sufficient authority for attributing +this building to Ostrogothic times; it is very different from the +representation of Theodoric's palace which we have in the contemporary +mosaics of Sant' Apollinare in urbe. + +In the German legends, however, Theodoric is always the prince of +Verona (Dietrich von Berne), no doubt because that city was better +known to the Teutonic nations, and because it was thither that he +moved his court when transalpine affairs required his attention. His +castle there stood in the old town on the left bank of the Adige, on +the height now occupied by the citadel; it is doubtful whether any +traces of it remain, for the old foundations which we now see may have +belonged to the fortress erected by Gian Galeazzo Visconti in the +fourteenth century. + +[35] 'Igitur Chlodovechus ab imperatore Anastasio codicillos de +consulatu accepit, et in basilica beati Martini tunica blatea indutus +est et chlamyde, imponens vertici diadema ... et ab ea die tanquam +consul aut (=et) Augustus est vocitatus.'--Gregory of Tours, ii. 58. + +[36] Sir F. Palgrave (_English Commonwealth_) considers this grant as +equivalent to a formal ratification of Clovis' rule in Gaul. Hallam +rates its importance lower (_Middle Ages_, note iii. to chap. i.). +Taken in connection with the grant of south-eastern Gaul to Theodebert +by Justinian, it may fairly be held to shew that the influence of the +Empire was still felt in these distant provinces. + +[37] Even so early as the middle of the fifth century, S. Leo the +Great could say to the Roman people, 'Isti (sc. Petrus et Paulus) sunt +qui te ad hanc gloriam provexerunt ut gens sancta, populus electus, +civitas sacerdotalis et regia, per sacram B. Petri sedem caput orbis +effecta latius prsideres religione divina quam dominatione +terrena.'--_Sermon on the feast of SS. Peter and Paul._ (Opp. _ap._ +Migne tom. i. p. 336.) + +[38] 'Ius Romanum est adhuc in viridi observantia et eo iure +prsumitur quilibet vivere nisi adversum probetur.'--Maranta, quoted +by Marquard Freher. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +RESTORATION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. + + +It was towards Rome as their ecclesiastical capital that the thoughts +and hopes of the men of the sixth and seventh centuries were +constantly directed. Yet not from Rome, feeble and corrupt, nor on the +exhausted soil of Italy, was the deliverer to arise. Just when, as we +may suppose, the vision of a renewal of imperial authority in the +Western provinces was beginning to vanish away, there appeared in the +furthest corner of Europe, sprung of a race but lately brought within +the pale of civilization, a line of chieftains devoted to the service +of the Holy See, and among them one whose power, good fortune, and +heroic character pointed him out as worthy of a dignity to which +doctrine and tradition had attached a sanctity almost divine. + +[Sidenote: The Franks.] + +[Sidenote: A.D. 486.] + +Of the new monarchies that had risen on the ruins of Rome, that of the +Franks was by far the greatest. In the third century they appear, with +Saxons, Alemanni, and Thuringians, as one of the greatest German tribe +leagues. The Sicambri (for it seems probable that this famous race was +a chief source of the Frankish nation) had now laid aside their former +hostility to Rome, and her future representatives were thenceforth, +with few intervals, her faithful allies. Many of their chiefs rose to +high place: Malarich receives from Jovian the charge of the Western +provinces; Bauto and Mellobaudes figure in the days of Theodosius and +his sons; Meroveus (if Meroveus be a real name) fights under Aetius +against Attila in the great battle of Chalons; his countrymen +endeavour in vain to save Gaul from the Suevi and Burgundians. Not +till the Empire was evidently helpless did they claim a share of the +booty; then Clovis, or Chlodovech, chief of the Salian tribe, leaving +his kindred the Ripuarians in their seats on the lower Rhine, advances +from Flanders to wrest Gaul from the barbarian nations which had +entered it some sixty years before. Few conquerors have had a career +of more unbroken success. By the defeat of the Roman governor Syagrius +he was left master of the northern provinces: the Burgundian kingdom +in the valley of the Rhone was in no long time reduced to dependence: +last of all, the Visigothic power was overthrown in one great battle, +and Aquitaine added to the dominions of Clovis. Nor were the Frankish +arms less prosperous on the other side of the Rhine. The victory of +Tolbiac led to the submission of the Alemanni: their allies the +Bavarians followed, and when the Thuringian power had been broken by +Theodorich I (son of Clovis), the Frankish league embraced all the +tribes of western and southern Germany. The state thus formed, +stretching from the Bay of Biscay to the Inn and the Ems, was of +course in no sense a French, that is to say, a Gallic monarchy. Nor, +although the widest and strongest empire that had yet been founded by +a Teutonic race, was it, under the Merovingian kings, a united kingdom +at all, but rather a congeries of principalities, held together by the +predominance of a single nation and a single family, who ruled in Gaul +as masters over a subject race, and in Germany exercised a sort of +hegemony among kindred and scarcely inferior tribes. But towards the +middle of the eighth century a change began. Under the rule of Pipin +of Herstal and his son Charles Martel, mayors of the palace to the +last feeble Merovingians, the Austrasian Franks in the lower Rhineland +became acknowledged heads of the nation, and were able, while +establishing a firmer government at home, to direct its whole strength +in projects of foreign ambition. The form those projects took arose +from a circumstance which has not yet been mentioned. It was not +solely or even chiefly to their own valour that the Franks owed their +past greatness and the yet loftier future which awaited them, it was +to the friendship of the clergy and the favour of the Apostolic See. +The other Teutonic nations, Goths, Vandals, Burgundians, Suevians, +Lombards, had been most of them converted by Arian missionaries who +proceeded from the Roman Empire during the short period when Arian +doctrines were in the ascendant. The Franks, who were among the latest +converts, were Catholics from the first, and gladly accepted the +clergy as their teachers and allies. Thus it was that while the +hostility of their orthodox subjects destroyed the Vandal kingdom in +Africa and the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy, the eager sympathy of the +priesthood enabled the Franks to vanquish their Burgundian and +Visigothic enemies, and made it comparatively easy for them to blend +with the Roman population in the provinces. They had done good service +against the Saracens of Spain; they had aided the English Boniface in +his mission to the heathen of Germany[39]; and at length, as the most +powerful among Catholic nations, they attracted the eyes of the +ecclesiastical head of the West, now sorely bested by domestic foes. + +[Sidenote: Italy: the Lombards.] + +[Sidenote: The Popes.] + +Since the invasion of Alboin, Italy had groaned under a complication +of evils. The Lombards who had entered along with that chief in A.D. +568 had settled in considerable numbers in the valley of the Po, and +founded the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento, leaving the rest of the +country to be governed by the exarch of Ravenna as viceroy of the +Eastern crown. This subjection was, however, little better than +nominal. Although too few to occupy the whole peninsula, the invaders +were yet strong enough to harass every part of it by inroads which met +with no resistance from a population unused to arms, and without the +spirit to use them in self-defence. More cruel and repulsive, if we +may believe the evidence of their enemies, than any other of the +Northern tribes, the Lombards were certainly singular in their +aversion to the clergy, never admitting them to the national councils. +Tormented by their repeated attacks, Rome sought help in vain from +Byzantium, whose forces, scarce able to repel from their walls the +Avars and Saracens, could give no support to the distant exarch of +Ravenna. The Popes were the Emperor's subjects; they awaited his +confirmation, like other bishops; they had more than once been the +victims of his anger[40]. But as the city became more accustomed in +independence, and the Pope rose to a predominance, real if not yet +legal, his tone grew bolder than that of the Eastern patriarchs. In +the controversies that had raged in the Church, he had had the wisdom +or good fortune to espouse (though not always from the first) the +orthodox side: it was now by another quarrel of religion that his +deliverance from an unwelcome yoke was accomplished[41]. + +[Sidenote: Iconoclastic controversy.] + +[Sidenote: The Popes appeal to the Franks.] + +[Sidenote: Pipin patrician of the Romans, A.D. 754.] + +The Emperor Leo, born among the Isaurian mountains, where a purer +faith may yet have lingered, and stung by the Mohammedan taunt of +idolatry, determined to abolish the worship of images, which seemed +fast obscuring the more spiritual part of Christianity. An attempt +sufficient to cause tumults among the submissive Greeks, excited in +Italy a fiercer commotion. The populace rose with one heart in defence +of what had become to them more than a symbol: the exarch was slain: +the Pope, though unwilling to sever himself from the lawful head and +protector of the Church, must yet excommunicate the prince whom he +could not reclaim from so hateful a heresy. Liudprand, king of the +Lombards, improved his opportunity: falling on the exarchate as the +champion of images, on Rome as the minister of the Greek Emperor, he +overran the one, and all but succeeded in capturing the other. The +Pope escaped for the moment, but saw his peril; placed between a +heretic and a robber, he turned his gaze beyond the Alps, to a +Catholic chief who had just achieved a signal deliverance for +Christendom on the field of Poitiers. Gregory II had already opened +communications with Charles Martel, mayor of the palace, and virtual +ruler of the Frankish realm[42]. As the crisis becomes more pressing, +Gregory III finds in the same quarter his only hope, and appeals to +him, in urgent letters, to haste to the succour of Holy Church[43]. +Some accounts add that Charles was offered, in the name of the Roman +people, the office of consul and patrician. It is at least certain +that here begins the connection of the old imperial seat with the +rising German power: here first the pontiff leads a political +movement, and shakes off the ties that bound him to his legitimate +sovereign. Charles died before he could obey the call; but his son +Pipin (surnamed the Short) made good use of the new friendship with +Rome. He was the third of his family who had ruled the Franks with a +monarch's full power: it seemed time to abolish the pageant of +Merovingian royalty; yet a departure from the ancient line might shock +the feelings of the people. A course was taken whose dangers no one +then foresaw: the Holy See, now for the first time invoked as an +international power, pronounced the deposition of Childeric, and gave +to the royal office of his successor Pipin a sanctity hitherto +unknown; adding to the old Frankish election, which consisted in +raising the chief on a shield amid the clash of arms, the Roman diadem +and the Hebrew rite of anointing. The compact between the chair of +Peter and the Teutonic throne was hardly sealed, when the latter was +summoned to discharge its share of the duties. Twice did Aistulf the +Lombard assail Rome, twice did Pipin descend to the rescue: the second +time at the bidding of a letter written in the name of St. Peter +himself[44]. Aistulf could make no resistance; and the Frank bestowed +on the Papal chair all that belonged to the exarchate in North Italy, +receiving as the meed of his services the title of Patrician[45]. + +[Sidenote: Import of this title.] + +As a foreshadowing of the higher dignity that was to follow, this +title requires a passing notice. Introduced by Constantine at a time +when its original meaning had been long forgotten, it was designed to +be, and for awhile remained, the name not of an office but of a rank, +the highest after those of emperor and consul. As such, it was usually +conferred upon provincial governors of the first class, and in time +also upon barbarian potentates whose vanity the Roman court might wish +to flatter. Thus Odoacer, Theodoric, the Burgundian king Sigismund, +Clovis himself, had all received it from the Eastern emperor; so too +in still later times it was given to Saracenic and Bulgarian +princes[46]. In the sixth and seventh centuries an invariable practice +seems to have attached it to the Byzantine viceroys of Italy, and +thus, as we may conjecture, a natural confusion of ideas had made men +take it to be, in some sense, an official title, conveying an +extensive though undefined authority, and implying in particular the +duty of overseeing the Church and promoting her temporal interests. It +was doubtless with such a meaning that the Romans and their bishop +bestowed it upon the Frankish kings, acting quite without legal right, +for it could emanate from the emperor alone, but choosing it as the +title which bound its possessor to render to the Church support and +defence against her Lombard foes. Hence the phrase is always +'_Patricius Romanorum_;' not, as in former times, '_Patricius_' alone: +hence it is usually associated with the terms '_defensor_' and +'_protector_.' And since 'defence' implies a corresponding measure of +obedience on the part of those who profit by it, there must have been +conceded to the new patrician more or less of the positive authority +in Rome, although not such as to extinguish the supremacy of the +Emperor. + +[Sidenote: Extinction of the Lombard kingdom by Charles king of the +Franks.] + +[Sidenote: A.D. 774.] + +So long indeed as the Franks were separated by a hostile kingdom from +their new allies, this control remained little better than nominal. +But when on Pipin's death the restless Lombards again took up arms and +menaced the possessions of the Church, Pipin's son Charles or +Charlemagne swept down like a whirlwind from the Alps at the call of +Pope Hadrian, seized king Desiderius in his capital, assumed himself +the Lombard crown, and made northern Italy thenceforward an integral +part of the Frankish empire. Proceeding to Rome at the head of his +victorious army, the first of a long line of Teutonic kings who were +to find her love more deadly than her hate, he was received by Hadrian +with distinguished honours, and welcomed by the people as their leader +and deliverer. Yet even then, whether out of policy or from that +sentiment of reverence to which his ambitious mind did not refuse to +bow, he was moderate in claims of jurisdiction, he yielded to the +pontiff the place of honour in processions, and renewed, although in +the guise of a lord and conqueror, the gift of the Exarchate and +Pentapolis, which Pipin had made to the Roman Church twenty years +before. + +[Sidenote: Charles and Hadrian.] + +It is with a strange sense, half of sadness, half of amusement, that +in watching the progress of this grand historical drama, we recognise +the meaner motives by which its chief actors were influenced. The +Frankish king and the Roman pontiff were for the time the two most +powerful forces that urged the movement of the world, leading it on by +swift steps to a mighty crisis of its fate, themselves guided, as it +might well seem, by the purest zeal for its spiritual welfare. Their +words and acts, their whole character and bearing in the sight of +expectant Christendom, were worthy of men destined to leave an +indelible impress on their own and many succeeding ages. Nevertheless +in them too appears the undercurrent of vulgar human desires and +passions. The lofty and fervent mind of Charles was not free from the +stirrings of personal ambition: yet these may be excused, if not +defended, as almost inseparable from an intense and restless genius, +which, be it never so unselfish in its ends, must in pursuing them fix +upon everything its grasp and raise out of everything its monument. +The policy of the Popes was prompted by motives less noble. Ever since +the extinction of the Western Empire had emancipated the +ecclesiastical potentate from secular control, the first and most +abiding object of his schemes and prayers had been the acquisition of +territorial wealth in the neighbourhood of his capital. He had indeed +a sort of justification--for Rome, a city with neither trade nor +industry, was crowded with poor, for whom it devolved on the bishop to +provide. Yet the pursuit was one which could not fail to pervert the +purposes of the Popes and give a sinister character to all they did. +It was this fear for the lands of the Church far more than for +religion or the safety of the city--neither of which were really +endangered by the Lombard attacks--that had prompted their passionate +appeals to Charles Martel and Pipin; it was now the well-grounded hope +of having these possessions confirmed and extended by Pipin's greater +son that made the Roman ecclesiastics so forward in his cause. And it +was the same lust after worldly wealth and pomp, mingled with the +dawning prospect of an independent principality, that now began to +seduce them into a long course of guile and intrigue. For this is +probably the very time, although the exact date cannot be established, +to which must be assigned the extraordinary forgery of the Donation of +Constantine, whereby it was pretended that power over Italy and the +whole West had been granted by the first Christian Emperor to Pope +Sylvester and his successors in the Chair of the Apostle. + +[Sidenote: Accession of Pope Leo III, A.D. 796.] + +For the next twenty-four years Italy remained quiet. The government of +Rome was carried on in the name of the Patrician Charles, although it +does not appear that he sent thither any official representative; +while at the same time both the city and the exarchate continued to +admit the nominal supremacy of the Eastern Emperor, employing the +years of his reign to date documents. In A.D. 796, Leo the Third +succeeded Pope Hadrian, and signalized his devotion to the Frankish +throne by sending to Charles the banner of the city and the keys of +the holiest of all Rome's shrines, the confession of St. Peter, asking +that some officer should be deputed to the city to receive from the +people their oath of allegiance to the Patrician. He had soon need to +seek the Patrician's help for himself. In A.D. 798 a sedition broke +out: the Pope, going in solemn procession from the Lateran to the +church of S. Lorenzo in Lucina, was attacked by a band of armed men, +headed by two officials of his court, nephews of his predecessor; was +wounded and left for dead, and with difficulty succeeded in escaping +to Spoleto, whence he fled northward into the Frankish lands. Charles +had led his army against the revolted Saxons: thither Leo following +overtook him at Paderborn in Westphalia. The king received with +respect his spiritual father, entertained and conferred with him for +some time, and at length sent him back to Rome under the escort of +Angilbert, one of his trustiest ministers; promising to follow ere +long in person. After some months peace was restored in Saxony, and in +the autumn of 799 Charles descended from the Alps once more, while Leo +revolved deeply the great scheme for whose accomplishment the time was +now ripe. + +[Sidenote: Belief in the Roman Empire not extinct.] + +[Sidenote: Motives of the Pope.] + +Three hundred and twenty-four years had passed since the last Csar of +the West resigned his power into the hands of the senate, and left to +his Eastern brother the sole headship of the Roman world. To the +latter Italy had from that time been nominally subject; but it was +only during one brief interval between the death of Totila the last +Ostrogothic king and the descent of Alboin the first Lombard, that his +power had been really effective. In the further provinces, Gaul, +Spain, Britain, it was only a memory. But the idea of a Roman Empire +as a necessary part of the world's order had not vanished: it had been +admitted by those who seemed to be destroying it; it had been +cherished by the Church; was still recalled by laws and customs; was +dear to the subject populations, who fondly looked back to the days +when slavery was at least mitigated by peace and order. We have seen +the Teuton endeavouring everywhere to identify himself with the system +he overthrew. As Goths, Burgundians, and Franks sought the title of +consul or patrician, as the Lombard kings when they renounced their +Arianism styled themselves Flavii, so even in distant England the +fierce Saxon and Anglian conquerors used the names of Roman dignities, +and before long began to call themselves _imperatores_ and _basileis_ +of Britain. Within the last century and a half the rise of +Mohammedanism[47] had brought out the common Christianity of Europe +into a fuller relief. The false prophet had left one religion, one +Empire, one Commander of the faithful: the Christian commonwealth +needed more than ever an efficient head and centre. Such leadership it +could nowise find in the Court of the Bosphorus, growing ever feebler +and more alien to the West. The name of 'respublica,' permanent at the +elder Rome, had never been applied to the Eastern Empire. Its +government was from the first half Greek, half Asiatic; and had now +drifted away from its ancient traditions into the forms of an Oriental +despotism. Claudian had already sneered at 'Greek Quirites[48]:' the +general use, since Heraclius's reign, of the Greek tongue, and the +difference of manners and usages, made the taunt now more deserved. +The Pope had no reason to wish well to the Byzantine princes, who +while insulting his weakness had given him no help against the savage +Lombards, and who for nearly seventy years[49] had been contaminated +by a heresy the more odious that it touched not speculative points of +doctrine but the most familiar usages of worship. In North Italy their +power was extinct: no pontiff since Zacharias had asked their +confirmation of his election: nay, the appointment of the intruding +Frank to the patriciate, an office which it belonged to the Emperor to +confer, was of itself an act of rebellion. Nevertheless their rights +subsisted: they were still, and while they retained the imperial name, +must so long continue, titular sovereigns of the Roman city. Nor could +the spiritual head of Christendom dispense with the temporal: without +the Roman Empire there could not be a Roman, nor by necessary +consequence a Catholic and Apostolic Church[50]. For, as will be shewn +more fully hereafter, men could not separate in fact what was +indissoluble in thought: Christianity must stand or fall along with +the great Christian state: they were but two names for the same thing. +Thus urged, the Pope took a step which some among his predecessors are +said to have already contemplated[51], and towards which the events of +the last fifty years had pointed. The moment was opportune. The +widowed empress Irene, equally famous for her beauty, her talents, and +her crimes, had deposed and blinded her son Constantine VI: a woman, +an usurper, almost a parricide, sullied the throne of the world. By +what right, it might well be asked, did the factions of Byzantium +impose a master on the original seat of empire? It was time to provide +better for the most august of human offices: an election at Rome was +as valid as at Constantinople--the possessor of the real power should +also be clothed with the outward dignity. Nor could it be doubted +where that possessor was to be found. The Frank had been always +faithful to Rome: his baptism was the enlistment of a new barbarian +auxiliary. His services against Arian heretics and Lombard marauders, +against the Saracen of Spain and the Avar of Pannonia, had earned him +the title of Champion of the Faith and Defender of the Holy See. He +was now unquestioned lord of Western Europe, whose subject nations, +Keltic and Teutonic, were eager to be called by his name and to +imitate his customs[52]. In Charles, the hero who united under one +sceptre so many races, who ruled all as the vicegerent of God, the +pontiff might well see--as later ages saw--the new golden head of a +second image[53], erected on the ruins of that whose mingled iron and +clay seemed crumbling to nothingness behind the impregnable bulwarks +of Constantinople. + +[Sidenote: Coronation of Charles at Rome, A.D. 800.] + +At length the Frankish host entered Rome. The Pope's cause was heard; +his innocence, already vindicated by a miracle, was pronounced by the +Patrician in full synod; his accusers condemned in his stead. Charles +remained in the city for some weeks; and on Christmas-day, A.D. +800[54], he heard mass in the basilica of St. Peter. On the spot where +now the gigantic dome of Bramante and Michael Angelo towers over the +buildings of the modern city, the spot which tradition had hallowed as +that of the Apostle's martyrdom, Constantine the Great had erected the +oldest and stateliest temple of Christian Rome. Nothing could be less +like than was this basilica to those northern cathedrals, shadowy, +fantastic, irregular, crowded with pillars, fringed all round by +clustering shrines and chapels, which are to most of us the types of +medival architecture. In its plan and decorations, in the spacious +sunny hall, the roof plain as that of a Greek temple, the long rows of +Corinthian columns, the vivid mosaics on its walls, in its brightness, +its sternness, its simplicity, it had preserved every feature of Roman +art, and had remained a perfect expression of the Roman character[55]. +Out of the transept, a flight of steps led up to the high altar +underneath and just beyond the great arch, the arch of triumph as it +was called: behind in the semicircular apse sat the clergy, rising +tier above tier around its walls; in the midst, high above the rest, +and looking down past the altar over the multitude, was placed the +bishop's throne[56], itself the curule chair of some forgotten +magistrate[57]. From that chair the Pope now rose, as the reading of +the Gospel ended, advanced to where Charles--who had exchanged his +simple Frankish dress for the sandals and the chlamys of a Roman +patrician[58]--knelt in prayer by the high altar, and as in the sight +of all he placed upon the brow of the barbarian chieftain the diadem +of the Csars, then bent in obeisance before him, the church rang to +the shout of the multitude, again free, again the lords and centre of +the world, 'Karolo Augusto a Deo coronato magno et pacifico imperatori +vita et victoria[59].' In that shout, echoed by the Franks without, +was pronounced the union, so long in preparation, so mighty in its +consequences, of the Roman and the Teuton, of the memories and the +civilization of the South with the fresh energy of the North, and from +that moment modern history begins. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[39] 'Denique gens Francorum multos et foecundissimos fructus Domino +attulit, non solum credendo, sed et alios salutifere convertendo,' +says the emperor Lewis II in A.D. 871. + +[40] Martin, as in earlier times Sylverius. + +[41] A singular account of the origin of the separation of the Greeks +and Latins occurs in the treatise of Radulfus de Columna (Ralph +Colonna, or, as some think, de Coloumelle), _De translatione Imperii +Romani_ (circ. 1300). 'The tyranny of Heraclius,' says he, 'provoked a +revolt of the Eastern nations. They could not be reduced, because the +Greeks at the same time began to disobey the Roman Pontiff, receding, +like Jeroboam, from the true faith. Others among these schismatics +(apparently with the view of strengthening their political revolt) +carried their heresy further and founded Mohammedanism.' Similarly, +the Franciscan Marsilius of Padua (circa 1324) says that Mohammed, 'a +rich Persian,' invented his religion to keep the East from returning +to allegiance to Rome. It is worth remarking that few, if any, of the +earlier historians (from the tenth to the fifteenth century) refer to +the Emperors of the West from Constantine to Augustulus: the very +existence of this Western line seems to have been even in the eighth +or ninth century altogether forgotten. + +[42] Anastasius, _Vit Pontificum Romanorum_ i. _ap._ Muratori. + +[43] Letter in _Codex Carolinus_, in Muratori's _Scriptores Rerum +Italicarum_, vol. iii. (part 2nd), addressed 'Subregulo Carolo.' + +[44] Letter in _Cod. Carol._ (Mur. _R. S. I._ iii. [2.] p. 96), a +strange mixture of earnest adjurations, dexterous appeals to Frankish +pride, and long scriptural quotations: 'Declaratum quippe est quod +super omnes gentes vestra Francorum gens prona mihi Apostolo Dei Petro +exstitit, et ideo ecclesiam quam mihi Dominus tradidit vobis per manus +Vicarii mei commendavi.' + +[45] The exact date when Pipin received the title cannot be made out. +Pope Stephen's next letter (p. 96 of Mur. iii.) is addressed 'Pipino, +Carolo et Carolomanno patriciis.' And so the _Chronicon Casinense_ +(Mur. iv. 273) says it was first given to Pipin. Gibbon can hardly be +right in attributing it to Charles Martel, although one or two +documents may be quoted in which it is used of him. As one of these is +a letter of Pope Gregory II's, the explanation may be that the title +was offered or intended to be offered to him, although never accepted +by him. + +[46] The title of Patrician appears even in the remote West: it stands +in a charter of Ina the West Saxon king, and in one given by Richard +of Normandy in A.D. 1015. Ducange, _s.v._ + +[47] After the _translatio ad Francos_ of A.D. 800, the two Empires +corresponded exactly to the two Khalifates of Bagdad and Cordova. + +[48] + + 'Plaudentem cerne senatum + Et Byzantinos proceres, Graiosque Quirites.' + _In Eutrop._ ii. 135. + +[49] Several Emperors during this period had been patrons of images, +as was Irene at the moment of which I write: the stain nevertheless +adhered to their government as a whole. + +[50] I should not have thought it necessary to explain that the +sentence in the text is meant simply to state what were (so far as can +be made out) the sentiments and notions of the ninth century, if a +writer in the _Tablet_ (reviewing a former edition) had not understood +it as an expression of the author's own belief. + +To a modern eye there is of course no necessary connection between the +Roman Empire and a catholic and apostolic Church; in fact, the two +things seem rather, such has been the impression made on us by the +long struggle of church and state, in their nature mutually +antagonistic. The interest of history lies not least in this, that it +shews us how men have at different times entertained wholly different +notions respecting the relation to one another of the same ideas or +the same institutions. + +[51] Monachus Sangallensis, _De Gestis Karoli_; in Pertz, _Monumenta +Germani Historica_. + +[52] Monachus Sangallensis; _ut supra_. So Pope Gregory the Great two +centuries earlier: 'Quanto cteros homines regia dignitas antecedit, +tanto cterarum gentium regna regni Francorum culmen excellit.' Ep. v. +6. + +[53] Alciatus, _De Formula imperii Romani_. + +[54] Or rather, according to the then prevailing practice of beginning +the year from Christmas-day, A.D. 801. + +[55] An elaborate description of old St. Peter's may be found in +Bunsen's and Platner's _Beschreibung der Stadt Rom_; with which +compare Bunsen's work on the Basilicas of Rome. + +[56] The primitive custom was for the bishop to sit in the centre of +the apse, at the central point of the east end of the church (or, as +it would be more correct to say, the end furthest from the door) just +as the judge had done in those law courts on the model of which the +first basilicas were constructed. This arrangement may still be seen +in some of the churches of Rome, as well as elsewhere in Italy; +nowhere better than in the churches of Ravenna, particularly the +beautiful one of Sant' Apollinare in Classe, and in the cathedral of +Torcello, near Venice. + +[57] On this chair were represented the labours of Hercules and the +signs of the zodiac. It is believed at Rome to be the veritable chair +of the Apostle himself, and whatever may be thought of such an +antiquity as this, it can be satisfactorily traced back to the third +or fourth century of Christianity. (The story that it is inscribed +with verses from the Koran is, I believe, without foundation.) It is +now enclosed in a gorgeous casing of gilded wood (some say, of +bronze), and placed aloft at the extremity of St. Peter's, just over +the spot where a bishop's chair would in the old arrangement of the +basilica have stood. The sarcophagus in which Charles himself lay, +till the French scattered his bones abroad, had carved on it the rape +of Proserpine. It may still be seen in the gallery of the basilica at +Aachen. + +[58] Eginhard, _Vita Karoli_. + +[59] The coronation scene is described in all the annals of the time, +to which it is therefore needless to refer more particularly. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +EMPIRE AND POLICY OF CHARLES. + + +The coronation of Charles is not only the central event of the Middle +Ages, it is also one of those very few events of which, taking them +singly, it may be said that if they had not happened, the history of +the world would have been different. In one sense indeed it has +scarcely a parallel. The assassins of Julius Csar thought that they +had saved Rome from monarchy, but monarchy came inevitable in the next +generation. The conversion of Constantine changed the face of the +world, but Christianity was spreading fast, and its ultimate triumph +was only a question of time. Had Columbus never spread his sails, the +secret of the western sea would yet have been pierced by some later +voyager: had Charles V broken his safe-conduct to Luther, the voice +silenced at Wittenberg would have been taken up by echoes elsewhere. +But if the Roman Empire had not been restored in the West in the +person of Charles, it would never have been restored at all, and the +inexhaustible train of consequences for good and for evil that +followed could not have been. Why this was so may be seen by examining +the history of the next two centuries. In that day, as through all the +Dark and Middle Ages, two forces were striving for the mastery. The +one was the instinct of separation, disorder, anarchy, caused by the +ungoverned impulses and barbarous ignorance of the great bulk of +mankind; the other was that passionate longing of the better minds for +a formal unity of government, which had its historical basis in the +memories of the old Roman Empire, and its most constant expression in +the devotion to a visible and catholic Church. The former tendency, as +everything shews, was, in politics at least, the stronger, but the +latter, used and stimulated by an extraordinary genius like Charles, +achieved in the year 800 a victory whose results were never to be +lost. When the hero was gone, the returning wave of anarchy and +barbarism swept up violent as ever, yet it could not wholly obliterate +the past: the Empire, maimed and shattered though it was, had struck +its roots too deep to be overthrown by force, and when it perished at +last, perished from inner decay. It was just because men felt that no +one less than Charles could have won such a triumph over the evils of +the time, by framing and establishing a gigantic scheme of government, +that the excitement and hope and joy which the coronation evoked were +so intense. Their best evidence is perhaps to be found not in the +records of that time itself, but in the cries of lamentation that +broke forth when the Empire began to dissolve towards the close of the +ninth century, in the marvellous legends which attached themselves to +the name of Charles the Emperor, a hero of whom any exploit was +credible[60], in the devout admiration wherewith his German successors +looked back to, and strove in all things to imitate, their all but +superhuman prototype. + +[Sidenote: Import of the coronation.] + +As the event of A.D. 800 made an unparalleled impression on those who +lived at the time, so has it engaged the attention of men in +succeeding ages, has been viewed in the most opposite lights, and +become the theme of interminable controversies. It is better to look +at it simply as it appeared to the men who witnessed it. Here, as in +so many other cases, may be seen the errors into which jurists have +been led by the want of historical feeling. In rude and unsettled +states of society men respect forms and obey facts, while careless of +rules and principles. In England, for example, in the eleventh and +twelfth centuries, it signified very little whether an aspirant to the +throne was next lawful heir, but it signified a great deal whether he +had been duly crowned and was supported by a strong party. Regarding +the matter thus, it is not hard to see why those who judged the actors +of A.D. 800 as they would have judged their contemporaries should have +misunderstood the nature of that which then came to pass. Baronius and +Bellarmine, Spanheim and Conring, are advocates bound to prove a +thesis, and therefore believing it; nor does either party find any +lack of plausible arguments[61]. But civilian and canonist alike +proceed upon strict legal principles, and no such principles can be +found in the case, or applied to it. Neither the instances cited by +the Cardinal from the Old Testament of the power of priests to set up +and pull down princes, nor those which shew the earlier Emperors +controlling the bishops of Rome, really meet the question. Leo acted +not as having alone the right to transfer the crown; the practice of +hereditary succession and the theory of popular election would have +equally excluded such a claim; he was the spokesman of the popular +will, which, identifying itself with the sacerdotal power, hated the +Greeks and was grateful to the Franks. Yet he was also something more. +The act, as it specially affected his interests, was mainly his work, +and without him would never have been brought about at all. It was +natural that a confusion of his secular functions as leader, and his +spiritual as consecrating priest, should lay the foundation of the +right claimed afterwards of raising and deposing monarchs at the will +of Christ's vicar. The Emperor was passive throughout; he did not, as +in Lombardy, appear as a conqueror, but was received by the Pope and +the people as a friend and ally. Rome no doubt became his capital, but +it had already obeyed him as Patrician, and the greatest fact that +stood out to posterity from the whole transaction was that the crown +was bestowed, was at least imposed, by the hands of the pontiff. He +seemed the trustee and depositary of the imperial authority[62]. + +[Sidenote: Contemporary accounts.] + +The best way of shewing the thoughts and motives of those concerned in +the transaction is to transcribe the narratives of three contemporary, +or almost contemporary annalists, two of them German and one Italian. +The Annals of Lauresheim say:-- + +'And because the name of Emperor had now ceased among the Greeks, and +their Empire was possessed by a woman, it then seemed both to Leo the +Pope himself, and to all the holy fathers who were present in the +selfsame council, as well as to the rest of the Christian people, that +they ought to take to be Emperor Charles king of the Franks, who held +Rome herself, where the Csars had always been wont to sit, and all +the other regions which he ruled through Italy and Gaul and Germany; +and inasmuch as God had given all these lands into his hand, it seemed +right that with the help of God and at the prayer of the whole +Christian people he should have the name of Emperor also. Whose +petition king Charles willed not to refuse, but submitting himself +with all humility to God, and at the prayer of the priests and of the +whole Christian people, on the day of the nativity of our Lord Jesus +Christ he took on himself the name of Emperor, being consecrated by +the lord Pope Leo[63].' + +Very similar in substance is the account of the Chronicle of Moissac +(ad ann. 801):-- + +'Now when the king upon the most holy day of the Lord's birth was +rising to the mass after praying before the confession of the blessed +Peter the Apostle, Leo the Pope, with the consent of all the bishops +and priests and of the senate of the Franks and likewise of the +Romans, set a golden crown upon his head, the Roman people also +shouting aloud. And when the people had made an end of chanting the +Laudes, he was adored by the Pope after the manner of the emperors of +old. For this also was done by the will of God. For while the said +Emperor abode at Rome certain men were brought unto him, who said that +the name of Emperor had ceased among the Greeks, and that among them +the Empire was held by a woman called Irene, who had by guile laid +hold on her son the Emperor, and put out his eyes, and taken the +Empire to herself, as it is written of Athaliah in the Book of the +Kings; which when Leo the Pope and all the assembly of the bishops and +priests and abbots heard, and the senate of the Franks and all the +elders of the Romans, they took counsel with the rest of the Christian +people, that they should name Charles king of the Franks to be +Emperor, seeing that he held Rome the mother of empire where the +Csars and Emperors were always used to sit; and that the heathen +might not mock the Christians if the name of Emperor should have +ceased among the Christians[64].' + +These two accounts are both from a German source: that which follows +is Roman, written probably within some fifty or sixty years of the +event. It is taken from the Life of Leo III in the _Vit Pontificum +Romanorum_, compiled by Anastasius the papal librarian. + +'After these things came the day of the birth of our Lord Jesus +Christ, and all men were again gathered together in the aforesaid +basilica of the blessed Peter the Apostle: and then the gracious and +venerable pontiff did with his own hands crown Charles with a very +precious crown. Then all the faithful people of Rome, seeing the +defence that he gave and the love that he bare to the holy Roman +Church and her Vicar, did by the will of God and of the blessed Peter, +the keeper of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, cry with one accord +with a loud voice, 'To Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned of +God, the great and peacegiving Emperor, be life and victory.' While +he, before the holy confession of the blessed Peter the Apostle, was +invoking divers saints, it was proclaimed thrice, and he was chosen by +all to be Emperor of the Romans. Thereon the most holy pontiff +anointed Charles with holy oil, and likewise his most excellent son to +be king, upon the very day of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ; and +when the mass was finished, then after the mass the most serene lord +Emperor offered gifts[65].' + +[Sidenote: Impression which they convey.] + +[Sidenote: Later theories respecting the coronation.] + +In these three accounts there is no serious discrepancy as to the +facts, although the Italian priest, as is natural, heightens the +importance of the part played by the Pope, while the Germans are too +anxious to rationalize the event, talking of a synod of the clergy, a +consultation of the people, and a formal request to Charles, which the +silence of Eginhard, as well as the other circumstances of the case, +forbid us to accept as literally true. Similarly Anastasius passes +over the adoration rendered by the Pope to the Emperor, upon which +most of the Frankish records insist in a way which puts it beyond +doubt. But the impression which the three narratives leave is +essentially the same. They all shew how little the transaction can be +made to wear a strictly legal character. The Frankish king does not of +his own might seize the crown, but rather receives it as coming +naturally to him, as the legitimate consequence of the authority he +already enjoyed. The Pope bestows the crown, not in virtue of any +right of his own as head of the Church: he is merely the instrument of +God's providence, which has unmistakeably pointed out Charles as the +proper person to defend and lead the Christian commonwealth. The Roman +people do not formally elect and appoint, but by their applause accept +the chief who is presented to them. The act is conceived of as +directly ordered by the Divine Providence which has brought about a +state of things that admits of but one issue, an issue which king, +priest, and people have only to recognise and obey; their personal +ambitions, passions, intrigues, sinking and vanishing in reverential +awe at what seems the immediate interposition of Heaven. And as the +result is desired by all parties alike, they do not think of inquiring +into one another's rights, but take their momentary harmony to be +natural and necessary, never dreaming of the difficulties and +conflicts which were to arise out of what seemed then so simple. And +it was just because everything was thus left undetermined, resting not +on express stipulation but rather on a sort of mutual understanding, a +sympathy of beliefs and wishes which augured no evil, that the event +admitted of being afterwards represented in so many different lights. +Four centuries later, when Papacy and Empire had been forced into the +mortal struggle by which the fate of both was decided, three distinct +theories regarding the coronation of Charles will be found advocated +by three different parties, all of them plausible, all of them to some +extent misleading. The Swabian Emperors held the crown to have been +won by their great predecessor as the prize of conquest, and drew the +conclusion that the citizens and bishop of Rome had no rights as +against themselves. The patriotic party among the Romans, appealing to +the early history of the Empire, declared that by nothing but the +voice of their senate and people could an Emperor be lawfully created, +he being only their chief magistrate, the temporary depositary of +their authority. The Popes pointed to the indisputable fact that Leo +imposed the crown, and argued that as God's earthly vicar it was then +his, and must always continue to be their right to give to whomsoever +they would an office which was created to be the handmaid of their +own. Of these three it was the last view that eventually prevailed, +yet to an impartial eye it cannot claim, any more than do the two +others, to contain the whole truth. Charles did not conquer, nor the +Pope give, nor the people elect. As the act was unprecedented so was +it illegal; it was a revolt of the ancient Western capital against a +daughter who had become a mistress; an exercise of the sacred right of +insurrection, justified by the weakness and wickedness of the +Byzantine princes, hallowed to the eyes of the world by the sanction +of Christ's representative, but founded upon no law, nor competent to +create any for the future. + +[Sidenote: Was the coronation a surprise?] + +It is an interesting and somewhat perplexing question, how far the +coronation scene, an act as imposing in its circumstances as it was +momentous in its results, was prearranged among the parties. Eginhard +tells us that Charles was accustomed to declare that he would not, +even on so high a festival, have entered the church had he known of +the Pope's intention. Even if the monarch had uttered, the secretary +would hardly have recorded a falsehood long after the motive that +might have prompted it had disappeared. Of the existence of that +motive which has been most commonly assumed, a fear of the discontent +of the Franks who might think their liberties endangered, little or no +proof can be brought from the records of the time, wherein the nation +is represented as exulting in the new dignity of their chief as an +accession of grandeur to themselves. Nor can we suppose that Charles's +disavowal was meant to soothe the offended pride of the Byzantine +princes, from whom he had nothing to fear, and who were none the more +likely to recognise his dignity, if they should believe it to be not +of his own seeking. Yet it is hard to suppose the whole affair a +surprise; for it was the goal towards which the policy of the Frankish +kings had for many years pointed, and Charles himself, in sending +before him to Rome many of the spiritual and temporal magnates of his +realm, in summoning thither his son Pipin from the war against the +Lombards of Benevento, had shewn that he expected some more than +ordinary result from this journey to the imperial city. Alcuin +moreover, Alcuin of York, the prime minister of Charles in matters +religious and literary, appears from one of his extant letters to have +sent as a Christmas gift to his royal pupil a carefully corrected and +superbly adorned copy of the Scriptures, with the words 'ad splendorem +imperialis potenti.' This has commonly been taken for conclusive +evidence that the plan had been settled beforehand, and such it would +be were there not some reasons for giving the letter an earlier date, +and looking upon the word 'imperialis' as a mere magniloquent +flourish[66]. More weight is therefore to be laid upon the arguments +supplied by the nature of the case itself. The Pope, whatever his +confidence in the sympathy of the people, would never have ventured on +so momentous a step until previous conferences had assured him of the +feelings of the king, nor could an act for which the assembly were +evidently prepared have been kept a secret. Nevertheless, the +declaration of Charles himself can neither be evaded nor set down to +mere dissimulation. It is more just to him, and on the whole more +reasonable, to suppose that Leo, having satisfied himself of the +wishes of the Roman clergy and people as well as of the Frankish +magnates, resolved to seize an occasion and place so eminently +favourable to his long-cherished plan, while Charles, carried away by +the enthusiasm of the moment and seeing in the pontiff the prophet and +instrument of the divine will, accepted a dignity which he might have +wished to receive at some later time or in some other way. If, +therefore, any positive conclusion be adopted, it would seem to be +that Charles, although he had probably given a more or less vague +consent to the project, was surprised and disconcerted by a sudden +fulfilment which interrupted his own carefully studied designs. And +although a deed which changed the history of the world was in any case +no accident, it may well have worn to the Frankish and Roman +spectators the air of a surprise. For there were no preparations +apparent in the church; the king was not, like his Teutonic successors +in aftertime, led in procession to the pontifical throne: suddenly, at +the very moment when he rose from the sacred hollow where he had knelt +among the ever-burning lamps before the holiest of Christian +relics--the body of the prince of the Apostles--the hands of that +Apostle's representative placed upon his head the crown of glory and +poured upon him the oil of sanctification. There was something in this +to thrill the beholders with the awe of a divine presence, and make +them hail him whom that presence seemed almost visibly to consecrate, +the 'pious and peace-giving Emperor, crowned of God.' + +[Sidenote: Theories of the motives of Charles.] + +The reluctance of Charles to assume the imperial title is ascribed by +Eginhard to a fear of the jealous hostility of the Greeks, who could +not only deny his claim to it, but might disturb by their intrigues +his dominions in Italy. Accepting this statement, the problem remains, +how is this reluctance to be reconciled with those acts of his which +clearly shew him aiming at the Roman crown? An ingenious and probable, +if not certain solution, is suggested by a recent historian[67], who +argues from a minute examination of the previous policy of Charles, +that while it was the great object of his reign to obtain the crown of +the world, he foresaw at the same time the opposition of the Eastern +Court, and the want of legality from which his title would in +consequence suffer. He was therefore bent on getting from the +Byzantines, if possible, a transference of their crown; if not, at +least a recognition of his own: and he appears to have hoped to win +this by the negotiations which had been for some time kept on foot +with the Empress Irene. Just at this moment came the coronation by +Pope Leo, interrupting these deep-laid schemes, irritating the Eastern +Court, and forcing Charles into the position of a rival who could not +with dignity adopt a soothing or submissive tone. Nevertheless, he +seems not even then to have abandoned the hope of obtaining a peaceful +recognition. Irene's crimes did not prevent him, if we may credit +Theophanes[68], from seeking her hand in marriage. And when the +project of thus uniting the East and West in a single Empire, baffled +for a time by the opposition of her minister tius, was rendered +impossible by her subsequent dethronement and exile, he did not +abandon the policy of conciliation until a surly acquiescence in +rather than admission of his dignity had been won from the Byzantine +sovereigns Michael and Nicephorus[69]. + +[Sidenote: Defect in the title of the Teutonic Emperors.] + +Whether, supposing Leo to have been less precipitate, a cession of the +crown, or an acknowledgment of the right of the Romans to confer it, +could ever have been obtained by Charles is perhaps more than +doubtful. But it is clear that he judged rightly in rating its +importance high, for the want of it was the great blemish in his own +and his successors' dignity. To shew how this was so, reference must +be made to the events of A.D. 476. Both the extinction of the Western +Empire in that year and its revival in A.D. 800 have been very +generally misunderstood in modern times, and although the mistake is +not, in a certain sense, of practical importance, yet it tends to +confuse history and to blind us to the ideas of the people who acted +on both occasions. When Odoacer compelled the abdication of Romulus +Augustulus, he did not abolish the Western Empire as a separate power, +but caused it to be reunited with or sink into the Eastern, so that +from that time there was, as there had been before Diocletian, a +single undivided Roman Empire. In A.D. 800 the very memory of the +separate Western Empire, as it had stood from the death of Theodosius +till Odoacer, had, so far as appears, been long since lost, and +neither Leo nor Charles nor any one among their advisers dreamt of +reviving it. They too, like their predecessors, held the Roman Empire +to be one and indivisible, and proposed by the coronation of the +Frankish king not to proclaim a severance of the East and West, but to +reverse the act of Constantine, and make Old Rome again the civil as +well as the ecclesiastical capital of the Empire that bore her name. +Their deed was in its essence illegal, but they sought to give it +every semblance of legality: they professed and partly believed that +they were not revolting against a reigning sovereign, but legitimately +filling up the place of the deposed Constantine the Sixth; the people +of the imperial city exercising their ancient right of choice, their +bishop his right of consecration. + +Their purpose was but half accomplished. They could create but they +could not destroy: they set up an Emperor of their own, whose +representatives thenceforward ruled the West, but Constantinople +retained her sovereigns as of yore; and Christendom saw henceforth two +imperial lines, not as in the time before A.D. 476, the conjoint heads +of a single realm, but rivals and enemies, each denouncing the other +as an impostor, each professing to be the only true and lawful head of +the Christian Church and people. Although therefore we must in +practice speak during the next seven centuries (down till A.D. 1453, +when Constantinople fell before the Mohammedan) of an Eastern and a +Western Empire, the phrase is in strictness incorrect, and was one +which either court ought to have repudiated. The Byzantines always did +repudiate it; the Latins usually; although, yielding to facts, they +sometimes condescended to employ it themselves. But their theory was +always the same. Charles was held to be the legitimate successor, not +of Romulus Augustulus, but of Basil, Heraclius, Justinian, Arcadius, +and all the Eastern line; and hence it is that in all the annals of +the time and of many succeeding centuries, the name of Constantine VI, +the sixty-seventh in order from Augustus, is followed without a break +by that of Charles, the sixty-eighth. + +[Sidenote: Government of Charles as Emperor.] + +[Sidenote: His authority in matters ecclesiastical.] + +The maintenance of an imperial line among the Greeks was a continuing +protest against the validity of Charles's title. But from their enmity +he had little to fear, and in the eyes of the world he seemed to step +into their place, adding the traditional dignity which had been theirs +to the power that he already enjoyed. North Italy and Rome ceased for +ever to own the supremacy of Byzantium; and while the Eastern princes +paid a shameful tribute to the Mussulman, the Frankish Emperor--as the +recognised head of Christendom--received from the patriarch of +Jerusalem the keys of the Holy Sepulchre and the banner of Calvary; +the gift of the Sepulchre itself, says Eginhard, from Aaron king of +the Persians[70]. Out of this peaceful intercourse with the great +Khalif the romancers created a crusade. Within his own dominions his +sway assumed a more sacred character. Already had his unwearied and +comprehensive activity made him throughout his reign an ecclesiastical +no less than a civil ruler, summoning and sitting in councils, +examining and appointing bishops, settling by capitularies the +smallest points of church discipline and polity. A synod held at +Frankfort in A.D. 794 condemned the decrees of the second council of +Nica, which had been approved by Pope Hadrian, censured in violent +terms the conduct of the Byzantine rulers in suggesting them, and +without excluding images from churches, altogether forbade them to be +worshipped or even venerated. Not only did Charles preside in and +direct the deliberations of this synod, although legates from the Pope +were present--he also caused a treatise to be drawn up stating and +urging its conclusions; he pressed Hadrian to declare Constantine VI a +heretic for enouncing doctrines to which Hadrian had himself +consented. There are letters of his extant in which he lectures Pope +Leo in a tone of easy superiority, admonishes him to obey the holy +canons, and bids him pray earnestly for the success of the efforts +which it is the monarch's duty to make for the subjugation of pagans +and the establishment of sound doctrine throughout the Church. Nay, +subsequent Popes themselves[71] admitted and applauded the despotic +superintendence of matters spiritual which he was wont to exercise, +and which led some one to give him playfully a title that had once +been applied to the Pope himself, 'Episcopus episcoporum.' + +[Sidenote: The imperial office in its ecclesiastical relations.] + +[Sidenote: Capitulary of A.D. 802.] + +Acting and speaking thus when merely king, it may be thought that +Charles needed no further title to justify his power. The inference is +in truth rather the converse of this. Upon what he had done already +the imperial title must necessarily follow: the attitude of protection +and control which he held towards the Church and the Holy See +belonged, according to the ideas of the time, especially and only to +an Emperor. Therefore his coronation was the fitting completion and +legitimation of his authority, sanctifying rather than increasing it. +We have, however, one remarkable witness to the importance that was +attached to the imperial name, and the enhancement which he conceived +his office to have received from it. In a great assembly held at +Aachen, A.D. 802, the lately-crowned Emperor revised the laws of all +the races that obeyed him, endeavouring to harmonize and correct them, +and issued a capitulary singular in subject and tone[72]. All persons +within his dominions, as well ecclesiastical as civil, who have +already sworn allegiance to him as king, are thereby commanded to +swear to him afresh as Csar; and all who have never yet sworn, down +to the age of twelve, shall now take the same oath. 'At the same time +it shall be publicly explained to all what is the force and meaning of +this oath, and how much more it includes than a mere promise of +fidelity to the monarch's person. Firstly, it binds those who swear it +to live, each and every one of them, according to his strength and +knowledge, in the holy service of God; since the lord Emperor cannot +extend over all his care and discipline. Secondly, it binds them +neither by force nor fraud to seize or molest any of the goods or +servants of his crown. Thirdly, to do no violence nor treason towards +the holy Church, or to widows, or orphans, or strangers, seeing that +the lord Emperor has been appointed, after the Lord and his saints, +the protector and defender of all such.' Then in similar fashion +purity of life is prescribed to the monks; homicide, the neglect of +hospitality, and other offences are denounced, the notions of sin and +crime being intermingled and almost identified in a way to which no +parallel can be found, unless it be in the Mosaic code. There God, the +invisible object of worship, is also, though almost incidentally, the +judge and political ruler of Israel; here the whole cycle of social +and moral duty is deduced from the obligation of obedience to the +visible autocratic head of the Christian state. + +In most of Charles's words and deeds, nor less distinctly in the +writings of his adviser Alcuin, may be discerned the working of the +same theocratic ideas. Among his intimate friends he chose to be +called by the name of David, exercising in reality all the powers of +the Jewish king; presiding over this kingdom of God upon earth rather +as a second Constantine or Theodosius than in the spirit and +traditions of the Julii or the Flavii. Among his measures there are +two which in particular recall the first Christian Emperor. As +Constantine founds so Charles erects on a firmer basis the connection +of Church and State. Bishops and abbots are as essential a part of +rising feudalism as counts and dukes. Their benefices are held under +the same conditions of fealty and the service in war of their vassal +tenants, not of the spiritual person himself: they have similar rights +of jurisdiction, and are subject alike to the imperial _missi_. The +monarch tries often to restrict the clergy, as persons, to spiritual +duties; quells the insubordination of the monasteries; endeavours to +bring the seculars into a monastic life by instituting and regulating +chapters. But after granting wealth and power, the attempt was vain; +his strong hand withdrawn, they laughed at control. Again, it was by +him first that the payment of tithes, for which the priesthood had +long been pleading, was made compulsory in Western Europe, and the +support of the ministers of religion entrusted to the laws of the +state. + +[Sidenote: Influence of the imperial title in Germany and Gaul.] + +[Sidenote: Action of Charles on Europe.] + +In civil affairs also Charles acquired, with the imperial title, a new +position. Later jurists labour to distinguish his power as Roman +Emperor from that which he held already as king of the Franks and +their subject allies: they insist that his coronation gave him the +capital only, that it is absurd to talk of a Roman Empire in regions +whither the eagles had never flown[73]. In such expressions there +seems to lurk either confusion or misconception. It was not the actual +government of the city that Charles obtained in A.D. 800: that his +father had already held as Patrician and he had constantly exercised +in the same capacity: it was far more than the titular sovereignty of +Rome which had hitherto been supposed to be vested in the Byzantine +princes: it was nothing less than the headship of the world, believed +to appertain of right to the lawful Roman Emperor, whether he reigned +on the Bosphorus, the Tiber, or the Rhine. As that headship, although +never denied, had been in abeyance in the West for several centuries, +its bestowal on the king of so vast a realm was a change of the first +moment, for it made the coronation not merely a transference of the +seat of Empire, but a renewal of the Empire itself, a bringing back of +it from faith to sight, from the world of belief and theory to the +world of fact and reality. And since the powers it gave were +autocratic and unlimited, it must swallow up all minor claims and +dignities: the rights of Charles the Frankish king were merged in +those of Charles the successor of Augustus, the lord of the world. +That his imperial authority was theoretically irrespective of place is +clear from his own words and acts, and from all the monuments of that +time. He would not, indeed, have dreamed of treating the free Franks +as Justinian had treated his half-Oriental subjects, nor would the +warriors who followed his standard have brooked such an attempt. Yet +even to German eyes his position must have been altered by the halo of +vague splendour which now surrounded him; for all, even the Saxon and +the Slave, had heard of Rome's glories, and revered the name of Csar. +And in his effort to weld discordant elements into one body, to +introduce regular gradations of authority, to control the Teutonic +tendency to localization by his _missi_--officials commissioned to +traverse each some part of his dominions, reporting on and redressing +the evils they found--and by his own oft-repeated personal progresses, +Charles was guided by the traditions of the old Empire. His sway is +the revival of order and culture, fusing the West into a compact +whole, whose parts are never thenceforward to lose the marks of their +connection and their half-Roman character, gathering up all that is +left in Europe of spirit and wealth and knowledge, and hurling it with +the new force of Christianity on the infidel of the South and the +masses of untamed barbarism to the North and East. Ruling the world by +the gift of God, and the transmitted rights of the Romans and their +Csar whom God had chosen to conquer it, he renews the original +aggressive movement of the Empire: the civilized world has subdued her +invader[74], and now arms him against savagery and heathendom. Hence +the wars, not more of the sword than of the cross, against Saxons, +Avars, Slaves, Danes, Spanish Arabs, where monasteries are fortresses +and baptism the badge of submission. The overthrow of the +Irminsl[75], in the first Saxon campaign[76], sums up the changes of +seven centuries. The Romanized Teuton destroys the monument of his +country's freedom, for it is also the emblem of paganism and +barbarism. The work of Arminius is undone by his successor. + +[Sidenote: His position as Frankish king.] + +This, however, is not the only side from which Charles's policy and +character may be regarded. If the unity of the Church and the shadow +of imperial prerogative was one pillar of his power, the other was the +Frankish nation. The Empire was still military, though in a sense +strangely different from that of Julius or Severus. The warlike Franks +had permeated Western Europe; their primacy was admitted by the +kindred tribes of Lombards, Bavarians, Thuringians, Alemannians, and +Burgundians; the Slavic peoples on the borders trembled and paid +tribute; Alfonso of Asturias found in the Emperor a protector against +the infidel foe. His influence, if not his exerted power, crossed the +ocean: the kings of the Scots sent gifts and called him lord[77]: the +restoration of Eardulf to Northumbria, still more of Egbert to Wessex, +might furnish a better ground for the claim of suzerainty than many to +which his successors had afterwards recourse. As it was by Frankish +arms that this predominance in Europe which the imperial title adorned +and legalized had been won, so was the government of Charles Roman in +semblance rather than in fact. It was not by restoring the effete +mechanism of the old Empire, but by his own vigorous personal action +and that of his great officers, that he strove to administer and +reform. With every effort for a strong central government, there is no +despotism; each nation retains its laws, its hereditary chiefs, its +free popular assemblies. The conditions granted to the Saxons after +such cruel warfare, conditions so favourable that in the next century +their dukes hold the foremost place in Germany, shew how little he +desired to make the Franks a dominant caste. + +[Sidenote: General results of his Empire.] + +He repeats the attempt of Theodoric to breathe a Teutonic spirit into +Roman forms. The conception was magnificent; great results followed +its partial execution. Two causes forbade success. The one was the +ecclesiastical, especially the Papal power, apparently subject to the +temporal, but with a strong and undefined prerogative which only +waited the occasion to trample on what it had helped to raise. The +Pope might take away the crown he had bestowed, and turn against the +Emperor the Church which now obeyed him. The other was to be found in +the discordance of the component parts of the Empire. The nations were +not ripe for settled life or extensive schemes of polity; the +differences of race, language, manners, over vast and thinly-peopled +lands baffled every attempt to maintain their connection: and when +once the spell of the great mind was withdrawn, the mutually repellent +forces began to work, and the mass dissolved into that chaos out of +which it had been formed. Nevertheless, the parts separated not as +they met, but having all of them undergone influences which continued +to act when political connection had ceased. For the work of +Charles--a genius pre-eminently creative--was not lost in the anarchy +that followed: rather are we to regard his reign as the beginning of a +new era, or as laying the foundations whereon men continued for many +generations to build. + +[Sidenote: Personal habits and sympathies.] + +No claim can be more groundless than that which the modern French, the +sons of the Latinized Kelt, set up to the Teutonic Charles. At Rome he +might assume the chlamys and the sandals, but at the head of his +Frankish host he strictly adhered to the customs of his country, and +was beloved by his people as the very ideal of their own character and +habits[78]. Of strength and stature almost superhuman, in swimming and +hunting unsurpassed, steadfast and terrible in fight, to his friends +gentle and condescending, he was a Roman, much less a Gaul, in nothing +but his culture and his width of view, otherwise a Teuton. The centre +of his realm was the Rhine; his capitals Aachen[79] and +Engilenheim[80]; his army Frankish; his sympathies as they are shewn +in the gathering of the old hero-lays[81], the composition of a German +grammar, the ordinance against confining prayer to the three +languages,--Hebrew, Greek, and Latin,--were all for the race from +which he sprang, and whose advance, represented by the victory of +Austrasia, the true Frankish fatherland, over Neustria and Aquitaine, +spread a second Germanic wave over the conquered countries. + +[Sidenote: His Empire and character generally.] + +There were in his Empire, as in his own mind, two elements; those two +from the union and mutual action and reaction of which modern +civilization has arisen. These vast domains, reaching from the Ebro to +the Carpathian mountains, from the Eyder to the Liris, were all the +conquests of the Frankish sword, and were still governed almost +exclusively by viceroys and officers of Frankish blood. But the +conception of the Empire, that which made it a State and not a mere +mass of subject tribes like those great Eastern dominions which rise +and perish in a lifetime, the realms of Sesostris, or Attila, or +Timur, was inherited from an older and a grander system, was not +Teutonic but Roman--Roman in its ordered rule, in its uniformity and +precision, in its endeavour to subject the individual to the +system--Roman in its effort to realize a certain limited and human +perfection, whose very completeness shall exclude the hope of further +progress. And the bond, too, by which the Empire was held together was +Roman in its origin, although Roman in a sense which would have +surprised Trajan or Severus, could it have been foretold them. The +ecclesiastical body was already organized and centralized, and it was +in his rule over the ecclesiastical body that the secret of Charles's +power lay. Every Christian--Frank, Gaul, or Italian--owed loyalty to +the head and defender of his religion: the unity of the Empire was a +reflection of the unity of the Church. + +Into a general view of the government and policy of Charles it is not +possible here to enter. Yet his legislation, his assemblies, his +administrative system, his magnificent works, recalling the projects +of Alexander and Csar[82], the zeal for education and literature +which he shewed in the collection of manuscripts, the founding of +schools, the gathering of eminent men from all quarters around him, +cannot be appreciated apart from his position as restorer of the Roman +Empire. Like all the foremost men of our race, Charles was all great +things in one, and was so great just because the workings of his +genius were so harmonious. He was not a mere barbarian warrior any +more than he was an astute diplomatist; there is none of all his +qualities which would not be forced out of its place were we to +characterize him chiefly by it. Comparisons between famous men of +different ages are generally as worthless as they are easy: the +circumstances among which Charles lived do not permit us to institute +a minute parallel between his greatness and that of those two to whom +it is the modern fashion to compare him, nor to say whether he was or +could have become as profound a politician as Csar, as skilful a +commander as Napoleon[83]. But neither to the Roman nor to the +Corsican was he inferior in that one quality by which both he and they +chiefly impress our imaginations--that intense, vivid, unresting +energy which swept him over Europe in campaign after campaign, which +sought a field for its workings in theology, science, literature, no +less than in politics and war. As it was this wondrous activity that +made him the conqueror of Europe, so was it by the variety of his +culture that he became her civilizer. From him, in whose wide deep +mind the whole medival theory of the world and human life mirrored +itself, did medival society take the form and impress which it +retained for centuries, and the traces whereof are among us and upon +us to this day. + +The great Emperor was buried at Aachen, in that basilica which it had +been the delight of his later years to erect and adorn with the +treasures of ancient art. His tomb under the dome--where now we see an +enormous slab, with the words 'Carolo Magno'--was inscribed, '_Magnus +atque Orthodoxus Imperator_[84].' Poets, fostered by his own zeal, +sang of him who had given to the Franks the sway of Romulus[85]. The +gorgeous drapery of romance gradually wreathed itself round his name, +till by canonization as a saint he received the highest glory the +world or the Church could confer. For the Roman Church claimed then, +as she claims still, the privilege which humanity in one form or +another seems scarce able to deny itself, of raising to honours almost +divine its great departed; and as in pagan times temples had risen to +a deified Emperor, so churches were dedicated to St. Charlemagne. +Between Sanctus Carolus and Divus Julius how strange an analogy and +how strange a contrast! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[60] Before the end of the tenth century we find the monk Benedict of +Soracte ascribing to Charles an expedition to Palestine, and other +marvellous exploits. The romance which passes under the name of +Archbishop Turpin is well known. All the best stories about +Charles--and some of them are very good--may be found in the book of +the Monk of St. Gall. Many refer to his dealings with the bishops, +towards whom he is described as acting like a good-humoured +schoolmaster. + +[61] Baronius, _Ann._, ad ann. 800; Bellarminus, _De translatione +imperii Romani adversus Illyricum_; Spanhemius, _De ficta translatione +imperii_; Conringius, _De imperio Romano Germanico_. + +[62] See especially Greenwood, _Cathedra Petri_, vol. iii. p. 109. + +[63] _Ann. Lauresb. ap._ Pertz, _M. G. H._ i. + +[64] _Apud_ Pertz, _M. G. H._ i. + +[65] _Vit Pontif._ in Mur. _S. R. I._ Anastasius in reporting the +shout of the people omits the word 'Romanorum,' which the other +annalists insert after 'imperatori.' The balance of probability is +certainly in his favour. + +[66] Lorentz, _Leben Alcuins_. And cf. Dllinger, _Das Kaiserthum +Karls des Grossen und seiner Nachfolger_. + +[67] See a very learned and interesting tract entitled _Das Kaiserthum +Karls des Grossen und seiner Nachfolger_, recently published by Dr. v. +Dllinger of Munich. + +[68] [Greek: Apokrisiarioi para Karoullou kai Leontos aitoumenoi +zeuchthnai autn t Karoull pros gamon kai hensai ta Hea kai ta +Hesperia.]--Theoph. _Chron._ in _Corp. Scriptt. Hist. Byz._ + +[69] Their ambassadors at last saluted him by the desired title +'Laudes ei dixerunt imperatorem eum et basileum appellantes.' Eginh. +_Ann._, ad ann. 812. + +[70] Harun er Rashid; Eginh. _Vita Karoli_, c. 16. + +[71] So Pope John VIII in a document quoted by Waitz, _Deutsche +Verfassungs-geschichte_, iii. + +[72] Pertz, _M. G. H._ iii. (legg. I.) + +[73] Ptter, _Historical Development of the German Constitution_; so +too Conring, and esp. David Blondel, _Adv. Chiffletium_. + +[74] 'Grcia capta ferum victorem cepit,' is repeated in this conquest +of the Teuton by the Roman. + +[75] The notion that once prevailed that the Irminsl was the 'pillar +of Hermann,' set up on the spot of the defeat of Varus, is now +generally discredited. Some German antiquaries take the pillar to be a +rude figure of the native god Irmin; but nothing seems to be known of +this alleged deity: and it is more probable that the name Irmin is +after all merely an altered form of the Keltic word which appears in +Welsh as Hir Vaen, the long stone (_Maen_, a stone). Thus the pillar, +so far from being the monument of the great Teutonic victory, would +commemorate a pre-Teutonic race, whose name for it the invading tribes +adopted. The Rev. Dr. Scott, of Westminster, to whose kindness I am +indebted for this explanation, informs me that a rude ditty recording +the destruction of the pillar by Charles was current on the spot a few +years ago. It ran thus:-- + + 'Irmin slad Irmin + Sla Pfeifen sla Trommen + Der Kaiser wird kommen + Mit Hammer und Stangen + Wird Irmin uphangen.' + +[76] Eginhard, _Ann_. + +[77] Most probably the Scots of Ireland--Eginhard, _Vita Karoli_, cap. +16. + +[78] Eginhard, _Vita Karoli_, cap. 23. + +[79] Aix-la-Chapelle. See the lines in Pertz (_M. G. H._ ii.), +beginning,-- + + 'Urbs Aquensis, urbs regalis, + Sedes regni principalis, + Prima regum curia.' + +This city is commonly called Aken in English books of the seventeenth +century, and probably that ought to be taken as its proper English +name. That name has, however, fallen so entirely into disuse that I do +not venture to use it; and as the employment of the French name +Aix-la-Chapelle seems inevitably to produce the belief that the place +is and was, even in Charles's time, a French town, there is nothing +for it but to fall back upon the comparatively unfamiliar German name. + +[80] Engilenheim, or Ingelheim, lies near the left shore of the Rhine +between Mentz and Bingen. + +[81] Eginhard, _Vita Karoli_, cap. 29. + +[82] Eginhard, _Vita Karoli_, cap. 17. + +[83] It is not a little curious that of the three whom the modern +French have taken to be their national heroes all should have been +foreigners, and two foreign conquerors. + +[84] This basilica was built upon the model of the church of the Holy +Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and as it was the first church of any size +that had been erected in those regions for centuries past, it excited +extraordinary interest among the Franks and Gauls. In many of its +features it greatly resembles the beautiful church of San Vitale, at +Ravenna (also modelled upon that of the Holy Sepulchre) which was +begun by Theodoric, and completed under Justinian. Probably San Vitale +was used as a pattern by Charles's architects: we know that he caused +marble columns to be brought from Ravenna to deck the church at +Aachen. Over the tomb of Charles, below the central dome (to which the +Gothic choir we now see was added some centuries later), there hangs a +huge chandelier, the gift of Frederick Barbarossa. + +[85] 'Romuleum Francis prstitit imperium.'--Elegy of Ermoldus +Nigellus, in Pertz; _M. G. H._, t. i. So too Florus the Deacon,-- + + 'Huic etenim cessit etiam gens Romula genti, + Regnorumque simul mater Roma inclyta cessit: + Huius ibi princeps regni diademata sumpsit + Munere apostolico, Christi munimine fretus.' + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +CAROLINGIAN AND ITALIAN EMPERORS. + + +[Sidenote: Lewis the Pious.] + +[Sidenote: Partition of Verdun, A.D. 843.] + +Lewis the Pious[86], left by Charles's death sole heir, had been some +years before associated with his father in the Empire, and had been +crowned by his own hands in a way which, intentionally or not, +appeared to deny the need of Papal sanction. But it was soon seen that +the strength to grasp the sceptre had not passed with it. Too mild to +restrain his turbulent nobles, and thrown by over-conscientiousness +into the hands of the clergy, he had reigned few years when +dissensions broke out on all sides. Charles had wished the Empire to +continue one, under the supremacy of a single Emperor, but with its +several parts, Lombardy, Aquitaine, Austrasia, Bavaria, each a kingdom +held by a scion of the reigning house. A scheme dangerous in itself, +and rendered more so by the absence or neglect of regular rules of +succession, could with difficulty have been managed by a wise and firm +monarch. Lewis tried in vain to satisfy his sons (Lothar, Lewis, and +Charles) by dividing and redividing: they rebelled; he was deposed, +and forced by the bishops to do penance; again restored, but without +power, a tool in the hands of contending factions. On his death the +sons flew to arms, and the first of the dynastic quarrels of modern +Europe was fought out on the field of Fontenay. In the partition +treaty of Verdun which followed, the Teutonic principle of equal +division among heirs triumphed over the Roman one of the transmission +of an indivisible Empire: the practical sovereignty of all three +brothers was admitted in their respective territories, a barren +precedence only reserved to Lothar, with the imperial title which he, +as the eldest, already enjoyed. A more important result was the +separation of the Gaulish and German nationalities. Their difference +of feeling, shewn already in the support of Lewis the Pious by the +Germans against the Gallo-Franks and the Church[87], took now a +permanent shape: modern Germany proclaims the era of A.D. 843 the +beginning of her national existence, and celebrated its thousandth +anniversary twenty-seven years ago. To Charles the Bald was given +Francia Occidentalis, that is to say, Neustria and Aquitaine; to +Lothar, who as Emperor must possess the two capitals, Rome and Aachen, +a long and narrow kingdom stretching from the North Sea to the +Mediterranean, and including the northern half of Italy: Lewis +(surnamed, from his kingdom, the German) received all east of the +Rhine, Franks, Saxons, Bavarians, Austria, Carinthia, with possible +supremacies over Czechs and Moravians beyond. Throughout these regions +German was spoken; through Charles's kingdom a corrupt tongue, equally +removed from Latin and from modern French. Lothar's, being mixed and +having no national basis, was the weakest of the three, and soon +dissolved into the separate sovereignties of Italy, Burgundy, and +Lotharingia, or, as we call it, Lorraine. + +[Sidenote: End of the Carolingian Empire of the West, A.D. 888.] + +On the tangled history of the period that follows it is not possible +to do more than touch. After passing from one branch of the +Carolingian line to another[88], the imperial sceptre was at last +possessed and disgraced by Charles the Fat, who united all the +dominions of his great-grandfather. This unworthy heir could not avail +himself of recovered territory to strengthen or defend the expiring +monarchy. He was driven out of Italy in A.D. 887, and his death in 888 +has been usually taken as the date of the extinction of the +Carolingian Empire of the West. The Germans, still attached to the +ancient line, chose Arnulf, an illegitimate Carolingian, for their +king: he entered Italy and was crowned Emperor by his partizan Pope +Formosus, in 894. But Germany, divided and helpless, was in no +condition to maintain her power over the southern lands: Arnulf +retreated in haste, leaving Rome and Italy to sixty years of stormy +independence. + +That time was indeed the nadir of order and civilization. From all +sides the torrent of barbarism which Charles the Great had stemmed was +rushing down upon his empire. The Saracen wasted the Mediterranean +coasts, and sacked Rome herself. The Dane and Norseman swept the +Atlantic and the North Sea, pierced France and Germany by their +rivers, burning, slaying, carrying off into captivity: pouring through +the Straits of Gibraltar, they fell upon Provence and Italy. By land, +while Wends and Czechs and Obotrites threw off the German yoke and +threatened the borders, the wild Hungarian bands, pressing in from the +steppes of the Caspian, dashed over Germany like the flying spray of a +new wave of barbarism, and carried the terror of their battleaxes to +the Apennines and the ocean. Under such strokes the already loosened +fabric swiftly dissolved. No one thought of common defence or wide +organization: the strong built castles, the weak became their +bondsmen, or took shelter under the cowl: the governor--count, abbot, +or bishop--tightened his grasp, turned a delegated into an +independent, a personal into a territorial authority, and hardly owned +a distant and feeble suzerain. The grand vision of a universal +Christian empire was utterly lost in the isolation, the antagonism, +the increasing localization of all powers: it might seem to have been +but a passing gleam from an older and better world. + +[Sidenote: The German Kingdom.] + +[Sidenote: Henry the Fowler.] + +In Germany, the greatness of the evil worked at last its cure. When +the male line of the eastern branch of the Carolingians had ended in +Lewis (surnamed the Child), son of Arnulf, the chieftains chose and +the people accepted Conrad the Franconian, and after him Henry the +Saxon duke, both representing the female line of Charles. Henry laid +the foundations of a firm monarchy, driving back the Magyars and +Wends, recovering Lotharingia, founding towns to be centres of orderly +life and strongholds against Hungarian irruptions. He had meant to +claim at Rome his kingdom's rights, rights which Conrad's weakness had +at least asserted by the demand of tribute; but death overtook him, +and the plan was left to be fulfilled by Otto his son. + +[Sidenote: Otto the Great.] + +The Holy Roman Empire, taking the name in the sense which it commonly +bore in later centuries, as denoting the sovereignty of Germany and +Italy vested in a Germanic prince, is the creation of Otto the Great. +Substantially, it is true, as well as technically, it was a +prolongation of the Empire of Charles; and it rested (as will be shewn +in the sequel) upon ideas essentially the same as those which brought +about the coronation of A.D. 800. But a revival is always more or less +a revolution: the one hundred and fifty years that had passed since +the death of Charles had brought with them changes which made Otto's +position in Germany and Europe less commanding and less autocratic +than his predecessor's. With narrower geographical limits, his Empire +had a less plausible claim to be the heir of Rome's universal +dominion; and there were also differences in its inner character and +structure sufficient to justify us in considering Otto (as he is +usually considered by his countrymen) not a mere successor after an +interregnum, but rather a second founder of the imperial throne in the +West. + +Before Otto's descent into Italy is described, something must be said +of the condition of that country, where circumstances had again made +possible the plan of Theodoric, permitted it to become an independent +kingdom, and attached the imperial title to its sovereign. + +[Sidenote: Italian Emperors.] + +The bestowal of the purple on Charles the Great was not really that +'translation of the Empire from the Greeks to the Franks,' which it +was afterwards described as having been. It was not meant to settle +the office in one nation or one dynasty: there was but an extension of +that principle of the equality of all Romans which had made Trajan and +Maximin Emperors. The '_arcanum imperii_,' whereof Tacitus speaks, +'_posse principem alibi quam Rom fieri_[89],' had long before become +_alium quam Romanum_; and now, the names of Roman and Christian having +grown co-extensive, a barbarian chieftain was, as a Roman citizen, +eligible to the office of Roman Emperor. Treating him as such, the +people and pontiff of the capital had in the vacancy of the Eastern +throne asserted their ancient rights of election, and while attempting +to reverse the act of Constantine, had re-established the division of +Valentinian. The dignity was therefore in strictness personal to +Charles; in point of fact, and by consent, hereditarily transmissible, +just as it had formerly become in the families of Constantine and +Theodosius. To the Frankish crown or nation it was by no means legally +attached, though they might think it so; it had passed to their king +only because he was the greatest European potentate, and might equally +well pass to some stronger race, if any such appeared. Hence, when the +line of Carolingian Emperors ended in Charles the Fat, the rights of +Rome and Italy might be taken to revive, and there was nothing to +prevent the citizens from choosing whom they would. At that memorable +era (A.D. 888) the four kingdoms which this prince had united fell +asunder; West France, where Odo or Eudes then began to reign, was +never again united to Germany; East France (Germany) chose Arnulf; +Burgundy[90] split up into two principalities, in one of which +(Transjurane) Rudolf proclaimed himself king, while the other +(Cisjurane with Provence) submitted to Boso[91]; while Italy was +divided between the parties of Berengar of Friuli and Guido of +Spoleto. The former was chosen king by the estates of Lombardy; the +latter, and on his speedy death his son Lambert, was crowned Emperor +by the Pope. Arnulf's descent chased them away and vindicated the +claims of the Franks, but on his flight Italy and the anti-German +faction at Rome became again free. Berengar was made king of Italy, +and afterwards Emperor. Lewis of Burgundy, son of Boso, renounced his +fealty to Arnulf, and procured the imperial dignity, whose vain title +he retained through years of misery and exile, till A.D. 928[92]. None +of these Emperors were strong enough to rule well even in Italy; +beyond it they were not so much as recognized. The crown had become a +bauble with which unscrupulous Popes dazzled the vanity of princes +whom they summoned to their aid, and soothed the credulity of their +more honest supporters. The demoralization and confusion of Italy, the +shameless profligacy of Rome and her pontiffs during this period, were +enough to prevent a true Italian kingdom from being built up on the +basis of Roman choice and national unity. Italian indeed it can +scarcely be called, for these Emperors were still in blood and manners +Teutonic, and akin rather to their Transalpine enemies than their +Romanic subjects. But Italian it might soon have become under a +vigorous rule which should have organized it within and knit it +together to resist attacks from without. And therefore the attempt to +establish such a kingdom is remarkable, for it might have had great +consequences; might, if it had prospered, have spared Italy much +suffering and Germany endless waste of strength and blood. He who from +the summit of Milan cathedral sees across the misty plain the gleaming +turrets of its icy wall sweep in a great arc from North to West, may +well wonder that a land which nature has so severed from its +neighbours should, since history begins, have been always the victim +of their intrusive tyranny. + +[Sidenote: Adelheid Queen of Italy.] + +[Sidenote: Otto's first expedition into Italy, A.D. 951.] + +[Sidenote: Invitation sent by the Pope to Otto.] + +[Sidenote: Motives for reviving the Empire.] + +In A.D. 924 died Berengar, the last of these phantom Emperors. After +him Hugh of Burgundy, and Lothar his son, reigned as kings of Italy, +if puppets in the hands of a riotous aristocracy can be so called. +Rome was meanwhile ruled by the consul or senator Alberic[93], who had +renewed her never quite extinct republican institutions, and in the +degradation of the papacy was almost absolute in the city. Lothar +dying, his widow Adelheid[94] was sought in marriage by Adalbert son +of Berengar II, the new Italian monarch. A gleam of romance is shed on +the Empire's revival by her beauty and her adventures. Rejecting the +odious alliance, she was seized by Berengar, escaped with difficulty +from the loathsome prison where his barbarity had confined her, and +appealed to Otto the German king, the model of that knightly virtue +which was beginning to shew itself after the fierce brutality of the +last age. He listened, descended into Lombardy by the Adige valley, +espoused the injured queen, and forced Berengar to hold his kingdom as +a vassal of the East Frankish crown. That prince was turbulent and +faithless; new complaints reached ere long his liege lord, and envoys +from the Pope offered Otto the imperial title if he would re-visit and +pacify Italy. The proposal was well-timed. Men still thought, as they +had thought in the centuries before the Carolingians, that the Empire +was suspended, not extinct; and the desire to see its effective power +restored, the belief that without it the world could never be right, +might seem better grounded than it had been before the coronation of +Charles. Then the imperial name had recalled only the faint memories +of Roman majesty and order; now it was also associated with the golden +age of the first Frankish Emperor, when a single firm and just hand +had guided the state, reformed the church, repressed the excesses of +local power: when Christianity had advanced against heathendom, +civilizing as she went, fearing neither Hun nor Paynim. One annalist +tells us that Charles was elected 'lest the pagans should insult the +Christians, if the name of Emperor should have ceased among the +Christians[95].' The motive would be bitterly enforced by the +calamities of the last fifty years. In a time of disintegration, +confusion, strife, all the longings of every wiser and better soul for +unity, for peace and law, for some bond to bring Christian men and +Christian states together against the common enemy of the faith, were +but so many cries for the restoration of the Roman Empire[96]. These +were the feelings that on the field of Merseburg broke forth in the +shout of 'Henry the Emperor:' these the hopes of the Teutonic host +when after the great deliverance of the Lechfeld they greeted Otto, +conqueror of the Magyars, as 'Imperator Augustus, Pater Patri[97].' + +[Sidenote: Condition of Italy.] + +The anarchy which an Emperor was needed to heal was at its worst in +Italy, desolated by the feuds of a crowd of petty princes. A +succession of infamous Popes, raised by means yet more infamous, the +lovers and sons of Theodora and Marozia, had disgraced the chair of +the Apostle, and though Rome herself might be lost to decency, Western +Christendom was roused to anger and alarm. Men had not yet learned to +satisfy their consciences by separating the person from the office. +The rule of Alberic had been succeeded by the wildest confusion, and +demands were raised for the renewal of that imperial authority which +all admitted in theory[98], and which nothing but the resolute +opposition of Alberic himself had prevented Otto from claiming in 951. +From the Byzantine Empire, whither Italy was more than once tempted to +turn, nothing could be hoped; its dangers from foreign enemies were +aggravated by the plots of the court and the seditions of the capital; +it was becoming more and more alienated from the West by the Photian +schism and the question regarding the Procession of the Holy Ghost, +which that quarrel had started. Germany was extending and +consolidating herself, had escaped domestic perils, and might think of +reviving ancient claims. No one could be more willing to revive them +than Otto the Great. His ardent spirit, after waging a bold and +successful struggle against the turbulent magnates of his German +realm, had engaged him in wars with the surrounding nations, and was +now captivated by the vision of a wider sway and a loftier +world-embracing dignity. Nor was the prospect which the papal offer +opened up less welcome to his people. Aachen, their capital, was the +ancestral home of the house of Pipin: their sovereign, although +himself a Saxon by race, titled himself king of the Franks, in +opposition to the Frankish rulers of the Western branch, whose +Teutonic character was disappearing among the Romans of Gaul; they +held themselves in every way the true representatives of the +Carolingian power, and accounted the period since Arnulf's death +nothing but an interregnum which had suspended but not impaired their +rights over Rome. 'For so long,' says a writer of the time, 'as there +remain kings of the Franks, so long will the dignity of the Roman +Empire not wholly perish, seeing that it will abide in its +kings[99].' The recovery of Italy was therefore to German eyes a +righteous as well as a glorious design: approved by the Teutonic +Church which had lately been negotiating with Rome on the subject of +missions to the heathen; embraced by the people, who saw in it an +accession of strength to their young kingdom. Everything smiled on +Otto's enterprise, and the connection which was destined to bring so +much strife and woe to Germany and to Italy was welcomed by the wisest +of both countries as the beginning of a better era. + +[Sidenote: Descent of Otto the Great into Italy.] + +[Sidenote: His coronation at Rome, A.D. 962.] + +Whatever were Otto's own feelings, whether or not he felt that he was +sacrificing, as modern writers have thought that he did sacrifice, the +greatness of his German kingdom to the lust of universal dominion, he +shewed no hesitation in his acts. Descending from the Alps with an +overpowering force, he was acknowledged as king of Italy at +Pavia[100]; and, having first taken an oath to protect the Holy See +and respect the liberties of the city, advanced to Rome. There, with +Adelheid his queen, he was crowned by John XII, on the day of the +Purification, the second of February, A.D. 962. The details of his +election and coronation are unfortunately still more scanty than in +the case of his great predecessor. Most of our authorities represent +the act as of the Pope's favour[101], yet it is plain that the consent +of the people was still thought an essential part of the ceremony, and +that Otto rested after all on his host of conquering Saxons. Be this +as it may, there was neither question raised nor opposition made in +Rome; the usual courtesies and promises were exchanged between Emperor +and Pope, the latter owning himself a subject, and the citizens swore +for the future to elect no pontiff without Otto's consent. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[86] Usage has established this translation of 'Hludowicus Pius,' but +'gentle' or 'kind-hearted' would better express the meaning of the +epithet. + +[87] Von Ranke discovers in this early traces of the aversion of the +Germans to the pretensions of the spiritual power.--_History of +Germany during the Reformation_: Introduction. + +[88] Singularly enough, when one thinks of modern claims, the dynasty +of France (Francia occidentalis) had the least share of it. Charles +the Bald was the only West Frankish Emperor, and reigned a very short +time. + +[89] Tac. _Hist._ i. 4. + +[90] For an account of the various applications of the name Burgundy, +see Appendix, Note A. + +[91] The accession of Boso took place in A.D. 877, eleven years before +Charles the Fat's death. But the new kingdom could not be considered +legally settled until the latter date, and its establishment is at any +rate a part of that general break-up of the great Carolingian empire +whereof A.D. 888 marks the crisis. See Appendix A at the end. + +It is a curious mark of the reverence paid to the Carolingian blood, +that Boso, a powerful and ambitious prince, seems to have chiefly +rested his claims on the fact that he was husband of Irmingard, +daughter of the Emperor Lewis II. Baron de Gingins la Sarraz quotes a +charter of his (drawn up when he seems to have doubted whether to call +himself king) which begins, 'Ego Boso Dei gratia id quod sum, et +coniux mea Irmingardis proles imperialis.' + +[92] Lewis had been surprised by Berengar at Verona, blinded, and +forced to take refuge in his own kingdom of Provence. + +[93] Alberic is called variously senator, consul, patrician, and +prince of the Romans. + +[94] Adelheid was daughter of Rudolf, king of Trans-Jurane Burgundy. +She was at this time in her nineteenth year. + +[95] _Chron. Moiss._, in Pertz; _M. G. H._ i. 305. + +[96] See especially the poem of Florus the Deacon (printed in the +Benedictine collection and in Migne), a bitter lament over the +dissolution of the Carolingian Empire. It is too long for quotation. I +give four lines here:-- + + 'Quid faciant populi quos ingens alluit Hister, + Quos Rhenus Rhodanusque rigant, Ligerisve, Padusve, + Quos omnes dudum tenuit concordia nexos, + Foedere nunc rupto divortia moesta fatigant.' + +[97] Witukind, _Annales_, in Pertz. It may, however, be doubted +whether the annalist is not here giving a very free rendering of the +triumphant cries of the German army. + +[98] Cf. esp. the '_Libellus de imperatoria potestate in urbe Roma_,' +in Pertz. + +[99] 'Licet videamus Romanorum regnum in maxima parte jam destructum, +tamen quamdiu reges Francorum duraverint qui Romanum imperium tenere +debent, dignitas Romani imperii ex toto non peribit, quia stabit in +regibus suis.'--_Liber de Antichristo_, addressed by Adso, abbot of +Moutier-en-Der, to queen Gerberga (circa A.D. 950). + +[100] From the money which Otto struck in Italy, it seems probable +that he did occasionally use the title of king of Italy or of the +Lombards. That he was crowned can hardly be considered quite certain. + +[101] 'A papa imperator ordinatur,' says Hermannus Contractus. +'Dominum Ottonem, ad hoc usque vocatum regem, non solum Romano sed et +poene totius Europ populo acclamante imperatorem consecravit +Augustum.'--_Annal. Quedlinb._, ad ann. 962. 'Benedictionem a domno +apostolico Iohanne, cuius rogatione huc venit, cum sua coniuge promeruit +imperialem ac patronus Roman effectus est ecclesi.'--Thietmar. +'Acclamatione totius Romani populi ab apostolico Iohanne, filio +Alberici, imperator et Augustus vocatur et ordinatur.'--Continuator +Reginonis. And similarly the other annalists. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THEORY OF THE MEDIVAL EMPIRE. + + +[Sidenote: Why the revival of the Empire was desired.] + +These were the events and circumstances of the time: let us now look +at the causes. The restoration of the Empire by Charles may seem to be +sufficiently accounted for by the width of his conquests, by the +peculiar connection which already subsisted between him and the Roman +Church, by his commanding personal character, by the temporary vacancy +of the Byzantine throne. The causes of its revival under Otto must be +sought deeper. Making every allowance for the favouring incidents +which have already been dwelt upon, there must have been some further +influence at work to draw him and his successors, Saxon and Frankish +kings, so far from home in pursuit of a barren crown, to lead the +Italians to accept the dominion of a stranger and a barbarian, to make +the Empire itself appear through the whole Middle Age not what it +seems now, a gorgeous anachronism, but an institution divine and +necessary, having its foundations in the very nature and order of +things. The empire of the elder Rome had been splendid in its life, +yet its judgment was written in the misery to which it had brought the +provinces, and the helplessness that had invited the attacks of the +barbarian. Now, as we at least can see, it had long been dead, and the +course of events was adverse to its revival. Its actual +representatives, the Roman people, were a turbulent rabble, sunk in a +profligacy notorious even in that guilty age. Yet not the less for all +this did men cling to the idea, and strive through long ages to stem +the irresistible time-current, fondly believing that they were +breasting it even while it was sweeping them ever faster and faster +away from the old order into a region of new thoughts, new feelings, +new forms of life. Not till the days of the Reformation was the +illusion dispelled. + +[Sidenote: Medival theories.] + +The explanation is to be found in the state of the human mind during +these centuries. The Middle Ages were essentially unpolitical. Ideas +as familiar to the commonwealths of antiquity as to ourselves, ideas +of the common good as the object of the State, of the rights of the +people, of the comparative merits of different forms of government, +were to them, though sometimes carried out in fact, in their +speculative form unknown, perhaps incomprehensible. Feudalism was the +one great institution to which those times gave birth, and feudalism +was a social and a legal system, only indirectly and by consequence a +political one. Yet the human mind, so far from being idle, was in +certain directions never more active; nor was it possible for it to +remain without general conceptions regarding the relation of men to +each other in this world. Such conceptions were neither made an +expression of the actual present condition of things nor drawn from an +induction of the past; they were partly inherited from the system that +had preceded, partly evolved from the principles of that metaphysical +theology which was ripening into scholasticism[102]. Now the two great +ideas which expiring antiquity bequeathed to the ages that followed +were those of a World-Monarchy and a World-Religion. + +[Sidenote: The World-Religion.] + +Before the conquests of Rome, men, with little knowledge of each +other, with no experience of wide political union[103], had held +differences of race to be natural and irremovable barriers. Similarly, +religion appeared to them a matter purely local and national; and as +there were gods of the hills and gods of the valleys, of the land and +of the sea, so each tribe rejoiced in its peculiar deities, looking on +the natives of another country who worshipped other gods as Gentiles, +natural foes, unclean beings. Such feelings, if keenest in the East, +frequently shew themselves in the early records of Greece and Italy: +in Homer the hero who wanders over the unfruitful sea glories in +sacking the cities of the stranger[104]; the primitive Latins have the +same word for a foreigner and an enemy: the exclusive systems of +Egypt, Hindostan, China, are only more vehement expressions of the +belief which made Athenian philosophers look on a state of war between +Greeks and barbarians as natural[105], and defend slavery on the same +ground of the original diversity of the races that rule and the races +that serve. The Roman dominion giving to many nations a common speech +and law, smote this feeling on its political side; Christianity more +effectually banished it from the soul by substituting for the variety +of local pantheons the belief in one God, before whom all men are +equal[106]. + +[Sidenote: Coincides with the World-Empire.] + +It is on the religious life that nations repose. Because divinity was +divided, humanity had been divided likewise; the doctrine of the unity +of God now enforced the unity of man, who had been created in His +image[107]. The first lesson of Christianity was love, a love that was +to join in one body those whom suspicion and prejudice and pride of +race had hitherto kept apart. There was thus formed by the new +religion a community of the faithful, a Holy Empire, designed to +gather all men into its bosom, and standing opposed to the manifold +polytheisms of the older world, exactly as the universal sway of the +Csars was contrasted with the innumerable kingdoms and republics that +had gone before it. The analogy of the two made them appear parts of +one great world-movement toward unity: the coincidence of their +boundaries, which had begun before Constantine, lasted long enough +after him to associate them indissolubly together, and make the names +of Roman and Christian convertible[108]. Oecumenical councils, where +the whole spiritual body gathered itself from every part of the +temporal realm under the presidency of the temporal head, presented +the most visible and impressive examples of their connection[109]. The +language of civil government was, throughout the West, that of the +sacred writings and of worship; the greatest mind of his generation +consoled the faithful for the fall of their earthly commonwealth Rome, +by describing to them its successor and representative, the 'city +which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God[110].' + +[Sidenote: Preservation of the unity of the Church.] + +[Sidenote: Medival Theology requires One Visible Catholic Church.] + +Of these two parallel unities, that of the political and that of the +religious society, meeting in the higher unity of all Christians, +which may be indifferently called Catholicity or Romanism (since in +that day those words would have had the same meaning), that only which +had been entrusted to the keeping of the Church survived the storms of +the fifth century. Many reasons may be assigned for the firmness with +which she clung to it. Seeing one institution after another falling to +pieces around her, seeing how countries and cities were being severed +from each other by the irruption of strange tribes and the increasing +difficulty of communication, she strove to save religious fellowship +by strengthening the ecclesiastical organization, by drawing tighter +every bond of outward union. Necessities of faith were still more +powerful. Truth, it was said, is one, and as it must bind into one +body all who hold it, so it is only by continuing in that body that +they can preserve it. Thus with the growing rigidity of dogma, which +may be traced from the council of Jerusalem to the council of Trent, +there had arisen the idea of supplementing revelation by tradition as +a source of doctrine, of exalting the universal conscience and belief +above the individual, and allowing the soul to approach God only +through the universal consciousness, represented by the sacerdotal +order: principles still maintained by one branch of the Church, and +for some at least of which far weightier reasons could be assigned +then, in the paucity of written records and the blind ignorance of the +mass of the people, than any to which their modern advocates have +recourse. There was another cause yet more deeply seated, and which it +is hard adequately to describe. It was not exactly a want of faith in +the unseen, nor a shrinking fear which dared not look forth on the +universe alone: it was rather the powerlessness of the untrained mind +to realize the idea as an idea and live in it: it was the tendency to +see everything in the concrete, to turn the parable into a fact, the +doctrine into its most literal application, the symbol into the +essential ceremony; the tendency which intruded earthly Madonnas and +saints between the worshipper and the spiritual Deity, and could +satisfy its devotional feelings only by visible images even of these: +which conceived of man's aspirations and temptations as the result of +the direct action of angels and devils: which expressed the strivings +of the soul after purity by the search for the Holy Grail: which in +the Crusades sent myriads to win at Jerusalem by earthly arms the +sepulchre of Him whom they could not serve in their own spirit nor +approach by their own prayers. And therefore it was that the whole +fabric of medival Christianity rested upon the idea of the Visible +Church. Such a Church could be in nowise local or limited. To +acquiesce in the establishment of National Churches would have +appeared to those men, as it must always appear when scrutinized, +contradictory to the nature of a religious body, opposed to the genius +of Christianity, defensible, when capable of defence at all, only as a +temporary resource in the presence of insuperable difficulties. Had +this plan, on which so many have dwelt with complacency in later +times, been proposed either to the primitive Church in its adversity +or to the dominant Church of the ninth century, it would have been +rejected with horror; but since there were as yet no nations, the plan +was one which did not and could not present itself. The Visible Church +was therefore the Church Universal, the whole congregation of +Christian men dispersed throughout the world. + +[Sidenote: Idea of political unity upheld by the clergy.] + +Now of the Visible Church the emblem and stay was the priesthood; and +it was by them, in whom dwelt whatever of learning and thought was +left in Europe, that the second great idea whereof mention has been +made--the belief in one universal temporal state--was preserved. As a +matter of fact, that state had perished out of the West, and it might +seem their interest to let its memory be lost. They, however, did not +so calculate their interest. So far from feeling themselves opposed to +the civil authority in the seventh and eighth centuries, as they came +to do in the twelfth and thirteenth, the clergy were fully persuaded +that its maintenance was indispensable to their own welfare. They +were, be it remembered, at first Romans themselves living by the Roman +law, using Latin as their proper tongue, and imbued with the idea of +the historical connection of the two powers. And by them chiefly was +that idea expounded and enforced for many generations, by none more +earnestly than by Alcuin of York, the adviser of Charles[111]. The +limits of those two powers had become confounded in practice: bishops +were princes, the chief ministers of the sovereign, sometimes even the +leaders of their flocks in war: kings were accustomed to summon +ecclesiastical councils, and appoint to ecclesiastical offices. + +[Sidenote: Influence of the metaphysics of the time upon the theory of +a World-State.] + +But, like the unity of the Church, the doctrine of a universal +monarchy had a theoretical as well as an historical basis, and may be +traced up to those metaphysical ideas out of which the system we call +Realism developed itself. The beginnings of philosophy in those times +were logical; and its first efforts were to distribute and classify: +system, subordination, uniformity, appeared to be that which was most +desirable in thought as in life. The search after causes became a +search after principles of classification; since simplicity and truth +were held to consist not in an analysis of thought into its elements, +nor in an observation of the process of its growth, but rather in a +sort of genealogy of notions, a statement of the relations of classes +as containing or excluding each other. These classes, genera or +species, were not themselves held to be conceptions formed by the mind +from phenomena, nor mere accidental aggregates of objects grouped +under and called by some common name; they were real things, existing +independently of the individuals who composed them, recognized rather +than created by the human mind. In this view, Humanity is an essential +quality present in all men, and making them what they are: as regards +it they are therefore not many but one, the differences between +individuals being no more than accidents. The whole truth of their +being lies in the universal property, which alone has a permanent and +independent existence. The common nature of the individuals thus +gathered into one Being is typified in its two aspects, the spiritual +and the secular, by two persons, the World-Priest and the +World-Monarch, who present on earth a similitude of the Divine unity. +For, as we have seen, it was only through its concrete and symbolic +expression that a thought could then be apprehended[112]. Although it +was to unity in religion that the clerical body was both by doctrine +and by practice attached, they found this inseparable from the +corresponding unity in politics. They saw that every act of man has a +social and public as well as a moral and personal bearing, and +concluded that the rules which directed and the powers which rewarded +or punished must be parallel and similar, not so much two powers as +different manifestations of one and the same. That the souls of all +Christian men should be guided by one hierarchy, rising through +successive grades to a supreme head, while for their deeds they were +answerable to a multitude of local, unconnected, mutually +irresponsible potentates, appeared to them necessarily opposed to the +Divine order. As they could not imagine, nor value if they had +imagined, a communion of the saints without its expression in a +visible Church, so in matters temporal they recognized no brotherhood +of spirit without the bonds of form, no universal humanity save in the +image of a universal State[113]. In this, as in so much else, the men +of the Middle Ages were the slaves of the letter, unable, with all +their aspirations, to rise out of the concrete, and prevented by the +very grandeur and boldness of their conceptions from carrying them out +in practice against the enormous obstacles that met them. + +[Sidenote: The ideal state supposed to be embodied in the Roman +Empire.] + +[Sidenote: Constantine's Donation.] + +Deep as this belief had struck its roots, it might never have risen to +maturity nor sensibly affected the progress of events, had it not +gained in the pre-existence of the monarchy of Rome a definite shape +and a definite purpose. It was chiefly by means of the Papacy that +this came to pass. When under Constantine the Christian Church was +framing her organization on the model of the state which protected +her, the bishop of the metropolis perceived and improved the analogy +between himself and the head of the civil government. The notion that +the chair of Peter was the imperial throne of the Church had dawned +upon the Popes very early in their history, and grew stronger every +century under the operation of causes already specified. Even before +the Empire of the West had fallen, St. Leo the Great could boast that +to Rome, exalted by the preaching of the chief of the Apostles to be a +holy nation, a chosen people, a priestly and royal city, there had +been appointed a spiritual dominion wider than her earthly sway[114]. +In A.D. 476 Rome ceased to be the political capital of the Western +countries, and the Papacy, inheriting no small part of the Emperor's +power, drew to herself the reverence which the name of the city still +commanded, until by the middle of the eighth, or, at latest, of the +ninth century she had perfected in theory a scheme which made her the +exact counterpart of the departed despotism, the centre of the +hierarchy, absolute mistress of the Christian world. The character of +that scheme is best set forth in the singular document, most +stupendous of all the medival forgeries, which under the name of the +Donation of Constantine commanded for seven centuries the +unquestioning belief of mankind[115]. Itself a portentous falsehood, +it is the most unimpeachable evidence of the thoughts and beliefs of +the priesthood which framed it, some time between the middle of the +eighth and the middle of the tenth century. It tells how Constantine +the Great, cured of his leprosy by the prayers of Sylvester, resolved, +on the fourth day from his baptism, to forsake the ancient seat for a +new capital on the Bosphorus, lest the continuance of the secular +government should cramp the freedom of the spiritual, and how he +bestowed therewith upon the Pope and his successors the sovereignty +over Italy and the countries of the West. But this is not all, +although this is what historians, in admiration of its splendid +audacity, have chiefly dwelt upon. The edict proceeds to grant to the +Roman pontiff and his clergy a series of dignities and privileges, all +of them enjoyed by the Emperor and his senate, all of them shewing the +same desire to make the pontifical a copy of the imperial office. The +Pope is to inhabit the Lateran palace, to wear the diadem, the collar, +the purple cloak, to carry the sceptre, and to be attended by a body +of chamberlains. Similarly his clergy are to ride on white horses and +receive the honours and immunities of the senate and patricians[116]. + +[Sidenote: Interdependence of Papacy and Empire.] + +The notion which prevails throughout, that the chief of the religious +society must be in every point conformed to his prototype the chief of +the civil, is the key to all the thoughts and acts of the Roman +clergy; not less plainly seen in the details of papal ceremonial than +it is in the gigantic scheme of papal legislation. The Canon law was +intended by its authors to reproduce and rival the imperial +jurisprudence; a correspondence was traced between its divisions and +those of the Corpus Juris Civilis, and Gregory IX, who was the first +to consolidate it into a code, sought the fame and received the title +of the Justinian of the Church. But the wish of the clergy was always, +even in the weakness or hostility of the temporal power, to imitate +and rival, not to supersede it; since they held it the necessary +complement of their own, and thought the Christian people equally +imperilled by the fall of either. Hence the reluctance of Gregory II +to break with the Byzantine princes[117], and the maintenance of their +titular sovereignty till A.D. 800: hence the part which the Holy See +played in transferring the crown to Charles, the first sovereign of +the West capable of fulfilling its duties; hence the grief with which +its weakness under his successors was seen, the gladness when it +descended to Otto as representative of the Frankish kingdom. + +[Sidenote: The Roman Empire revived in a new character.] + +Up to the era of A.D. 800 there had been at Constantinople a +legitimate historical prolongation of the Roman Empire. Technically, +as we have seen, the election of Charles, after the deposition of +Constantine VI, was itself a prolongation, and maintained the old +rights and forms in their integrity. But the Pope, though he knew it +not, did far more than effect a change of dynasty when he rejected +Irene and crowned the barbarian chief. Restorations are always +delusive. As well might one hope to stop the earth's course in her +orbit as to arrest that ceaseless change and movement in human affairs +which forbids an old institution, suddenly transplanted into a new +order of things, from filling its ancient place and serving its former +ends. The dictatorship at Rome in the second Punic war was not more +unlike the dictatorships of Sulla and Csar, nor the States-general of +Louis XIII to the assembly which his unhappy descendant convoked in +1789, than was the imperial office of Theodosius to that of Charles +the Frank; and the seal, ascribed to A.D. 800, which bears the legend +'Renovatio Romani Imperii[118],' expresses, more justly perhaps than +was intended by its author, a second birth of the Roman Empire. + +It is not, however, from Carolingian times that a proper view of this +new creation can be formed. That period was one of transition, of +fluctuation and uncertainty, in which the office, passing from one +dynasty and country to another, had not time to acquire a settled +character and claims, and was without the power that would have +enabled it to support them. From the coronation of Otto the Great a +new period begins, in which the ideas that have been described as +floating in men's minds took clearer shape, and attached to the +imperial title a body of definite rights and definite duties. It is +this new phase, the Holy Empire, that we have now to consider. + +[Sidenote: Position and functions of the Emperor.] + +[Sidenote: Correspondence and harmony of the spiritual and temporal +powers.] + +The realistic philosophy, and the needs of a time when the only notion +of civil or religious order was submission to authority, required the +World-State to be a monarchy; tradition, as well as the continuance of +certain institutions, gave the monarch the name of Roman Emperor. A +king could not be universal sovereign, for there were many kings: the +Emperor must be, for there had never been but one Emperor; he had in +older and brighter days been the actual lord of the civilized world; +the seat of his power was placed beside that of the spiritual autocrat +of Christendom[119]. His functions will be seen most clearly if we +deduce them from the leading principle of medival mythology, the +exact correspondence of earth and heaven. As God, in the midst of the +celestial hierarchy, ruled blessed spirits in paradise, so the Pope, +His Vicar, raised above priests, bishops, metropolitans, reigned over +the souls of mortal men below. But as God is Lord of earth as well as +of heaven, so must he (the _Imperator coelestis_[t]) be represented by +a second earthly viceroy, the Emperor (_Imperator terrenus_[120]), +whose authority shall be of and for this present life. And as in this +present world the soul cannot act save through the body, while yet the +body is no more than an instrument and means for the soul's +manifestation, so must there be a rule and care of men's bodies as +well as of their souls, yet subordinated always to the well-being of +that which is the purer and the more enduring. It is under the emblem +of soul and body that the relation of the papal and imperial power is +presented to us throughout the Middle Ages[121]. The Pope, as God's +vicar in matters spiritual, is to lead men to eternal life; the +Emperor, as vicar in matters temporal, must so control them in their +dealings with one another that they may be able to pursue undisturbed +the spiritual life, and thereby attain the same supreme and common end +of everlasting happiness. In the view of this object his chief duty is +to maintain peace in the world, while towards the Church his position +is that of Advocate, a title borrowed from the practice adopted by +churches and monasteries of choosing some powerful baron to protect +their lands and lead their tenants in war[122]. The functions of +Advocacy are twofold: at home to make the Christian people obedient to +the priesthood, and to execute their decrees upon heretics and +sinners; abroad to propagate the faith among the heathen, not sparing +to use carnal weapons[123]. Thus does the Emperor answer in every +point to his antitype the Pope, his power being yet of a lower rank, +created on the analogy of the papal, as the papal itself had been +modelled after the elder Empire. The parallel holds good even in its +details; for just as we have seen the churchman assuming the crown and +robes of the secular prince, so now did he array the Emperor in his +own ecclesiastical vestments, the stole and the dalmatic, gave him a +clerical as well as a sacred character, removed his office from all +narrowing associations of birth or country, inaugurated him by rites +every one of which was meant to symbolize and enjoin duties in their +essence religious. Thus the Holy Roman Church and the Holy Roman +Empire are one and the same thing, in two aspects; and Catholicism, +the principle of the universal Christian society, is also Romanism; +that is, rests upon Rome as the origin and type of its universality; +manifesting itself in a mystic dualism which corresponds to the two +natures of its Founder. As divine and eternal, its head is the Pope, +to whom souls have been entrusted; as human and temporal, the Emperor, +commissioned to rule men's bodies and acts. + +[Sidenote: Union of Church and State.] + +In nature and compass the government of these two potentates is the +same, differing only in the sphere of its working; and it matters not +whether we call the Pope a spiritual Emperor or the Emperor a secular +Pope. Nor, though the one office is below the other as far as man's +life on earth is less precious than his life hereafter, is therefore, +on the older and truer theory, the imperial authority delegated by the +papal. For, as has been said already, God is represented by the Pope +not in every capacity, but only as the ruler of spirits in heaven: as +sovereign of earth, He issues His commission directly to the Emperor. +Opposition between two servants of the same King is inconceivable, +each being bound to aid and foster the other: the co-operation of both +being needed in all that concerns the welfare of Christendom at large. +This is the one perfect and self-consistent scheme of the union of +Church and State; for, taking the absolute coincidence of their limits +to be self-evident, it assumes the infallibility of their joint +government, and derives, as a corollary from that infallibility, the +duty of the civil magistrate to root out heresy and schism no less +than to punish treason and rebellion. It is also the scheme which, +granting the possibility of their harmonious action, places the two +powers in that relation which gives each of them its maximum of +strength. But by a law to which it would be hard to find exceptions, +in proportion as the State became more Christian, the Church, who to +work out her purposes had assumed worldly forms, became by the contact +worldlier, meaner, spiritually weaker; and the system which +Constantine founded amid such rejoicings, which culminated so +triumphantly in the Empire Church of the Middle Ages, has in each +succeeding generation been slowly losing ground, has seen its +brightness dimmed and its completeness marred, and sees now those who +are most zealous on behalf of its surviving institutions feebly defend +or silently desert the principle upon which all must rest. + +The complete accord of the papal and imperial powers which this +theory, as sublime as it is impracticable, requires, was attained only +at a few points in their history[124]. It was finally supplanted by +another view of their relation, which, professing to be a development +of a principle recognized as fundamental, the superior importance of +the religious life, found increasing favour in the eyes of fervent +churchmen[125]. Declaring the Pope sole representative on earth of the +Deity, it concluded that from him, and not directly from God, must the +Empire be held--held feudally, it was said by many--and it thereby +thrust down the temporal power, to be the slave instead of the sister +of the spiritual[126]. Nevertheless, the Papacy in her meridian, and +under the guidance of her greatest minds, of Hildebrand, of Alexander, +of Innocent, not seeking to abolish or absorb the civil government, +required only its obedience, and exalted its dignity against all save +herself[127]. It was reserved for Boniface VIII, whose extravagant +pretensions betrayed the decay that was already at work within, to +show himself to the crowding pilgrims at the jubilee of A.D. 1300, +seated on the throne of Constantine, arrayed with sword, and crown, +and sceptre, shouting aloud, 'I am Csar--I am Emperor[128].' + +[Sidenote: Proofs from medival documents.] + +The theory of an Emperor's place and functions thus sketched cannot be +definitely assigned to any point of time; for it was growing and +changing from the fifth century to the fifteenth. Nor need it surprise +us that we do not find in any one author a statement of the grounds +whereon it rested, since much of what seems strangest to us was then +too obvious to be formally explained. No one, however, who examines +medival writings can fail to perceive, sometimes from direct words, +oftener from allusions or assumptions, that such ideas as these are +present to the minds of the authors[129]. That which it is easiest to +prove is the connection of the Empire with religion. From every +record, from chronicles and treatises, proclamations, laws, and +sermons, passages may be adduced wherein the defence and spread of the +faith, and the maintenance of concord among the Christian people, are +represented as the function to which the Empire has been set apart. +The belief expressed by Lewis II, 'Imperii dignitas non in vocabuli +voce sed in glorios pietatis culmine consistit[130],' appears again +in the address of the Archbishop of Mentz to Conrad II[131], as Vicar +of God; is reiterated by Frederick I[132], when he writes to the +prelates of Germany, 'On earth God has placed no more than two powers, +and as there is in heaven but one God, so is there here one Pope and +one Emperor. Divine providence has specially appointed the Roman +Empire to prevent the continuance of schism in the Church[133];' is +echoed by jurists and divines down to the days of Charles V[134]. It +was a doctrine which we shall find the friends and foes of the Holy +See equally concerned to insist on, the one to make the transference +(_translatio_) from the Greeks to the Germans appear entirely the +Pope's work, and so establish his right of overseeing or cancelling +his rival's election, the others by setting the Emperor at the head of +the Church to reduce the Pope to the place of chief bishop of his +realm[135]. His headship was dwelt upon chiefly in the two duties +already noticed. As the counterpart of the Mussulman Commander of the +Faithful, he was leader of the Church militant against her infidel +foes, was in this capacity summoned to conduct crusades, and in later +times recognized chief of the confederacies against the conquering +Ottomans. As representative of the whole Christian people, it belonged +to him to convoke General Councils, a right not without importance +even when exercised concurrently with the Pope, but far more weighty +when the object of the council was to settle a disputed election, or, +as at Constance, to depose the reigning pontiff himself. + +[Sidenote: The Coronation ceremonies.] + +No better illustrations can be desired than those to be found in the +office for the imperial coronation at Rome, too long to be transcribed +here, but well worthy of an attentive study[136]. The rites prescribed +in it are rights of consecration to a religious office: the Emperor, +besides the sword, globe, and sceptre of temporal power, receives a +ring as the symbol of his faith, is ordained a subdeacon, assists the +Pope in celebrating mass, partakes as a clerical person of the +communion in both kinds, is admitted a canon of St. Peter and St. John +Lateran. The oath to be taken by an elector begins, 'Ego N. volo regem +Romanorum in Csarem promovendum, temporale caput populo Christiano +eligere.' The Emperor swears to cherish and defend the Holy Roman +Church and her bishop: the Pope prays after the reading of the Gospel, +'Deus qui ad prdicandum terni regni evangelium Imperium Romanum +prparasti, prtende famulo tuo Imperatori nostro arma coelestia.' +Among the Emperor's official titles there occur these: 'Head of +Christendom,' 'Defender and Advocate of the Christian Church,' +'Temporal Head of the Faithful,' 'Protector of Palestine and of the +Catholic Faith[137].' + +[Sidenote: The rights of the Empire proved from the Bible.] + +Very singular are the reasonings used by which the necessity and +divine right of the Empire are proved out of the Bible. The medival +theory of the relation of the civil power to the priestly was +profoundly influenced by the account in the Old Testament of the +Jewish theocracy, in which the king, though the institution of his +office was a derogation from the purity of the older system, appears +divinely chosen and commissioned, and stood in a peculiarly intimate +relation to the national religion. From the New Testament the +authority and eternity of Rome herself was established. Every passage +was seized on where submission to the powers that be is enjoined, +every instance cited where obedience had actually been rendered to +imperial officials, a special emphasis being laid on the sanction +which Christ Himself had given to Roman dominion by pacifying the +world through Augustus, by being born at the time of the taxing, by +paying tribute to Csar, by saying to Pilate, 'Thou couldest have no +power at all against Me except it were given thee from above.' + +More attractive to the mystical spirit than these direct arguments +were those drawn from prophecy, or based on the allegorical +interpretation of Scripture. Very early in Christian history had the +belief formed itself that the Roman Empire--as the fourth beast of +Daniel's vision, as the iron legs and feet of Nebuchadnezzar's +image--was to be the world's last and universal kingdom. From Origen +and Jerome downwards it found unquestioned acceptance[138], and that +not unnaturally. For no new power had arisen to extinguish the Roman, +as the Persian monarchy had been blotted out by Alexander, as the +realms of his successors had fallen before the conquering republic +herself. Every Northern conqueror, Goth, Lombard, Burgundian, had +cherished her memory and preserved her laws; Germany had adopted even +the name of the Empire 'dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, +and diverse from all that were before it.' To these predictions, and +to many others from the Apocalypse, were added those which in the +Gospels and Epistles foretold the advent of Antichrist[139]. He was to +succeed the Roman dominion, and the Popes are more than once warned +that by weakening the Empire they are hastening the coming of the +enemy and the end of the world[140]. It is not only when groping in +the dark labyrinths of prophecy that medival authors are quick in +detecting emblems, imaginative in explaining them. Men were wont in +those days to interpret Scripture in a singular fashion. Not only did +it not occur to them to ask what meaning words had to those to whom +they were originally addressed; they were quite as careless whether +the sense they discovered was one which the language used would +naturally and rationally bear to any reader at any time. No analogy +was too faint, no allegory too fanciful, to be drawn out of a simple +text; and, once propounded, the interpretation acquired in argument +all the authority of the text itself. Thus the two swords of which +Christ said, 'It is enough,' became the spiritual and temporal powers, +and the grant of the spiritual to Peter involves the supremacy of the +Papacy[141]. Thus one writer proves the eternity of Rome from the +seventy-second Psalm, 'They shall fear thee as long as the sun and +moon endure, throughout all generations;' the moon being of course, +since Gregory VII, the Roman Empire, as the sun, or greater light, is +the Popedom. Another quoting, 'Qui tenet teneat donec auferatur[142],' +with Augustine's explanation thereof[143], says, that when 'he who +letteth' is removed, tribes and provinces will rise in rebellion, and +the Empire to which God has committed the government of the human race +will be dissolved. From the miseries of his own time (he wrote under +Frederick III) he predicts that the end is near. The same spirit of +symbolism seized on the number of the electors: 'the seven lamps +burning in the unity of the sevenfold spirit which illumine the Holy +Empire[144].' Strange legends told how Romans and Germans were of one +lineage; how Peter's staff had been found on the banks of the Rhine, +the miracle signifying that a commission was issued to the Germans to +reclaim wandering sheep to the one fold. So complete does the +scriptural proof appear in the hands of medival churchmen, many +holding it a mortal sin to resist the power ordained of God, that we +forget they were all the while only adapting to an existing +institution what they found written already; we begin to fancy that +the Empire was maintained, obeyed, exalted for centuries, on the +strength of words to which we attach in almost every case a wholly +different meaning. + +[Sidenote: Illustrations from Medival Art.] + +It would be a task both pleasant and profitable to pass on from the +theologians to the poets and artists of the Middle Ages, and endeavour +to trace through their works the influence of the ideas which have +been expounded above. But it is one far too wide for the scope of the +present treatise; and one which would demand an acquaintance with +those works themselves such as only minute and long-continued study +could give. For even a slight knowledge enables any one to see how +much still remains to be interpreted in the imaginative literature and +in the paintings of those times, and how apt we are in glancing over a +piece of work to miss those seemingly trifling indications of the +artist's thought or belief which are all the more precious that they +are indirect or unconscious. Therefore a history of medival art which +shall evolve its philosophy from its concrete forms, if it is to have +any value at all, must be minute in description as well as subtle in +method. But lest this class of illustrations should appear to have +been wholly forgotten, it may be well to mention here two paintings in +which the theory of the medival empire is unmistakeably set forth. +One of them is in Rome, the other in Florence; every traveller in +Italy may examine both for himself. + +[Sidenote: Mosaic of the Lateran Palace at Rome.] + +The first of these is the famous mosaic of the Lateran triclinium, +constructed by Pope Leo III about A.D. 800, and an exact copy of +which, made by the order of Sextus V, may still be seen over against +the faade of St. John Lateran. Originally meant to adorn the state +banqueting-hall of the Popes, it is now placed in the open air, in the +finest situation in Rome, looking from the brow of a hill across the +green ridges of the Campagna to the olive-groves of Tivoli and the +glistering crags and snow-capped summits of the Umbrian and Sabine +Apennine. It represents in the centre Christ surrounded by the +Apostles, whom He is sending forth to preach the Gospel; one hand is +extended to bless, the other holds a book with the words 'Pax Vobis.' +Below and to the right Christ is depicted again, and this time +sitting: on his right hand kneels Pope Sylvester, on his left the +Emperor Constantine; to the one he gives the keys of heaven and hell, +to the other a banner surmounted by a cross. In the group on the +opposite, that is, on the left side of the arch, we see the Apostle +Peter seated, before whom in like manner kneel Pope Leo III and +Charles the Emperor; the latter wearing, like Constantine, his crown. +Peter, himself grasping the keys, gives to Leo the pallium of an +archbishop, to Charles the banner of the Christian army. The +inscription is, 'Beatus Petrus dona vitam Leoni PP et bictoriam Carulo +regi dona;' while round the arch is written, 'Gloria in excelsis Deo, +et in terra pax omnibus bon voluntatis.' + +The order and nature of the ideas here symbolized is sufficiently +clear. First comes the revelation of the Gospel, and the divine +commission to gather all men into its fold. Next, the institution, at +the memorable era of Constantine's conversion, of the two powers by +which the Christian people is to be respectively taught and governed. +Thirdly, we are shewn the permanent Vicar of God, the Apostle who +keeps the keys of heaven and hell, re-establishing these same powers +on a new and firmer basis[145]. The badge of ecclesiastical supremacy +he gives to Leo as the spiritual head of the faithful on earth, the +banner of the Church Militant to Charles, who is to maintain her cause +against heretics and infidels. + +[Sidenote: Fresco in S. Maria Novella at Florence.] + +The second painting is of greatly later date. It is a fresco in the +chapter-house of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria Novella[146] at +Florence, usually known as the Capellone degli Spagnuoli. It has been +commonly ascribed, on Vasari's authority, to Simone Martini of Siena, +but an examination of the dates of his life seems to discredit this +view[147]. Most probably it was executed between A.D. 1340 and 1350. +It is a huge work, covering one whole wall of the chapter-house, and +filled with figures, some of which, but seemingly on no sufficient +authority, have been taken to represent eminent persons of the +time--Cimabue, Arnolfo, Boccaccio, Petrarch, Laura, and others. In it +is represented the whole scheme of man's life here and hereafter--the +Church on earth and the Church in heaven. Full in front are seated +side by side the Pope and the Emperor: on their right and left, in a +descending row, minor spiritual and temporal officials; next to the +Pope a cardinal, bishops, and doctors; next to the Emperor, the king +of France and a line of nobles and knights. Behind them appears the +Duomo of Florence as an emblem of the Visible Church, while at their +feet is a flock of sheep (the faithful) attacked by ravening wolves +(heretics and schismatics), whom a pack of spotted dogs (the +Dominicans[148]) combat and chase away. From this, the central +foreground of the picture, a path winds round and up a height to a +great gate where the Apostle sits on guard to admit true believers: +they passing through it are met by choirs of seraphs, who lead them on +through the delicious groves of Paradise. Above all, at the top of the +painting and just over the spot where his two lieutenants, Pope and +Emperor, are placed below, is the Saviour enthroned amid saints and +angels[149]. + +[Sidenote: Anti-national character of the Empire.] + +Here, too, there needs no comment. The Church Militant is the perfect +counterpart of the Church Triumphant: her chief danger is from those +who would rend the unity of her visible body, the seamless garment of +her heavenly Lord; and that devotion to His person which is the sum of +her faith and the essence of her being, must on earth be rendered to +those two lieutenants whom He has chosen to govern in His name. + +A theory, such as that which it has been attempted to explain and +illustrate, is utterly opposed to restrictions of place or person. The +idea of one Christian people, all whose members are equal in the sight +of God,--an idea so forcibly expressed in the unity of the priesthood, +where no barrier separated the successor of the Apostle from the +humblest curate,--and in the prevalence of one language for worship +and government, made the post of Emperor independent of the race, or +rank, or actual resources of its occupant. The Emperor was entitled to +the obedience of Christendom, not as hereditary chief of a victorious +tribe, or feudal lord of a portion of the earth's surface, but as +solemnly invested with an office. Not only did he excel in dignity the +kings of the earth: his power was different in its nature; and, so far +from supplanting or rivalling theirs, rose above them to become the +source and needful condition of their authority in their several +territories, the bond which joined them in one harmonious body. The +vast dominions and vigorous personal action of Charles the Great had +concealed this distinction while he reigned; under his successors the +imperial crown appeared disconnected from the direct government of the +kingdoms they had established, existing only in the form of an +undefined suzerainty, as the type of that unity without which men's +minds could not rest. It was characteristic of the Middle Ages, that +demanding the existence of an Emperor, they were careless who he was +or how he was chosen, so he had been duly inaugurated; and that they +were not shocked by the contrast between unbounded rights and actual +helplessness. At no time in the world's history has theory, pretending +all the while to control practice, been so utterly divorced from it. +Ferocious and sensual, that age worshipped humility and asceticism: +there has never been a purer ideal of love, nor a grosser profligacy +of life. + +The power of the Roman Emperor cannot as yet be called international; +though this, as we shall see, became in later times its most important +aspect; for in the tenth century national distinctions had scarcely +begun to exist. But its genius was clerical and old Roman, in nowise +territorial or Teutonic: it rested not on armed hosts or wide lands, +but upon the duty, the awe, the love of its subjects. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[102] I do not mean to say that the system of ideas which it is +endeavoured to set forth in the following pages was complete in this +particular form, either in the days of Charles or in those of Otto, or +in those of Frederick Barbarossa. It seems to have been constantly +growing and decaying from the fourth century to the sixteenth, the +relative prominence of its cardinal doctrines varying from age to age. +But, just as the painter who sees the ever-shifting lights and shades +play over the face of a wide landscape faster than his brush can place +them on the canvas, in despair at representing their exact position at +any single moment, contents himself with painting the effects that are +broadest and most permanent, and at giving rather the impression which +the scene makes on him than every detail of the scene itself, so here, +the best and indeed the only practicable course seems to be that of +setting forth in its most self-consistent form the body of ideas and +beliefs on which the Empire rested, although this form may not be +exactly that which they can be asserted to have worn in any one +century, and although the illustrations adduced may have to be taken +sometimes from earlier, sometimes from later writers. As the doctrine +of the Empire was in its essence the same during the whole Middle Age, +such a general description as is attempted here may, I venture to +hope, be found substantially true for the tenth as well as for the +fourteenth century. + +[103] Empires like the Persian did nothing to assimilate the subject +races, who retained their own laws and customs, sometimes their own +princes, and were bound only to serve in the armies and fill the +treasury of the Great King. + +[104] Od. iii. 72:-- + + [Greek: ... mapsidis alalsthe, + hoia te lstres, hypeir hala, toit' alontai + psychas parthemenoi, kakon allodapoisi pherontes?] + +Cf. Od. ix. 39: and the Hymn to the Pythian Apollo, I. 274. So in II. +v. 214, [Greek: allotrios phs]. + +[105] Plato, in the beginning of the Laws, represents it as natural +between all states: [Greek: polemos physei hyparchei pros hapasas tas +poleis]. + +[106] See especially Acts xvii. 26; Gal. iii. 28; Eph. ii. 11, sqq.; +iv. 3-6; Col. iii. 11. + +[107] This is drawn out by Laurent, _Histoire du Droit des Gens_; and +gidi, _Der Frstenrath nach dem Luneviller Frieden_. + +[108] 'Romanos enim vocitant homines nostr religionis.'--Gregory of +Tours, quoted by gidi, from A. F. Pott, _Essay on the Words 'Rmisch,' +'Romanisch,' 'Roman,' 'Romantisch.'_ So in the Middle Ages, [Greek: +Rhmaioi] is used to mean Christians, as opposed to [Greek: Hellnes], +heathens. + +Cf. Ducange, 'Romani olim dicti qui alias Christiani vel etiam +Catholici.' + +[109] As a reviewer in the _Tablet_ (whose courtesy it is the more +pleasant to acknowledge since his point of view is altogether opposed +to mine) has understood this passage as meaning that 'people imagined +the Christian religion was to last for ever because the Holy Roman +Empire was never to decay,' it may be worth while to say that this is +far from being the purport of the argument which this chapter was +designed to state. The converse would be nearer the truth:--'people +imagined the Holy Roman Empire was never to decay, because the +Christian religion was to last for ever.' + +The phenomen may perhaps be stated thus:--Men who were already +disposed to believe the Roman Empire to be eternal for one set of +reasons, came to believe the Christian Church to be eternal for +another and, to them, more impressive set of reasons. Seeing the two +institutions allied in fact, they took their alliance and connection +to be eternal also; and went on for centuries believing in the +necessary existence of the Roman Empire because they believed in its +necessary union with the Catholic Church. + +[110] Augustine, in the _De Civitate Dei_. His influence, great +through all the Middle Ages, was greater on no one than on +Charles.--'Delectabatur et libris sancti Augustini, prcipueque his +qui De Civitate Dei prtitulati sunt.'--Eginhard, _Vita Karoli_, cap. +24. + +[111] 'Quapropter universorum precibus fidelium optandum est, ut in +omnem gloriam vestram extendatur imperium, ut scilicet catholica fides +... veraciter in una confessione cunctorum cordibus infigatur, +quatenus summi Regis donante pietate eadem sanct pacis et perfect +caritatis omnes ubique regat et custodiat unitas.' Quoted by Waitz +(_Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte_, ii. 182) from an unprinted letter +of Alcuin. + +[112] A curious illustration of this tendency of mind is afforded by +the descriptions we meet with of Learning or Theology (_Studium_) as a +concrete existence, having a visible dwelling in the University of +Paris. The three great powers which rule human life, says one writer, +the Popedom, the Empire, and Learning, have been severally entrusted +to the three foremost nations of Europe: Italians, Germans, French. +'His siquidem tribus, scilicet sacerdotio imperio et studio, tanquam +tribus virtutibus, videlicet naturali vitali et scientiali, catholica +ecclesia spiritualiter mirificatur, augmentatur et regitur. His itaque +tribus, tanquam fundamento, pariete et tecto, eadem ecclesia tanquam +materialiter proficit. Et sicut ecclesia materialis uno tantum +fundamento et uno tecto eget, parietibus vero quatuor, ita imperium +quatuor habet parietes, hoc est, quatuor imperii sedes, Aquisgranum, +Arelatum, Mediolanum, Romam.'--_Jordanis Chronica_; _ap._ Schardius +_Sylloge Tractatuum_. And see Dllinger, _Die Vergangenheit und +Gegenwart der katholischen Theologie_, p. 8. + +[113] 'Una est sola respublica totius populi Christiani, ergo de +necessitate erit et unus solus princeps et rex illius reipublic, +statutus et stabilitus ad ipsius fidei et populi Christiani +dilatationem et defensionem. Ex qua ratione concludit etiam Augustinus +(_De Civitate Dei_, lib. xix.) quod extra ecclesiam nunquam fuit nec +potuit nec poterit esse verum imperium, etsi fuerint imperatores +qualitercumque et secundum quid, non simpliciter, qui fuerunt extra +fidem Catholicam et ecclesiam.'--Engelbert (abbot of Admont in Upper +Austria), _De Ortu et Fine imperii Romani_ (circ. 1310). + +In this 'de necessitate' everything is included. + +[114] See note 37. + +[115] This is admirably brought out by gidi, _Der Frstenrath nach +dem Luneviller Frieden_. + +[116] See the original forgery (or rather the extracts which Gratian +gives from it) in the _Corpus Iuris Canonici_, _Dist._ xcvi. cc. 13, +14. 'Et sicut nostram terrenam imperialem potentiam, sic sacrosanctam +Romanam ecclesiam decrevimus veneranter honorari, et amplius quam +nostrum imperium et terrenum thronum sedem beati Petri gloriose +exaltari, tribuentes ei potestatem et glori dignitatem atque vigorem +et honorificentiam imperialem.... Beato Sylvestro patri nostro summo +pontifici et universali urbis Rom pap, et omnibus eius successoribus +pontificibus, qui usque in finem mundi in sede beati Petri erunt +sessuri, de prsenti contradimus palatium imperii nostri Lateranense, +deinde diadema, videlicet coronam capitis nostri, simulque phrygium, +necnon et superhumerale, verum etiam et chlamydem purpuream et tunicam +coccineam, et omnia imperialia indumenta, sed et dignitatem imperialem +prsidentium equitum, conferentes etiam et imperialia sceptra, +simulque cuncta signa atque banda et diversa ornamenta imperialia et +omnem processionem imperialis culminis et gloriam potestatis +nostr.... Et sicut imperialis militia ornatur ita et clerum sanct +Roman ecclesi ornari decernimus.... Unde ut pontificalis apex non +vilescat sed magis quam terreni imperii dignitas gloria et potentia +decoretur, ecce tam palatium nostrum quam Romanam urbem et omnes +Itali seu occidentalium regionum provincias loca et civitates +beatissimo pap Sylvestro universali pap contradimus atque +relinquimus.... Ubi enim principatus sacerdotum et Christian +religionis caput ab imperatore coelesti constitutum est, iustum non est +ut illic imperator terrenus habeat potestatem.' + +The practice of kissing the Pope's foot was adopted in imitation of +the old imperial court. It was afterwards revived by the German +Emperors. + +[117] Dllinger has shewn in a recent work (_Die Papst-Fabeln des +Mittelalters_) that the common belief that Gregory II excited the +revolt against Leo the Iconoclast is unfounded. + +So Anastasius, 'Ammonebat (_sc._ Gregorius Secundus) ne a fide vel +amore Romani imperii desisterent.'--_Vit Pontif. Rom._ + +[118] Of this curious seal, a leaden one, preserved at Paris, a figure +is given upon the cover of this volume. There are very few monuments +of that age whose genuineness can be considered altogether beyond +doubt; but this seal has many respectable authorities in its favour. +See, among others, Le Blanc, _Dissertation historique sur quelques +Monnoies de Charlemagne_, Paris, 1689; J. M. Heineccius, _De Veteribus +Germanorum aliarumque nationum sigillis_, Lips. 1709; Anastasius, +_Vit Pontificum Romanorum_, ed. Vignoli, Rom, 1752; Gtz, +_Deutschlands Kayser-Mnzen des Mittelalters_, Dresden, 1827; and the +authorities cited by Waitz, _Deutsche Verfassungs-geschichte_, iii. +179, n. 4. + +[119] 'Prterea mirari se dilecta fraternitas tua quod non Francorum +set Romanorum imperatores nos appellemus; set scire te convenit quia +nisi Romanorum imperatores essemus, utique nec Francorum. A Romanis +enim hoc nomen et dignitatem assumpsimus, apud quos profecto primum +tant culmen sublimitatis effulsit,' &c--_Letter of the Emperor Lewis +II to Basil the Emperor at Constantinople_, from _Chron. Salernit. +ap._ Murat. _S. R. I._ + +[120] 'Illam (_sc._ Romanam ecclesiam) solus ille fundavit, et super +petram fidei mox nascentis erexit, qui beato tern vit clavigero +terreni simul et coelestis imperii iura commisit.'--_Corpus Iuris +Canonici_, _Dist._ xxii. c. 1. The expression is not uncommon in +medival writers. So 'unum est imperium Patris et Filii et Spiritus +Sancti, cuius est pars ecclesia constituta in terris,' in Lewis II's +letter. + +[121] 'Merito summus Pontifex Romanus episcopus dici potest rex et +sacerdos. Si enim dominus noster Iesus Christus sic appellatur, non +videtur incongruum suum vocare successorem. Corporale et temporale ex +spirituali et perpetuo dependet, sicut corporis operatio ex virtute +anim. Sicut ergo corpus per animam habet esse virtutem et +operationem, ita et temporalis iurisdictio principum per spiritualem +Petri et successorum eius.'--St. Thomas Aquinas, _De Regimine +Principum_. + +[122] 'Nonne Romana ecclesia tenetur imperatori tanquam suo patrono, +et imperator ecclesiam fovere et defensare tanquam suus vere patronus? +certe sic.... Patronis vero concessum est ut prlatos in ecclesiis sui +patronatus eligant. Cum ergo imperator onus sentiat patronatus, ut qui +tenetur eam defendere, sentire debet honorem et emolumentum.' I quote +this from a curious document in Goldast's collection of tracts +(_Monarchia Imperii_), entitled '_Letter of the four Universities, +Paris, Oxford, Prague, and the "Romana generalitas," to the Emperor +Wenzel and Pope Urban_,' A.D. 1380. The title can scarcely be right, +but if the document is, as in all probability it is, not later than +the fifteenth century, its being misdescribed, or even its being a +forgery, does not make it less valuable as an evidence of men's ideas. + +[123] So Leo III in a charter issued on the day of Charles's +coronation: '... actum in prsentia gloriosi atque excellentissimi +filii nostri Caroli quem auctore Deo in defensionem et provectionem +sanct universalis ecclesi hodie Augustum sacravimus.'--Jaff +_Regesta Pontificum Romanorum_, ad ann. 800. + +So, indeed, Theodulf of Orleans, a contemporary of Charles, ascribes +to the Emperor an almost papal authority over the Church itself:-- + + 'Coeli habet hic (_sc._ Papa) claves, proprias te iussit habere; + Tu regis ecclesi, nam regit ille poli; + Tu regis eius opes, clerum populumque gubernas, + Hic te coelicolas ducet ad usque choros.' + In D. Bouquet, v. 415. + +[124] Perhaps at no more than three: in the time of Charles and Leo; +again under Otto III and his two Popes, Gregory V and Sylvester II; +thirdly, under Henry III; certainly never thenceforth. + +[125] _The Sachsenspiegel_ (_Speculum Saxonicum_, circ. A.D. 1240), +the great North-German law book, says, 'The Empire is held from God +alone, not from the Pope. Emperor and Pope are supreme each in what +has been entrusted to him: the Pope in what concerns the soul; the +Emperor in all that belongs to the body and to knighthood.' _The +Schwabenspiegel_, compiled half a century later, subordinates the +prince to the pontiff: 'Daz weltliche Schwert des Gerichtes daz lihet +der Babest dem Chaiser; daz geistlich ist dem Babest gesetzt daz er +damit richte.' + +[126] So Boniface VIII in the bull _Unam Sanctam_, will have but one +head for the Christian people. 'Igitur ecclesi unius et unic unum +corpus, unum caput, non duo capita quasi monstrum.' + +[127] St. Bernard writes to Conrad III: 'Non veniat anima mea in +consilium eorum qui dicunt vel imperio pacem et libertatem ecclesi +vel ecclesi prosperitatem et exaltationem imperii nocituram.' So in +the _De Consideratione_: 'Si utrumque simul habere velis, perdes +utrumque,' of the papal claim to temporal and spiritual authority, +quoted by Gieseler. + +[128] 'Sedens in solio armatus et cinctus ensem, habensque in capite +Constantini diadema, stricto dextra capulo ensis accincti, ait: +"Numquid ego summus sum pontifex? nonne ista est cathedra Petri? Nonne +possum imperii iura tutari? ego sum Csar, ego sum imperator."'--Fr. +Pipinus (ap. Murat. _S. R. I._ ix.) l. iv. c. 47. These words, +however, are by this writer ascribed to Boniface, when receiving the +envoys of the emperor Albert I, in A.D. 1299. I have not been able to +find authority for their use at the jubilee, but give the current +story for what it is worth. + +It has been suggested that Dante may be alluding to this sword scene +in a well-known passage of the Purgatorio (xvi. l. 106):-- + + 'Soleva Roma, che 'l buon mondo feo + Duo Soli aver, che l' una e l' altra strada + Facean vedere, e del mondo e di Deo. + L' un l' altro ha spento, ed giunta la spada + Col pastorale: e l' un coll altro insieme + Per viva forzu mal convien che vada.' + + +[129] See especially Peter de Andlo (_De Imperio Romano_); Ralph +Colonna (_De translatione Imperii Romani_); Dante (_De Monarchia_); +Engelbert (_De Ortu et Fine Imperii Romani_); Marsilius Patavinus (_De +translatione Imperii Romani_); neas Sylvius Piccolomini (_De Ortu et +Authoritate Imperii Romani_); Zoannetus (_De Imperio Romano atque ejus +Iurisdictione_); and the writers in Schardius's _Sylloge_, and in +Goldast's Collection of Tracts, entitled _Monarchia Imperii_. + +[130] Letter of Lewis II to Basil the Macedonian, in _Chron. +Salernit._ in Mur. _S. R. I._; also given by Baronius, _Ann. Eccl._ ad +ann. 871. + +[131] 'Ad summum dignitatis pervenisti: Vicarius es Christi.'--Wippo, +_Vita Chuonradi_ (_ap._ Pertz), c. 3. + +[132] Letter in Radewic, _ap._ Murat, _S. R. I._ + +[133] Lewis IV is styled in one of his proclamations, 'Gentis human, +orbis Christiani custos, urbi et orbi a Deo electus presse.'--Pfeffinger, +_Vitriarius Illustratus_. + +[134] In a document issued by the Diet of Speyer (A.D. 1529) the +Emperor is called 'Oberst, Vogt, und Haupt der Christenheit.' +Hieronymus Balbus, writing about the same time, puts the question +whether all Christians are subject to the Emperor in temporal things, +as they are to the Pope in spiritual, and answers it by saying, 'Cum +ambo ex eodem fonte perfluxerint et eadem semita incedant, de utroque +idem puto sentiendum.' + +[135] 'Non magis ad Papam depositio seu remotio pertinet quam ad +quoslibet regum prlatos, qui reges suos prout assolent, consecrant et +inungunt.'--_Letter of Frederick II_ (lib. i. c. 3). + +[136] _Liber Ceremonialis Romanus_, lib. i. sect. 5; with which +compare the _Coronatio Romana_ of Henry VII, in Pertz, and Muratori's +Dissertation in vol. i. of the _Antiquitates Itali Medii vi_. + +[137] See Goldast, _Collection of Imperial Constitutions_; and Moser, +_Rmische Kayser_. + +[138] The abbot Engelbert (_De Ortu et Fine Imperii Romani_) quotes +Origen and Jerome to this effect, and proceeds himself to explain, +from 2 Thess. ii., how the falling away will precede the coming of +Antichrist. There will be a triple 'discessio,' of the kingdoms of the +earth from the Roman Empire, of the Church from the Apostolic See, of +the faithful from the faith. Of these, the first causes the second; +the temporal sword to punish heretics and schismatics being no longer +ready to work the will of the rulers of the Church. + +[139] A full statement of the views that prevailed in the earlier +Middle Age regarding Antichrist--as well as of the singular prophecy +of the Frankish Emperor who shall appear in the latter days, conquer +the world, and then going to Jerusalem shall lay down his crown on the +Mount of Olives and deliver over the kingdom to Christ--may be found +in the little treatise, _Vita Antichristi_, which Adso, monk and +afterwards abbot of Moutier-en-Der, compiled (cir. 950) for the +information of Queen Gerberga, wife of Louis d'Outremer. Antichrist is +to be born a Jew of the tribe of Dan (Gen. xlix. 17), 'non de episcopo +et monacha, sicut alii delirando dogmatizant, sed de immundissima +meretrice et crudelissimo nebulone. Totus in peccato concipietur, in +peccato generabitur, in peccato nascetur.' His birthplace is Babylon: +he is to be brought up in Bethsaida and Chorazin. + +Adso's book may be found printed in Migne, t. ci. p. 1290. + +[140] S. Thomas explains the prophecy in a remarkable manner, shewing +how the decline of the Empire is no argument against its fulfilment. +'Dicendum quod nondum cessavit, sed est commutatum de temporali in +spirituale, ut dicit Leo Papa in sermone de Apostolis: et ideo +discessio a Romano imperio debet intelligi non solum a temporali sed +etiam a spirituali, scilicit a fide Catholica Roman Ecclesi. Est +autem hoc conveniens signum nam Christus venit, quando Romanum +imperium omnibus dominabatur: ita e contra signum adventus Antichristi +est discessio ab eo.'--_Comment. ad 2 Thess._ ii. + +[141] See note 149, page 119. The Papal party sometimes insisted that +both swords were given to Peter, while the imperialists assigned the +temporal sword to John. Thus a gloss to the _Sachsenspiegel_ says, +'Dat eine svert hadde Sinte Peter, dat het nu de paves: dat andere +hadde Johannes, dat het nu de keyser.' + +[142] 2 Thess. ii. 7. + +[143] St. Augustine, however, though he states the view (applying the +passage to the Roman Empire) which was generally received in the +Middle Ages, is careful not to commit himself positively to it. + +[144] _Jordanis Chronica_ (written towards the close of the thirteenth +century). + +[145] Compare with this the words which Pope Hadrian I. had used some +twenty-three years before, of Charles as representative of +Constantine: 'Et sicut temporibus Beati Sylvestri, Romani pontificis, +a sanct recordationis piissimo Constantino magno imperatore, per eius +largitatem sancta Dei catholica et apostolica Romana ecclesia elevata +atque exaltata est, et potestatem in his Hesperi partibus largiri +dignatus est, ita et in his vestris felicissimis temporibus atque +nostris, sancta Dei ecclesia, id est, beati Petri apostoli germinet +atque exsultet, ut omnes gentes qu hc audierint edicere valeant, +'Domine salvum fac regem, et exaudi nos in die in qua invocaverimus +te;' quia ecce novus Christianissimus Dei Constantinus imperator his +temporibus surrexit, per quem omnia Deus sanct su ecclesi beati +apostolorum principis Petri largiri dignatus est.'--_Letter XLIX of +Cod. Carol._, A.D. 777 (in Mur. _Scriptores Rerum Italicarum_). + +This letter is memorable as containing the first allusion, or what +seems an allusion, to Constantine's Donation. + +The phrase 'sancta Dei ecclesia, id est, B. Petri apostoli,' is worth +noting. + +[146] The church in which the opening scene of Boccaccio's _Decameron_ +is laid. + +[147] So Kugler (Eastlake's ed. vol. i. p. 144), and so also Messrs. +Crowe and Cavalcaselle, in their _New History of Painting in Italy_, +vol. ii. pp. 85 _sqq._ + +[148] Domini canes. Spotted because of their black-and-white raiment. + +[149] There is of course a great deal more detail in the picture, +which it does not appear necessary to describe. St. Dominic is a +conspicuous figure. + +It is worth remarking that the Emperor, who is on the Pope's left +hand, and so made slightly inferior to him while superior to every one +else, holds in his hand, instead of the usual imperial globe, a +death's head, typifying the transitory nature of his power. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE GERMAN KINGDOM. + + +[Sidenote: Union of the Roman Empire with the German kingdom.] + +This was the office which Otto the Great assumed in A.D. 962. But it +was not his only office. He was already a German king; and the new +dignity by no means superseded the old. This union in one person of +two characters, a union at first personal, then official, and which +became at last a fusion of the two into something different from +either, is the key to the whole subsequent history of Germany and the +Empire. + +[Sidenote: Germany and its monarchy.] + +Of the German kingdom little need be said, since it differs in no +essential respect from the other kingdoms of Western Europe as they +stood in the tenth century. The five or six great tribes or +tribe-leagues which composed the German nation had been first brought +together under the sceptre of the Carolingians; and, though still +retaining marks of their independent origin, were prevented from +separating by community of speech and a common pride in the great +Frankish Empire. When the line of Charles the Great ended in A.D. 911, +by the death of Lewis the Child (son of Arnulf), Conrad, duke of the +Franconians, and after him Henry (the Fowler), duke of the Saxons, was +chosen to fill the vacant throne. By his vigorous yet conciliatory +action, his upright character, his courage and good fortune in +repelling the Hungarians, Henry laid deep the foundations of royal +power: under his more famous son it rose into a stable edifice. Otto's +coronation feast at Aachen, where the great nobles of the realm did +him menial service, where Franks, Bavarians, Suabians, Thuringians, +and Lorrainers gathered round the Saxon monarch, is the inauguration +of a true Teutonic realm, which, though it called itself not German +but East Frankish, and claimed to be the lawful representative of the +Carolingian monarchy, had a constitution and a tendency in many +respects different. + +[Sidenote: Feudalism.] + +There had been under those princes a singular mixture of the old +German organization by tribes or districts (the so-called +Gauverfassung), such as we find in the earliest records, with the +method introduced by Charles of maintaining by means of officials, +some fixed, others moving from place to place, the control of the +central government. In the suspension of that government which +followed his days, there grew up a system whose seeds had been sown as +far back as the time of Clovis, a system whose essence was the +combination of the tenure of land by military service with a peculiar +personal relation between the landlord and his tenant, whereby the one +was bound to render fatherly protection, the other aid and obedience. +This is not the place for tracing the origin of feudality on Roman +soil, nor for shewing how, by a sort of contagion, it spread into +Germany, how it struck firm root in the period of comparative quiet +under Pipin and Charles, how from the hands of the latter it took the +impress which determined its ultimate form, how the weakness of his +successors allowed it to triumph everywhere. Still less would it be +possible here to examine its social and moral influence. Politically +it might be defined as the system which made the owner of a piece of +land, whether large or small, the sovereign of those who dwelt +thereon: an annexation of personal to territorial authority more +familiar to Eastern despotism than to the free races of primitive +Europe. On this principle were founded, and by it are explained, +feudal law and justice, feudal finance, feudal legislation, each +tenant holding towards his lord the position which his own tenants +held towards himself. And it is just because the relation was so +uniform, the principle so comprehensive, the ruling class so firmly +bound to its support, that feudalism has been able to lay upon society +that grasp which the struggles of more than twenty generations have +scarcely shaken off. + +[Sidenote: The feudal king.] + +[Sidenote: The nobility.] + +[Sidenote: The Germanic feudal polity generally.] + +Now by the middle of the tenth century, Germany, less fully committed +than France to feudalism's worst feature, the hopeless bondage of the +peasantry, was otherwise thoroughly feudalized. As for that equality +of all the freeborn save the sacred line which we find in the Germany +of Tacitus, there had been substituted a gradation of ranks and a +concentration of power in the hands of a landholding caste, so had the +monarch lost his ancient character as leader and judge of the people, +to become the head of a tyrannical oligarchy. He was titular lord of +the soil, could exact from his vassals service and aid in arms and +money, could dispose of vacant fiefs, could at pleasure declare war or +make peace. But all these rights he exercised far less as sovereign of +the nation than as standing in a peculiar relation to the feudal +tenants, a relation in its origin strictly personal, and whose +prominence obscured the political duties of prince and subject. And +great as these rights might become in the hands of an ambitious and +politic ruler, they were in practice limited by the corresponding +duties he owed to his vassals, and by the difficulty of enforcing them +against a powerful offender. The king was not permitted to retain in +his own hands escheated fiefs, must even grant away those he had held +before coming to the throne; he could not interfere with the +jurisdiction of his tenants in their own lands, nor prevent them from +waging war or forming leagues with each other like independent +princes. Chief among the nobles stood the dukes, who, although their +authority was now delegated, theoretically at least, instead of +independent, territorial instead of personal, retained nevertheless +much of that hold on the exclusive loyalty of their subjects which had +belonged to them as hereditary leaders of the tribe under the ancient +system. They were, with the three Rhenish archbishops, by far the +greatest subjects, often aspiring to the crown, sometimes not unable +to resist its wearer. The constant encroachments which Otto made upon +their privileges, especially through the institution of the Counts +Palatine, destroyed their ascendancy, but not their importance. It was +not till the thirteenth century that they disappeared with the rise of +the second order of nobility. That order, at this period far less +powerful, included the counts, margraves or marquises and landgraves, +originally officers of the crown, now feudal tenants; holding their +lands of the dukes, and maintaining against them the same contest +which they in turn waged with the crown. Below these came the barons +and simple knights, then the diminishing class of freemen, the +increasing one of serfs. The institutions of primitive Germany were +almost all gone; supplanted by a new system, partly the natural result +of the formation of a settled from a half-nomad society, partly +imitated from that which had arisen upon Roman soil, west of the Rhine +and south of the Alps. The army was no longer the Heerban of the whole +nation, which had been wont to follow the king on foot in distant +expeditions, but a cavalry militia of barons and their retainers, +bound to service for a short period, and rendering it unwillingly +where their own interest was not concerned. The frequent popular +assemblies, whereof under the names of the Mallum, the Placitum, the +Mayfield, we hear so much under Clovis and Charles, were now never +summoned, and the laws that had been promulgated there were, if not +abrogated, practically obsolete. No national council existed, save the +Diet in which the higher nobility, lay and clerical, met their +sovereign, sometimes to decide on foreign war, oftener to concur in +the grant of a fief or the proscription of a rebel. Every district had +its own rude local customs administered by the court of the local +lord: other law there was none, for imperial jurisprudence had in +these lately civilized countries not yet filled the place left empty +by the disuse of the barbarian codes. + +[Sidenote: The Roman Empire and the German kingdom.] + +This condition of things was indeed better than that utter confusion +which had gone before, for a principle of order had begun to group and +bind the tossing atoms; and though the union into which it drove men +was a hard and narrow one, it was something that they should have +learnt to unite themselves at all. Yet nascent feudality was but one +remove from anarchy; and the tendency to isolation and diversity +continued, despite the efforts of the Church and the Carolingian +princes, to be all-powerful in Western Europe. The German kingdom was +already a bond between the German races, and appears strong and united +when we compare it with the France of Hugh Capet, or the England of +Ethelred II; yet its history to the twelfth century is little else +than a record of disorders, revolts, civil wars, of a ceaseless +struggle on the part of the monarch to enforce his feudal rights, a +resistance by his vassals equally obstinate and more frequently +successful. What the issue of the contest might have been if Germany +had been left to take her own course is matter of speculation, though +the example of every European state except England and Norway may +incline the balance in favour of the crown. But the strife had +scarcely begun when a new influence was interposed: the German king +became Roman Emperor. No two systems can be more unlike than those +whose headship became thus vested in one person: the one centralized, +the other local; the one resting on a sublime theory, the other the +rude offspring of anarchy; the one gathering all power into the hands +of an irresponsible monarch, the other limiting his rights and +authorizing resistance to his commands; the one demanding the equality +of all citizens as creatures equal before Heaven, the other bound up +with an aristocracy the proudest, and in its gradations of rank the +most exact, that Europe had ever seen. Characters so repugnant could +not, it might be thought, meet in one person, or if they met must +strive till one swallowed up the other. It was not so. In the fusion +which began from the first, though it was for a time imperceptible, +each of the two characters gave and each lost some of its attributes: +the king became more than German, the Emperor less than Roman, till, +at the end of six centuries, the monarch in whom two 'persons' had +been united, appeared as a third different from either of the former, +and might not inappropriately be entitled 'German Emperor[150].' The +nature and progress of this change will appear in the after history of +Germany, and cannot be described here without in some measure +anticipating subsequent events. A word or two may indicate how the +process of fusion began. + +[Sidenote: Results of this union in one person.] + +It was natural that the great mass of Otto's subjects, to whom the +imperial title, dimly associated with Rome and the Pope, sounded +grander than the regal, without being known as otherwise different, +should in thought and speech confound them. The sovereign and his +ecclesiastical advisers, with far clearer views of the new office and +of the mutual relation of the two, found it impossible to separate +them in practice, and were glad to merge the lesser in the greater. +For as lord of the world, Otto was Emperor north as well as south of +the Alps. When he issued an edict, he claimed the obedience of his +Teutonic subjects in both capacities; when as Emperor he led the +armies of the gospel against the heathen, it was the standard of their +feudal superior that his armed vassals followed; when he founded +churches and appointed bishops, he acted partly as suzerain of feudal +lands, partly as protector of the faith, charged to guide the Church +in matters temporal. Thus the assumption of the imperial crown brought +to Otto as its first result an apparent increase of domestic +authority; it made his position by its historical associations more +dignified, by its religious more hallowed; it raised him higher above +his vassals and above other sovereigns; it enlarged his prerogative in +ecclesiastical affairs, and by necessary consequence gave to +ecclesiastics a more important place at court and in the +administration of government than they had enjoyed before. Great as +was the power of the bishops and abbots in all the feudal kingdoms, it +stood nowhere so high as in Germany. There the Emperor's double +position, as head both of Church and State, required the two +organizations to be exactly parallel. In the eleventh century a full +half of the land and wealth of the country, and no small part of its +military strength, was in the hands of Churchmen: their influence +predominated in the Diet; the archchancellorship of the Empire, +highest of all offices, belonged of right to the archbishop of Mentz, +as primate of Germany. It was by Otto, who in resuming the attitude +must repeat the policy of Charles, that the greatness of the clergy +was thus advanced. He is commonly said to have wished to weaken the +aristocracy by raising up rivals to them in the hierarchy. It may have +been so, and the measure was at any rate a disastrous one, for the +clergy soon approved themselves not less rebellious than those whom +they were to restrain. But in accusing Otto's judgment, historians +have often forgotten in what position he stood to the Church, and how +it behoved him, according to the doctrine received, to establish in +her an order like in all things to that which he found already +subsisting in the State. + +[Sidenote: Changes in title.] + +The style which Otto adopted shewed his desire thus to merge the king +in the Emperor[151]. Charles had called himself 'Imperator Csar +Carolus rex Francorum invictissimus;' and again, 'Carolus serenissimus +Augustus, Pius, Felix, Romanorum gubernans Imperium, qui et per +misericordiam Dei rex Francorum atque Langobardorum.' Otto and his +first successors, who until their coronation at Rome had used the +titles of 'Rex Francorum,' or 'Rex Francorum Orientalium,' or oftener +still 'Rex' alone, discarded after it all titles save the highest of +'Imperator Augustus;' seeming thereby, though they too had been +crowned at Aachen and Milan, to claim the authority of Csar through +all their dominions. Tracing as we are the history of a title, it is +needless to dwell on the significance of the change[152]. Charles, son +of the Ripuarian allies of Probus, had been a Frankish chieftain on +the Rhine; Otto, the Saxon, successor of the Cheruscan Arminius, would +rule his native Elbe with a power borrowed from the Tiber. + +[Sidenote: Imperial power feudalized.] + +Nevertheless, the imperial element did not in every respect +predominate over the royal. The monarch might desire to make good +against his turbulent barons the boundless prerogative which he +acquired with his new crown, but he lacked the power to do so; and +they, disputing neither the supremacy of that crown nor his right to +wear it, refused with good reason to let their own freedom be +infringed upon by any act of which they had not been the authors. So +far was Otto from embarking on so vain an enterprise, that his rule +was even more direct and more personal than that of Charles had been. +There was no scheme of mechanical government, no claim of absolutism; +there was only the resolve to make the energetic assertion of the +king's feudal rights subserve the further aims of the Emperor. What +Otto demanded he demanded as Emperor, what he received he received as +king; the singular result was that in Germany the imperial office was +itself pervaded and transformed by feudal ideas. Feudality needing, to +make its theory complete, a lord paramount of the world, from whose +grant all ownership in land must be supposed to have emanated, and +finding such a suzerain in the Emperor, constituted him liege lord of +all kings and potentates, keystone of the feudal arch, himself, as it +was expressed, 'holding' the world from God. There were not wanting +Roman institutions to which these notions could attach themselves. +Constantine, imitating the courts of the East, had made the +dignitaries of his household great officials of the State: these were +now reproduced in the cup-bearer, the seneschal, the marshal, the +chamberlain of the Empire, so soon to become its electoral princes. +The holding of land on condition of military service was Roman in its +origin: the divided ownership of feudal law found its analogies in the +Roman tenure of emphyteusis. Thus while Germany was Romanized the +Empire was feudalized, and came to be considered not the antagonist +but the perfection of an aristocratic system. And it was this +adaptation to existing political facts that enabled it afterwards to +assume an international character. Nevertheless, even while they +seemed to blend, there remained between the genius of imperialism (if +one may use a now perverted word) and that of feudalism a deep and +lasting hostility. And so the rule of Otto and his successors was in a +measure adverse to feudal polity, not from knowledge of what Roman +government had been, but from the necessities of their position, +raised as they were to an unapproachable height above their subjects, +surrounded with a halo of sanctity as protectors of the Church. Thus +were they driven to reduce local independence, and assimilate the +various races through their vast territories. It was Otto who made the +Germans, hitherto an aggregate of tribes, a single people, and welding +them into a strong political body taught them to rise through its +collective greatness to the consciousness of national life, never +thenceforth to be extinguished. + +[Sidenote: The Commons.] + +One expedient against the land-holding oligarchy which Roman +traditions as well as present needs might have suggested, it was +scarcely possible for Otto to use. He could not invoke the friendship +of the Third Estate, for as yet none existed. The Teutonic order of +freemen, which two centuries earlier had formed the bulk of the +population, was now fast disappearing, just as in England all who did +not become thanes were classed as ceorls, and from ceorls sank for the +most part, after the Conquest, into villeins. It was only in the +Alpine valleys and along the shores of the ocean that free democratic +communities maintained themselves. Town-life there was none, till +Henry the Fowler forced his forest-loving people to dwell in +fortresses that might repel the Hungarian invaders; and the burgher +class thus beginning to form was too small to be a power in the state. +But popular freedom, as it expired, bequeathed to the monarch such of +its rights as could be saved from the grasp of the nobles; and the +crown thus became what it has been wherever an aristocracy presses +upon both, the ally, though as yet the tacit ally, of the people. +More, too, than the royal could have done, did the imperial name +invite the sympathy of the commons. For in all, however ignorant of +its history, however unable to comprehend its functions, there yet +lived a feeling that it was in some mysterious way consecrated to +Christian brotherhood and equality, to peace and law, to the restraint +of the strong and the defence of the helpless. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[150] Although this was of course never his legal title. Till 1806 he +was 'Romanorum Imperator semper Augustus;' 'Rmischer Kaiser.' + +[151] Ptter, _Dissertationes de Instauratione Imperii Romani_; cf. +Goldast's _Collection of Constitutions_; and the proclamations and +other documents collected in Pertz, _M. G. H._ legg. I. + +[152] Ptter (_De Instauratione Imperii Romani_) will have it that +upon this mistake, as he calls it, of Otto's, the whole subsequent +history of the Empire turned; that if Otto had but continued to style +himself 'Francorum Rex,' Germany would have been spared all her +Italian wars. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +SAXON AND FRANCONIAN EMPERORS. + + +He who begins to read the history of the Middle Ages is alternately +amused and provoked by the seeming absurdities that meet him at every +step. He finds writers proclaiming amidst universal assent magnificent +theories which no one attempts to carry out. He sees men who are +stained with every vice full of sincere devotion to a religion which, +even when its doctrines were most obscured, never sullied the purity +of its moral teaching. He is disposed to conclude that such people +must have been either fools or hypocrites. Yet such a conclusion would +be wholly erroneous. Every one knows how little a man's actions +conform to the general maxims which he would lay down for himself, and +how many things there are which he believes without realizing: +believes sufficiently to be influenced, yet not sufficiently to be +governed by them. Now in the Middle Ages this perpetual opposition of +theory and practice was peculiarly abrupt. Men's impulses were more +violent and their conduct more reckless than is often witnessed in +modern society; while the absence of a criticizing and measuring +spirit made them surrender their minds more unreservedly than they +would now do to a complete and imposing theory. Therefore it was, that +while everyone believed in the rights of the Empire as a part of +divine truth, no one would yield to them where his own passions or +interests interfered. Resistance to God's Vicar might be and indeed +was admitted to be a deadly sin, but it was one which nobody hesitated +to commit. Hence, in order to give this unbounded imperial prerogative +any practical efficiency, it was found necessary to prop it up by the +limited but tangible authority of a feudal king. And the one spot in +Otto's empire on which feudality had never fixed its grasp, and where +therefore he was forced to rule merely as emperor, and not also as +king, was that in which he and his successors were never safe from +insult and revolt. That spot was his capital. Accordingly an account +of what befel the first Saxon emperor in Rome is a not unfitting +comment on the theory expounded above, as well as a curious episode in +the history of the Apostolic Chair. + +[Sidenote: Otto the Great in Rome.] + +After his coronation Otto had returned to North Italy, where the +partizans of Berengar and his son Adalbert still maintained themselves +in arms. Scarcely was he gone when the restless John the Twelfth, who +found too late that in seeking an ally he had given himself a master, +renounced his allegiance, opened negotiations with Berengar, and even +scrupled not to send envoys pressing the heathen Magyars to invade +Germany. The Emperor was soon informed of these plots, as well as of +the flagitious life of the pontiff, a youth of twenty-five, the most +profligate if not the most guilty of all who have worn the tiara. But +he affected to despise them, saying, with a sort of unconscious irony, +'He is a boy, the example of good men may reform him.' When, however, +Otto returned with a strong force, he found the city gates shut, and a +party within furious against him. John the Twelfth was not only Pope, +but as the heir of Alberic, the head of a strong faction among the +nobles, and a sort of temporal prince in the city. But neither he nor +they had courage enough to stand a siege: John fled into the Campagna +to join Adalbert, and Otto entering convoked a synod in St. Peter's. +Himself presiding as temporal head of the Church, he began by +inquiring into the character and manners of the Pope. At once a +tempest of accusations burst forth from the assembled clergy. +Liudprand, a credible although a hostile witness, gives us a long list +of them:--'Peter, cardinal-priest, rose and witnessed that he had seen +the Pope celebrate mass and not himself communicate. John, bishop of +Narnia, and John, cardinal-deacon, declared that they had seen him +ordain a deacon in a stable, neglecting the proper formalities. They +said further that he had defiled by shameless acts of vice the +pontifical palace; that he had openly diverted himself with hunting; +had put out the eyes of his spiritual father Benedict; had set fire to +houses; had girt himself with a sword, and put on a helmet and +hauberk. All present, laymen as well as priests, cried out that he had +drunk to the devil's health; that in throwing the dice he had invoked +the help of Jupiter, Venus, and other demons; that he had celebrated +matins at uncanonical hours, and had not fortified himself by making +the sign of the cross. After these things the Emperor, who could not +speak Latin, since the Romans could not understand his native, that is +to say, the Saxon tongue, bade Liudprand bishop of Cremona interpret +for him, and adjured the council to declare whether the charges they +had brought were true, or sprang only of malice and envy. Then all the +clergy and people cried with a loud voice, 'If John the Pope hath not +committed all the crimes which Benedict the deacon hath read over, and +even greater crimes than these, then may the chief of the Apostles, +the blessed Peter, who by his word closes heaven to the unworthy and +opens it to the just, never absolve us from our sins, but may we be +bound by the chain of anathema, and on the last day may we stand on +the left hand along with those who have said to the Lord God, "Depart +from us, for we will not know Thy ways."' + +The solemnity of this answer seems to have satisfied Otto and the +council: a letter was despatched to John, couched in respectful terms, +recounting the charges brought against him, and asking him to appear +to clear himself by his own oath and that of a sufficient number of +compurgators. John's reply was short and pithy. + +'John the bishop, the servant of the servants of God, to all the +bishops. We have heard tell that you wish to set up another Pope: if +you do this, by Almighty God I excommunicate you, so that you may not +have power to perform mass or to ordain no one[153].' + +[Sidenote: Deposition of John XII.] + +To this Otto and the synod replied by a letter of humorous +expostulation, begging the Pope to reform both his morals and his +Latin. But the messenger who bore it could not find John: he had +repeated what seems to have been thought his most heinous sin, by +going into the country with his bow and arrows; and after a search had +been made in vain, the synod resolved to take a decisive step. Otto, +who still led their deliberations, demanded the condemnation of the +Pope; the assembly deposed him by acclamation, 'because of his +reprobate life,' and having obtained the Emperor's consent, proceeded +in an equally hasty manner to raise Leo, the chief secretary and a +layman, to the chair of the Apostle. + +[Sidenote: Revolt of the Romans.] + +Otto might seem to have now reached a position loftier and firmer than +that of any of his predecessors. Within little more than a year from +his arrival in Rome, he had exercised powers greater than those of +Charles himself, ordering the dethronement of one pontiff and the +installation of another, forcing a reluctant people to bend themselves +to his will. The submission involved in his oath to protect the Holy +See was more than compensated by the oath of allegiance to his crown +which the Pope and the Romans had taken, and by their solemn +engagement not to elect nor ordain any future pontiff without the +Emperor's consent[154]. But he had yet to learn what this obedience +and these oaths were worth. The Romans had eagerly joined in the +expulsion of John; they soon began to regret him. They were mortified +to see their streets filled by a foreign soldiery, the habitual +licence of their manners sternly repressed, their most cherished +privilege, the right of choosing the universal bishop, grasped by the +strong hand of a master who used it for purposes in which they did not +sympathize. In a fickle and turbulent people, disaffection quickly +turned to rebellion. One night, Otto's troops being most of them +dispersed in their quarters at a distance, the Romans rose in arms, +blocked up the Tiber bridges, and fell furiously upon the Emperor and +his creature the new Pope. Superior valour and constancy triumphed +over numbers, and the Romans were overthrown with terrible slaughter; +yet this lesson did not prevent them from revolting a second time, +after Otto's departure in pursuit of Adalbert. John the Twelfth +returned to the city, and when his pontifical career was speedily +closed by the sword of an injured husband[155], the people chose a new +Pope in defiance of the Emperor and his nominee. Otto again subdued +and again forgave them, but when they rebelled for a third time, in +A.D. 966, he resolved to shew them what imperial supremacy meant. +Thirteen leaders, among them the twelve tribunes, were executed, the +consuls were banished, republican forms entirely suppressed, the +government of the city entrusted to Pope Leo as viceroy. He, too, must +not presume on the sacredness of his person to set up any claims to +independence. Otto regarded the pontiff as no more than the first of +his subjects, the creature of his own will, the depositary of an +authority which must be exercised according to the discretion of his +sovereign. The citizens yielded to the Emperor an absolute veto on +papal elections in A.D. 963. Otto obtained from his nominee, Leo VIII, +a confirmation of this privilege, which it was afterwards supposed +that Hadrian I had granted to Charles, in a decree which may yet be +read in the collections of the canon law[156]. The vigorous exercise +of such a power might be expected to reform as well as to restrain the +apostolic see; and it was for this purpose, and in noble honesty, that +the Teutonic sovereigns employed it. But the fortunes of Otto in the +city are a type of those which his successors were destined to +experience. Notwithstanding their clear rights and the momentary +enthusiasm with which they were greeted in Rome, not all the efforts +of Emperor after Emperor could gain any firm hold on the capital they +were so proud of. Visiting it only once or twice in their reigns, they +must be supported among a fickle populace by a large army of +strangers, which melted away with terrible rapidity under the sun of +Italy amid the deadly hollows of the Campagna[157]. Rome soon resumed +her turbulent independence. + +[Sidenote: Otto's rule in Italy.] + +Causes partly the same prevented the Saxon princes from gaining a firm +footing throughout Italy. Since Charles the Bald had bartered away for +the crown all that made it worth having, no Emperor had exercised +substantial authority there. The _missi dominici_ had ceased to +traverse the country; the local governors had thrown off control, a +crowd of petty potentates had established principalities by +aggressions on their weaker neighbours. Only in the dominions of great +nobles, like the marquises of Tuscany and Spoleto, and in some of the +cities where the supremacy of the bishop was paving the way for a +republican system, could traces of political order be found, or the +arts of peace flourish. Otto, who, though he came as a conqueror, +ruled legitimately as Italian king, found his feudal vassals less +submissive than in Germany. While actually present he succeeded by +progresses and edicts, and stern justice, in doing something to still +the turmoil; on his departure Italy relapsed into that disorganization +for which her natural features are not less answerable than the +mixture of her races. Yet it was at this era, when the confusion was +wildest, that there appeared the first rudiments of an Italian +nationality, based partly on geographical position, partly on the use +of a common language and the slow growth of peculiar customs and modes +of thought. But though already jealous of the Tedescan, national +feeling was still very far from disputing his sway. Pope, princes, and +cities bowed to Otto as king and Emperor; nor did he bethink himself +of crushing while it was weak a sentiment whose development threatened +the existence of his empire. Holding Italy equally for his own with +Germany, and ruling both on the same principles, he was content to +keep it a separate kingdom, neither changing its institutions nor +sending Saxons, as Charles had sent Franks, to represent his +government[158]. + +[Sidenote: Otto's foreign policy.] + +[Sidenote: Towards Byzantium.] + +The lofty claims which Otto acquired with the Roman crown urged him to +resume the plans of foreign conquest which had lain neglected since +the days of Charles: the growing vigour of the Teutonic people, now +definitely separating themselves from surrounding races (this is the +era of the Marks--Brandenburg, Meissen, Schleswig), placed in his +hands a force to execute those plans which his predecessors had +wanted. In this, as in his other enterprises, the great Emperor was +active, wise, successful. Retaining the extreme south of Italy, and +unwilling to confess the loss of Rome, the Greeks had not ceased to +annoy her German masters by intrigue, and might now, under the +vigorous leadership of Nicephorus and Tzimiskes, hope again to menace +them in arms. Policy, and the fascination which an ostentatiously +legitimate court exercised over the Saxon stranger, made Otto, as +Napoleon wooed Maria Louisa, seek for his heir the hand of the +princess Theophano. Liudprand's account of his embassy represents in +an amusing manner the rival pretensions of the old and new +Empires[159]. The Greeks, who fancied that with the name they +preserved the character and rights of Rome, held it almost as absurd +as it was wicked that a Frank should insult their prerogative by +reigning in Italy as Emperor. They refused him that title altogether; +and when the Pope had, in a letter addressed '_Imperatori Grcorum_,' +asked Nicephorus to gratify the wishes of the Emperor of the Romans, +the Eastern was furious. 'You are no Romans,' said he, 'but wretched +Lombards: what means this insolent Pope? with Constantine all Rome +migrated hither.' The wily bishop appeased him by abusing the Romans, +while he insinuated that Byzantium could lay no claim to their name, +and proceeded to vindicate the Francia and Saxonia of his master. +'"Roman" is the most contemptuous name we can use--it conveys the +reproach of every vice, cowardice, falsehood, avarice. But what can be +expected from the descendants of the fratricide Romulus? to his asylum +were gathered the offscourings of the nations: thence came these +[Greek: kosmokratores].' Nicephorus demanded the 'theme' or province of +Rome as the price of compliance[160]; Tzimiskes was more moderate, and +Theophano became the bride of Otto II. + +[Sidenote: Towards the West Franks.] + +Holding the two capitals of Charles the Great, Otto might vindicate +the suzerainty over the West Frankish kingdom which it had been meant +that the imperial title should carry with it. Arnulf had asserted it +by making Eudes, the first Capetian king, receive the crown as his +feudatory: Henry the Fowler had been less successful. Otto pursued the +same course, intriguing with the discontented nobles of Louis +d'Outremer, and receiving their fealty as Superior of Roman Gaul. +These pretensions, however, could have been made effective only by +arms, and the feudal militia of the tenth century was no such +instrument of conquest as the hosts of Clovis and Charles had been. +The star of the Carolingian of Laon was paling before the rising +greatness of the Parisian Capets: a Romano-Keltic nation had formed +itself, distinct in tongue from the Franks, whom it was fast +absorbing, and still less willing to submit to a Saxon stranger. +Modern France[161] dates from the accession of Hugh Capet, A.D. 987, +and the claims of the Roman Empire were never afterwards formally +admitted. + +[Sidenote: Lorraine and Burgundy.] + +Of that France, however, Aquitaine was virtually independent. +Lotharingia and Burgundy belonged to it as little as did England. The +former of these kingdoms had adhered to the West Frankish king, +Charles the Simple, against the East Frankish Conrad: but now, as +mostly German in blood and speech, threw itself into the arms of Otto, +and was thenceforth an integral part of the Empire. Burgundy, a +separate kingdom, had, by seeking from Charles the Fat a ratification +of Boso's election, by admitting, in the person of Rudolf the first +Transjurane king, the feudal superiority of Arnulf, acknowledged +itself to be dependent on the German crown. Otto governed it for +thirty years, nominally as the guardian of the young king Conrad (son +of Rudolf II). + +[Sidenote: Denmark and the Slaves.] + +[Sidenote: England.] + +Otto's conquests to the North and East approved him a worthy successor +of the first Emperor. He penetrated far into Jutland, annexed +Schleswig, made Harold the Blue-toothed his vassal. The Slavic tribes +were obliged to submit, to follow the German host in war, to allow the +free preaching of the Gospel in their borders. The Hungarians he +forced to forsake their nomad life, and delivered Europe from the fear +of Asiatic invasions by strengthening the frontier of Austria. Over +more distant lands, Spain and England, it was not possible to recover +the commanding position of Charles. Henry, as head of the Saxon name, +may have wished to unite its branches on both sides the sea[162], and +it was perhaps partly with this intent that he gained for Otto the +hand of Edith, sister of the English Athelstan. But the claim of +supremacy, if any there was, was repudiated by Edgar, when, +exaggerating the lofty style assumed by some of his predecessors, he +called himself 'Basileus and imperator of Britain[163],' thereby +seeming to pretend to a sovereignty over all the nations of the island +similar to that which the Roman Emperor claimed over the states of +Christendom. + +[Sidenote: Extent of Otto's Empire.] + +[Sidenote: Comparison between it and that of Charles.] + +This restored Empire, which professed itself a continuation of the +Carolingian, was in many respects different. It was less wide, +including, if we reckon strictly, only Germany proper and two-thirds +of Italy; or counting in subject but separate kingdoms, Burgundy, +Bohemia, Moravia, Poland, Denmark, perhaps Hungary. Its character was +less ecclesiastical. Otto exalted indeed the spiritual potentates of +his realm, and was earnest in spreading Christianity among the +heathen: he was master of the Pope and Defender of the Holy Roman +Church. But religion held a less important place in his mind and his +administration: he made fewer wars for its sake, held no councils, and +did not, like his predecessor, criticize the discourses of bishops. It +was also less Roman. We do not know whether Otto associated with that +name anything more than the right to universal dominion and a certain +oversight of matters spiritual, nor how far he believed himself to be +treading in the steps of the Csars. He could not speak Latin, he had +few learned men around him, he cannot have possessed the varied +cultivation which had been so fruitful in the mind of Charles. +Moreover, the conditions of his time were different, and did not +permit similar attempts at wide organization. The local potentates +would have submitted to no _missi dominici_; separate laws and +jurisdictions would not have yielded to imperial capitularies; the +_placita_ at which those laws were framed or published would not have +been crowded, as of yore, by armed freemen. But what Otto could he +did, and did it to good purpose. Constantly traversing his dominions, +he introduced a peace and prosperity before unknown, and left +everywhere the impress of an heroic character. Under him the Germans +became not only a united nation, but were at once raised on a pinnacle +among European peoples as the imperial race, the possessors of Rome +and Rome's authority. While the political connection with Italy +stirred their spirit, it brought with it a knowledge and culture +hitherto unknown, and gave the newly-kindled energy an object. Germany +became in her turn the instructress of the neighbouring tribes, who +trembled at Otto's sceptre; Poland and Bohemia received from her their +arts and their learning with their religion. If the revived +Romano-Germanic Empire was less splendid than the Empire of the West +had been under Charles, it was, within narrower limits, firmer and +more lasting, since based on a social force which the other had +wanted. It perpetuated the name, the language, the literature, such as +it then was, of Rome; it extended her spiritual sway; it strove to +represent that concentration for which men cried, and became a power +to unite and civilize Europe. + +[Sidenote: Otto II, A.D. 973-983.] + +[Sidenote: Otto III, A.D. 983-1002.] + +[Sidenote: His ideas. Fascination exercised over him by the name of +Rome.] + +[Sidenote: Pope Sylvester II, A.D. 1000.] + +The time of Otto the Great has required a fuller treatment, as the era +of the Holy Empire's foundation: succeeding rulers may be more quickly +dismissed. Yet Otto III's reign cannot pass unnoticed: short, sad, +full of bright promise never fulfilled. His mother was the Greek +princess Theophano; his preceptor, the illustrious Gerbert: through +the one he felt himself connected with the old Empire, and had imbibed +the absolutism of Byzantium; by the other he had been reared in the +dream of a renovated Rome, with her memories turned to realities. To +accomplish that renovation, who so fit as he who with the vigorous +blood of the Teutonic conqueror inherited the venerable rights of +Constantinople? It was his design, now that the solemn millennial era +of the founding of Christianity had arrived, to renew the majesty of +the city and make her again the capital of a world-embracing Empire, +victorious as Trajan's, despotic as Justinian's, holy as +Constantine's. His young and visionary mind was too much dazzled by +the gorgeous fancies it created to see the world as it was: Germany +rude, Italy unquiet, Rome corrupt and faithless. In A.D. 994, at the +age of sixteen, he took from his mother's hands the reins of +government, and entered Italy to receive his crown, and quell the +turbulence of Rome. There he put to death the rebel Crescentius, in +whom modern enthusiasm has seen a patriotic republican, who, reviving +the institutions of Alberic, had ruled as consul or senator, sometimes +entitling himself Emperor[164]. The young monarch reclaimed, perhaps +extended, the privilege of Charles and Otto the Great, by nominating +successive pontiffs: first Bruno his cousin (Gregory V), then Gerbert, +whose name of Sylvester II recalled significantly the ally of +Constantine: Gerbert, to his contemporaries a marvel of piety and +learning, in later legend the magician who, at the price of his own +soul, purchased preferment from the Enemy, and by him was at last +carried off in the body. With the substitution of these men for the +profligate priests of Italy, began that Teutonic reform of the Papacy +which raised it from the abyss of the tenth century to the point where +Hildebrand found it. The Emperors were working the ruin of their power +by their most disinterested acts. + +[Sidenote: Schemes of Otto III: Changes of style and usage.] + +With his tutor on Peter's chair to second or direct him, Otto laboured +on his great project in a spirit almost mystic. He had an intense +religious belief in the Emperor's duties to the world--in his +proclamations he calls himself 'Servant of the Apostles,' 'Servant of +Jesus Christ[165]'--together with the ambitious antiquarianism of a +fiery imagination, kindled by the memorials of the glory and power he +represented. Even the wording of his laws witnesses to the strange +mixture of notions that filled his eager brain. 'We have ordained +this,' says an edict, 'in order that, the church of God being freely +and firmly stablished, our Empire may be advanced and the crown of our +knighthood triumph; that the power of the Roman people may be extended +and the commonwealth be restored; so may we be found worthy after +living righteously in the tabernacle of this world, to fly away from +the prison of this life and reign most righteously with the Lord.' To +exclude the claims of the Greeks he used the title '_Romanorum +Imperator_' instead of the simple '_Imperator_' of his predecessors. +His seals bear a legend resembling that used by Charles, '_Renovatio +Imperii Romanorum_;' even the 'commonwealth,' despite the results that +name had produced under Alberic and Crescentius, was to be +re-established. He built a palace on the Aventine, then the most +healthy and beautiful quarter of the city; he devised a regular +administrative system of government for his capital--naming a +patrician, a prefect, and a body of judges, who were commanded to +recognize no law but Justinian's. The formula of their appointment has +been preserved to us: in it the Emperor delivering to the judge a copy +of the code bids him 'with this code judge Rome and the Leonine city +and the whole world.' He introduced into the simple German court the +ceremonious magnificence of Byzantium, not without giving offence to +many of his followers[166]. His father's wish to draw Italy and +Germany more closely together, he followed up by giving the +chancellorship of both countries to the same churchman, by maintaining +a strong force of Germans in Italy, and by taking his Italian retinue +with him through the Transalpine lands. How far these brilliant and +far-reaching plans were capable of realization, had their author lived +to attempt it, can be but guessed at. It is reasonable to suppose that +whatever power he might have gained in the South he would have lost in +the North. Dwelling rarely in Germany, and in sympathies more a Greek +than a Teuton, he reined in the fierce barons with no such tight hand +as his grandfather had been wont to do; he neglected the schemes of +northern conquest; he released the Polish dukes from the obligation of +tribute. But all, save that those plans were his, is now no more than +conjecture, for Otto III, 'the wonder of the world,' as his own +generation called him, died childless on the threshold of manhood; the +victim, if we may trust a story of the time, of the revenge of +Stephania, widow of Crescentius, who ensnared him by her beauty, and +slew him by a lingering poison. They carried him across the Alps with +laments whose echoes sound faintly yet from the pages of monkish +chroniclers, and buried him in the choir of the basilica at Aachen +some fifty paces from the tomb of Charles beneath the central dome. +Two years had not passed since, setting out on his last journey to +Rome, he had opened that tomb, had gazed on the great Emperor, sitting +on a marble throne, robed and crowned, with the Gospel-book open +before him; and there, touching the dead hand, unclasping from the +neck its golden cross, had taken, as it were, an investiture of Empire +from his Frankish forerunner. Short as was his life and few his acts, +Otto III is in one respect more memorable than any who went before or +came after him. None save he desired to make the seven-hilled city +again the seat of dominion, reducing Germany and Lombardy and Greece +to their rightful place of subject provinces. No one else so forgot +the present to live in the light of the ancient order; no other soul +was so possessed by that fervid mysticism and that reverence for the +glories of the past, whereon rested the idea of the medival Empire. + +[Sidenote: Italy independent.] + +[Sidenote: Henry II Emperor.] + +[Sidenote: Southern Italy.] + +The direct line of Otto the Great had now ended, and though the Franks +might elect and the Saxons accept Henry II[167], Italy was nowise +affected by their acts. Neither the Empire nor the Lombard kingdom +could as yet be of right claimed by the German king. Her princes +placed Ardoin, marquis of Ivrea, on the vacant throne of Pavia, moved +partly by the growing aversion to a Transalpine power, still more by +the desire of impunity under a monarch feebler than any since +Berengar. But the selfishness that had exalted Ardoin soon overthrew +him. Ere long a party among the nobles, seconded by the Pope, invited +Henry[168]; his strong army made opposition hopeless, and at Rome he +received the imperial crown, A.D. 1014. It is, perhaps, more singular +that the Transalpine kings should have clung so pertinaciously to +Italian sovereignty than that the Lombards should have so frequently +attempted to recover their independence. For the former had often +little or no hereditary claim, they were not secure in their seat at +home, they crossed a huge mountain barrier into a land of treachery +and hatred. But Rome's glittering lure was irresistible, and the +disunion of Italy promised an easy conquest. Surrounded by martial +vassals, these Emperors were generally for the moment supreme: once +their pennons had disappeared in the gorges of Tyrol, things reverted +to their former condition, and Tuscany was little more dependent than +France. In Southern Italy the Greek viceroy ruled from Bari, and Rome +was an outpost instead of the centre of Teutonic power. A curious +evidence of the wavering politics of the time is furnished by the +Annals of Benevento, the Lombard town which on the confines of the +Greek and Roman realms gave steady obedience to neither. They usually +date by and recognize the princes of Constantinople[169], seldom +mentioning the Franks, till the reign of Conrad II; after him the +Western becomes _Imperator_, the Greek, appearing more rarely, is +_Imperator Constantinopolitanus_. Assailed by the Saracens, masters +already of Sicily, these regions seemed on the eve of being lost to +Christendom, and the Romans sometimes bethought themselves of +returning under the Byzantine sceptre. As the weakness of the Greeks +in the South favoured the rise of the Norman kingdom, so did the +liberties of the northern cities shoot up in the absence of the +Emperors and the feuds of the princes. Milan, Pavia, Cremona, were +only the foremost among many populous centres of industry, some of +them self-governing, all quickly absorbing or repelling the rural +nobility, and not afraid to display by tumults their aversion to the +Germans. + +[Sidenote: Conrad II.] + +The reign of Conrad II, the first monarch of the great Franconian +line, is remarkable for the accession to the Empire of Burgundy, or, +as it is after this time more often called, the kingdom of Arles[170]. +Rudolf III, the last king, had proposed to bequeath it to Henry II, +and the states were at length persuaded to consent to its reunion to +the crown from which it had been separated, though to some extent +dependent, since the death of Lothar I (son of Lewis the Pious). On +Rudolf's death in 1032, Eudes, count of Champagne, endeavoured to +seize it, and entered the north-western districts, from which he was +dislodged by Conrad with some difficulty. Unlike Italy, it became an +integral member of the Germanic realm: its prelates and nobles sat in +imperial diets, and retained till recently the style and title of +Princes of the Holy Empire. The central government was, however, +seldom effective in these outlying territories, exposed always to the +intrigues, finally to the aggressions, of Capetian France. + +[Sidenote: Henry III.] + +[Sidenote: His reform of the Popedom.] + +[Sidenote: Henry IV, A.D. 1056-1106.] + +Under Conrad's son Henry the Third the Empire attained the meridian of +its power. At home Otto the Great's prerogative had not stood so high. +The duchies, always the chief source of fear, were allowed to remain +vacant or filled by the relatives of the monarch, who himself +retained, contrary to usual practice, those of Franconia and (for some +years) Swabia. Abbeys and sees lay entirely in his gift. Intestine +feuds were repressed by the proclamation of a public peace. Abroad, +the feudal superiority over Hungary, which Henry II had gained by +conferring the title of King with the hand of his sister Gisela, was +enforced by war, the country made almost a province, and compelled to +pay tribute. In Rome no German sovereign had ever been so absolute. A +disgraceful contest between three claimants of the papal chair had +shocked even the reckless apathy of Italy. Henry deposed them all, and +appointed their successor: he became hereditary patrician, and wore +constantly the green mantle and circlet of gold which were the badges +of that office, seeming, one might think, to find in it some further +authority than that which the imperial name conferred. The synod +passed a decree granting to Henry the right of nominating the supreme +pontiff; and the Roman priesthood, who had forfeited the respect of +the world even more by habitual simony than by the flagrant corruption +of their manners, were forced to receive German after German as their +bishop, at the bidding of a ruler so powerful, so severe, and so +pious. But Henry's encroachments alarmed his own nobles no less than +the Italians, and the reaction, which might have been dangerous to +himself, was fatal to his successor. A mere chance, as some might call +it, determined the course of history. The great Emperor died suddenly +in A.D. 1056, and a child was left at the helm, while storms were +gathering that might have demanded the wisest hand. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[153] 'Iohannes episcopus, servus servorum Dei, omnibus episcopis. Nos +audivimus dicere quia vos vultis alium papam facere: si hoc facitis, +da Deum omnipotentem excommunico vos, ut non habeatis licentiam missam +celebrare aut nullum ordinare.'--Liudprand, _ut supra_. The 'da' is +curious, as shewing the progress of the change from Latin to Italian. +The answer sent by Otto and the council takes exception to the double +negative. + +[154] 'Cives fidelitatem promittunt hc addentes et firmiter iurantes +nunquam se papam electuros aut ordinaturos prter consensum atque +electionem domini imperatoris Ottonis Csaris Augusti filiique ipsius +Ottonis.'--Liudprand, _Gesta Ottonis_, lib. vi. + +[155] 'In timporibus adeo a dyabulo est percussus ut infra dierum octo +spacium eodem sit in vulnere mortuus,' says the chronicler, crediting +with but little of his wonted cleverness the supposed author of John's +death, who well might have desired a long life for so useful a +servant. + +He adds a detail too characteristic of the time to be omitted--'Sed +eucharisti viaticum, ipsius instinctu qui eum percusserat, non +percepit.' + +[156] _Corpus Iuris Canonici_, Dist. lxiii., '_In synodo_.' A decree +which is probably substantially genuine, although the form in which we +have it is evidently of later date. + +[157] Cf. St. Peter Damiani's lines-- + + 'Roma vorax hominum domat ardua colla virorum, + Roma ferax febrium necis est uberrima frugum, + Roman febres stabili sunt iure fideles.' + +[158] There was a separate chancellor for Italy, as afterwards for the +kingdom of Burgundy. + +[159] Liudprand, _Legatio Constantinopolitana_. + +[160] 'Sancti imperii nostri olim servos principes, Beneventanum +scilicet, tradat,' &c. The epithet is worth noticing. + +[161] Liudprand calls the Eastern Franks 'Franci Teutonici' to +distinguish them from the Romanized Franks of Gaul or 'Francigen,' as +they were frequently called. The name 'Frank' seems even so early as +the tenth century to have been used in the East as a general name for +the Western peoples of Europe. Liudprand says that the Greek Emperor +included 'sub Francorum nomine tam Latinos quam Teutonicos.' Probably +this use dates from the time of Charles. + +[162] Conring, _De Finibus Imperii_. + +[163] Basileus was a favourite title of the English kings before the +Conquest. Titles like this used in these early English charters prove, +it need hardly be said, absolutely nothing as to the real existence of +any rights or powers of the English king beyond his own borders. What +they do prove (over and above the taste for florid rhetoric in the +royal clerks) is the impression produced by the imperial style, and by +the idea of the emperor's throne as supported by the thrones of kings +and other lesser potentates. + +[164] The coins of Crescentius are said to exhibit the insignia of the +old Empire.--Palgrave, _Normandy and England_, i. 715. But probably +some at least of them are forgeries. + +[165] Proclamation in Pertz, _M. G. H._ ii. + +[166] 'Imperator antiquam Romanorum consuetudinem iam ex magna parte +deletam suis cupiens renovare temporibus multa faciebat qu diversi +diverse sentiebant.'--Thietmar, _Chron._ ix.; ap. Pertz, _M. G. H._ t. +iii. + +[167] _Annales Quedlinb._, ad ann. 1002. + +[168] Henry had already entered Italy in 1004. + +[169] _Annales Beneventani_, in Pertz, _M. G. H._ + +[170] See Appendix, Note A. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +STRUGGLE OF THE EMPIRE AND THE PAPACY. + + +Reformed by the Emperors and their Teutonic nominees, the Papacy had +resumed in the middle of the eleventh century the schemes of polity +shadowed forth by Nicholas I, and which the degradation of the last +age had only suspended. Under the guidance of her greatest mind, +Hildebrand, the archdeacon of Rome, she now advanced to their +completion, and proclaimed that war of the ecclesiastical power +against the civil power in the person of the Emperor, which became the +centre of the subsequent history of both. While the nature of the +struggle cannot be understood without a glance at their previous +connection, the vastness of the subject warns one from the attempt to +draw even its outlines, and restricts our view to those relations of +Popedom and Empire which arise directly out of their respective +positions as heads spiritual and temporal of the universal Christian +state. + +[Sidenote: Growth of the Papal power.] + +[Sidenote: Relations of the Papacy and the Empire.] + +The eagerness of Christianity in the age immediately following her +political establishment to purchase by submission the support of the +civil power, has been already remarked. The change from independence +to supremacy was gradual. The tale we smile at, how Constantine, +healed of his leprosy, granted the West to bishop Sylvester, and +retired to Byzantium that no secular prince might interfere with the +jurisdiction or profane the neighbourhood of Peter's chair, worked +great effects through the belief it commanded for many centuries. Nay +more, its groundwork was true. It was the removal of the seat of +government from the Tiber to the Bosphorus that made the Pope the +greatest personage in the city, and in the prostration after Alaric's +invasion he was seen to be so. Henceforth he alone was a permanent and +effective, though still unacknowledged power, as truly superior to the +revived senate and consuls of the phantom republic as Augustus and +Tiberius had been to the faint continuance of their earlier +prototypes. Pope Leo the First asserted the universal jurisdiction of +his see[171], and his persevering successors slowly enthralled Italy, +Illyricum, Gaul, Spain, Africa, dexterously confounding their +undoubted metropolitan and patriarchal rights with those of oecumenical +bishop, in which they were finally merged. By his writings and the +fame of his personal sanctity, by the conversion of England and the +introduction of an impressive ritual, Gregory the Great did more than +any other pontiff to advance Rome's ecclesiastical authority. Yet his +tone to Maurice of Constantinople was deferential, to Phocas +adulatory; his successors were not consecrated till confirmed by the +Emperor or the Exarch; one of them was dragged in chains to the +Bosphorus, and banished thence to Scythia. When the iconoclastic +controversy and the intervention of Pipin broke the allegiance of the +Popes to the East, the Franks, as patricians and Emperors, seemed to +step into the position which Byzantium had lost[172]. At Charles's +coronation, says the Saxon poet, + + 'Et summus eundem + Prsul adoravit, sicut mos debitus olim + Principibus fuit antiquis.' + +[Sidenote: Temporal power of the Popes.] + +Their relations were, however, no longer the same. If the Frank +vaunted conquest, the priest spoke only of free gift. What Christendom +saw was that Charles was crowned by the Pope's hands, and undertook as +his principal duty the protection and advancement of the Holy Roman +Church. The circumstances of Otto the Great's coronation gave an even +more favourable opening to sacerdotal claims, for it was a Pope who +summoned him to Rome and a Pope who received from him an oath of +fidelity and aid. In the conflict of three powers, the Emperor, the +pontiff, and the people--represented by their senate and consuls, or +by the demagogue of the hour--the most steady, prudent, and +far-sighted was sure eventually to prevail. The Popedom had no +minorities, as yet few disputed successions, few revolts within its +own army--the host of churchmen through Europe. Boniface's conversion +of Germany under its direct sanction, gave it a hold on the rising +hierarchy of the greatest European state; the extension of the rule of +Charles and Otto diffused in the same measure its emissaries and +pretensions. The first disputes turned on the right of the prince to +confirm the elected pontiff, which was afterwards supposed to have +been granted by Hadrian I to Charles, in the decree quoted as +'_Hadrianus Papa_[173].' This '_ius eligendi et ordinandi summum +pontificem_,' which Lewis I appears as yielding by the '_Ego +Ludovicus_[174],' was claimed by the Carolingians whenever they felt +themselves strong enough, and having fallen into desuetude in the +troublous times of the Italian Emperors, was formally renewed to Otto +the Great by his nominee Leo VIII. We have seen it used, and used in +the purest spirit, by Otto himself, by his grandson Otto III, last of +all, and most despotically, by Henry III. Along with it there had +grown up a bold counter-assumption of the Papal chair to be itself the +source of the imperial dignity. In submitting to a fresh coronation, +Lewis the Pious admitted the invalidity of his former self-performed +one: Charles the Bald did not scout the arrogant declaration of John +VIII[175], that to him alone the Emperor owed his crown; and the +council of Pavia[176], when it chose him king of Italy, repeated the +assertion. Subsequent Popes knew better than to apply to the chiefs of +Saxon and Franconian chivalry language which the feeble Neustrian had +not resented; but the precedent remained, the weapon was only hid +behind the pontifical robe to be flashed out with effect when the +moment should come. There were also two other great steps which papal +power had taken. By the invention and adoption of the False Decretals +it had provided itself with a legal system suited to any emergency, +and which gave it unlimited authority through the Christian world in +causes spiritual and over persons ecclesiastical. Canonistical +ingenuity found it easy in one way or another to make this include all +causes and persons whatsoever: for crime is always and wrong is often +sin, nor can aught be anywhere done which may not affect the clergy. +On the gift of Pipin and Charles, repeated and confirmed by Lewis I, +Charles II, Otto I and III, and now made to rest on the more venerable +authority of the first Christian Emperor, it could found claims to the +sovereignty of Rome, Tuscany, and all else that had belonged to the +exarchate. Indefinite in their terms, these grants were never meant by +the donors to convey full dominion over the districts--that belonged +to the head of the Empire--but only as in the case of other church +estates, a perpetual usufruct or _dominium utile_. They were, in fact, +mere endowments. Nor had the gifts been ever actually reduced into +possession: the Pope had been hitherto the victim, not the lord, of +the neighbouring barons. They were not, however, denied, and might be +made a formidable engine of attack: appealing to them, the Pope could +brand his opponents as unjust and impious; and could summon nobles and +cities to defend him as their liege lord, just as, with no better +original right, he invoked the help of the Norman conquerors of Naples +and Sicily. + +The attitude of the Roman Church to the imperial power at Henry the +Third's death was externally respectful. The right of a German king to +the crown of the city was undoubted, and the Pope was his lawful +subject. Hitherto the initiative in reform had come from the civil +magistrate. But the secret of the pontiff's strength lay in this: he, +and he alone, could confer the crown, and had therefore the right of +imposing conditions on its recipient. Frequent interregna had weakened +the claim of the Transalpine monarch and prevented his power from +taking firm root; his title was never by law hereditary: the holy +Church had before sought and might again seek a defender elsewhere. +And since the need of such defence had originated this transference of +the Empire from the Greeks to the Franks, since to render it was the +Emperor's chief function, it was surely the Pope's duty as well as his +right to see that the candidate was capable of fulfilling his task, to +degrade him if he rejected or misperformed it. + +[Sidenote: Hildebrandine reforms.] + +The first step was to remove a blemish in the constitution of the +Church, by fixing a regular body to choose the supreme pontiff. This +Nicholas II did in A.D. 1059, feebly reserving the rights of Henry IV +and his successors. Then the reforming spirit, kindled by the abuses +and depravity of the last century, advanced apace. It had two main +objects: the enforcement of celibacy, especially on the secular +clergy, who enjoyed in this respect considerable freedom, and the +extinction of simony. In the former, the Emperors and a large part of +the laity were not unwilling to join: the latter no one dared to +defend in theory. But when Gregory VII declared that it was sin for +the ecclesiastic to receive his benefice under conditions from a +layman, and so condemned the whole system of feudal investitures to +the clergy, he aimed a deadly blow at all secular authority. Half of +the land and wealth of Germany was in the hands of bishops and abbots, +who would now be freed from the monarch's control to pass under that +of the Pope. In such a state of things government itself would be +impossible. + +[Sidenote: Henry IV and Gregory VII.] + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1077.] + +Henry and Gregory already mistrusted each other: after this decree war +was inevitable. The Pope cited his opponent to appear and be judged at +Rome for his vices and misgovernment. The Emperor[177] replied by +convoking a synod, which deposed and insulted Gregory. At once the +dauntless monk pronounced Henry excommunicate, and fixed a day on +which, if still unrepentant, he should cease to reign. Supported by +his own princes, the monarch might have defied a mandate backed by no +external force; but the Saxons, never contented since the first place +had passed from their own dukes to the Franconians, only waited the +signal to burst into a new revolt, whilst through all Germany the +Emperor's tyranny and irregularities of life had sown the seeds of +disaffection. Shunned, betrayed, threatened, he rushed into what +seemed the only course left, and Canosa saw Europe's mightiest prince, +titular lord of the world, a suppliant before the successor of the +Apostle. Henry soon found that his humiliation had not served him; +driven back into opposition, he defied Gregory anew, set up an +anti-pope, overthrew the rival whom his rebellious subjects had +raised, and maintained to the end of his sad and chequered life a +power often depressed but never destroyed. Nevertheless had all other +humiliation been spared, that one scene in the yard of the Countess +Matilda's castle, an imperial penitent standing barefoot and +woollen-frocked on the snow three days and nights, till the priest who +sat within should admit and absolve him, was enough to mark a decisive +change, and inflict an irretrievable disgrace on the crown so abased. +Its wearer could no more, with the same lofty confidence, claim to be +the highest power on earth, created by and answerable to God alone. +Gregory had extorted the recognition of that absolute superiority of +the spiritual dominion which he was wont to assert so sternly; +proclaiming that to the Pope, as God's vicar, all mankind are subject, +and all rulers responsible: so that he, the giver of the crown, may +also excommunicate and depose. Writing to William the Conqueror, he +says[178]: 'For as for the beauty of this world, that it may be at +different seasons perceived by fleshly eyes, God hath disposed the sun +and the moon, lights that outshine all others; so lest the creature +whom His goodness hath formed after His own image in this world should +be drawn astray into fatal dangers, He hath provided in the apostolic +and royal dignities the means of ruling it through divers offices.... +If I, therefore, am to answer for thee on the dreadful day of judgment +before the just Judge who cannot lie, the creator of every creature, +bethink thee whether I must not very diligently provide for thy +salvation, and whether, for thine own safety, thou oughtest not +without delay to obey me, that so thou mayest possess the land of the +living.' + +Gregory was not the inventor nor the first propounder of these +doctrines; they had been long before a part of medival Christianity, +interwoven with its most vital doctrines. But he was the first who +dared to apply them to the world as he found it. His was that rarest +and grandest of gifts, an intellectual courage and power of +imaginative belief which, when it has convinced itself of aught, +accepts it fully with all its consequences, and shrinks not from +acting at once upon it. A perilous gift, as the melancholy end of his +own career proved, for men were found less ready than he had thought +them to follow out with unswerving consistency like his the principles +which all acknowledged. But it was the very suddenness and boldness of +his policy that secured the ultimate triumph of his cause, awing men's +minds and making that seem realized which had been till then a vague +theory. His premises once admitted,--and no one dreamt of denying +them,--the reasonings by which he established the superiority of +spiritual to temporal jurisdiction were unassailable. With his +authority, in whose hands are the keys of heaven and hell, whose word +can bestow eternal bliss or plunge in everlasting misery, no other +earthly authority can compete or interfere: if his power extends into +the infinite, how much more must he be supreme over things finite? It +was thus that Gregory and his successors were wont to argue: the +wonder is, not that they were obeyed, but that they were not obeyed +more implicitly. In the second sentence of excommunication which +Gregory passed upon Henry the Fourth are these words:-- + +'Come now, I beseech you, O most holy and blessed Fathers and Princes, +Peter and Paul, that all the world may understand and know that if ye +are able to bind and to loose in heaven, ye are likewise able on +earth, according to the merits of each man, to give and to take away +empires, kingdoms, princedoms, marquisates, duchies, countships, and +the possessions of all men. For if ye judge spiritual things, what +must we believe to be your power over worldly things? and if ye judge +the angels who rule over all proud princes, what can ye not do to +their slaves?' + +[Sidenote: Results of the struggle.] + +Doctrines such as these do indeed strike equally at all temporal +governments, nor were the Innocents and Bonifaces of later days slow +to apply them so. On the Empire, however, the blow fell first and +heaviest. As when Alaric entered Rome, the spell of ages was broken, +Christendom saw her greatest and most venerable institution +dishonoured and helpless; allegiance was no longer undivided, for who +could presume to fix in each case the limits of the civil and +ecclesiastical jurisdictions? The potentates of Europe beheld in the +Papacy a force which, if dangerous to themselves, could be made to +repel the pretensions and baffle the designs of the strongest and +haughtiest among them. Italy learned how to meet the Teutonic +conqueror by gaining the papal sanction for the leagues of her cities. +The German princes, anxious to narrow the prerogative of their head, +were the natural allies of his enemy, whose spiritual thunders, more +terrible than their own lances, could enable them to depose an +aspiring monarch, or extort from him any concessions they desired. +Their altered tone is marked by the promise they required from Rudolf +of Swabia, whom they set up as a rival to Henry, that he would not +endeavour to make the throne hereditary. + +[Sidenote: Concordat of Worms, A.D. 1122.] + +It is not possible here to dwell on the details of the great struggle +of the Investitures, rich as it is in the interest of adventure and +character, momentous as were its results for the future. A word or two +must suffice to describe the conclusion, not indeed of the whole +drama, which was to extend over centuries, but of what may be called +its first act. Even that act lasted beyond the lives of the original +performers. Gregory the Seventh passed away at Salerno in A.D. 1087, +exclaiming with his last breath 'I have loved justice and hated +iniquity, therefore I die in exile.' Nineteen years later, in A.D. +1106, Henry IV died, dethroned by an unnatural son whom the hatred of +a relentless pontiff had raised in rebellion against him. But that +son, the emperor Henry the Fifth, so far from conceding the points in +dispute, proved an antagonist more ruthless and not less able than his +father. He claimed for his crown all the rights over ecclesiastics +that his predecessors had ever enjoyed, and when at his coronation in +Rome, A.D. 1112, Pope Paschal II refused to complete the rite until he +should have yielded, Henry seized both Pope and cardinals and +compelled them by a rigorous imprisonment to consent to a treaty which +he dictated. Once set free, the Pope, as was natural, disavowed his +extorted concessions, and the struggle was protracted for ten years +longer, until nearly half a century had elapsed from the first quarrel +between Gregory VII and Henry IV. The Concordat of Worms, concluded in +A.D. 1122, was in form a compromise, designed to spare either party +the humiliation of defeat. Yet the Papacy remained master of the +field. The Emperor retained but one-half of those rights of +investiture which had formerly been his. He could never resume the +position of Henry III; his wishes or intrigues might influence the +proceedings of a chapter, his oath bound him from open interference. +He had entered the strife in the fulness of dignity; he came out of it +with tarnished glory and shattered power. His wars had been hitherto +carried on with foreign foes, or at worst with a single rebel noble; +now his steadiest ally was turned into his fiercest assailant, and had +enlisted against him half his court, half the magnates of his realm. +At any moment his sceptre might be shivered in his hand by the bolt of +anathema, and a host of enemies spring up from every convent and +cathedral. + +[Sidenote: The Crusades.] + +Two other results of this great conflict ought not to pass unnoticed. +The Emperor was alienated from the Church at the most unfortunate of +all moments, the era of the Crusades. To conduct a great religious war +against the enemies of the faith, to head the church militant in her +carnal as the Popes were accustomed to do in her spiritual strife, +this was the very purpose for which an Emperor had been called into +being; and it was indeed in these wars, more particularly in the first +three of them, that the ideal of a Christian commonwealth which the +theory of the medival Empire proclaimed, was once for all and never +again realized by the combined action of the great nations of Europe. +Had such an opportunity fallen to the lot of Henry III, he might have +used it to win back a supremacy hardly inferior to that which had +belonged to the first Carolingians. But Henry IV's proscription +excluded him from all share in an enterprise which he must otherwise +have led--nay, more, committed it to the guidance of his foes. The +religious feeling which the Crusades evoked--a feeling which became +the origin of the great orders of chivalry, and somewhat later of the +two great orders of mendicant friars--turned wholly against the +opponent of ecclesiastical claims, and was made to work the will of +the Holy See, which had blessed and organized the project. A century +and a half later the Pope did not scruple to preach a crusade against +the Emperor himself. + +Again: it was now that the first seeds were sown of that fear and +hatred wherewith the German people never thenceforth ceased to regard +the encroaching Romish court. Branded by the Church and forsaken by +the nobles, Henry IV retained the affections of the faithful burghers +of Worms and Liege. It soon became the test of Teutonic patriotism to +resist Italian priestcraft. + +[Sidenote: Limitations of imperial prerogative.] + +[Sidenote: Lothar II, 1125-1138.] + +[Sidenote: Conrad III, 1138-1152.] + +The changes in the internal constitution of Germany which the long +anarchy of Henry IV's reign had produced are seen when the nature of +the prerogative as it stood at the accession of Conrad II, the first +Franconian Emperor, is compared with its state at Henry V's death. All +fiefs are now hereditary, and when vacant can be granted afresh only +by consent of the States; the jurisdiction of the crown is less wide; +the idea is beginning to make progress that the most essential part of +the Empire is not its supreme head but the commonwealth of princes and +barons. The greatest triumph of these feudal magnates is in the +establishment of the elective principle, which when confirmed by the +three free elections of Lothar II, Conrad III, and Frederick I, passes +into an undoubted law. The Prince-Electors are mentioned in A.D. 1156 +as a distinct and important body[179]. The clergy, too, whom the +policy of Otto the Great and Henry II had raised, are now not less +dangerous than the dukes, whose power it was hoped they would balance; +possibly more so, since protected by their sacred character and their +allegiance to the Pope, while able at the same time to command the +arms of their countless vassals. Nor were the two succeeding Emperors +the men to retrieve those disasters. The Saxon Lothar the Second is +the willing minion of the Pope; performs at his coronation a menial +service unknown before, and takes a more stringent oath to defend the +Holy See, that he may purchase its support against the Swabian faction +in his own dominions. Conrad the Third, the first Emperor of the great +house of Hohenstaufen[180], represents the anti-papal party; but +domestic troubles and an unfortunate crusade prevented him from +effecting anything in Italy. He never even entered Rome to receive the +crown. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[171] 'Roma per sedem Beati Petri caput orbis effecta.'--See note _i_, +p. 32. + +[172] 'Claves tibi _ad regnum_ dimisimus.'--Pope Stephen to Charles +Martel, in _Codex Carolinus_, ap. Muratori, _S. R. I._ iii. Some, +however, prefer to read 'ad rogum.' + +[173] _Corpus Iuris Canonici_, Dist. lxiii. c. 22. + +[174] Dist. lxiii. c. 30. This decree is, however, in all probability +spurious. + +[175] 'Nos elegimus merito et approbavimus una cum annisu et voto +patrum amplique senatus et gentis togat,' &c., ap. Baron. _Ann. +Eccl._, ad ann. 876. + +[176] 'Divina vos pietas B. principum apostolorum Petri et Pauli +interventione per vicarium ipsorum dominum Ioannem summum pontificem +... ad imperiale culmen S. Spiritus iudicio provexit.'--_Concil. +Ticinense_, in Mur., _S. R. I._ ii. + +[177] Strictly speaking, Henry was at this time only king of the +Romans: he was not crowned Emperor at Rome till 1084. + +[178] Letter of Gregory VII to William I, A.D. 1080. I quote from +Migne, t. cxlviii. p. 568. + +[179] 'Gradum statim post Principes Electores.'--Frederick I's +Privilege of Austria, in Pertz, _M. G. H._ legg. ii. + +[180] Hohenstaufen is a castle in what is now the kingdom of +Wrtemberg, about four miles from the Gppingen station of the railway +from Stuttgart to Ulm. It stands, or rather stood, on the summit of a +steep and lofty conical hill, commanding a boundless view over the +great limestone plateau of the Rauhe Alp, the eastern declivities of +the Schwartzwald, and the bare and tedious plains of western Bavaria. +Of the castle itself, destroyed in the Peasants' War, there remain +only fragments of the wall-foundations: in a rude chapel lying on the +hill slope below are some strange half-obliterated frescoes; over the +arch of the door is inscribed 'Hic transibat Csar.' Frederick +Barbarossa had another famous palace at Kaiserslautern, a small town +in the Palatinate, on the railway from Mannheim to Treves, lying in a +wide valley at the western foot of the Hardt mountains. It was +destroyed by the French and a house of correction has been built upon +its site; but in a brewery hard by may be seen some of the huge +low-browed arches of its lower story. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE EMPERORS IN ITALY: FREDERICK BARBAROSSA. + + +[Sidenote: Frederick of Hohenstaufen, 1152-1189.] + +The reign of Frederick the First, better known under his Italian +surname Barbarossa, is the most brilliant in the annals of the Empire. +Its territory had been wider under Charles, its strength perhaps +greater under Henry the Third, but it never appeared in such pervading +vivid activity, never shone with such lustre of chivalry, as under the +prince whom his countrymen have taken to be one of their national +heroes, and who is still, as the half-mythic type of Teutonic +character, honoured by picture and statue, in song and in legend, +through the breadth of the German lands. The reverential fondness of +his annalists and the whole tenour of his life go far to justify this +admiration, and dispose us to believe that nobler motives were joined +with personal ambition in urging him to assert so haughtily and carry +out so harshly those imperial rights in which he had such unbounded +confidence. Under his guidance the Transalpine power made its greatest +effort to subdue the two antagonists which then threatened and were +fated in the end to destroy it--Italian nationality and the Papacy. + +[Sidenote: His relations to the Popedom.] + +Even before Gregory VII's time it might have been predicted that two +such potentates as the Emperor and the Pope, closely bound together, +yet each with pretensions wide and undefined, must ere long come into +collision. The boldness of that great pontiff in enforcing, the +unflinching firmness of his successors in maintaining, the supremacy +of clerical authority, inspired their supporters with a zeal and +courage which more than compensated the advantages of the Emperor in +defending rights he had long enjoyed. On both sides the hatred was +soon very bitter. But even had men's passions permitted a +reconciliation, it would have been found difficult to bring into +harmony adverse principles, each irresistible, mutually destructive. +As the spiritual power, in itself purer, since exercised over the soul +and directed to the highest of all ends, eternal felicity, was +entitled to the obedience of all, laymen as well as clergy; so the +spiritual person, to whom, according to the view then universally +accepted, there had been imparted by ordination a mysterious sanctity, +could not without sin be subject to the lay magistrate, be installed +by him in office, be judged in his court, and render to him any +compulsory service. Yet it was no less true that civil government was +indispensable to the peace and advancement of society; and while it +continued to subsist, another jurisdiction could not be suffered to +interfere with its workings, nor one-half of the people be altogether +removed from its control. Thus the Emperor and the Pope were forced +into hostility as champions of opposite systems, however fully each +might admit the strength of his adversary's position, however bitterly +he might bewail the violence of his own partisans. There had also +arisen other causes of quarrel, less respectable but not less +dangerous. The pontiff demanded and the monarch refused the lands +which the Countess Matilda of Tuscany had bequeathed to the Holy See; +Frederick claiming them as feudal suzerain, the Pope eager by their +means to carry out those schemes of temporal dominion which +Constantine's donation sanctioned, and Lothar's seeming renunciation +of the sovereignty of Rome had done much to encourage. As feudal +superior of the Norman kings of Naples and Sicily, as protector of the +towns and barons of North Italy who feared the German yoke, the +successor of Peter wore already the air of an independent potentate. + +[Sidenote: Contest with Hadrian IV.] + +No man was less likely than Frederick to submit to these +encroachments. He was a sort of imperialist Hildebrand, strenuously +proclaiming the immediate dependence of his office on God's gift, and +holding it every whit as sacred as his rival's. On his first journey +to Rome, he refused to hold the Pope's stirrup[181], as Lothar had +done, till Pope Hadrian the Fourth's threat that he would withhold the +crown enforced compliance. Complaints arising not long after on some +other ground, the Pope exhorted Frederick by letter to shew himself +worthy of the kindness of his mother the Roman Church, who had given +him the imperial crown, and would confer on him, if dutiful, benefits +still greater. This word benefits--_beneficia_--understood in its +usual legal sense of 'fief,' and taken in connection with the picture +which had been set up at Rome to commemorate Lothar's homage, provoked +angry shouts from the nobles assembled in diet at Besanon; and when +the legate answered, 'From whom, then, if not from our Lord the Pope, +does your king hold the Empire?' his life was not safe from their +fury. On this occasion Frederick's vigour and the remonstrances of the +Transalpine prelates obliged Hadrian to explain away the obnoxious +word, and remove the picture. Soon after the quarrel was renewed by +other causes, and came to centre itself round the Pope's demand that +Rome should be left entirely to his government. Frederick, in reply, +appeals to the civil law, and closes with the words, 'Since by the +ordination of God I both am called and am Emperor of the Romans, in +nothing but name shall I appear to be ruler if the control of the +Roman city be wrested from my hands.' That such a claim should need +assertion marks the change since Henry III; how much more that it +could not be enforced. Hadrian's tone rises into defiance; he mingles +the threat of excommunication with references to the time when the +Germans had not yet the Empire. 'What were the Franks till Zacharias +welcomed Pipin? What is the Teutonic king now till consecrated at Rome +by holy hands? The chair of Peter has given, and can withdraw its +gifts.' + +[Sidenote: With Pope Alexander III.] + +The schism that followed Hadrian's death produced a second and more +momentous conflict. Frederick, as head of Christendom, proposed to +summon the bishops of Europe to a general council, over which he +should preside, like Justinian or Heraclius. Quoting the favourite +text of the two swords, 'On earth,' he continues, 'God has placed no +more than two powers: above there is but one God, so here one Pope and +one Emperor. The Divine Providence has specially appointed the Roman +Empire as a remedy against continued schism[182].' The plan failed; +and Frederick adopted the candidate whom his own faction had chosen, +while the rival claimant, Alexander III, appealed, with a confidence +which the issue justified, to the support of sound churchmen +throughout Europe. The keen and long doubtful strife of twenty years +that followed, while apparently a dispute between rival Popes, was in +substance an effort by the secular monarch to recover his command of +the priesthood; not less truly so than that contemporaneous conflict +of the English Henry II and St. Thomas of Canterbury, with which it +was constantly involved. Unsupported, not all Alexander's genius and +resolution could have saved him: by the aid of the Lombard cities, +whose league he had counselled and hallowed, and of the fevers of +Rome, by which the conquering German host was suddenly annihilated, he +won a triumph the more signal, that it was over a prince so wise and +so pious as Frederick. At Venice, who, inaccessible by her position, +maintained a sedulous neutrality, claiming to be independent of the +Empire, yet seldom led into war by sympathy with the Popes, the two +powers whose strife had roused all Europe were induced to meet by the +mediation of the doge Sebastian Ziani. Three slabs of red marble in +the porch of St. Mark's point out the spot where Frederick knelt in +sudden awe, and the Pope with tears of joy raised him, and gave the +kiss of peace. A later legend, to which poetry and painting have given +an undeserved currency[183], tells how the pontiff set his foot on the +neck of the prostrate king, with the words, 'The lion and the dragon +shalt thou trample under feet[184].' It needed not this exaggeration +to enhance the significance of that scene, even more full of meaning +for the future than it was solemn and affecting to the Venetian crowd +that thronged the church and the piazza. For it was the renunciation +by the mightiest prince of his time of the project to which his life +had been devoted: it was the abandonment by the secular power of a +contest in which it had twice been vanquished, and which it could not +renew under more favourable conditions. + +[Sidenote: Revival of the study of the civil law.] + +Authority maintained so long against the successor of Peter would be +far from indulgent to rebellious subjects. For it was in this light +that the Lombard cities appeared to a monarch bent on reviving all the +rights his predecessors had enjoyed: nay, all that the law of ancient +Rome gave her absolute ruler. It would be wrong to speak of a +re-discovery of the civil law. That system had never perished from +Gaul and Italy, had been the groundwork of some codes, and the whole +substance, modified only by the changes in society, of many others. +The Church excepted, no agent did so much to keep alive the memory of +Roman institutions. The twelfth century now beheld the study +cultivated with a surprising increase of knowledge and ardour, +expended chiefly upon the Pandects. First in Italy and the schools of +the South, then in Paris and Oxford, they were expounded, commented +on, extolled as the perfection of human wisdom, the sole, true, and +eternal law. Vast as has been the labour and thought expended from +that time to this in the elucidation of the civil law, the most +competent authorities declare that in acuteness, in subtlety, in all +those branches of learning which can subsist without help from +historical criticism, these so-called Glossatores have been seldom +equalled and never surpassed by their successors. The teachers of the +canon law, who had not as yet become the rivals of the civilian, and +were accustomed to recur to his books where their own were silent, +spread through Europe the fame and influence of the Roman +jurisprudence; while its own professors were led both by their feeling +and their interest to give to all its maxims the greatest weight and +the fullest application. Men just emerging from barbarism, with minds +unaccustomed to create and blindly submissive to authority, viewed +written texts with an awe to us incomprehensible. All that the most +servile jurists of Rome had ever ascribed to their despotic princes +was directly transferred to the Csarean majesty who inherited their +name. He was 'Lord of the world,' absolute master of the lives and +property of all his subjects, that is, of all men; the sole fountain +of legislation, the embodiment of right and justice. These doctrines, +which the great Bolognese jurists, Bulgarus, Martinus, Hugolinus, and +others who constantly surrounded Frederick, taught and applied, as +matter of course, to a Teutonic, a feudal king, were by the rest of +the world not denied, were accepted in fervent faith by his German and +Italian partisans. 'To the Emperor belongs the protection of the whole +world,' says bishop Otto of Freysing. 'The Emperor is a living law +upon earth[185].' To Frederick, at Roncaglia, the archbishop of Milan +speaks for the assembled magnates of Lombardy: 'Do and ordain +whatsoever thou wilt, thy will is law; as it is written, "Quicquid +principi placuit legis habet vigorem, cum populus ei et in eum omne +suum imperium et potestatem concesserit[186]." The Hohenstaufen +himself was not slow to accept these magnificent ascriptions of +dignity, and though modestly professing his wish to govern according +to law rather than override the law, was doubtless roused by them to a +more vehement assertion of a prerogative so hallowed by age and by +what seemed a divine ordinance. + +[Sidenote: Frederick in Italy.] + +[Sidenote: Rome under Arnold of Brescia.] + +That assertion was most loudly called for in Italy. The Emperors might +appear to consider it a conquered country without privileges to be +respected, for they did not summon its princes to the German diets, +and overawed its own assemblies at Pavia or Roncaglia by the +Transalpine host that followed them. Its crown, too, was theirs +whenever they crossed the Alps to claim it, while the elections on the +banks of the Rhine might be adorned but could not be influenced by the +presence of barons from the southern kingdom[187]. In practice, +however, the imperial power stood lower in Italy than in Germany, for +it had been from the first intermittent, depending on the personal +vigour and present armed support of each invader. The theoretic +sovereignty of the Emperor-king was nowise disputed: in the cities +toll and tax were of right his: he could issue edicts at the Diet, and +require the tenants in chief to appear with their vassals. But the +revival of a control never exercised since Henry IV's time, was felt +as an intolerable hardship by the great Lombard cities, proud of +riches and population equal to that of the duchies of Germany or the +kingdoms of the North, and accustomed for more than a century to a +turbulent independence. For republicanism and popular freedom +Frederick had little sympathy. At Rome the fervent Arnold of Brescia +had repeated, but with far different thoughts and hopes, the part of +Crescentius[188]. The city had thrown off the yoke of its bishop, and +a commonwealth under consuls and senate professed to emulate the +spirit while it renewed the forms of the primitive republic. Its +leaders had written to Conrad III[189], asking him to help them to +restore the Empire to its position under Constantine and Justinian; +but the German, warned by St. Bernard, had preferred the friendship of +the Pope. Filled with a vain conceit of their own importance, they +repeated their offers to Frederick when he sought the crown from +Hadrian the Fourth. A deputation, after dwelling in highflown language +on the dignity of the Roman people, and their kindness in bestowing +the sceptre on him, a Swabian and a stranger, proceeded, in a manner +hardly consistent, to demand a largess ere he should enter the city. +Frederick's anger did not hear them to the end: 'Is this your Roman +wisdom? Who are ye that usurp the name of Roman dignities? Your +honours and your authority are yours no longer; with us are consuls, +senate, soldiers. It was not you who chose us, but Charles and Otto +that rescued you from the Greek and the Lombard, and conquered by +their own might the imperial crown. That Frankish might is still the +same: wrench, if you can, the club from Hercules. It is not for the +people to give laws to the prince, but to obey his mandate[190].' This +was Frederick's version of the 'Translation of the Empire[191].' + +[Sidenote: The Lombard Cities.] + +He who had been so stern to his own capital was not likely to deal +more gently with the rebels of Milan and Tortona. In the contest by +which Frederick is chiefly known to history, he is commonly painted as +the foreign tyrant, the forerunner of the Austrian oppressor[192], +crushing under the hoofs of his cavalry the home of freedom and +industry. Such a view is unjust to a great man and his cause. To the +despot liberty is always licence; yet Frederick was the advocate of +admitted claims; the aggressions of Milan threatened her neighbours; +the refusal, where no actual oppression was alleged, to admit his +officers and allow his regalian rights, seemed a wanton breach of +oaths and engagements, treason against God no less than himself[193]. +Nevertheless our sympathy must go with the cities, in whose victory we +recognize the triumph of freedom and civilization. Their resistance +was at first probably a mere aversion to unused control, and to the +enforcement of imposts less offensive in former days than now, and by +long dereliction apparently obsolete[194]. Republican principles were +not avowed, nor Italian nationality appealed to. But the progress of +the conflict developed new motives and feelings, and gave them clearer +notions of what they fought for. As the Emperor's antagonist, the Pope +was their natural ally: he blessed their arms, and called on the +barons of Romagna and Tuscany for aid; he made 'The Church' ere long +their watchword, and helped them to conclude that league of mutual +support by means whereof the party of the Italian Guelfs was formed. +Another cry, too, began to be heard, hardly less inspiriting than the +last, the cry of freedom and municipal self-government--freedom little +understood and terribly abused, self-government which the cities who +claimed it for themselves refused to their subject allies, yet both of +them, through their divine power of stimulating effort and quickening +sympathy, as much nobler than the harsh and sterile system of a feudal +monarchy as the citizen of republican Athens rose above the slavish +Asiatic or the brutal Macedonian. Nor was the fact that Italians were +resisting a Transalpine invader without its effect; there was as yet +no distinct national feeling, for half Lombardy, towns as well as +rural nobles, fought under Frederick; but events made the cause of +liberty always more clearly the cause of patriotism, and increased +that fear and hate of the Tedescan for which Italy has had such bitter +justification. + +[Sidenote: Temporary success of Frederick.] + +The Emperor was for a time successful: Tortona was taken, Milan razed +to the ground, her name apparently lost: greater obstacles had been +overcome, and a fuller authority was now exercised than in the days of +the Ottos or the Henrys. The glories of the first Frankish conqueror +were triumphantly recalled, and Frederick was compared by his admirers +to the hero whose canonization he had procured, and whom he strove in +all things to imitate[195]. 'He was esteemed,' says one, 'second only +to Charles in piety and justice.' 'We ordain this,' says a decree: 'Ut +ad Caroli imitationem ius ecclesiarum statum reipublic et legum +integritatem per totum imperium nostrum servaremus[196].' But the hold +the name of Charles had on the minds of the people, and the way in +which he had become, so to speak, an eponym of Empire, has better +witnesses than grave documents. A rhyming poet sings[197]:-- + + 'Quanta sit potentia vel laus Friderici + Cum sit patens omnibus, non est opus dici; + Qui rebelles lancea fodiens ultrici + Reprsentat Karolum dextera victrici.' + +The diet at Roncaglia was a chorus of gratulations over the +re-establishment of order by the destruction of the dens of unruly +burghers. + +[Sidenote: Victory of the Lombard league.] + +This fair sky was soon clouded. From her quenchless ashes uprose +Milan; Cremona, scorning old jealousies, helped to rebuild what she +had destroyed, and the confederates, committed to an all but hopeless +strife, clung faithfully together till on the field of Legnano the +Empire's banner went down before the carroccio[198] of the free city. +Times were changed since Aistulf and Desiderius trembled at the +distant tramp of the Frankish hosts. A new nation had arisen, slowly +reared through suffering into strength, now at last by heroic deeds +conscious of itself. The power of Charles had overleaped boundaries of +nature and language that were too strong for his successor, and that +grew henceforth ever firmer, till they made the Empire itself a +delusive name. Frederick, though harsh in war, and now balked of his +most cherished hopes, could honestly accept a state of things it was +beyond his power to change: he signed cheerfully and kept dutifully +the peace of Constance, which left him little but a titular supremacy +over the Lombard towns. + +[Sidenote: Frederick as German king.] + +At home no Emperor since Henry III had been so much respected and so +generally prosperous. Uniting in his person the Saxon and Swabian +families, he healed the long feud of Welf and Waiblingen: his prelates +were faithful to him, even against Rome: no turbulent rebel disturbed +the public peace. Germany was proud of a hero who maintained her +dignity so well abroad, and he crowned a glorious life with a happy +death, leading the van of Christian chivalry against the Mussulman. +Frederick, the greatest of the Crusaders, is the noblest type of +medival character in many of its shadows, in all its lights. + +[Sidenote: The German cities.] + +Legal in form, in practice sometimes almost absolute, the government +of Germany was, like that of other feudal kingdoms, restrained chiefly +by the difficulty of coercing refractory vassals. All depended on the +monarch's character, and one so vigorous and popular as Frederick +could generally lead the majority with him and terrify the rest. A +false impression of the real strength of his prerogative might be +formed from the readiness with which he was obeyed. He repaired the +finances of the kingdom, controlled the dukes, introduced a more +splendid ceremonial, endeavoured to exalt the central power by +multiplying the nobles of the second rank, afterwards the 'college of +princes,' and by trying to substitute the civil law and Lombard feudal +code for the old Teutonic customs, different in every province. If not +successful in this project, he fared better with another. Since Henry +the Fowler's day towns had been growing up through Southern and +Western Germany, especially where rivers offered facilities for trade. +Cologne, Treves, Mentz, Worms, Speyer, Nrnberg, Ulm, Regensburg, +Augsburg, were already considerable cities, not afraid to beard their +lord or their bishop, and promising before long to counterbalance the +power of the territorial oligarchy. Policy or instinct led Frederick +to attach them to the throne, enfranchising many, granting, with +municipal institutions, an independent jurisdiction, conferring +various exemptions and privileges; while receiving in turn their +good-will and loyal aid, in money always, in men when need should +come. His immediate successors trode in his steps, and thus there +arose in the state a third order, the firmest bulwark, had it been +rightly used, of imperial authority; an order whose members, the Free +Cities, were through many ages the centres of German intellect and +freedom, the only haven from the storms of civil war, the surest hope +of future peace and union. In them national congresses to this day +sometimes meet: from them aspiring spirits strive to diffuse those +ideas of Germanic unity and self-government, which they alone have +kept alive. Out of so many flourishing commonwealths, four[199] have +been spared by foreign conquerors and faithless princes. To the +primitive order of German freemen, scarcely existing out of the towns, +except in Swabia and Switzerland, Frederick further commended himself +by allowing them to be admitted to knighthood, by restraining the +licence of the nobles, imposing a public peace, making justice in +every way more accessible and impartial. To the south-west of the +green plain that girdles in the rock of Salzburg, the gigantic mass of +the Untersberg frowns over the road which winds up a long defile to +the glen and lake of Berchtesgaden. There, far up among its limestone +crags, in a spot scarcely accessible to human foot, the peasants of +the valley point out to the traveller the black mouth of a cavern, and +tell him that within Barbarossa lies amid his knights in an enchanted +sleep[200], waiting the hour when the ravens shall cease to hover +round the peak, and the pear-tree blossom in the valley, to descend +with his Crusaders and bring back to Germany the golden age of peace +and strength and unity. Often in the evil days that followed the fall +of Frederick's house, often when tyranny seemed unendurable and +anarchy endless, men thought on that cavern, and sighed for the day +when the long sleep of the just Emperor should be broken, and his +shield be hung aloft again as of old in the camp's midst, a sign of +help to the poor and the oppressed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[181] A great deal of importance seems to have been attached to this +symbolic act of courtesy. See Art. I of the Sachsenspiegel. + +[182] Letter to the German bishops in Radewic; Mur., _S. R. I._, t. +vi. p. 833. + +[183] A picture in the great hall of the ducal palace (the Sala del +Maggio Consiglio) represents the scene. See Rogers' Italy. + +[184] Psalm xci. + +[185] Document of 1230, quoted by Von Raumer, v. p. 81. + +[186] Speech of archbishop of Milan, in Radewic; Mur. vi. + +[187] Frederick's election (at Frankfort) was made 'non sine quibusdam +Itali baronibus.'--Otto Fris. i. But this was the exception. + +[188] See also _post_, Chapter XVI. + +[189] 'Senatus Populusque Romanus urbis et orbis totius domino +Conrado.' + +[190] Otto of Freysing. + +[191] Later in his reign, Frederick condescended to negotiate with +these Roman magistrates against a hostile Pope, and entered into a +sort of treaty by which they were declared exempt from all +jurisdiction but his own. + +[192] See the first note to Shelley's _Hellas_. Sismondi is mainly +answerable for this conception of Barbarossa's position. + +[193] They say rebelliously, says Frederick, 'Nolumus hunc regnare +super nos ... at nos maluimus honestam mortem quam ut,' &c.--Letter in +Pertz. _M. G. H._ legg. ii. + +[194] + + 'De tributo Csaris nemo cogitabat; + Omnes erant Csares, nemo censum dabat; + Civitas Ambrosii, velut Troia, stabat, + Deos parum, homines minus formidabat.' + +Poems relating to the Emperor Frederick of Hohenstaufen, published by +Grimm. + +[195] Charles the Great was canonized by Frederick's anti-pope and +confirmed afterwards. + +[196] _Acta Concil. Hartzhem._ iii., quoted by Von Raumer, ii. 6. + +[197] Poems relating to Frederick I, _ut supra_. + +[198] The carroccio was a waggon with a flagstaff planted on it, which +served the Lombards for a rallying-point in battle. + +[199] Lbeck, Hamburg, Bremen, and Frankfort. + +[Since this was first written Frankfort has been annexed by Prussia, +and her three surviving sisters have, by their entrance into the North +German confederation, lost something of their independence.] + +[200] The legend is one which appears under various forms in many +countries. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +IMPERIAL TITLES AND PRETENSIONS. + + +The era of the Hohenstaufen is perhaps the fittest point at which to +turn aside from the narrative history of the Empire to speak shortly +of the legal position which it professed to hold to the rest of +Europe, as well as of certain duties and observances which throw a +light upon the system it embodied. This is not indeed the era of its +greatest power: that was already past. Nor is it conspicuously the era +when its ideal dignity stood highest: for that remained scarcely +impaired till three centuries had passed away. But it was under the +Hohenstaufen, owing partly to the splendid abilities of the princes of +that famous line, partly to the suddenly-gained ascendancy of the +Roman law, that the actual power and the theoretical influence of the +Empire most fully coincided. There can therefore be no better +opportunity for noticing the titles and claims by which it announced +itself the representative of Rome's universal dominion, and for +collecting the various instances in which they were (either before or +after Frederick's time) more or less admitted by the other states of +Europe. + +The territories over which Barbarossa would have declared his +jurisdiction to extend may be classed under four heads:-- + +First, the German lands, in which, and in which alone, the Emperor +was, up till the death of Frederick the Second, effective sovereign. + +Second, the non-German districts of the Holy Empire, where the Emperor +was acknowledged as sole monarch, but in practice little regarded. + +Third, certain outlying countries, owing allegiance to the Empire, but +governed by kings of their own. + +Fourth, the other states of Europe, whose rulers, while in most cases +admitting the superior rank of the Emperor, were virtually independent +of him. + +[Sidenote: Limits of the Empire.] + +Thus within the actual boundaries of the Holy Empire were included +only districts coming under the first and second of the above classes, +i.e. Germany, the northern half of Italy, and the kingdom of Burgundy +or Arles--that is to say, Provence, Dauphin, the Free County of +Burgundy (Franche Comt), and Western Switzerland. Lorraine, Alsace, +and a portion of Flanders were of course parts of Germany. To the +north-east, Bohemia and the Slavic principalities in Mecklenburg and +Pomerania were as yet not integral parts of its body, but rather +dependent outliers. Beyond the march of Brandenburg, from the Oder to +the Vistula, dwelt pagan Lithuanians or Prussians[201], free till the +establishment among them of the Teutonic knights. + +[Sidenote: Hungary.] + +Hungary had owed a doubtful allegiance since the days of Otto I. +Gregory VII had claimed it as a fief of the Holy See; Frederick wished +to reduce it completely to subjection, but could not overcome the +reluctance of his nobles. After Frederick II, by whom it was recovered +from the Mongol hordes, no imperial claims were made for so many years +that at last they became obsolete, and were confessed to be so by the +Constitution of Augsburg, A.D. 1566[202]. + +[Sidenote: Poland.] + +Under Duke Misico, Poland had submitted to Otto the Great, and +continued, with occasional revolts, to obey the Empire, till the +beginning of the Great Interregnum (as it is called) in 1254. Its duke +was present at the election of Richard, A.D. 1258. Thereafter +Primislas called himself king, in token of emancipation, and the +country became independent, though some of its provinces were long +afterwards reunited to the German state. Silesia, originally Polish, +was attached to Bohemia by Charles IV, and so became part of the +Empire; Posen and Galicia were seized by Prussia and Austria, A.D. +1772. Down to her partition in that year, the constitution of Poland +remained a copy of that which had existed in the German kingdom in the +twelfth century[203]. + +[Sidenote: Denmark.] + +Lewis the Pious had received the homage of the Danish king Harold, on +his baptism at Mentz, A.D. 826; Otto the Great's victories over Harold +Blue Tooth made the country regularly subject, and added the march of +Schleswig to the immediate territory of the Empire: but the boundary +soon receded to the Eyder, on whose banks might be seen the +inscription,-- + + 'Eidora Romani terminus imperii.' + +King Peter[204] attended at Frederick I's coronation, to do homage, +and receive from the Emperor, as suzerain, his own crown. Since the +Interregnum Denmark has been always free[205]. + +[Sidenote: France.] + +Otto the Great was the last Emperor whose suzerainty the French kings +had admitted; nor were Henry VI and Otto IV successful in their +attempts to enforce it. Boniface VIII, in his quarrel with Philip the +Fair, offered the French throne, which he had pronounced vacant, to +Albert I; but the wary Hapsburg declined the dangerous prize. The +precedence, however, which the Germans continued to assert, irritated +Gallic pride, and led to more than one contest. Blondel denies the +Empire any claim to the Roman name; and in A.D. 1648 the French envoys +at Mnster refused for some time to admit what no other European state +disputed. Till recent times the title of the Archbishop of Treves, +'Archicancellarius per Galliam atque regnum Arelatense,' preserved the +memory of an obsolete supremacy which the constant aggressions of +France might seem to have reversed. + +[Sidenote: Sweden.] + +No reliance can be placed on the author who tells us that Sweden was +granted by Frederick I to Waldemar the Dane[206]; the fact is +improbable, and we do not hear that such pretensions were ever put +forth before or after. + +[Sidenote: Spain.] + +Nor does it appear that authority was ever exercised by any Emperor in +Spain. Nevertheless the choice of Alfonso X by a section of the German +electors, in A.D. 1258, may be construed to imply that the Spanish +kings were members of the Empire. And when, A.D. 1053, Ferdinand the +Great of Castile had, in the pride of his victories over the Moors, +assumed the title of 'Hispani Imperator,' the remonstrance of Henry +III declared the rights of Rome over the Western provinces indelible, +and the Spaniard, though protesting his independence, was forced to +resign the usurped dignity[207]. + +[Sidenote: England.] + +No act of sovereignty is recorded to have been done by any of the +Emperors in England, though as heirs of Rome they might be thought to +have better rights over it than over Poland or Denmark[208]. There +was, however, a vague notion that the English, like other kingdoms, +must depend on the Empire: a notion which appears in Conrad III's +letter to John of Constantinople[209]; and which was countenanced by +the submissive tone in which Frederick I was addressed by the +Plantagenet Henry II[210]. English independence was still more +compromised in the next reign, when Richard I, according to Hoveden, +'Consilio matris su deposuit se de regno Angli et tradidit illud +imperatori (Henrico VIto) sicut universorum domino.' But as Richard +was at the same time invested with the kingdom of Arles by Henry VI, +his homage may have been for that fief only; and it was probably in +that capacity that he voted, as a prince of the Empire, at the +election of Frederick II. The case finds a parallel in the claims of +England over the Scottish king, doubtful, to say the least, as regards +the domestic realm of the latter, certain as regards Cumbria, which he +had long held from the Southern crown[211]. But Germany had no Edward +I. Henry VI is said at his death to have released Richard from his +submission (this too may be compared with Richard's release to the +Scottish William the Lion), and Edward II declared, 'regnum Angli ab +omni subiectione imperiali esse liberrimum[212].' Yet the idea +survived: the Emperor Lewis the Bavarian, when he named Edward III his +vicar in the great French war, demanded, though in vain, that the +English monarch should kiss his feet[213]. Sigismund[214], visiting +Henry V at London, before the meeting of the council of Constance, was +met by the Duke of Gloucester, who, riding into the water to the ship +where the Emperor sat, required him, at the sword's point, to declare +that he did not come purposing to infringe on the king's authority in +the realm of England[215]. One curious pretension of the imperial +crown called forth many protests. It was declared by civilians and +canonists that no public notary could have any standing, or attach any +legality to the documents he drew, unless he had received his diploma +from the Emperor or the Pope. A strenuous denial of a doctrine so +injurious was issued by the parliament of Scotland under James +III[216]. + +[Sidenote: Naples.] + +The kingdom of Naples and Sicily, although of course claimed as a part +of the Empire, was under the Norman dynasty (A.D. 1060-1189) not +merely independent, but the most dangerous enemy of the German power +in Italy. Henry VI, the son and successor of Barbarossa, obtained +possession of it by marrying Constantia the last heiress of the Norman +kings. But both he and Frederick II treated it as a separate +patrimonial state, instead of incorporating it with their more +northerly dominions. After the death of Conradin, the last of the +Hohenstaufen, it passed away to an Angevin, then to an Aragonese +dynasty, continuing under both to maintain itself independent of the +Empire, nor ever again, except under Charles V, united to the Germanic +crown. + +[Sidenote: Venice.] + +One spot in Italy there was whose singular felicity of situation +enabled her through long centuries of obscurity and weakness, slowly +ripening into strength, to maintain her freedom unstained by any +submission to the Frankish and Germanic Emperors. Venice glories in +deducing her origin from the fugitives who escaped from Aquileia in +the days of Attila: it is at least probable that her population never +received an intermixture of Teutonic settlers, and continued during +the ages of Lombard and Frankish rule in Italy to regard the Byzantine +sovereigns as the representatives of their ancient masters. In the +tenth century, when summoned to submit by Otto, they had said, 'We +wish to be the servants of the Emperors of the Romans' (the +Constantinopolitan), and though they overthrew this very Eastern +throne in A.D. 1204, the pretext had served its turn, and had aided +them in defying or evading the demands of obedience made by the +Teutonic princes. Alone of all the Italian republics, Venice never, +down to her extinction by France and Austria in A.D. 1796, recognized +within her walls any secular authority save her own. + +[Sidenote: The East.] + +The kings of Cyprus and Armenia sent to Henry VI to confess themselves +his vassals and ask his help. Over remote Eastern lands, where +Frankish foot had never trod, Frederick Barbarossa asserted the +indestructible rights of Rome, mistress of the world. A letter to +Saladin, amusing from its absolute identification of his own Empire +with that which had sent Crassus to perish in Parthia, and had blushed +to see Mark Antony 'consulum nostrum'[217] at the feet of Cleopatra, +is preserved by Hoveden: it bids the Soldan withdraw at once from the +dominions of Rome, else will she, with her new Teutonic defenders, of +whom a pompous list follows, drive him from them with all her ancient +might. + +[Sidenote: The Byzantine Emperors.] + +[Sidenote: Rivalry of the two Empires.] + +Unwilling as were the great kingdoms of Western Europe to admit the +territorial supremacy of the Emperor, the proudest among them never +refused, until the end of the Middle Ages, to recognize his precedence +and address him in a tone of respectful deference. Very different was +the attitude of the Byzantine princes, who denied his claim to be an +Emperor at all. The separate existence of the Eastern Church and +Empire was not only, as has been said above, a blemish in the title of +the Teutonic sovereigns; it was a continuing and successful protest +against the whole system of an Empire Church of Christendom, centering +in Rome, ruled by the successor of Peter and the successor of +Augustus. Instead of the one Pope and one Emperor whom medival theory +presented as the sole earthly representatives of the invisible head of +the Church, the world saw itself distracted by the interminable feud +of rivals, each of whom had much to allege on his behalf. It was easy +for the Latins to call the Easterns schismatics and their Emperor an +usurper, but practically it was impossible to dethrone him or reduce +them to obedience: while even in controversy no one could treat the +pretensions of communities who had been the first to embrace +Christianity and retained so many of its most ancient forms, with the +contempt which would have been felt for any Western sectaries. +Seriously, however, as the hostile position of the Greeks seems to us +to affect the claims of the Teutonic Empire, calling in question its +legitimacy and marring its pretended universality, those who lived at +the time seem to have troubled themselves little about it, finding +themselves in practice seldom confronted by the difficulties it +raised. The great mass of the people knew of the Greeks not even by +name; of those who did, the most thought of them only as perverse +rebels, Samaritans who refused to worship at Jerusalem, and were +little better than infidels. The few ecclesiastics of superior +knowledge and insight had their minds preoccupied by the established +theory, and accepted it with too intense a belief to suffer anything +else to come into collision with it: they do not seem to have even +apprehended all that was involved in this one defect. Nor, what is +still stranger, in all the attacks made upon the claims of the +Teutonic Empire, whether by its Papal or its French antagonists, do we +find the rival title of the Greek sovereigns adduced in argument +against it. Nevertheless, the Eastern Church was then, as she is to +this day, a thorn in the side of the Papacy; and the Eastern Emperors, +so far from uniting for the good of Christendom with their Western +brethren, felt towards them a bitter though not unnatural jealousy, +lost no opportunity of intriguing for their evil, and never ceased to +deny their right to the imperial name. The coronation of Charles was +in their eyes an act of unholy rebellion; his successors were +barbarian intruders, ignorant of the laws and usages of the ancient +state, and with no claim to the Roman name except that which the +favour of an insolent pontiff might confer. The Greeks had themselves +long since ceased to use the Latin tongue, and were indeed become more +than half Orientals in character and manners. But they still continued +to call themselves Romans, and preserved most of the titles and +ceremonies which had existed in the time of Constantine or Justinian. +They were weak, although by no means so weak as modern historians have +been till lately wont to paint them, and the weaker they grew the +higher rose their conceit, and the more did they plume themselves upon +the uninterrupted legitimacy of their crown, and the ceremonial +splendour wherewith custom had surrounded its wearer. It gratified +their spite to pervert insultingly the titles of the Frankish princes. +Basil the Macedonian reproached Lewis II with presuming to use the +name of 'Basileus,' to which Lewis retorted that he was as good an +emperor as Basil himself, but that, anyhow, _Basileus_ was only the +Greek for _rex_, and need not mean 'Emperor' at all. Nicephorus would +not call Otto I anything but 'King of the Lombards[218],' Conrad III +was addressed by Calo-Johannes as 'amice imperii mei Rex[219];' Isaac +Angelus had the impudence to style Frederick I 'chief prince of +Alemannia[220].' The great Emperor, half-resentful, half-contemptuous, +told the envoys that he was 'Romanorum imperator,' and bade their +master call himself 'Romaniorum' from his Thracian province. Though +these ebullitions were the most conclusive proof of their weakness, +the Byzantine rulers sometimes planned the recovery of their former +capital, and seemed not unlikely to succeed under the leadership of +the conquering Manuel Comnenus. He invited Alexander III, then in the +heat of his strife with Frederick, to return to the embrace of his +rightful sovereign, but the prudent pontiff and his synod courteously +declined[221]. The Greeks were, however, too unstable and too much +alienated from Latin feeling to have held Rome, could they even have +seduced her allegiance. A few years later they were themselves the +victims of the French and Venetian crusaders. + +[Sidenote: Dignities and titles.] + +[Sidenote: The four crowns.] + +Though Otto the Great and his successors had dropped all titles save +their highest (the tedious lists of imperial dignities were happily +not yet in being), they did not therefore endeavour to unite their +several kingdoms, but continued to go through four distinct +coronations at the four capitals of their Empire[222]. These are +concisely given in the verses of Godfrey of Viterbo, a notary of +Frederick's household[223]:-- + + 'Primus Aquisgrani locus est, post hc Arelati, + Inde Modoeti regali sede locari + Post solet Itali summa corona dari: + Csar Romano cum vult diademate fungi + Debet apostolicis manibus reverenter inungi.' + +By the crowning at Aachen, the old Frankish capital, the monarch +became 'king;' formerly 'king of the Franks,' or, 'king of the Eastern +Franks;' now, since Henry II's time, 'king of the Romans, always +Augustus.' At Monza, (or, more rarely, at Milan) in later times, at +Pavia in earlier times, he became king of Italy, or of the +Lombards[224]; at Rome he received the double crown of the Roman +Empire, 'double,' says Godfrey, as 'urbis et orbis:'-- + + 'Hoc quicunque tenet, summus in orbe sedet;' + +though others hold that, uniting the mitre to the crown, it typifies +spiritual as well as secular authority. The crown of Burgundy[225] or +the kingdom of Arles, first gained by Conrad II, was a much less +splendid matter, and carried with it little effective power. Most +Emperors never assumed it at all, Frederick I not till late in life, +when an interval of leisure left him nothing better to do. These four +crowns[226] furnish matter of endless discussion to the old writers; +they tell us that the Roman was golden, the German silver, the Italian +iron, the metal corresponding to the dignity of each realm[227]. +Others say that that of Aachen is iron, and the Italian silver, and +give elaborate reasons why it should be so[228]. There seems to be no +doubt that the allegory created the fact, and that all three crowns +were of gold, though in that of Italy there was and is inserted a +piece of iron, a nail, it was believed, of the true Cross. + +[Sidenote: Meaning of the four coronations.] + +Why, it may well be asked, seeing that the Roman crown made the +Emperor ruler of the whole habitable globe, was it thought necessary +for him to add to it minor dignities which might be supposed to have +been already included in it? The reason seems to be that the imperial +office was conceived of as something different in kind from the regal, +and as carrying with it not the immediate government of any particular +kingdom, but a general suzerainty over and right of controlling all. +Of this a pertinent illustration is afforded by an anecdote told of +Frederick Barbarossa. Happening once to inquire of the famous jurists +who surrounded him whether it was really true that he was 'lord of the +world,' one of them simply assented, another, Bulgarus, answered, 'Not +as respects ownership.' In this dictum, which is evidently conformable +to the philosophical theory of the Empire, we have a pointed +distinction drawn between feudal sovereignty, which supposes the +prince original owner of the soil of his whole kingdom, and imperial +sovereignty, which is irrespective of place, and exercised not over +things but over men, as God's rational creatures. But the Emperor, as +has been said already, was also the East Frankish king, uniting in +himself, to use the legal phrase, two wholly distinct 'persons,' and +hence he might acquire more direct and practically useful rights over +a portion of his dominions by being crowned king of that portion, just +as a feudal monarch was often duke or count of lordships whereof he +was already feudal superior; or, to take a better illustration, just +as a bishop may hold livings in his own diocese. That the Emperors, +while continuing to be crowned at Milan and Aachen, did not call +themselves kings of the Lombards and of the Franks, was probably +merely because these titles seemed insignificant compared to that of +Roman Emperor. + +[Sidenote: 'Emperor' not assumed till the Roman coronation.] + +[Sidenote: Origin and results of this practice.] + +In this supreme title, as has been said, all lesser honours were blent +and lost, but custom or prejudice forbade the German king to assume it +till actually crowned at Rome by the Pope[229]. Matters of phrase and +title are never unimportant, least of all in an age ignorant and +superstitiously antiquarian: and this restriction had the most +important consequences. The first barbarian kings had been +tribe-chiefs; and when they claimed a dominion which was universal, +yet in a sense territorial, they could not separate their title from +the spot which it was their boast to possess, and by virtue of whose +name they ruled. 'Rome,' says the biographer of St. Adalbert, 'seeing +that she both is and is called the head of the world and the mistress +of cities, is alone able to give to kings imperial power, and since +she cherishes in her bosom the body of the Prince of the Apostles, she +ought of right to appoint the Prince of the whole earth[230].' The +crown was therefore too sacred to be conferred by any one but the +supreme Pontiff, or in any city less august than the ancient capital. +Had it become hereditary in any family, Lothar I's, for instance, or +Otto's, this feeling might have worn off; as it was, each successive +transfer, to Guido, to Otto, to Henry II, to Conrad the Salic, +strengthened it. The force of custom, tradition, precedent, is +incalculable when checked neither by written rules nor free +discussion. What sheer assertion will do is shewn by the success of a +forgery so gross as the Isidorian decretals. No arguments are needed +to discredit the alleged decree of Pope Benedict VIII[231], which +prohibited the German prince from taking the name or office of Emperor +till approved and consecrated by the pontiff, but a doctrine so +favourable to papal pretensions was sure not to want advocacy; Hadrian +IV proclaims it in the broadest terms, and through the efforts of the +clergy and the spell of reverence in the Teutonic princes, it passed +into an unquestioned belief. That none ventured to use the title till +the Pope conferred it, made it seem in some manner to depend on his +will, enabled him to exact conditions from every candidate, and gave a +colour to his pretended suzerainty. Since by feudal theory every +honour and estate is held from some superior, and since the divine +commission has been without doubt issued directly to the Pope, must +not the whole earth be his fief, and he the lord paramount, to whom +even the Emperor is a vassal? This argument, which derived +considerable plausibility from the rivalry between the Emperor and +other monarchs, as compared with the universal and undisputed[232] +authority of the Pope, was a favourite with the high sacerdotal party: +first distinctly advanced by Hadrian IV, when he set up the +picture[233] representing Lothar's homage, which had so irritated the +followers of Barbarossa, though it had already been hinted at in +Gregory VII's gift of the crown to Rudolf of Suabia, with the line,-- + + 'Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rudolfo.' + +Nor was it only by putting him at the pontiff's mercy that this +dependence of the imperial name on a coronation in the city injured +the German sovereign[234]. With strange inconsistency it was not +pretended that the Emperor's rights were any narrower before he +received the rite: he could summon synods, confirm papal elections, +exercise jurisdiction over the citizens: his claim of the crown itself +could not, at least till the times of the Gregorys and the Innocents, +be positively denied. For no one thought of contesting the right of +the German nation to the Empire, or the authority of the electoral +princes, strangers though they were, to give Rome and Italy a master. +The republican followers of Arnold of Brescia might murmur, but they +could not dispute the truth of the proud lines in which the poet who +sang the glories of Barbarossa[235], describes the result of the +conquest of Charles the Great:-- + + 'Ex quo Romanum nostra virtute redemptum + Hostibus expulsis, ad nos iustissimus ordo + Transtulit imperium, Romani gloria regni + Nos penes est. Quemcunque sibi Germania regem + Prficit, hunc dives summisso vertice Roma + Suscipit, et verso Tiberim regit ordine Rhenus.' + +But the real strength of the Teutonic kingdom was wasted in the +pursuit of a glittering toy: once in his reign each Emperor undertook +a long and dangerous expedition, and dissipated in an inglorious and +ever to be repeated strife the forces that might have achieved +conquest elsewhere, or made him feared and obeyed at home. + +[Sidenote: The title 'Holy Empire.'] + +At this epoch appears another title, of which more must be said. To +the accustomed 'Roman Empire' Frederick Barbarossa adds the epithet of +'Holy.' Of its earlier origin, under Conrad II (the Salic), which some +have supposed[236], there is no documentary trace, though there is +also no proof to the contrary[237]. So far as is known it occurs first +in the famous Privilege of Austria, granted by Frederick in the fourth +year of his reign, the second of his empire, 'terram Austri qu +clypeus et cor sacri imperii esse dinoscitur[238]:' then afterwards, +in other manifestos of his reign; for example, in a letter to Isaac +Angelus of Byzantium[239], and in the summons to the princes to help +him against Milan: 'Quia ... urbis et orbis gubernacula tenemus ... +sacro imperio et div reipublic consulere debemus[240];' where the +second phrase is a synonym explanatory of the first. Used occasionally +by Henry VI and Frederick II, it is more frequent under their +successors, William, Richard, Rudolf, till after Charles IV's time it +becomes habitual, for the last few centuries indispensable. Regarding +the origin of so singular a title many theories have been advanced. +Some declared it a perpetuation of the court style of Rome and +Byzantium, which attached sanctity to the person of the monarch: thus +David Blondel, contending for the honour of France, calls it a mere +epithet of the Emperor, applied by confusion to his government[241]. +Others saw in it a religious meaning, referring to Daniel's prophecy, +or to the fact that the Empire was contemporary with Christianity, or +to Christ's birth under it[242]. Strong churchmen derived it from the +dependence of the imperial crown on the Pope. There were not wanting +persons to maintain that it meant nothing more than great or splendid. +We need not, however, be in any great doubt as to its true meaning and +purport. The ascription of sacredness to the person, the palace, the +letters, and so forth, of the sovereign, so common in the later ages +of Rome, had been partly retained in the German court. Liudprand calls +Otto 'imperator sanctissimus[243].' Still this sanctity, which the +Greeks above all others lavished on their princes, is something +personal, is nothing more than the divinity that always hedges a king. +Far more intimate and peculiar was the relation of the revived Roman +Empire to the church and religion. As has been said already, it was +neither more nor less than the visible Church, seen on its secular +side, the Christian society organized as a state under a form divinely +appointed, and therefore the name 'Holy Roman Empire' was the needful +and rightful counterpart to that of 'Holy Catholic Church.' Such had +long been the belief, and so the title might have had its origin as +far back as the tenth or ninth century, might even have emanated from +Charles himself. Alcuin in one of his letters uses the phrase +'imperium Christianum.' But there was a further reason for its +introduction at this particular epoch. Ever since Hildebrand had +claimed for the priesthood exclusive sanctity and supreme +jurisdiction, the papal party had not ceased to speak of the civil +power as being, compared with that of their own chief, merely secular, +earthly, profane. It may be conjectured that to meet this reproach, no +less injurious than insulting, Frederick or his advisers began to use +in public documents the expression 'Holy Empire;' thereby wishing to +assert the divine institution and religious duties of the office he +held. Previous Emperors had called themselves 'Catholici,' +'Christiani,' 'ecclesi defensores[244];' now their State itself is +consecrated an earthly theocracy. 'Deus Romanum imperium adversus +schisma ecclesi prparavit[245],' writes Frederick to the English +Henry II. The theory was one which the best and greatest Emperors, +Charles, Otto the Great, Henry III, had most striven to carry out; it +continued to be zealously upheld when it had long ceased to be +practicable. In the proclamations of medival kings there is a +constant dwelling on their Divine commission. Power in an age of +violence sought to justify while it enforced its commands, to make +brute force less brutal by appeals to a higher sanction. This is seen +nowhere more than in the style of the German sovereigns: they delight +in the phrases 'maiestas sacrosancta[246],' 'imperator divina +ordinante providentia,' 'divina pietate,' 'per misericordiam Dei;' +many of which were preserved till, like those used now by other +European kings, like our own 'Defender of the Faith,' they had become +at last more grotesque than solemn. The Emperor Joseph II, at the end +of the eighteenth century, was 'Advocate of the Christian Church,' +'Vicar of Christ,' 'Imperial head of the faithful,' 'Leader of the +Christian army,' 'Protector of Palestine, of general councils, of the +Catholic faith[247].' + +The title, if it added little to the power, yet certainly seems to +have increased the dignity of the Empire, and by consequence the +jealousy of other states, of France especially. This did not, however, +go so far as to prevent its recognition by the Pope and the French +king[248], and after the sixteenth century it would have been a breach +of diplomatic courtesy to omit it. Nor have imitators been +wanting[249]: witness such titles as 'Most Christian king,' 'Catholic +king,' 'Defender of the Faith[250].' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[201] 'Pruzzi,' says the biographer of St. Adalbert, 'quorum Deus est +venter et avaritia iuncta cum morte.'--_M. G. H._ t. iv. + +It is curious that this non-Teutonic people should have given their +name to the great German kingdom of the present. + +[202] Conring, _De Finibus Imperii_. It is hardly necessary to observe +that the connection of Hungary with the Hapsburgs is of comparatively +recent origin, and of a purely dynastic nature. The position of the +archdukes of Austria as kings of Hungary had nothing to do legally +with the fact that many of them were also chosen Emperors, although +practically their possession of the imperial crown had greatly aided +them in grasping and retaining the thrones of Hungary and Bohemia. + +[203] Cf. Pfeffel, _Abrg Chronologique_. + +[204] Letter of Frederick I to Otto of Freising, prefixed to the +latter's History. This king is also called Sweyn. + +[205] See Appendix, Note B. + +[206] Albertus Stadensis apud Conringium, _De Finibus Imperii_. + +[207] There is an allusion to this in the poems of the Cid. Arthur +Duck, _De Usu et Authoritate Iuris Civilis_, quotes the view of some +among the older jurists, that Spain having been, as far as the Romans +were concerned, a _res derelicta_, recovered by the Spaniards +themselves from the Moors, and thus acquired by _occupatio_, ought not +to be subject to the Emperors. + +[208] One of the greatest of English kings appears performing an act +of courtesy to the Emperor which was probably construed into an +acknowledgment of his own inferior position. Describing the Roman +coronation of the Emperor Conrad II, Wippo (c. 16) tells us 'His ita +peractis in duorum regum prsentia Ruodolfi regis Burgundi et +Chnutonis regis Anglorum divino officio finito imperator duorum regum +medius ad cubiculum suum honorifice ductus est.' + +[209] Letter in Otto Fris. i.: 'Nobis submittuntur Francia et +Hispania, Anglia et Dania.' + +[210] Letter in Radewic says, 'Regnum nostrum vobis exponimus.... +Vobis imperandi cedat auctoritas, nobis non deerit voluntas +obsequendi.' + +[211] The alleged instances of homage by the Scots to the Saxon and +early Norman kings are almost all complicated in some such way. They +had once held also the earldom of Huntingdon from the English crown, +and some have supposed (but on no sufficient grounds) that homage was +also done by them for Lothian. + +[212] Selden, _Titles of Honour_, part i. chap. ii. + +[213] Edward refused upon the ground that he was '_rex inunctus_.' + +[214] Sigismund had shortly before given great offence in France by +dubbing knights. + +[215] Sigismund answered, 'Nihil se contra superioritatem regis +prtexere.' + +[216] Selden, _Titles of Honour_, part i. chap. ii. Nevertheless, +notaries in Scotland, as elsewhere, continued for a long time to style +themselves 'Ego M. auctoritate imperiali (or papali) notarius.' + +[217] It is not necessary to prove this letter to have been the +composition of Frederick or his ministers. If it be (as it doubtless +is) contemporary, it is equally to the purpose as an evidence of the +feelings and ideas of the age. As a reviewer of a former edition of +this book has questioned its authenticity, I may mention that it is to +be found not only in Hoveden, but also in the 'Itinerarium regis +Ricardi,' in Ralph de Diceto, and in the 'Chronicon Terrae Sanctae.' +[See Mr. Stubbs' edition of Hoveden, vol. ii. p. 356.] + +[218] Liutprand, _Legatio Constantinopolitana_. Nicephorus says, 'Vis +maius scandalum quam quod se imperatorem vocat.' + +[219] Otto of Freising, i. + +[220] 'Isaachius a Deo constitutus Imperator, sacratissimus, +excellentissimus, potentissimus, moderator Romanorum, Angelus totius +orbis, heres coron magni Constantini, dilecto fratri imperii sui, +maximo principi Alemanni.' A remarkable speech of Frederick's to the +envoys of Isaac, who had addressed a letter to him as 'Rex Alemani' +is preserved by Ansbert (_Historia de Expeditione Friderici +Imperatoris_):--'Dominus Imperator divina se illustrante gratia +ulterius dissimulare non valens temerarium fastum regis (_sc._ +Grcorum) et usurpantem vocabulum falsi imperatoris Romanorum, hc +inter ctera exorsus est:--"Omnibus qui san mentis sunt constat, quia +unus est Monarchus Imperator Romanorum, sicut et unus est pater +universitatis, pontifex videlicet Romanus; ideoque cum ego Romani +imperii sceptrum plusquam per annos XXX absque omnium regum vel +principum contradictione tranquille tenuerim et in Romana urbe a summo +pontifice imperiali benedictione unctus sim et sublimatus, quia +denique Monarchiam prdecessores mei imperatores Romanorum plusquam +per CCCC annos etiam gloriose transmiserint, utpote a Constantinopolitana +urbe ad pristinam sedem imperii, caput orbis Romam, acclamatione +Romanorum et principum imperii, auctoritate quoque summi pontificis et +S. catholic ecclesi translatam, propter tardum et infructuosum +Constantinopolitani imperatoris auxilium contra tyrannos ecclesi, +mirandum est admodum cur frater meus dominus vester Constantinopolitanus +imperator usurpet inefficax sibi idem vocabulum et glorietur stulte +alieno sibi prorsus honore, cum liquido noverit me et nomine dici et +re esse Fridericum Romanorum imperatorem semper Augustum."' + +Isaac was so far moved by Frederick's indignation that in his next +letter he addressed him as 'generosissimum imperatorem Alemani,' and +in a third thus:-- + +'Isaakius in Christo fidelis divinitus coronatus, sublimis, potens, +excelsus, hres coron magni Constantini et Moderator Romeon Angelus +nobilissimo Imperatori antiqu Rom, regi Alemani et dilecto fratri +imperii sui, salutem,' &c., &c. (Ansbert, _ut supra_.) + +[221] Baronius, ad ann. + +[222] See Appendix, Note C. + +[223] Godefr. Viterb., _Pantheon_, in Mur., _S. R. I._, tom. vii. + +[224] Dnniges, _Deutsches Staatsrecht_, thinks that the crown of +Italy, neglected by the Ottos, and taken by Henry II, was a +recognition of the separate nationality of Italy. But Otto I seems to +have been crowned king of Italy, and Muratori (_Ant. It._ Dissert. +iii.) believes that Otto II and Otto III were likewise. + +[225] See Appendix, note A. + +[226] Some add a fifth crown, of Germany (making that of Aachen +Frankish), which they say belonged to Regensburg--Marquardus Freherus. + +[227] 'Dy erste ist tho Aken: dar kronet men mit der Yseren Krone, so +is he Konig over alle Dudesche Ryke. Dy andere tho Meylan, de is +Sulvern, so is he Here der Walen. Dy drdde is tho Rome; dy is guldin, +so is he Keyser over alle dy Werlt.'--Gloss to the _Sachsenspiegel_, +quoted by Pfeffinger. Similarly Peter de Andlo. + +[228] Cf. Gewoldus, _De Septemviratu imperii Romani_. One would expect +some ingenious allegorizer to have discovered that the crown of +Burgundy must be, and therefore is, of copper or bronze, making the +series complete, like the four ages of men in Hesiod. But I have not +been able to find any such. + +[229] Hence the numbers attached to the names of the Emperors are +often different in German and Italian writers, the latter not +reckoning Henry the Fowler nor Conrad I. So Henry III (of Germany) +calls himself 'Imperator Henricus Secundus;' and all distinguish the +years of their _regnum_ from those of the _imperium_. Cardinal +Baronius will not call Henry V anything but Henry III, not recognizing +Henry IV's coronation, because it was performed by an antipope. + +[230] Life of S. Adalbert (written at Rome early in the eleventh +century, probably by a brother of the monastery of SS. Boniface and +Alexius) in Pertz, _M. G. H._ iv. + +[231] Given by Glaber Rudolphus. It is on the face of it a most +impudent forgery: 'Ne quisquam audacter Romani Imperii sceptrum +prpostere gestare princeps appetat neve Imperator dici aut esse +valeat nisi quem Papa Romanus morum probitate aptum elegerit, eique +commiserit insigne imperiale.' + +[232] Universal and undisputed in the West, which, for practical +purposes, meant the world. The denial of the supreme jurisdiction of +Peter's chair by the eastern churches affected very slightly the +belief of Latin Christendom, just as the existence of a rival emperor +at Constantinople with at least as good a legal title as the Teutonic +Csar, was readily forgotten or ignored by the German and Italian +subjects of the latter. + +[233] Odious especially for the inscription,-- + + 'Rex venit ante fores nullo prius urbis honore; + Post homo fit Pap, sumit quo dante coronam.'--Radewic. + +[234] Medival history is full of instances of the superstitious +veneration attached to the rite of coronation (made by the Church +almost a sacrament), and to the special places where, or even utensils +with which it was performed. Everyone knows the importance in France +of Rheims and its sacred _ampulla_; so the Scottish king must be +crowned at Scone, an old seat of Pictish royalty--Robert Bruce risked +a great deal to receive his crown there; so no Hungarian coronation +was valid unless made with the crown of St. Stephen; the possession +whereof is still accounted so valuable by the Austrian court. + +Great importance seems to have been attached to the imperial globe +(Reichsapfel) which the Pope delivered to the Emperor at his +coronation. + +[235] Whether the poem which passes under the name of Gunther +Ligurinus be his work or that of some scholar in a later age is for +the present purpose indifferent. + +[236] Zedler, _Universal Lexicon_, s. v. _Reich_. + +[237] It does not occur before Frederick I's time in any of the +documents printed by Pertz; and this is the date which Boeclerus also +assigns in his treatise, _De Sacro Imperio Romano_, vindicating the +terms 'sacrum' and 'Romanum' against the aspersions of Blondel. + +[238] Pertz, _M. G. H._, tom. iv. (legum ii.) + +[239] Ibid. iv. + +[240] Radewic. _ap._ Pertz. + +[241] Blondellus adv. Chiffletium. Most of these theories are stated +by Boeclerus. Jordanes (_Chronica_) says, 'Sacri imperii quod non est +dubium sancti Spiritus ordinatione, secundum qualitatem ipsam et +exigentiam meritorum humanorum disponi.' + +[242] Marquard Freher's notes to Peter de Andlo, book i. chap. vii. + +[243] So in the song on the capture of the Emperor Lewis II by +Adalgisus of Benevento, we find the words, 'Ludhuicum comprenderunt +sancto, pio, Augusto.' (Quoted by Gregorovius, _Geschichte der Stadt +Rom im Mittelalter_, iii. p. 185.) + +[244] Goldast, _Constitutiones_. + +[245] Pertz, _M. G. H._, legg. ii. + +[246] 'Apostolic majesty' was the proper title of the king of Hungary. +The Austrian court has recently revived it. + +[247] Moser, _Rmische Kayser_. + +[248] Urban IV used the title in 1259: Francis I (of France) calls the +Empire 'sacrosanctum.' + +[249] Cf. 'Holy Russia.' + +[250] It is almost superfluous to observe that the beginning of the +title 'Holy' has nothing to do with the beginning of the Empire +itself. Essentially and substantially, the Holy Roman Empire was, as +has been shewn already, the creation of Charles the Great. Looking at +it more technically, as the monarchy, not of the whole West, like that +of Charles, but of Germany and Italy, with a claim, which was never +more than a claim, to universal sovereignty, its beginning is fixed by +most of the German writers, whose practice has been followed in the +text, at the coronation of Otto the Great. But the title was at least +one, and probably two centuries later. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +FALL OF THE HOHENSTAUFEN. + + +In the three preceding chapters the Holy Empire has been described in +what is not only the most brilliant but the most momentous period of +its history; the period of its rivalry with the Popedom for the chief +place in Christendom. For it was mainly through their relations with +the spiritual power, by their friendship and protection at first, no +less than by their subsequent hostility, that the Teutonic Emperors +influenced the development of European politics. The reform of the +Roman Church which went on during the reigns of Otto I and his +successors down to Henry III, and which was chiefly due to the efforts +of those monarchs, was the true beginning of the grand period of the +Middle Ages, the first of that long series of movements, changes, and +creations in the ecclesiastical system of Europe which was, so to +speak, the master current of history, secular as well as religious, +during the centuries which followed. The first result of Henry III's +purification of the Papacy was seen in Hildebrand's attempt to subject +all jurisdiction to that of his own chair, and in the long struggle of +the Investitures, which brought out into clear light the opposing +pretensions of the temporal and spiritual powers. Although destined in +the end to bear far other fruit, the immediate effect of this struggle +was to evoke in all classes an intense religious feeling; and, in +opening up new fields of ambition to the hierarchy, to stimulate +wonderfully their power of political organization. It was this impulse +that gave birth to the Crusades, and that enabled the Popes, stepping +forth as the rightful leaders of a religious war, to bend it to serve +their own ends: it was thus too that they struck the alliance--strange +as such an alliance seems now--with the rebellious cities of Lombardy, +and proclaimed themselves the protectors of municipal freedom. But the +third and crowning triumph of the Holy See was reserved for the +thirteenth century. In the foundation of the two great orders of +ecclesiastical knighthood, the all-powerful all-pervading Dominicans +and Franciscans, the religious fervour of the Middle Ages culminated: +in the overthrow of the only power which could pretend to vie with her +in antiquity, in sanctity, in universality, the Papacy saw herself +exalted to rule alone over the kings of the earth. Of that overthrow, +following with terrible suddenness on the days of strength and glory +which we have just been witnessing, this chapter has now to speak. + +[Sidenote: Henry VI, 1190-1197.] + +[Sidenote: Philip, 1198-1208.] + +[Sidenote: Innocent III and Otto IV.] + +[Sidenote: Otto IV, 1208 (1198)-1212.] + +It happened strangely enough that just while their ruin was preparing, +the house of Swabia gained over their ecclesiastical foes what seemed +likely to prove an advantage of the first moment. The son and +successor of Barbarossa was Henry VI, a man who had inherited all his +father's harshness with none of his father's generosity. By his +marriage with Constance, the heiress of the Norman kings, he had +become master of Naples and Sicily. Emboldened by the possession of +what had been hitherto the stronghold of his predecessors' bitterest +enemies, and able to threaten the Pope from south as well as north, +Henry conceived a scheme which might have wonderfully changed the +history of Germany and Italy. He proposed to the Teutonic magnates to +lighten their burdens by uniting these newly-acquired countries to the +Empire, to turn their feudal lands into allodial, and to make no +further demands for money on the clergy, on condition that they should +pronounce the crown hereditary in his family. Results of the highest +importance would have followed this change, which Henry advocated by +setting forth the perils of interregna, and which he doubtless meant +to be but part of an entirely new system of polity. Already so strong +in Germany, and with an absolute command of their new kingdom, the +Hohenstaufen might have dispensed with the renounced feudal services, +and built up a firm centralized system, like that which was already +beginning to develope itself in France. First, however, the Saxon +princes, then some ecclesiastics headed by Conrad of Mentz, opposed +the scheme; the pontiff retracted his consent, and Henry had to +content himself with getting his infant son Frederick the Second +chosen king of the Romans. On Henry's untimely death the election was +set aside, and the contest which followed between Otto of Brunswick +and Philip of Hohenstaufen, brother of Henry the Sixth, gave the +Popedom, now guided by the genius of Innocent the Third, an +opportunity of extending its sway at the expense of its antagonist. +The Pope moved heaven and earth on behalf of Otto, whose family had +been the constant rivals of the Hohenstaufen, and who was himself +willing to promise all that Innocent required; but Philip's personal +merits and the vast possessions of his house gave him while he lived +the ascendancy in Germany. His death by the hand of an assassin, while +it seemed to vindicate the Pope's choice, left the Swabian party +without a head, and the Papal nominee was soon recognized over the +whole Empire. But Otto IV became less submissive as he felt his throne +more secure. If he was a Guelf by birth, his acts in Italy, whither he +had gone to receive the imperial crown, were those of a Ghibeline, +anxious to reclaim the rights he had but just forsworn. The Roman +Church at last deposed and excommunicated her ungrateful son, and +Innocent rejoiced in a second successful assertion of pontifical +supremacy, when Otto was dethroned by the youthful Frederick the +Second, whom a tragic irony sent into the field of politics as the +champion of the Holy See, whose hatred was to embitter his life and +extinguish his house. + +[Sidenote: Frederick the Second, 1212-1250.] + +Upon the events of that terrific strife, for which Emperor and Pope +girded themselves up for the last time, the narrative of Frederick the +Second's career, with its romantic adventures, its sad picture of +marvellous powers lost on an age not ripe for them, blasted as by a +curse in the moment of victory, it is not necessary, were it even +possible, here to enlarge. That conflict did indeed determine the +fortunes of the German kingdom no less than of the republics of Italy, +but it was upon Italian ground that it was fought out and it is to +Italian history that its details belong. So too of Frederick himself. +Out of the long array of the Germanic successors of Charles, he is, +with Otto III, the only one who comes before us with a genius and a +frame of character that are not those of a Northern or a Teuton[251]. +There dwelt in him, it is true, all the energy and knightly valour of +his father Henry and his grandfather Barbarossa. But along with these, +and changing their direction, were other gifts, inherited perhaps from +his Italian mother and fostered by his education among the +orange-groves of Palermo--a love of luxury and beauty, an intellect +refined, subtle, philosophical. Through the mist of calumny and fable +it is but dimly that the truth of the man can be discerned, and the +outlines that appear serve to quicken rather than appease the +curiosity with which we regard one of the most extraordinary +personages in history. A sensualist, yet also a warrior and a +politician; a profound lawgiver and an impassioned poet; in his youth +fired by crusading fervour, in later life persecuting heretics while +himself accused of blasphemy and unbelief; of winning manners and +ardently beloved by his followers, but with the stain of more than one +cruel deed upon his name, he was the marvel of his own generation, and +succeeding ages looked back with awe, not unmingled with pity, upon +the inscrutable figure of the last Emperor who had braved all the +terrors of the Church and died beneath her ban, the last who had ruled +from the sands of the ocean to the shores of the Sicilian sea. But +while they pitied they condemned. The undying hatred of the Papacy +threw round his memory a lurid light; him and him alone of all the +imperial line, Dante, the worshipper of the Empire, must perforce +deliver to the flames of hell[252]. + +[Sidenote: Struggle of Frederick with the Papacy.] + +Placed as the Empire was, it was scarcely possible for its head not to +be involved in war with the constantly aggressive Popedom--aggressive +in her claims of territorial dominion in Italy as well as of +ecclesiastical jurisdiction throughout the world. But it was +Frederick's peculiar misfortune to have given the Popes a hold over +him which they well knew how to use. In a moment of youthful +enthusiasm he had taken the cross from the hands of an eloquent monk, +and his delay to fulfil the vow was branded as impious neglect. +Excommunicated by Gregory IX for not going to Palestine, he went, and +was excommunicated for going: having concluded an advantageous peace, +he sailed for Italy, and was a third time excommunicated for +returning. To Pope Gregory he was at last after a fashion reconciled, +but with the accession of Innocent IV the flame burst out afresh. Upon +the special pretexts which kindled the strife it is not worth while to +descant: the real causes were always the same, and could only be +removed by the submission of one or other combatant. Chief among them +was Frederick's possession of Sicily. Now were seen the fruits which +Barbarossa had stored up for his house when he gained for Henry his +son the hand of the Norman heiress. Naples and Sicily had been for +some two hundred years recognized as a fief of the Holy See, and the +Pope, who felt himself in danger while encircled by the powers of his +rival, was determined to use his advantage to the full and make it the +means of extinguishing imperial authority throughout Italy. But +although the struggle was far more of a territorial and political one +than that of the previous century had been, it reopened every former +source of strife, and passed into a contest between the civil and the +spiritual potentate. The old war-cries of Henry and Hildebrand, of +Barbarossa and Alexander, roused again the unquenchable hatred of +Italian factions: the pontiff asserted the transference of the Empire +as a fief, and declared that the power of Peter, symbolized by the two +keys, was temporal as well as spiritual: the Emperor appealed to law, +to the indelible rights of Csar; and denounced his foe as the +antichrist of the New Testament, since it was God's second vicar whom +he was resisting. The one scoffed at anathema, upbraided the avarice +of the Church, and treated her soldiery, the friars, with a severity +not seldom ferocious. The other solemnly deposed a rebellious and +heretical prince, offered the imperial crown to Robert of France, to +the heir of Denmark, to Haco the Norse king; succeeded at last in +raising up rivals in Henry of Thuringia and William of Holland. Yet +throughout it is less the Teutonic Emperor who is attacked than the +Sicilian king, the unbeliever and friend of Mohammedans, the +hereditary enemy of the Church, the assailant of Lombard independence, +whose success must leave the Papacy defenceless. And as it was from +the Sicilian kingdom that the strife chiefly arose, so was the +possession of the Sicilian kingdom a source rather of weakness than of +strength, for it distracted Frederick's forces and put him in the +false position of a liegeman resisting his lawful suzerain. Truly, as +the Greek proverb says, the gifts of foes are no gifts, and bring no +profit with them. The Norman kings were more terrible in their death +than in their life: they had sometimes baffled the Teutonic Emperor; +their heritage destroyed him. + +[Sidenote: Conrad IV, 1250-1254.] + +With Frederick fell the Empire. From the ruin that overwhelmed the +greatest of its houses it emerged, living indeed, and destined to a +long life, but so shattered, crippled, and degraded, that it could +never more be to Europe and to Germany what it once had been. In the +last act of the tragedy were joined the enemy who had now blighted its +strength and the rival who was destined to insult its weakness and at +last blot out its name. The murder of Frederick's grandson Conradin--a +hero whose youth and whose chivalry might have moved the pity of any +other foe--was approved, if not suggested, by Pope Clement; it was +done by the minions of Charles of France. + +[Sidenote: Italy lost to the Empire.] + +The Lombard league had successfully resisted Frederick's armies and +the more dangerous Ghibeline nobles: their strong walls and swarming +population made defeats in the open field hardly felt; and now that +South Italy too had passed away from a German line--first to an +Angevin, afterwards to an Aragonese dynasty--it was plain that the +peninsula was irretrievably lost to the Emperors. Why, however, should +they not still be strong beyond the Alps? was their position worse +than that of England when Normandy and Aquitaine no longer obeyed a +Plantagenet? The force that had enabled them to rule so widely would +be all the greater in a narrower sphere. + +[Sidenote: Decline of imperial power in Germany.] + +[Sidenote: The Great Interregnum] + +[Sidenote: Double election, of Richard of England and Alfonso of +Castile.] + +[Sidenote: State of Germany during the Interregnum.] + +[Sidenote: Rudolf of Hapsburg, 1272-1292.] + +So indeed it might once have been, but now it was too late. The German +kingdom broke down beneath the weight of the Roman Empire. To be +universal sovereign Germany had sacrificed her own political +existence. The necessity which their projects in Italy and disputes +with the Pope laid the Emperors under of purchasing by concessions the +support of their own princes, the ease with which in their absence the +magnates could usurp, the difficulty which the monarch returning found +in resuming the privileges of his crown, the temptation to revolt and +set up pretenders to the throne which the Holy See held out, these +were the causes whose steady action laid the foundation of that +territorial independence which rose into a stable fabric at the era of +the Great Interregnum[253]. Frederick II had by two Pragmatic +Sanctions, A.D. 1220 and 1232, granted, or rather confirmed, rights +already customary, such as to give the bishops and nobles legal +sovereignty in their own towns and territories, except when the +Emperor should be present; and thus his direct jurisdiction became +restricted to his narrowed domain, and to the cities immediately +dependent on the crown. With so much less to do, an Emperor became +altogether a less necessary personage; and hence the seven magnates of +the realm, now by law or custom sole electors, were in no haste to +fill up the place of Conrad IV, whom the supporters of his father +Frederick had acknowledged. William of Holland was in the field, but +rejected by the Swabian party: on his death a new election was called +for, and at last set on foot. The archbishop of Cologne advised his +brethren to choose some one rich enough to support the dignity, not +strong enough to be feared by the electors: both requisites met in the +Plantagenet Richard, earl of Cornwall, brother of the English Henry +III. He received three, eventually four votes, came to Germany, and +was crowned at Aachen. But three of the electors, finding that his +bribe to them was lower than to the others, seceded in disgust, and +chose Alfonso X of Castile[254], who, shrewder than his competitor, +continued to watch the stars at Toledo, enjoying the splendours of his +title while troubling himself about it no further than to issue now +and then a proclamation. Meantime the condition of Germany was +frightful. The new Didius Julianus, the chosen of princes baser than +the prtorians whom they copied, had neither the character nor the +outward power and resources to make himself respected. Every floodgate +of anarchy was opened: prelates and barons extended their domains by +war: robber-knights infested the highways and the rivers: the misery +of the weak, the tyranny and violence of the strong, were such as had +not been seen for centuries. Things were even worse than under the +Saxon and Franconian Emperors; for the petty nobles who had then been +in some measure controlled by their dukes were now, after the +extinction of the great houses, left without any feudal superior. Only +in the cities was shelter or peace to be found. Those of the Rhine had +already leagued themselves for mutual defence, and maintained a +struggle in the interests of commerce and order against universal +brigandage. At last, when Richard had been some time dead, it was felt +that such things could not go on for ever: with no public law, and no +courts of justice, an Emperor, the embodiment of legal government, was +the only resource. The Pope himself, having now sufficiently improved +the weakness of his enemy, found the disorganization of Germany +beginning to tell upon his revenues, and threatened that if the +electors did not appoint an Emperor, he would. Thus urged, they chose, +in A.D. 1272, Rudolf, count of Hapsburg, founder of the house of +Austria[255]. + +[Sidenote: Change in the position of the Empire.] + +From this point there begins a new era. We have seen the Roman Empire +revived in A.D. 800, by a prince whose vast dominions gave ground to +his claim of universal monarchy; again erected, in A.D. 962, on the +narrower but firmer basis of the German kingdom. We have seen Otto the +Great and his successors during the three following centuries, a line +of monarchs of unrivalled vigour and abilities, strain every nerve to +make good the pretensions of their office against the rebels in Italy +and the ecclesiastical power. Those efforts had now failed signally +and hopelessly. Each successive Emperor had entered the strife with +resources scantier than his predecessors, each had been more +decisively vanquished by the Pope, the cities, and the princes. The +Roman Empire might, and, so far as its practical utility was +concerned, ought now to have been suffered to expire; nor could it +have ended more gloriously than with the last of the Hohenstaufen. +That it did not so expire, but lived on six hundred years more, till +it became a piece of antiquarianism hardly more venerable than +ridiculous--till, as Voltaire said, all that could be said about it +was that it was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire--was owing +partly indeed to the belief, still unshaken, that it was a necessary +part of the world's order, yet chiefly to its connection, which was by +this time indissoluble, with the German kingdom. The Germans had +confounded the two characters of their sovereign so long, and had +grown so fond of the style and pretensions of a dignity whose +possession appeared to exalt them above the other peoples of Europe, +that it was now too late for them to separate the local from the +universal monarch. If a German king was to be maintained at all, he +must be Roman Emperor; and a German king there must still be. Deeply, +nay, mortally wounded as the event proved his power to have been by +the disasters of the Empire to which it had been linked, the time was +by no means come for its extinction. In the unsettled state of +society, and the conflict of innumerable petty potentates, no force +save feudalism was able to hold society together; and its efficacy for +that purpose depended, as the anarchy of the recent interregnum +shewed, upon the presence of the recognized feudal head. + +[Sidenote: Decline of the regal power in Germany as compared with +France and England.] + +That head, however, was no longer what he had been. The relative +position of Germany and France was now exactly the reverse of that +which they had occupied two centuries earlier. Rudolf was as +conspicuously a weaker sovereign than Philip III of France, as the +Franconian Emperor Henry III had been stronger than the Capetian +Philip I. In every other state of Europe the tendency of events had +been to centralize the administration and increase the power of the +monarch, even in England not to diminish it: in Germany alone had +political union become weaker, and the independence of the princes +more confirmed. The causes of this change are not far to seek. They +all resolve themselves into this one, that the German king attempted +too much at once. The rulers of France, where manners were less rude +than in the other Transalpine lands, and where the Third Estate rose +into power more quickly, had reduced one by one the great feudataries +by whom the first Capetians had been scarcely recognized. The English +kings had annexed Wales, Cumbria, and part of Ireland, had obtained a +prerogative great if not uncontrolled, and exercised no doubtful sway +through every corner of their country. Both had won their successes by +the concentration on that single object of their whole personal +activity, and by the skilful use of every device whereby their feudal +rights, personal, judicial, and legislative, could be applied to +fetter the vassal. Meantime the German monarch, whose utmost efforts +it would have needed to tame his fierce barons and maintain order +through wide territories occupied by races unlike in dialect and +customs, had been struggling with the Lombard cities and the Normans +of South Italy, and had been for full two centuries the object of the +unrelenting enmity of the Roman pontiff. And in this latter contest, +by which more than by any other the fate of the Empire was decided, he +fought under disadvantages far greater than his brethren in England +and France. William the Conqueror had defied Hildebrand, William Rufus +had resisted Anselm; but the Emperors Henry the Fourth and Barbarossa +had to cope with prelates who were Hildebrand and Anselm in one; the +spiritual heads of Christendom as well as the primates of their +special realm, the Empire. And thus, while the ecclesiastics of +Germany were a body more formidable from their possessions than those +of any other European country, and enjoying far larger privileges, the +Emperor could not, or could with far less effect, win them over by +invoking against the Pope that national feeling which made the cry of +Gallican liberties so welcome even to the clergy of France. + +[Sidenote: Relations of the Papacy and the Empire.] + +After repeated defeats, each more crushing than the last, the imperial +power, so far from being able to look down on the papal, could not +even maintain itself on an equal footing. Against no pontiff since +Gregory VII had the monarch's right to name or confirm a pope, +undisputed in the days of the Ottos and of Henry III, been made good. +It was the turn of the Emperor to repel a similar claim of the Holy +See to the function of reviewing his own election, examining into his +merits, and rejecting him if unsound, that is to say, impatient of +priestly tyranny. A letter of Innocent III, who was the first to make +this demand in terms, was inserted by Gregory IX in his digest of the +Canon Law, the inexhaustible armoury of the churchman, and continued +to be quoted thence by every canonist till the end of the sixteenth +century[256]. It was not difficult to find grounds on which to base +such a doctrine. Gregory VII deduced it with characteristic boldness +from the power of the keys, and the superiority over all other +dignities which must needs appertain to the Pope as arbiter of eternal +weal or woe. Others took their stand on the analogy of clerical +ordination, and urged that since the Pope in consecrating the Emperor +gave him a title to the obedience of all Christian men, he must have +himself the right of approving or rejecting the candidate according to +his merits. Others again, appealing to the Old Testament, shewed how +Samuel discarded Saul and anointed David in his room, and argued that +the Pope now must have powers at least equal to those of the Hebrew +prophets. But the ascendancy of the doctrine dates from the time of +Pope Innocent III, whose ingenuity discovered for it an historical +basis. It was by the favour of the Pope, he declared, that the Empire +was taken away from the Greeks and given to the Germans in the person +of Charles[257], and the authority which Leo then exercised as God's +representative must abide thenceforth and for ever in his successors, +who can therefore at any time recall the gift, and bestow it on a +person or a nation more worthy than its present holders. This is the +famous theory of the Translation of the Empire, which plays so large a +part in controversy down till the seventeenth century[258], a theory +with plausibility enough to make it generally successful, yet one +which to an impartial eye appears far removed from the truth of the +facts[259]. Leo III did not suppose, any more than did Charles +himself, that it was by his sole pontifical authority that the crown +was given to the Frank; nor do we find such a notion put forward by +any of his successors down to the twelfth century. Gregory VII in +particular, in a remarkable letter dilating on his prerogative, +appeals to the substitution by papal interference of Pipin for the +last Merovingian king, and even goes back to cite the case of +Theodosius humbling himself before St. Ambrose, but says never a word +about this 'translatio,' excellently as it would have served his +purpose. + +Sound or unsound, however, these arguments did their work, for they +were urged skilfully and boldly, and none denied that it was by the +Pope alone that the crown could be lawfully imposed[260]. In some +instances the rights claimed were actually made good. Thus Innocent +III withstood Philip and overthrew Otto IV; thus another haughty +priest commanded the electors to choose the Landgrave of Thuringia +(A.D. 1246), and was by some of them obeyed; thus Gregory X compelled +the recognition of Rudolf. The further pretensions of the Popes to the +vicariate of the Empire during interregna the Germans never +admitted[261]. Still their place was now generally felt to be higher +than that of the monarch, and their control over the three spiritual +electors and the whole body of the clergy was far more effective than +his. A spark of national feeling was at length kindled by the +exactions and shameless subservience to France of the papal court at +Avignon[262]; and the infant democracy of industry and intelligence +represented by the cities and by the English Franciscan Occam, +supported Lewis IV in his conflict with John XXII, till even the +princes who had risen by the help of the Pope were obliged to oppose +him. The same sentiment dictated the reforms of Constance, but the +imperial power which might have floated onwards and higher on the +turning tide of popular opinion lacked men equal to the occasion: the +Hapsburg Frederick the Third, timid and superstitious, abased himself +before the Romish court, and his house has generally adhered to the +alliance then struck. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[251] I quote from the Liber Augustalis printed among Petrarch's works +the following curious description of Frederick: 'Fuit armorum +strenuus, linguarum peritus, rigorosus, luxuriosus, epicurus, nihil +curans vel credens nisi temporale: fuit malleus Romanae ecclesiae.' + +As Otto III had been called 'mirabilia mundi,' so Frederick II is +often spoken of in his own time as 'stupor mundi Fridericus.' + +[252] 'Qu entro lo secondo Federico.'--_Inferno_, canto x. + +[253] The interregnum is by some reckoned as the two years before +Richard's election; by others, as the whole period from the death of +Frederick II or that of his son Conrad IV till Rudolf's accession in +1273. + +[254] Surnamed, from his scientific tastes, 'the Wise.' + +[255] Hapsburg is a castle in the Aargau on the banks of the Aar, and +near the line of railway from Olten to Zrich, from a point on which a +glimpse of it may be had. 'Within the ancient walls of Vindonissa,' +says Gibbon, 'the castle of Hapsburg, the abbey of Knigsfeld, and the +town of Bruck have successively arisen. The philosophic traveller may +compare the monuments of Roman conquests, of feudal or Austrian +tyranny, of monkish superstition, and of industrious freedom. If he be +truly a philosopher, he will applaud the merit and happiness of his +own time.' + +[256] _Corpus Iuris Canonici_, Decr. Greg. i. 6, cap. 34, +_Venerabilem_: 'Ius et authoritas examinandi personam electam in regem +et promovendam ad imperium, ad nos spectat, qui eum inungimus, +consecramus, et coronamus.' + +[257] 'Illis principibus,' writes Innocent, 'ius et potestatem +eligendi regem [Romanorum] in imperatorem postmodum promovendum +recognoscimus, ad quos de iure ac antiqua consuetudine noscitur +pertinere, prsertim quum ad eos ius et potestas huiusmodi ab +apostolica sede pervenerit, qu Romanum imperium in persona magnifici +Caroli a Grcis transtulit in Germanos.'--Decr. Greg. i. 6, cap. 34, +_Venerabilem_. + +[258] Its influence, however, as Dllinger (_Das Kaiserthum Karls des +Grossen und seiner Nachfolger_) remarks, first became great when this +letter, some forty or fifty years after Innocent wrote it, was +inserted in the digest of the canon law. + +[259] Vid. supra, pp. 52-58. + +[260] Upon this so-called 'Translation of the Empire,' many books +remain to us: many more have probably perished. A good although far +from impartial summary of the controversy may be found in Vagedes, _De +Ludibriis Aul Roman in transferendo Imperio Romano_. + +[261] 'Vacante imperio Romano, cum in illo ad scularem iudicem +nequeat haberi recursus, ad summum pontificem, cui in persona B. Petri +terreni simul et coelestis imperii iura Deus ipse commisit, imperii +prdicti iurisdictio regimen et dispositio devolvitur.'--Bull _Si +fratrum_ (of John XXI, in A.D. 1316), in _Bullar. Rom._ So again: +'Attendentes quod Imperii Romani regimen cura et administratio tempore +quo illud vacare contingit ad nos pertinet, sicut dignoscitur +pertinere.' So Boniface VIII, refusing to recognize Albert I, because +he was ugly and one-eyed ('est homo monoculus et vultu sordido, non +potest esse Imperator'), and had taken a wife from the serpent brood +of Frederick II ('de sanguine viperali Friderici'), declared himself +Vicar of the Empire, and assumed the crown and sword of Constantine. + +[262] Avignon was not yet in the territory of France: it lay within +the bounds of the kingdom of Arles. But the French power was nearer +than that of the Emperor; and pontiffs many of them French by +extraction sympathized, as was natural, with princes of their own +race. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE GERMANIC CONSTITUTION: THE SEVEN ELECTORS. + + +[Sidenote: Territorial Sovereignty of the Princes.] + +[Sidenote: Adolf, 1292-1298.] + +[Sidenote: Albert I, 1298-1308.] + +[Sidenote: Henry VII, 1308-1314.] + +[Sidenote: Lewis IV, 1314-1347.] + +The reign of Frederick the Second was not less fatal to the domestic +power of the German king than to the European supremacy of the +Emperor. His two Pragmatic Sanctions had conferred rights that made +the feudal aristocracy almost independent, and the long anarchy of the +Interregnum had enabled them not only to use but to extend and fortify +their power. Rudolf of Hapsburg had striven, not wholly in vain, to +coerce their insolence, but the contest between his son Albert and +Adolf of Nassau which followed his death, the short and troubled reign +of Albert himself, the absence of Henry the Seventh in Italy, the +civil war of Lewis of Bavaria and Frederick duke of Austria, rival +claimants of the imperial throne, the difficulties in which Lewis, the +successful competitor, found himself involved with the Pope--all these +circumstances tended more and more to narrow the influence of the +crown and complete the emancipation of the turbulent nobles. They now +became virtually supreme in their own domains, enjoying full +jurisdiction, certain appeals excepted, the right of legislation, +privileges of coining money, of levying tolls and taxes: some were +without even a feudal bond to remind them of their allegiance. The +numbers of the immediate nobility--those who held directly of the +crown--had increased prodigiously by the extinction of the dukedoms of +Saxony, Franconia, and Swabia: along the Rhine the lord of a single +tower was usually a sovereign prince. The petty tyrants whose boast it +was that they owed fealty only to God and the Emperor, shewed +themselves in practice equally regardless of both powers. Pre-eminent +were the three great houses of Austria, Bavaria, and Luxemburg, this +last having acquired Bohemia, A.D. 1309; next came the electors, +already considered collectively more important than the Emperor, and +forming for themselves the first considerable principalities. +Brandenburg and the Rhenish Palatinate are strong independent states +before the end of this period: Bohemia and the three archbishoprics +almost from its beginning. + +[Sidenote: Policy of the Emperors.] + +The chief object of the magnates was to keep the monarch in his +present state of helplessness. Till the expenses which the crown +entailed were found ruinous to its wearer, their practice was to +confer it on some petty prince, such as were Rudolf and Adolf of +Nassau and Gunther of Schwartzburg, seeking when they could to keep it +from settling in one family. They bound the newly-elected to respect +all their present immunities, including those which they had just +extorted as the price of their votes; they checked all his attempts to +recover lost lands or rights: they ventured at last to depose their +anointed head, Wenzel of Bohemia. Thus fettered, the Emperor sought +only to make the most of his short tenure, using his position to +aggrandize his family and raise money by the sale of crown estates and +privileges. His individual action and personal relation to the subject +was replaced by a merely legal and formal one: he represented order +and legitimate ownership, and so far was still necessary to the +political system. But progresses through the country were abandoned: +unlike his predecessors, who had resigned their patrimony when they +assumed the sceptre, he lived mostly in his own states, often without +the Empire's bounds. Frederick III never entered it for twenty-seven +years. + +[Sidenote: Power of the cities.] + +[Sidenote: Financial distress.] + +How thoroughly the national character of the office was gone is shewn +by the repeated attempts to bestow it on foreign potentates, who could +not fill the place of a German king of the good old vigorous type. Not +to speak of Richard and Alfonso, Charles of Valois was proposed +against Henry VII, Edward III of England actually elected against +Charles IV (his parliament forbade him to accept), George Podiebrad, +king of Bohemia, against Frederick III. Sigismund was virtually a +Hungarian king. The Emperor's only hope would have been in the support +of the cities. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries they had +increased wonderfully in population, wealth, and boldness: the +Hanseatic confederacy was the mightiest power of the North, and cowed +the Scandinavian kings: the towns of Swabia and the Rhine formed great +commercial leagues, maintained regular wars against the +counter-associations of the nobility, and seemed at one time, by an +alliance with the Swiss, on the point of turning West Germany into a +federation of free municipalities. Feudalism, however, was still too +strong; the cavalry of the nobles was irresistible in the field, and +the thoughtless Wenzel let slip a golden opportunity of repairing the +losses of two centuries. After all, the Empire was perhaps past +redemption, for one fatal ailment paralyzed all its efforts. The +Empire was poor. The crown lands, which had suffered heavily under +Frederick II, were further usurped during the confusion that followed; +till at last, through the reckless prodigality of sovereigns who +sought only their immediate interest, little was left of the vast and +fertile domains along the Rhine from which the Saxon and Franconian +Emperors had drawn the chief part of their revenue. Regalian rights, +the second fiscal resource, had fared no better--tolls, customs, +mines, rights of coining, of harbouring Jews, and so forth, were +either seized or granted away: even the advowsons of churches had been +sold or mortgaged; and the imperial treasury depended mainly on an +inglorious traffic in honours and exemptions. Things were so bad under +Rudolf that the electors refused to make his son Albert king of the +Romans, declaring that, while Rudolf lived, the public revenue which +with difficulty supported one monarch, could much less maintain two at +the same time[263]. Sigismund told his Diet, 'Nihil esse imperio +spoliatius, nihil egentius, adeo ut qui sibi ex Germani principibus +successurus esset, qui prter patrimonium nihil aliud habuerit, apud +eum non imperium sed potius servitium sit futurum[264].' Patritius, +the secretary of Frederick III, declared that the revenues of the +Empire scarcely covered the expenses of its ambassadors[265]. Poverty +such as these expressions point to, a poverty which became greater +after each election, not only involved the failure of the attempts +which were sometimes made to recover usurped rights[266], but put +every project of reform within or war without at the mercy of a +jealous Diet. The three orders of which that Diet consisted, electors, +princes, and cities, were mutually hostile, and by consequence +selfish; their niggardly grants did no more than keep the Empire from +dying of inanition. + +[Sidenote: Charles IV (A.D. 1347-1378), and his electoral +constitution.] + +The changes thus briefly described were in progress when Charles the +Fourth, king of Bohemia, son of that blind king John of Bohemia who +fell at Cressy, and grandson of the Emperor Henry VII, was chosen to +ascend the throne. His skilful and consistent policy aimed at settling +what he perhaps despaired of reforming, and the famous instrument +which, under the name of the Golden Bull, became the corner-stone of +the Germanic constitution, confessed and legalized the independence of +the electors and the powerlessness of the crown. The most conspicuous +defect of the existing system was the uncertainty of the elections, +followed as they usually were by a civil war. It was this which +Charles set himself to redress. + +[Sidenote: German kingdom not originally elective.] + +The kingdoms founded on the ruins of the Roman Empire by the Teutonic +invaders presented in their original form a rude combination of the +elective with the hereditary principle. One family in each tribe had, +as the offspring of the gods, an indefeasible claim to rule, but from +among the members of such a family the warriors were free to choose +the bravest or the most popular as king[267]. That the German crown +came to be purely elective, while in France, Castile, Aragon, England, +and most other European states, the principle of strict hereditary +succession established itself, was due to the failure of heirs male in +three successive dynasties; to the restless ambition of the nobles, +who, since they were not, like the French, strong enough to disregard +the royal power, did their best to weaken it; to the intrigues of the +churchmen, zealous for a method of appointment prescribed by their own +law and observed in capitular elections; to the wish of the Popes to +gain an opening for their own influence and make effective the veto +which they claimed; above all, to the conception of the imperial +office as one too holy to be, in the same manner as the regal, +transmissible by blood. Had the German, like other feudal kingdoms, +remained merely local, feudal, and national, it would without doubt +have ended by becoming a hereditary monarchy. Transformed as it was by +the Roman Empire, this could not be. The headship of the human race +being, like the Papacy, the common inheritance of all mankind, could +not be confined to any family, nor pass like a private estate by the +ordinary rules of descent. + +[Sidenote: Electoral body in primitive times.] + +The right to choose the war-chief belonged, in the earliest ages, to +the whole body of freemen. Their suffrage, which must have been very +irregularly exercised, became by degrees vested in their leaders, but +the assent of the multitude, although ensured already, was needed to +complete the ceremony. It was thus that Henry the Fowler, and St. +Henry, and Conrad the Franconian duke were chosen[268]. Though even +tradition might have commemorated what extant records place beyond a +doubt, it was commonly believed, till the end of the sixteenth +century, that the elective constitution had been established, and the +privilege of voting confined to seven persons, by a decree of Gregory +V and Otto III, which a famous jurist describes as 'lex a pontifice de +imperatorum comitiis lata, ne ius eligendi penes populum Romanum in +posterum esset[269].' St. Thomas says, 'Election ceased from the times +of Charles the Great to those of Otto III, when Pope Gregory V +established that of the seven princes, which will last as long as the +holy Roman Church, who ranks above all other powers, shall have judged +expedient for Christ's faithful people[270].' Since it tended to exalt +the papal power, this fiction was accepted, no doubt honestly +accepted, and spread abroad by the clergy. And indeed, like so many +other fictions, it had a sort of foundation in fact. The death of Otto +III, the fourth of a line of monarchs among whom son had regularly +succeeded to father, threw back the crown into the gift of the nation, +and was no doubt one of the chief causes why it did not in the end +become hereditary[271]. + +[Sidenote: Encroachments of the great nobles.] + +Thus, under the Saxon and Franconian sovereigns, the throne was +theoretically elective, the assent of the chiefs and their followers +being required, though little more likely to be refused than it was to +an English or a French king; practically hereditary, since both of +these dynasties succeeded in occupying it for four generations, the +father procuring the son's election during his own lifetime. And so it +might well have continued, had the right of choice been retained by +the whole body of the aristocracy. But at the election of Lothar II, +A.D. 1125, we find a certain small number of magnates exercising the +so-called right of prtaxation; that is to say, choosing alone the +future monarch, and then submitting him to the rest for their +approval. A supreme electoral college, once formed, had both the will +and the power to retain the crown in their own gift, and still further +exclude their inferiors from participation. So before the end of the +Hohenstaufen dynasty, two great changes had passed upon the ancient +constitution. It had become a fundamental doctrine that the Germanic +throne, unlike the thrones of other countries, was purely +elective[272]: nor could the influence and the liberal offers of Henry +VI prevail on the princes to abandon what they rightly judged the +keystone of their powers. And at the same time the right of +prtaxation had ripened into an exclusive privilege of election, +vested in a small body[273]: the assent of the rest of the nobility +being at first assumed, finally altogether dispensed with. On the +double choice of Richard and Alfonso, A.D. 1264, the only question was +as to the majority of votes in the electoral college: neither then nor +afterwards was there a word of the rights of the other princes, counts +and barons, important as their voices had been two centuries earlier. + +[Sidenote: The Seven Electors.] + +[Sidenote: Golden Bull of Charles IV, A.D. 1356.] + +The origin of that college is a matter somewhat intricate and obscure. +It is mentioned A.D. 1152, and in somewhat clearer terms in 1198, as a +distinct body; but without anything to shew who composed it. First in +A.D. 1265 does a letter of Pope Urban IV say that by immemorial custom +the right of choosing the Roman king belonged to seven persons, the +seven who had just divided their votes on Richard of Cornwall and +Alfonso of Castile. Of these seven, three, the archbishops of Mentz, +Treves, and Cologne, pastors of the richest Transalpine sees, +represented the German church: the other four ought, according to the +ancient constitution, to have been the dukes of the four nations, +Franks, Swabians, Saxons, Bavarians, to whom had also belonged the +four great offices of the imperial household. But of these dukedoms +the two first named were now extinct, and their place and power in the +state, as well as the household offices they had held, had descended +upon two principalities of more recent origin, those, namely, of the +Palatinate of the Rhine and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. The Saxon +duke, though with greatly narrowed dominions, retained his vote and +office of arch-marshal, and the claim of his Bavarian compeer would +have been equally indisputable had it not so happened that both he and +the Palsgrave of the Rhine were members of the great house of +Wittelsbach. That one family should hold two votes out of seven seemed +so dangerous to the state that it was made a ground of objection to +the Bavarian duke, and gave an opening to the pretensions of the king +of Bohemia, who, though not properly a Teutonic prince[274], might on +the score of rank and power assert himself the equal of any one of the +electors. The dispute between these rival claimants, as well as all +the rules and requisites of the election, were settled by Charles the +Fourth in the Golden Bull, thenceforward a fundamental law of the +Empire. He decided in favour of Bohemia, of which he was then king; +fixed Frankfort as the place of election; named the archbishop of +Mentz convener of the electoral college; gave to Bohemia the first, to +the Count Palatine the second place among the secular electors. A +majority of votes was in all cases to be decisive. As to each +electorate there was attached a great office, it was supposed that +this was the title by which the vote was possessed; though it was in +truth rather an effect than a cause. The three prelates were +archchancellors of Germany, Gaul and Burgundy, and Italy respectively: +Bohemia cupbearer, the Palsgrave seneschal, Saxony marshal, and +Brandenburg chamberlain[275]. + +[Sidenote: Eighth Electorate.] + +[Sidenote: Ninth Electorate.] + +These arrangements, under which disputed elections became far less +frequent, remained undisturbed till A.D. 1618, when on the breaking +out of the Thirty Years' War the Emperor Ferdinand II by an +unwarranted stretch of prerogative deprived the Palsgrave Frederick +(king of Bohemia, and husband of Elizabeth, the daughter of James I of +England) of his electoral vote, and transferred it to his own +partisan, Maximilian of Bavaria. At the peace of Westphalia the +Palsgrave was reinstated as an eighth elector, Bavaria retaining her +place. The sacred number having been once broken through, less scruple +was felt in making further changes. In A.D. 1692, the Emperor Leopold +I conferred a ninth electorate on the house of Brunswick Lneburg, +which was then in possession of the duchy of Hanover, and succeeded to +the throne of Great Britain in 1714; and in A.D. 1708, the assent of +the Diet thereto was obtained. It was in this way that English kings +came to vote at the election of a Roman Emperor. + +It is not a little curious that the only potentate who still continues +to entitle himself Elector[276] should be one who never did (and of +course never can now) join in electing an Emperor, having been under +the arrangements of the old Empire a simple Landgrave. In A.D. 1803, +Napoleon, among other sweeping changes in the Germanic constitution, +procured the extinction of the electorates of Cologne and Treves, +annexing their territories to France, and gave the title of Elector, +as the highest after that of king, to the duke of Wrtemburg, the +Margrave of Baden, the Landgrave of Hessen-Cassel, and the archbishop +of Salzburg. Three years afterwards the Empire itself ended, and the +title became meaningless. + +As the Germanic Empire is the most conspicuous example of a monarchy +not hereditary that the world has ever seen, it may not be amiss to +consider for a moment what light its history throws upon the character +of elective monarchy in general, a contrivance which has always had, +and will probably always continue to have, seductions for a certain +class of political theorists. + +[Sidenote: Objects of an elective monarchy: how far attained in +Germany.] + +[Sidenote: Choice of the fittest.] + +First of all then it deserves to be noticed how difficult, one might +almost say impossible, it was found to maintain in practice the +elective principle. In point of law, the imperial throne was from the +tenth century to the nineteenth absolutely open to any orthodox +Christian candidate. But as a matter of fact, the competition was +confined to a few very powerful families, and there was always a +strong tendency for the crown to become hereditary in some one of +these. Thus the Franconian Emperors held it from A.D. 1024 till 1125, +the Hohenstaufen, themselves the heirs of the Franconians, for a +century or more; the house of Luxemburg (kings of Bohemia) enjoyed it +through three successive reigns, and when in the fifteenth century it +fell into the tenacious grasp of the Hapsburgs, they managed to retain +it thenceforth (with but one trifling interruption) till it vanished +out of nature altogether. Therefore the chief benefit which the scheme +of elective sovereignty seems to promise, that of putting the fittest +man in the highest place, was but seldom attained, and attained even +then rather by good fortune than design. + +[Sidenote: Restraint of the sovereign.] + +No such objection can be brought against the second ground on which an +elective system has sometimes been advocated, its operation in +moderating the power of the crown, for this was attained in the +fullest and most ruinous measure. We are reminded of the man in the +fable, who opened a sluice to water his garden, and saw his house +swept away by the furious torrent. The power of the crown was not +moderated but destroyed. Each successful candidate was forced to +purchase his title by the sacrifice of rights which had belonged to +his predecessors, and must repeat the same shameful policy later in +his reign to procure the election of his son. Feeling at the same time +that his family could not make sure of keeping the throne, he treated +it as a life-tenant is apt to treat his estate, seeking only to make +out of it the largest present profit. And the electors, aware of the +strength of their position, presumed upon it and abused it to assert +an independence such as the nobles of other countries could never have +aspired to. + +[Sidenote: Recognition of the popular will.] + +[Sidenote: Conception of the electoral function.] + +Modern political speculation supposes the method of appointing a ruler +by the votes of his subjects, as opposed to the system of hereditary +succession, to be an assertion by the people of their own will as the +ultimate fountain of authority, an acknowledgment by the prince that +he is no more than their minister and deputy. To the theory of the +Holy Empire nothing could be more repugnant. This will best appear +when the aspect of the system of election at different epochs in its +history is compared with the corresponding changes in the composition +of the electoral body which have been described as in progress from +the ninth to the fourteenth century. In very early times, the tribe +chose a war chief, who was, even if he belonged to the most noble +family, no more than the first among his peers, with a power +circumscribed by the will of his subjects. Several ages later, in the +tenth and eleventh centuries, the right of choice had passed into the +hands of the magnates, and the people were only asked to assent. In +the same measure had the relation of prince and subject taken a new +aspect. We must not expect to find, in such rude times, any very clear +apprehension of the technical quality of the process, and the throne +had indeed become for a season so nearly hereditary that the election +was often a mere matter of form. But it seems to have been regarded, +not as a delegation of authority by the nobles and people, with a +power of resumption implied, but rather as their subjection of +themselves to the monarch who enjoys, as of his own right, a wide and +ill-defined prerogative. In yet later times, when, as has been shewn +above, the assembly of the chieftains and the applauding shout of the +host had been superseded by the secret conclave of the seven electoral +princes, the strict legal view of election became fully established, +and no one was supposed to have any title to the crown except what a +majority of votes might confer upon him. Meantime, however, the +conception of the imperial office itself had been thoroughly +penetrated by religious ideas, and the fact that the sovereign did +not, like other princes, reign by hereditary right, but by the choice +of certain persons, was supposed to be an enhancement and consecration +of his dignity. The electors, to draw what may seem a subtle, but is +nevertheless a very real distinction, selected, but did not create. +They only named the person who was to receive what it was not theirs +to give. God, say the medival writers, not deigning to interfere +visibly in the affairs of this world, has willed that these seven +princes of Germany should discharge the function which once belonged +to the senate and people of Rome, that of choosing his earthly viceroy +in matters temporal. But it is immediately from Himself that the +authority of this viceroy comes, and men can have no relation towards +him except that of obedience. It was in this period, therefore, when +the Emperor was in practice the mere nominee of the electors, that the +belief in this divine right stood highest, to the complete exclusion +of the mutual responsibility of feudalism, and still more of any +notion of a devolution of authority from the sovereign people. + +[Sidenote: General results of Charles IV's policy.] + +Peace and order appeared to be promoted by the institutions of Charles +IV, which removed one fruitful cause of civil war. But these seven +electoral princes acquired, with their extended privileges, a marked +and dangerous predominance in Germany. They were to enjoy full +regalian rights in their territories[277]; causes were not to be +evoked from their courts, save when justice should have been denied: +their consent was necessary to all public acts of consequence. Their +persons were held to be sacred, and the seven mystic luminaries of the +Holy Empire, typified by the seven lamps of the Apocalypse, soon +gained much of the Emperor's hold on popular reverence, as well as +that actual power which he lacked. To Charles, who viewed the German +Empire much as Rudolf had viewed the Roman, this result came not +unforeseen. He saw in his office a means of serving personal ends, and +to them, while appearing to exalt by elaborate ceremonies its ideal +dignity, he deliberately sacrificed what real strength was left. The +object which he sought steadily through life was the prosperity of the +Bohemian kingdom, and the advancement of his own house. In the Golden +Bull, whose seal bears the legend,-- + + 'Roma caput mundi regit orbis frena rotundi[278],' + +there is not a word of Rome or of Italy. To Germany he was indirectly +a benefactor, by the foundation of the University of Prague, the +mother of all her schools: otherwise her bane. He legalized anarchy, +and called it a constitution. The sums expended in obtaining the +ratification of the Golden Bull, in procuring the election of his son +Wenzel, in aggrandizing Bohemia at the expense of Germany, had been +amassed by keeping a market in which honours and exemptions, with what +lands the crown retained, were put up openly to be bid for. In Italy +the Ghibelines saw, with shame and rage, their chief hasten to Rome +with a scanty retinue, and return from it as swiftly, at the mandate +of an Avignonese Pope, halting on his route only to traffic away the +last rights of his Empire. The Guelf might cease to hate a power he +could now despise. + +Thus, alike at home and abroad, the German king had become practically +powerless by the loss of his feudal privileges, and saw the authority +that had once been his parcelled out among a crowd of greedy and +tyrannical nobles. Meantime how had it fared with the rights which he +claimed by virtue of the imperial crown? + +FOOTNOTES: + +[263] Quoted by Moser, _Rmische Kayser_, from _Chron. Hirsang._: +'Regni vires temporum iniuria nimium contrit vix uni alendo regi +sufficerent, tantum abesse ut sumptus in duos reges ferre queant.' + +[264] At Rupert's death, under whom the mischief had increased +greatly, there were, we are told, many bishops better off than the +Emperor. + +[265] 'Proventus Imperii ita minimi sunt ut legationibus vix +suppetant.'--Quoted by Moser. + +[266] Albert I tried in vain to wrest the tolls of the Rhine from the +grasp of the Rhenish electors. + +[267] The thelings of the line of Cerdic, among the West Saxons, and +the Bavarian Agilolfings, may thus be compared with the Achmenids of +Persia or the heroic houses of early Greece. + +[268] Wippo, describing the election of Conrad the Franconian, says, +'Inter confinia Mogunti et Wormati convenerunt cuncti primates et, +ut ita dicam, vires et viscera regni.' So Bruno says that Henry IV was +elected by the '_populus_.' So Gunther Ligurinus of Frederick I's +election:-- + + 'Acturi sacr de successione coron + Conveniunt proceres, totius viscera regni.' + +So Amandus, secretary of Frederick Barbarossa, in describing his +election, says, 'Multi illustres heroes ex Lombardia, Tuscia, Ianuensi +et aliis Itali dominiis, ac maior et potior pars principum ex +Transalpino regno.'--Quoted by Mur. _Antiq._ Diss. iii. And see many +other authorities to the same effect, collected by Pfeffinger, +_Vitriarius illustratus_. + +[269] Alciatus, _De Formula Romani Imperii_. He adds that the Gauls +and Italians were incensed at the preference shewn to Germany. So too +Radulfus de Columna. + +[270] Quoted by Gewoldus, _De Septemviratu Sacri Imperii Romani_, +himself a violent advocate of Gregory's decree, though living as late +as the days of Ferdinand II. As late as A.D. 1648 we find Pope +Innocent X maintaining that the sacred number _Seven_ of the electors +was 'apostolica auctoritate olim prfinitus.' Bull _Zelo domus_ in +_Bullar. Rom._ + +[271] Sometimes we hear of a decree made by Pope Sergius IV and his +cardinals (of course equally fabulous with Otto's). So John Villani, +iv. 2. + +[272] In 1152 we read, 'Id iuris Romani Imperii apex habere dicitur ut +non per sanguinis propaginem sed per principum electionem reges +creentur.'--Otto Fris. Gulielmus Brito, writing not much later, says +(quoted by Freher),-- + + 'Est etenim talis dynastia Theutonicorum + Ut nullus regnet super illos, ni prius illum + Eligat unanimis cleri populique voluntas.' + +[273] Innocent III, during the contest between Philip and Otto IV, +speaks of 'principes ad quos principaliter spectat regis Romani +electio.' + +[274] 'Rex Bohemi non eligit, quia non est Teutonicus,' says a writer +early in the fourteenth century. + +[275] The names and offices of the seven are concisely given in these +lines, which appear in the treatise of Marsilius of Padua, _De Imperio +Romano_:-- + + 'Moguntinensis, Trevirensis, Coloniensis, + Quilibet Imperii sit Cancellarius horum; + Et Palatinus dapifer, Dux portitor ensis, + Marchio prpositus camer, pincerna Bohemus, + Hi statuunt dominum cunctis per scula summum.' + +It is worth while to place beside this the first stanza of Schiller's +ballad, _Der Graf von Hapsburg_, in which the coronation feast of +Rudolf is described:-- + + 'Zu Aachen in seiner Kaiserpracht + Im alterthmlichen Saale, + Sass Knig Rudolphs heilige Macht + Beim festlichen Krnungsmahle. + Die Speisen trug der Pfalzgraf des Rheins, + Es schenkte der Bhme des perlenden Weins, + Und alle die Whler, die Sieben, + Wie der Sterne Chor um die Sonne sich stellt, + Umstanden geschftig den Herrscher der Welt, + Die Wrde des Amtes zu ben.' + +It is a poetical licence, however (as Schiller himself admits), to +bring the Bohemian there, for King Ottocar was far away at home, +mortified at his own rejection, and already meditating war. + +[276] The electoral prince (Kurfrst) of Hessen-Cassel. His retention +of the title has this advantage, that it enables the Germans readily +to distinguish electoral Hesse (Kur-Hessen) from the Grand Duchy +(Hessen-Darmstadt) and the landgraviate (Hessen Homburg). [Since the +above was written (in 1865) this last relic of the electoral system +has passed away, the Elector of Hessen having been dethroned in 1866, +and his territories (to the great satisfaction of the inhabitants, +whom he had worried by a long course of petty tyrannies) annexed to +the Prussian kingdom, along with Hanover, Nassau, and the free city of +Frankfort. Count Bismarck, as he raises his master nearer and nearer +to the position of a Germanic Emperor, destroys one by one the +historical memorials of that elder Empire which people had learned to +associate with the Austrian house.] + +[277] Goethe, whose imagination was wonderfully attracted by the +splendours of the old Empire, has given in the second part of _Faust_ +a sort of fancy sketch of the origin of the great offices and the +territorial independence of the German princes. Two lines express +concisely the fiscal rights granted by the Emperor to the electors:-- + + 'Dann Steuer Zins und Beed, Lehn und Geleit und Zoll, + Berg-, Salz- und Mnz-regal euch angehren soll.' + +[278] This line is said to be as old as the time of Otto III. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE EMPIRE AS AN INTERNATIONAL POWER. + + +[Sidenote: Theory of the Roman Empire in the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries.] + +That the Roman Empire survived the seemingly mortal wound it had +received at the era of the Great Interregnum, and continued to put +forth pretensions which no one was likely to make good where the +Hohenstaufen had failed, has been attributed to its identification +with the German kingdom, in which some life was still left. But this +was far from being the only cause which saved it from extinction. It +had not ceased to be upheld in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries +by the same singular theory which had in the ninth and tenth been +strong enough to re-establish it in the West. The character of that +theory was indeed somewhat changed, for if not positively less +religious, it was less exclusively so. In the days of Charles and +Otto, the Empire, in so far as it was anything more than a tradition +from times gone by, rested solely upon the belief that with the +visible Church there must be coextensive a single Christian state +under one head and governor. But now that the Emperor's headship had +been repudiated by the Pope, and his interference in matters of +religion denounced as a repetition of the sin of Uzziah; now that the +memory of mutual injuries had kindled an unquenchable hatred between +the champions of the ecclesiastical and those of the civil power, it +was natural that the latter, while they urged, fervently as ever, the +divine sanction given to the imperial office, should at the same time +be led to seek some further basis whereon to establish its claims. +What that basis was, and how they were guided to it, will best appear +when a word or two has been said on the nature of the change that had +passed on Europe in the course of the three preceding centuries, and +the progress of the human mind during the same period. + +[Sidenote: Revival of learning and literature, A.D. 1100-1400.] + +Such has been the accumulated wealth of literature, and so rapid the +advances of science among us since the close of the Middle Ages, that +it is not now possible by any effort fully to enter into the feelings +with which the relics of antiquity were regarded by those who saw in +them their only possession. It is indeed true that modern art and +literature and philosophy have been produced by the working of new +minds upon old materials: that in thought, as in nature, we see no new +creation. But with us the old has been transformed and overlaid by the +new till its origin is forgotten: to them ancient books were the only +standard of taste, the only vehicle of truth, the only stimulus to +reflection. Hence it was that the most learned man was in those days +esteemed the greatest: hence the creative energy of an age was exactly +proportioned to its knowledge of and its reverence for the written +monuments of those that had gone before. For until they can look +forward, men must look back: till they should have reached the level +of the old civilization, the nations of medival Europe must continue +to live upon its memories. Over them, as over us, the common dream of +all mankind had power; but to them, as to the ancient world, that +golden age which seems now to glimmer on the horizon of the future was +shrouded in the clouds of the past. It is to the fifteenth and +sixteenth centuries that we are accustomed to assign that new birth of +the human spirit--if it ought not rather to be called a renewal of its +strength and quickening of its sluggish life--with which the modern +time begins. And the date is well chosen, for it was then first that +the transcendently powerful influence of Greek literature began to +work upon the world. But it must not be forgotten that for a long time +previous there had been in progress a great revival of learning, and +still more of zeal for learning, which being caused by and directed +towards the literature and institutions of Rome, might fitly be called +the Roman Renaissance. The twelfth century saw this revival begin with +that passionate study of the legislation of Justinian, whose influence +on the doctrines of imperial prerogative has been noticed already. The +thirteenth witnessed the rapid spread of the scholastic philosophy, a +body of systems most alien, both in subject and manner, to anything +that had arisen among the ancients, yet one to whose development Greek +metaphysics and the theology of the Latin fathers had largely +contributed, and the spirit of whose reasonings was far more free than +the presumed orthodoxy of its conclusions suffered to appear. In the +fourteenth century there arose in Italy the first great masters of +painting and song; and the literature of the new languages, springing +into the fulness of life in the Divina Commedia, adorned not long +after by the names of Petrarch and Chaucer, assumed at once its place +as a great and ever-growing power in the affairs of men. + +[Sidenote: Growing freedom of spirit.] + +[Sidenote: Influence of thought upon the arrangements of society.] + +Now, along with the literary revival, partly caused by, partly causing +it, there had been also a wonderful stirring and uprising in the mind +of Europe. The yoke of church authority still pressed heavily on the +souls of men; yet some had been found to shake it off, and many more +murmured in secret. The tendency was one which shewed itself in +various and sometimes apparently opposite directions. The revolt of +the Albigenses, the spread of the Cathari and other so-called +heretics, the excitement created by the writings of Wickliffe and +Huss, witnessed to the fearlessness wherewith it could assail the +dominant theology. It was present, however skilfully disguised, among +those scholastic doctors who busied themselves with proving by natural +reason the dogmas of the Church: for the power which can forge fetters +can also break them. It took a form more dangerous because of a more +direct application to facts, in the attacks, so often repeated from +Arnold of Brescia downwards, upon the wealth and corruptions of the +clergy, and above all of the papal court. For the agitation was not +merely speculative. There was beginning to be a direct and rational +interest in life, a power of applying thought to practical ends, which +had not been seen before. Man's life among his fellows was no longer a +mere wild beast struggle; man's soul no more, as it had been, the +victim of ungoverned passion, whether it was awed by supernatural +terrors or captivated by examples of surpassing holiness. Manners were +still rude, and governments unsettled; but society was learning to +organize itself upon fixed principles; to recognize, however faintly, +the value of order, industry, equality; to adapt means to ends, and +conceive of the common good as the proper end of its own existence. In +a word, Politics had begun to exist, and with them there had appeared +the first of a class of persons whom friends and enemies may both, +though with different meanings, call ideal politicians; men who, +however various have been the doctrines they have held, however +impracticable many of the plans they have advanced, have been +nevertheless alike in their devotion to the highest interests of +humanity, and have frequently been derided as theorists in their own +age to be honoured as the prophets and teachers of the next. + +[Sidenote: Separation of the peoples of Europe into hostile kingdoms: +consequent need of an international power.] + +Now it was towards the Roman Empire that the hopes and sympathies of +these political speculators as well as of the jurists and poets of the +fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were constantly directed. The cause +may be gathered from the circumstances of the time. The most +remarkable event in the history of the last three hundred years had +been the formation of nationalities, each distinguished by a peculiar +language and character, and by steadily increasing differences of +habits and institutions. And as upon this national basis there had +been in most cases established strong monarchies, Europe was broken up +into disconnected bodies, and the cherished scheme of a united +Christian state appeared less likely than ever to be realized. Nor was +this all. Sometimes through race-hatred, more often by the jealousy +and ambition of their sovereigns, these countries were constantly +involved in war with one another, violating on a larger scale and with +more destructive results than in time past the peace of the religious +community; while each of them was at the same time torn within by +frequent insurrections, and desolated by long and bloody civil wars. +The new nationalities were too fully formed to allow the hope that by +their extinction a remedy might be applied to these evils. They had +grown up in spite of the Empire and the Church, and were not likely to +yield in their strength what they had won in their weakness. But it +still appeared possible to soften, if not to overcome, their +antagonism. What might not be looked for from the erection of a +presiding power common to all Europe, a power which, while it should +oversee the internal concerns of each country, not dethroning the +king, but treating him as an hereditary viceroy, should be more +especially charged to prevent strife between kingdoms, and to maintain +the public order of Europe by being not only the fountain of +international law, but also the judge in its causes and the enforcer +of its sentences? + +[Sidenote: The Popes as international Judges.] + +To such a position had the Popes aspired. They were indeed excellently +fitted for it by the respect which the sacredness of their office +commanded; by their control of the tremendous weapons of +excommunication and interdict; above all, by their exemption from +those narrowing influences of place, or blood, or personal interest, +which it would be their chiefest duty to resist in others. And there +had been pontiffs whose fearlessness and justice were worthy of their +exalted office, and whose interference was gratefully remembered by +those who found no other helpers. Nevertheless, judging the Papacy by +its conduct as a whole, it had been tried and found wanting. Even when +its throne stood firmest and its purposes were most pure, one motive +had always biassed its decisions--a partiality to the most submissive. +During the greater part of the fourteenth century it was at Avignon +the willing tool of France: in the pursuit of a temporal principality +it had mingled in and been contaminated by the unhallowed politics of +Italy; its supreme council, the college of cardinals, was distracted +by the intrigues of two bitterly hostile factions. And while the power +of the Popes had declined steadily, though silently, since the days of +Boniface the Eighth, the insolence of the great prelates and the vices +of the inferior clergy had provoked throughout Western Christendom a +reaction against the pretensions of all sacerdotal authority. As there +is no theory at first sight more attractive than that which entrusts +all government to a supreme spiritual power, which, knowing what is +best for man, shall lead him to his true good by appealing to the +highest principles of his nature, so there is no disappointment more +bitter than that of those who find that the holiest office may be +polluted by the lusts and passions of its holder; that craft and +hypocrisy lead while fanaticism follows; that here too, as in so much +else, the corruption of the best is worst. Some such disappointment +there was in Europe now, and with it a certain disposition to look +with favour on the secular power: a wish to escape from the unhealthy +atmosphere of clerical despotism to the rule of positive law, harsher, +it might be, yet surely less corrupting. Espousing the cause of the +Roman Empire as the chief opponent of priestly claims, this tendency +found it, with shrunken territory and diminished resources, fitter in +some respects for the office of an international judge and mediator +than it had been as a great national power. For though far less widely +active, it was losing that local character which was fast gathering +round the Papacy. With feudal rights no longer enforcible, and +removed, except in his patrimonial lands, from direct contact with the +subject, the Emperor was not, as heretofore, conspicuously a German +and a feudal king, and occupied an ideal position far less marred by +the incongruous accidents of birth and training, of national and +dynastic interests. + +[Sidenote: Duties attributed to the Empire by the developed theory.] + +[Sidenote: Divine right of the Emperor.] + +To that position three cardinal duties were attached. He who held it +must typify spiritual unity, must preserve peace, must be a fountain +of that by which alone among imperfect men peace is preserved and +restored, law and justice. The first of these three objects was sought +not only on religious grounds, but also from that longing for a wider +brotherhood of humanity towards which, ever since the barrier between +Jew and Gentile, Greek and barbarian, was broken down, the aspirations +of the higher minds of the world have been constantly directed. Placed +in the midst of Europe, the Emperor was to bind its tribes into one +body, reminding them of their common faith, their common blood, their +common interest in each other's welfare. And he was therefore above +all things, professing indeed to be upon earth the representative of +the Prince of Peace, bound to listen to complaints, and to redress the +injuries inflicted by sovereigns or people upon each other; to punish +offenders against the public order of Christendom; to maintain through +the world, looking down as from a serene height upon the schemes and +quarrels of meaner potentates, that supreme good without which neither +arts nor letters, nor the gentler virtues of life, can rise and +flourish. The medival Empire was in its essence what the modern +despotisms that mimic it profess themselves: the Empire was +peace[279]: the oldest and noblest title of its head was 'Imperator +pacificus[280].' And that he might be the peacemaker, he must be the +expounder of justice and the author of its concrete embodiment, +positive law; chief legislator and supreme judge of appeal, like his +predecessor the compiler of the Corpus Iuris, the one and only source +of all legitimate authority. In this sense, as governor and +administrator, not as owner, is he, in the words of the jurists, Lord +of the world; not that its soil belongs to him in the same sense in +which the soil of France or England belongs to their respective kings: +he is the steward of Him who has received the heathen for his +possession and the uttermost parts of the earth for his inheritance. +It is, therefore, by him alone that the idea of pure right, acquired +not by force but by legitimate devolution from those whom God himself +had set up, is visibly expressed upon earth. To find an external and +positive basis for that idea is a problem which it has at all times +been more easy to evade than to solve, and one peculiarly distressing +to those who could neither explain the phenomena of society by +reducing it to its original principles, nor inquire historically how +its existing arrangements had grown up. Hence the attempt to represent +human government as an emanation from divine: a view from which all +the similar but far less logically consistent doctrines of divine +right which have prevailed in later times are borrowed. As has been +said already, there is not a trace of the notion that the Emperor +reigns by an hereditary right of his own or by the will of the people, +for such a theory would have seemed to the men of the middle ages an +absurd and wicked perversion of the true order. Nor do his powers come +to him from those who choose him, but from God, who uses the electoral +princes as mere instruments of nomination. Having such an origin, his +rights exist irrespective of their actual exercise, and no voluntary +abandonment, not even an express grant, can impair them. Boniface the +Eighth[281] reminds the king of France, and imperialist lawyers till +the seventeenth century repeated the claim, that he, like other +princes, is of right and must ever remain subject to the Roman +Emperor. And the sovereigns of Europe long continued to address the +Emperor in language, and yield to him a precedence, which admitted the +inferiority of their own position[282]. + +There was in this theory nothing that was absurd, though much that was +impracticable. The ideas on which it rested are still unapproached in +grandeur and simplicity, still as far in advance of the average +thought of Europe, and as unlikely to find men or nations fit to apply +them, as when they were promulgated five hundred years ago. The +practical evil which the establishment of such a universal monarchy +was intended to meet, that of wars and hardly less ruinous +preparations for war between the states of Europe, remains what it was +then. The remedy which medival theory proposed has been in some +measure applied by the construction and reception of international +law; the greater difficulty of erecting a tribunal to arbitrate and +decide, with the power of enforcing its decisions, is as far from a +solution as ever. + +[Sidenote: Roman Empire why an international power.] + +It is easy to see how it was to the Roman Emperor, and to him only, +that the duties and privileges above mentioned could be attributed. +Being Roman, he was of no nation, and therefore fittest to judge +between contending states, and appease the animosities of race. His +was the imperial tongue of Rome, not only the vehicle of religion and +law, but also, since no other was understood everywhere in Europe, the +necessary medium of diplomatic intercourse. As there was no Church but +the Holy Roman Church, and he its temporal head, it was by him that +the communion of the saints in its outward form, its secular side, was +represented, and to his keeping that the sanctity of peace must be +entrusted. As direct heir of those who from Julius to Justinian had +shaped the existing law of Europe[283], he was, so to speak, legality +personified[284]; the only sovereign on earth who, being possessed of +power by an unimpeachable title, could by his grant confer upon others +rights equally valid. And as he claimed to perpetuate the greatest +political system the world had known, a system which still moves the +wonder of those who see before their eyes empires as much wider than +the Roman as they are less symmetrical, and whose vast and complex +machinery far surpassed anything the fourteenth century possessed or +could hope to establish, it was not strange that he and his government +(assuming them to be what they were entitled to be) should be taken as +the ideal of a perfect monarch and a perfect state. + +[Sidenote: Illustrations.] + +[Sidenote: Right of creating Kings.] + +Of the many applications and illustrations of these doctrines which +medival documents furnish, it will suffice to adduce two or three. No +imperial privilege was prized more highly than the power of creating +kings, for there was none which raised the Emperor so much above them. +In this, as in other international concerns, the Pope soon began to +claim a jurisdiction, at first concurrent, then separate and +independent. But the older and more reasonable view assigned it, as +flowing from the possession of supreme secular authority, to the +Emperor; and it was from him that the rulers of Burgundy, Bohemia, +Hungary, perhaps Poland and Denmark, received the regal title[285]. +The prerogative was his in the same manner in which that of conferring +titles is still held to belong to the sovereign in every modern +kingdom. And so when Charles the Bold, last duke of French Burgundy, +proposed to consolidate his wide dominions into a kingdom, it was from +Frederick III that he sought permission to do so. The Emperor, +however, was greedy and suspicious, the Duke uncompliant; and when +Frederick found that terms could not be arranged between them, he +stole away suddenly, and left Charles to carry back, with +ill-concealed mortification, the crown and sceptre which he had +brought ready-made to the place of interview. + +[Sidenote: Chivalry.] + +In the same manner, as representing what was common to and valid +throughout all Europe, nobility, and more particularly knighthood, +centred in the Empire. The great Orders of Chivalry were international +institutions, whose members, having consecrated themselves a military +priesthood, had no longer any country of their own, and could +therefore be subject to no one save the Emperor and the Pope. For +knighthood was constructed on the analogy of priesthood, and knights +were conceived of as being to the world in its secular aspect exactly +what priests, and more especially the monastic orders, were to it in +its religious aspect: to the one body was given the sword of the +flesh, to the other the sword of the spirit; each was universal, each +had its autocratic head[286]. Singularly, too, were these notions +brought into harmony with the feudal polity. Csar was lord paramount +of the world: its countries great fiefs whose kings were his tenants +in chief, the suitors of his court, owing to him homage, fealty, and +military service against the infidel. + +[Sidenote: Persons eligible as Emperors.] + +One illustration more of the way in which the empire was held to be +something of and for all mankind, cannot be omitted. Although from the +practical union of the imperial with the German throne none but +Germans were chosen to fill it[287], it remained in point of law +absolutely free from all restrictions of country or birth. In an age +of the most intense aristocratic exclusiveness, the highest office in +the world was the only secular one open to all Christians. The old +writers, after debating at length the qualifications that are or may +be desirable in an Emperor, and relating how in pagan times Gauls and +Spaniards, Moors and Pannonians, were thought worthy of the purple, +decide that two things, and no more, are required of the candidate for +Empire: he must be free-born, and he must be orthodox[288]. + +[Sidenote: The Empire and the new learning.] + +[Sidenote: The doctrine of the Empire's rights and functions never +carried out in fact.] + +It is not without a certain surprise that we see those who were +engaged in the study of ancient letters, or felt indirectly their +stimulus, embrace so fervently the cause of the Roman Empire. Still +more difficult is it to estimate the respective influence exerted by +each of the three revivals which it has been attempted to distinguish. +The spirit of the ancient world by which the men who led these +movements fancied themselves animated, was in truth a pagan, or at +least a strongly secular spirit, in many respects inconsistent with +the associations which had now gathered round the imperial office. And +this hostility did not fail to shew itself when at the beginning of +the sixteenth century, in the fulness of the Renaissance, a direct and +for the time irresistible sway was exercised by the art and literature +of Greece, when the mythology of Euripides and Ovid supplanted that +which had fired the imagination of Dante and peopled the visions of +St. Francis; when men forsook the image of the saint in the cathedral +for the statue of the nymph in the garden; when the uncouth jargon of +scholastic theology was equally distasteful to the scholars who formed +their style upon Cicero and the philosophers who drew their +inspiration from Plato. That meanwhile the admirers of antiquity did +ally themselves with the defenders of the Empire, was due partly +indeed to the false notions that were entertained regarding the early +Csars, yet still more to the common hostility of both sects to the +Papacy. It was as successor of old Rome, and by virtue of her +traditions, that the Holy See had established so wide a dominion; yet +no sooner did Arnold of Brescia and his republicans arise, claiming +liberty in the name of the ancient constitution of the republic, than +they found in the Popes their bitterest foes, and turned for help to +the secular monarch against the clergy. With similar aversion did the +Romish court view the revived study of the ancient jurisprudence, so +soon as it became, in the hands of the school of Bologna and +afterwards of the jurists of France, a power able to assert its +independence and resist ecclesiastical pretensions. In the ninth +century, Pope Nicholas the First had himself judged in the famous case +of Teutberga, wife of Lothar, according to the civil law: in the +thirteenth, his successors[289] forbade its study, and the canonists +strove to expel it from Europe[290]. And as the current of educated +opinion among the laity was beginning, however imperceptibly at first, +to set against sacerdotal tyranny, it followed that the Empire would +find sympathy in any effort it could make to regain its lost position. +Thus the Emperors became, or might have become had they seen the +greatness of the opportunity and been strong enough to improve it, the +exponents and guides of the political movement, the pioneers, in part +at least, of the Reformation. But the revival came too late to arrest, +if not to adorn, the decline of their office. The growth of a national +sentiment in the several countries of Europe, which had already gone +too far to be arrested, and was urged on by forces far stronger than +the theories of Catholic unity which opposed it, imprinted on the +resistance to papal usurpation, and even on the instincts of political +freedom, that form of narrowly local patriotism which they still +retain. It can hardly be said that upon any occasion, except the +gathering of the council of Constance by Sigismund, did the Emperor +appear filling a truly international place. For the most part he +exerted in the politics of Europe no influence greater than that of +other princes. In actual resources he stood below the kings of France +and England, far below his vassals the Visconti of Milan[291]. Yet +this helplessness, such was men's faith or their timidity, and such +their unwillingness to make prejudice bend to facts, did not prevent +his dignity from being extolled in the most sonorous language by +writers whose imaginations were enthralled by the halo of traditional +glory which surrounded it. + +[Sidenote: Attitude of the men of letters.] + +We are thus brought back to ask, What was the connection between +imperialism and the literary revival? + +[Sidenote: Petrarch.] + +To moderns who think of the Roman Empire as the heathen persecuting +power, it is strange to find it depicted as the model of a Christian +commonwealth. It is stranger still that the study of antiquity should +have made men advocates of arbitrary power. Democratic Athens, +oligarchic Rome, suggest to us Pericles and Brutus: the moderns who +have striven to catch their spirit have been men like Algernon Sidney, +and Vergniaud, and Shelley. The explanation is the same in both +cases[292]. The ancient world was known to the earlier middle ages by +tradition, freshest for what was latest, and by the authors of the +Empire. Both presented to them the picture of a mighty despotism and a +civilization brilliant far beyond their own. Writings of the fourth +and fifth centuries, unfamiliar to us, were to them authorities as +high as Tacitus or Livy; yet Virgil and Horace too had sung the +praises of the first and wisest of the Emperors. To the enthusiasts of +poetry and law, Rome meant universal monarchy[293]; to those of +religion, her name called up the undimmed radiance of the Church under +Sylvester and Constantine. Petrarch, the apostle of the dawning +Renaissance, is excited by the least attempt to revive even the shadow +of imperial greatness: as he had hailed Rienzi, he welcomes Charles IV +into Italy, and execrates his departure. The following passage is +taken from his letter to the Roman people asking them to receive back +Rienzi:--'When was there ever such peace, such tranquillity, such +justice, such honour paid to virtue, such rewards distributed to the +good and punishments to the bad, when was ever the state so wisely +guided, as in the time when the world had obtained one head, and that +head Rome; the very time wherein God deigned to be born of a virgin +and dwell upon earth. To every single body there has been given a +head; the whole world therefore also, which is called by the poet a +great body, ought to be content with one temporal head. For every +two-headed animal is monstrous; how much more horrible and hideous a +portent must be a creature with a thousand different heads, biting and +fighting against one another! If, however, it is necessary that there +be more heads than one, it is nevertheless evident that there ought to +be one to restrain all and preside over all, that so the peace of the +whole body may abide unshaken. Assuredly both in heaven and in earth +the sovereignty of one has always been best.' + +[Sidenote: Dante.] + +His passion for the heroism of Roman conquest and the ordered peace to +which it brought the world, is the centre of Dante's political hopes: +he is no more an exiled Ghibeline, but a patriot whose fervid +imagination sees a nation arise regenerate at the touch of its +rightful lord. Italy, the spoil of so many Teutonic conquerors, is the +garden of the Empire which Henry is to redeem: Rome the mourning +widow, whom Albert is denounced for neglecting[294]. Passing through +purgatory, the poet sees Rudolf of Hapsburg seated gloomily apart, +mourning his sin in that he left unhealed the wounds of Italy[295]. In +the deepest pit of hell's ninth circle lies Lucifer, huge, +three-headed; in each mouth a sinner whom he crunches between his +teeth, in one mouth Iscariot the traitor to Christ, in the others the +two traitors to the first Emperor of Rome, Brutus and Cassius[296]. To +multiply illustrations from other parts of the poem would be an +endless task; for the idea is ever present in Dante's mind, and +displays itself in a hundred unexpected forms. Virgil himself is +selected to be the guide of the pilgrim through hell and purgatory, +not so much as being the great poet of antiquity, as because he 'was +born under Julius and lived beneath the good Augustus;' because he was +divinely charged to sing of the Empire's earliest and brightest +glories. Strange, that the shame of one age should be the glory of +another. For Virgil's melancholy panegyrics upon the destroyer of the +republic are no more like Dante's appeals to the coming saviour of +Italy than is Csar Octavianus to Henry count of Luxemburg. + +[Sidenote: Attitude of the Jurists.] + +The visionary zeal of the man of letters was seconded by the more +sober devotion of the lawyer. Conqueror, theologian, and jurist, +Justinian is a hero greater than either Julius or Constantine, for his +enduring work bears him witness. Absolutism was the civilian's +creed[297]: the phrases 'legibus solutus,' 'lex regia,' whatever else +tended in the same direction, were taken to express the prerogative of +him whose official style of Augustus, as well as the vernacular name +of 'Kaiser,' designated the legitimate successor of the compiler of +the Corpus Juris. Since it was upon that legitimacy that his claim to +be the fountain of law rested, no pains were spared to seek out and +observe every custom and precedent by which old Rome seemed to be +connected with her representative. + +[Sidenote: Imitations of old Rome.] + +Of the many instances that might be collected, it would be tedious to +enumerate more than a few. The offices of the imperial household, +instituted by Constantine the Great, were attached to the noblest +families of Germany. The Emperor and Empress, before their coronation +at Rome, were lodged in the chambers called those of Augustus and +Livia[298]; a bare sword was borne before them by the prtorian +prefect; their processions were adorned by the standards, eagles, +wolves and dragons, which had figured in the train of Hadrian or +Theodosius[299]. The constant title of the Emperor himself, according +to the style introduced by Probus, was 'semper Augustus,' or +'perpetuus Augustus,' which erring etymology translated 'at all times +increaser of the Empire[300].' Edicts issued by a Franconian or +Swabian sovereign were inserted as Novels[301] in the Corpus Juris, in +the latest editions of which custom still allows them a place. The +_pontificatus maximus_ of his pagan predecessors was supposed to be +preserved by the admission of each Emperor as a canon of St. Peter's +at Rome and St. Mary's at Aachen[302]. Sometimes we even find him +talking of his consulship[303]. Annalists invariably number the place +of each sovereign from Augustus downwards[304]. The notion of an +uninterrupted succession, which moves the stranger's wondering smile +as he sees ranged round the magnificent Golden Hall of Augsburg the +portraits of the Csars, laurelled, helmeted, and periwigged, from +Julius the conqueror of Gaul to Joseph the partitioner of Poland, was +to those generations not an article of faith only because its denial +was inconceivable. + +[Sidenote: Reverence for ancient forms and phrases in the Middle +Ages.] + +[Sidenote: Absence of the idea of change or progress.] + +And all this historical antiquarianism, as one might call it, which +gathers round the Empire, is but one instance, though the most +striking, of that eager wish to cling to the old forms, use the old +phrases, and preserve the old institutions to which the annals of +medival Europe bear witness. It appears even in trivial expressions, +as when a monkish chronicler says of evil bishops deposed, _Tribu moti +sunt_, or talks of the 'senate and people of the Franks,' when he +means a council of chiefs surrounded by a crowd of half-naked +warriors. So throughout Europe charters and edicts were drawn up on +Roman precedents; the trade-guilds, though often traceable to a +different source, represented the old _collegia_; villenage was the +offspring of the system of _coloni_ under the later Empire. Even in +remote Britain, the Teutonic invaders used Roman ensigns, and stamped +their coins with Roman devices; called themselves 'Basileis' and +'Augusti[305].' Especially did the cities perpetuate Rome through her +most lasting boon to the conquered, municipal self-government; those +of later origin emulating in their adherence to antique style others +who, like Nismes and Cologne, Zrich and Augsburg, could trace back +their institutions to the _coloni_ and _municipia_ of the first +centuries. On the walls and gates of hoary Nrnberg[306] the traveller +still sees emblazoned the imperial eagle, with the words 'Senatus +populusque Norimbergensis,' and is borne in thought from the quiet +provincial town of to-day to the stirring republic of the middle ages: +thence to the Forum and the Capitol of her greater prototype. For, in +truth, through all that period which we call the Dark and Middle Ages, +men's minds were possessed by the belief that all things continued as +they were from the beginning, that no chasm never to be recrossed lay +between them and that ancient world to which they had not ceased to +look back. We who are centuries removed can see that there had passed +a great and wonderful change upon thought, and art, and literature, +and politics, and society itself: a change whose best illustration is +to be found in the process whereby there arose out of the primitive +basilica the Romanesque cathedral, and from it in turn the endless +varieties of Gothic. But so gradual was the change that each +generation felt it passing over them no more than a man feels that +perpetual transformation by which his body is renewed from year to +year; while the few who had learning enough to study antiquity through +its contemporary records, were prevented by the utter want of +criticism and of that which we call historical feeling, from seeing +how prodigious was the contrast between themselves and those whom they +admired. There is nothing more modern than the critical spirit which +dwells upon the difference between the minds of men in one age and in +another; which endeavours to make each age its own interpreter, and +judge what it did or produced by a relative standard. Such a spirit +was, before the last century or two, wholly foreign to art as well as +to metaphysics. The converse and the parallel of the fashion of +calling medival offices by Roman names, and supposing them therefore +the same, is to be found in those old German pictures of the siege of +Carthage or the battle between Porus and Alexander, where in the +foreground two armies of knights, mailed and mounted, are charging +each other like Crusaders, lance, in rest, while behind, through the +smoke of cannon, loom out the Gothic spires and towers of the +beleaguered city. And thus, when we remember that the notion of +progress and development, and of change as the necessary condition +thereof, was unwelcome or unknown in medival times, we may better +understand, though we do not cease to wonder, how men, never doubting +that the political system of antiquity had descended to them, modified +indeed, yet in substance the same, should have believed that the +Frank, the Saxon, and the Swabian ruled all Europe by a right which +seems to us not less fantastic than that fabled charter whereby +Alexander the Great[307] bequeathed his empire to the Slavic race for +the love of Roxolana. + +It is a part of that perpetual contradiction of which the history of +the Middle Ages is full, that this belief had hardly any influence on +practical politics. The more abjectly helpless the Emperor becomes, so +much the more sonorous is the language in which the dignity of his +crown is described. His power, we are told, is eternal, the provinces +having resumed their allegiance after the barbarian irruptions[308]; +it is incapable of diminution or injury: exemptions and grants by him, +so far as they tend to limit his own prerogative, are invalid[309]: +all Christendom is still of right subject to him, though it may +contumaciously refuse obedience[310]. The sovereigns of Europe are +solemnly warned that they are resisting the power ordained of +God[311]. No laws can bind the Emperor, though he may choose to live +according to them: no court can judge him, though he may condescend to +be sued in his own: none may presume to arraign the conduct or +question the motives of him who is answerable only to God[312]. So +writes neas Sylvius, while Frederick the Third, chased from his +capital by the Hungarians, is wandering from convent to convent, an +imperial beggar; while the princes, whom his subserviency to the Pope +has driven into rebellion, are offering the imperial crown to +Podiebrad the Bohemian king. + +[Sidenote: Henry VII, A.D. 1308-1313.] + +[Sidenote: Death of Henry VII.] + +But the career of Henry the Seventh in Italy is the most remarkable +illustration of the Emperor's position: and imperialist doctrines are +set forth most strikingly in the treatise which the greatest spirit of +the age wrote to herald the advent of that hero, the _De Monarchia_ of +Dante[313]. Rudolf, Adolf of Nassau, Albert of Hapsburg, none of them +crossed the Alps or attempted to aid the Italian Ghibelines who +battled away in the name of their throne. Concerned only to restore +order and aggrandize his house, and thinking apparently that nothing +more was to be made of the imperial crown, Rudolf was content never to +receive it, and purchased the Pope's goodwill by surrendering his +jurisdiction in the capital, and his claims over the bequest of the +Countess Matilda. Henry the Luxemburger ventured on a bolder course; +urged perhaps only by his lofty and chivalrous spirit, perhaps in +despair at effecting anything with his slender resources against the +princes of Germany. Crossing from his Burgundian dominions with a +scanty following of knights, and descending from the Cenis upon Turin, +he found his prerogative higher in men's belief after sixty years of +neglect than it had stood under the last Hohenstaufen. The cities of +Lombardy opened their gates; Milan decreed a vast subsidy; Guelf and +Ghibeline exiles alike were restored, and imperial vicars appointed +everywhere: supported by the Avignonese pontiff, who dreaded the +restless ambition of his French neighbour, king Philip IV, Henry had +the interdict of the Church as well as the ban of the Empire at his +command. But the illusion of success vanished as soon as men, +recovering from their first impression, began to be again governed by +their ordinary passions and interests, and not by an imaginative +reverence for the glories of the past. Tumults and revolts broke out +in Lombardy; at Rome the king of Naples held St. Peter's, and the +coronation must take place in St. John Lateran, on the southern bank +of the Tiber. The hostility of the Guelfic league, headed by the +Florentines, Guelfs even against the Pope, obliged Henry to depart +from his impartial and republican policy, and to purchase the aid of +the Ghibeline chiefs by granting them the government of cities. With +few troops, and encompassed by enemies, the heroic Emperor sustained +an unequal struggle for a year longer, till, in A.D. 1313, he sank +beneath the fevers of the deadly Tuscan summer. His German followers +believed, nor has history wholly rejected the tale, that poison was +given him by a Dominican monk, in sacramental wine. + +[Sidenote: Later Emperors in Italy.] + +Others after him descended from the Alps, but they came, like Lewis +the Fourth, Rupert, Sigismund, at the behest of a faction, which found +them useful tools for a time, then flung them away in scorn; or like +Charles the Fourth and Frederick the Third, as the humble minions of a +French or Italian priest. With Henry the Seventh ends the history of +the Empire in Italy, and Dante's book is an epitaph instead of a +prophecy. A sketch of its argument will convey a notion of the +feelings with which the noblest Ghibelines fought, as well as of the +spirit in which the Middle Age was accustomed to handle such subjects. + +[Sidenote: Dante's feelings and theories.] + +Weary of the endless strife of princes and cities, of the factions +within every city against each other, seeing municipal freedom, the +only mitigation of turbulence, vanish with the rise of domestic +tyrants, Dante raises a passionate cry for some power to still the +tempest, not to quench liberty or supersede local self-government, but +to correct and moderate them, to restore unity and peace to hapless +Italy. His reasoning is throughout closely syllogistic: he is +alternately the jurist, the theologian, the scholastic metaphysician: +the poet of the Divina Commedia is betrayed only by the compressed +energy of diction, by his clear vision of the unseen, rarely by a +glowing metaphor. + +[Sidenote: The 'De Monarchia.'] + +Monarchy is first proved to be the true and rightful form of +government. Men's objects are best attained during universal peace: +this is possible only under a monarch. And as he is the image of the +Divine unity, so man is through him made one, and brought most near to +God. There must, in every system of forces, be a 'primum mobile;' to +be perfect, every organization must have a centre, into which all is +gathered, by which all is controlled[314]. Justice is best secured by +a supreme arbiter of disputes, himself unsolicited by ambition, since +his dominion is already bounded only by ocean. Man is best and +happiest when he is most free; to be free is to exist for one's own +sake. To this grandest end does the monarch and he alone guide us; +other forms of government are perverted[315], and exist for the +benefit of some class; he seeks the good of all alike, being to that +very end appointed[316]. + +Abstract arguments are then confirmed from history. Since the world +began there has been but one period of perfect peace, and but one of +perfect monarchy, that, namely, which existed at our Lord's birth, +under the sceptre of Augustus; since then the heathen have raged, and +the kings of the earth have stood up; they have set themselves against +their Lord, and his anointed the Roman prince[317]. The universal +dominion, the need for which has been thus established, is then proved +to belong to the Romans. Justice is the will of God, a will to exalt +Rome shewn through her whole history[318]. Her virtues deserved +honour: Virgil is quoted to prove those of neas, who by descent and +marriage was the heir of three continents: of Asia through Assaracus +and Creusa; of Africa by Electra (mother of Dardanus and daughter of +Atlas) and Dido; of Europe by Dardanus and Lavinia. God's favour was +approved in the fall of the shields to Numa, in the miraculous +deliverance of the capital from the Gauls, in the hailstorm after +Cann. Justice is also the advantage of the state: that advantage was +the constant object of the virtuous Cincinnatus, and the other heroes +of the republic. They conquered the world for its own good, and +therefore justly, as Cicero attests[319]; so that their sway was not +so much 'imperium' as 'patrocinium orbis terrarum.' Nature herself, +the fountain of all right, had, by their geographical position and by +the gift of a genius so vigorous, marked them out for universal +dominion:-- + + 'Excudent alii spirantia mollius ra, + Credo equidem: vivos ducent de marmore vultus; + Orabunt causas melius, coelique meatus + Describent radio, et surgentia sidera dicent: + Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento; + H tibi erunt artes; pacisque imponere morem, + Parcere subiectis, et debellare superbos.' + +Finally, the right of war asserted, Christ's birth, and death under +Pilate, ratified their government. For Christian doctrine requires +that the procurator should have been a lawful judge[320], which he was +not unless Tiberius was a lawful Emperor. + +The relations of the imperial and papal power are then examined, and +the passages of Scripture (tradition being rejected), to which the +advocates of the Papacy appeal, are elaborately explained away. The +argument from the sun and moon[321] does not hold, since both lights +existed before man's creation, and at a time when, as still sinless, +he needed no controlling powers. Else _accidentia_ would have preceded +_propria_ in creation. The moon, too, does not receive her being nor +all her light from the sun, but so much only as makes her more +effective. So there is no reason why the temporal should not be aided +in a corresponding measure by the spiritual authority. This difficult +text disposed of, others fall more easily; Levi and Judah, Samuel and +Saul, the incense and gold offered by the Magi[322]; the two swords, +the power of binding and loosing given to Peter. Constantine's +donation was illegal: no single Emperor nor Pope can disturb the +everlasting foundations of their respective thrones: the one had no +right to bestow, nor the other to receive, such a gift. Leo the Third +gave the Empire to Charles wrongfully: '_usurpatio iuris non facit +ius_.' It is alleged that all things of one kind are reducible to one +individual, and so all men to the Pope. But Emperor and Pope differ in +kind, and so far as they are men, are reducible only to God, on whom +the Empire immediately depends; for it existed before Peter's see, and +was recognized by Paul when he appealed to Csar. The temporal power +of the Papacy can have been given neither by natural law, nor divine +ordinance, nor universal consent: nay, it is against its own Form and +Essence, the life of Christ, who said, 'My kingdom is not of this +world.' + +Man's nature is twofold, corruptible and incorruptible: he has +therefore two ends, active virtue on earth, and the enjoyment of the +sight of God hereafter; the one to be attained by practice conformed +to the precepts of philosophy, the other by the theological virtues. +Hence two guides are needed, the pontiff and the Emperor, the latter +of whom, in order that he may direct mankind in accordance with the +teachings of philosophy to temporal blessedness, must preserve +universal peace in the world. Thus are the two powers equally ordained +of God, and the Emperor, though supreme in all that pertains to the +secular world, is in some things dependent on the pontiff, since +earthly happiness is subordinate to eternal. 'Let Csar, therefore, +shew towards Peter the reverence wherewith a firstborn son honours his +father, that, being illumined by the light of his paternal favour, he +may the more excellently shine forth upon the whole world, to the rule +of which he has been appointed by Him alone who is of all things, both +spiritual and temporal, the King and Governor.' So ends the treatise. + +Dante's arguments are not stranger than his omissions. No suspicion is +breathed against Constantine's donation; no proof is adduced, for no +doubt is felt, that the Empire of Henry the Seventh is the legitimate +continuation of that which had been swayed by Augustus and Justinian. +Yet Henry was a German, sprung from Rome's barbarian foes, the elected +of those who had neither part nor share in Italy and her capital. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[279] See esp. gidi, _Der Frstenrath nach dem Luneviller Frieden_, +and the passages by him quoted. + +[280] The archbishop of Mentz addresses Conrad II on his election +thus: 'Deus quum a te multa requirat tum hoc potissimum desiderat ut +facias iudicium et iustitiam et pacem patri qu respicit ad te, ut +sis defensor ecclesiarum et clericorum, tutor viduarum et +orphanorum.'--Wippo, Vita Chuonradi, c. 3, _ap._ Pertz. So Pope Urban +IV writes to Richard: 'Ut consternatis Imperii Romani inimicis, in +pacis pulchritudine sedeat populus Christianus et requie opulenta +quiescat.' Compare also the 'Edictum de crimine ls maiestatis' +issued by Henry VII in Italy: 'Ad reprimenda multorum facinora qui +ruptis totius debit fidelitatis habenis adversus Romanum imperium, in +cuius tranquillitate totius orbis regularitas requiescit, hostili +animo armati conentur nedum humana, verum etiam divina prcepta, +quibus iubetur quod omnis anima Romanorum principi sit subiecta, +scelestissimis facinoribus et rebellionibus demoliri,' &c.--Pertz, _M. +G. H._, legg. ii. p. 544. + +See also a curious passage in the Life of St. Adalbert, describing the +beginning of the reign at Rome of the Emperor Otto III, and his cousin +and nominee Pope Gregory V: 'Ltantur cum primatibus minores +civitatis: cum afflicto paupere exultant agmina viduarum, quia novus +imperator dat iura populis; dat iura novus papa.' + +[281] 'Imperator est monarcha omnium regum et principum terrenorum ... +nec insurgat superbia Gallicorum qu dicat quod non recognoscit +superiorem, mentiuntur, quia de iure sunt et esse debent sub rege +Romanorum et Imperatore.'--Speech of Boniface VIII. It is curious to +compare with this the words addressed nearly five centuries earlier by +Pope John VIII to Lewis, king of Bavaria: 'Si sumpseritis Romanum +imperium, omnia regna vobis subiecta existent.' + +[282] So Alfonso, king of Naples, writes to Frederick III: 'Nos reges +omnes debemus reverentiam Imperatori, tanquam summo regi, qui est +Caput et Dux regum.'--Quoted by Pfeffinger, _Vitriarius illustratus_, +i. 379. And Francis I (of France), speaking of a proposed combined +expedition against the Turks, says, 'Csari nihilominus principem ea +in expeditione locum non gravarer ex officio cedere.'--For a long time +no European sovereign save the Emperor ventured to use the title of +'Majesty.' The imperial chancery conceded it in 1633 to the kings of +England and Sweden; in 1641 to the king of France.--Zedler, _Universal +Lexicon_, _s. v._ Majestt. + +[283] For with the progress of society and the growth of commerce the +old feudal customs were through the greater part of Western Europe, +and especially in Germany, either giving way to or being remodelled +and supplemented by the civil law. + +[284] 'Imperator est animata lex in terris.'--Quoted by Von Raumer, v. +81. + +[285] Thus we are told of the Emperor Charles the Bald, when he +confirmed the election of Boso, king of Burgundy and Provence, 'Dedit +Bosoni Provinciam (_sc._ Carolus Calvus), et corona in vertice capitis +imposita, eum regem appellari iussit, ut more priscorum imperatorum +regibus videretur dominari.'--_Regin. Chron._ Frederick II made his +son Enzio (that famous Enzio whose romantic history every one who has +seen Bologna will remember) king of Sardinia, and also erected the +duchy of Austria into a kingdom, although for some reason the title +seems never to have been used; and Lewis IV gave to Humbert of +Dauphin the title of King of Vienne, A.D. 1336. + +[286] It is probably for this reason that the _Ordo Romanus_ directs +the Emperor and Empress to be crowned (in St. Peter's) at the altar of +St. Maurice, the patron saint of knighthood. + +[287] See especially Gerlach Buxtorff, _Dissertatio ad Auream Bullam_; +and Augustinus Stenchus, _De Imperio Romano_; quoted by Marquard +Freher. It was keenly debated, while Charles V and Francis I (of +France) were rival candidates, whether any one but a German was +eligible. By birth Charles was either a Spaniard or a Fleming; but +this difficulty his partisans avoided by holding that he had been, +according to the civil law, _in potestate_ of Maximilian his +grandfather. However, to say nothing of the Guidos and Berengars of +earlier days, the examples of Richard and Alfonso are conclusive as to +the eligibility of others than Germans. Edward III of England was, as +has been said, actually elected; Henry VIII was a candidate. And +attempts were frequently made to elect the kings of France. + +[288] The medival practice seems to have been that which still +prevails in the Roman Catholic Church--to presume the doctrinal +orthodoxy and external conformity of every citizen, whether lay or +clerical, until the contrary be proved. Of course when heresy was rife +it went hard with suspected men, unless they could either clear +themselves or submit to recant. But no one was required to pledge +himself beforehand, as a qualification for any office, to certain +doctrines. And thus, important as an Emperor's orthodoxy was, he does +not appear to have been subjected to any test, although the Pope +pretended to the right of catechizing him in the faith and rejecting +him if unsound. In the _Ordo Romanus_ we find a long series of +questions which the Pontiff was to administer, but it does not appear, +and is in the highest degree unlikely, that such a programme was ever +carried out. + +The charge of heresy was one of the weapons used with most effect +against Frederick II. + +[289] Honorius II in 1229 forbade it to be studied or taught in the +University of Paris. Innocent IV published some years later a still +more sweeping prohibition. + +[290] See Von Savigny, _History of Roman Law in the Middle Ages_, vol. +iii. pp. 81, 341-347. + +[291] Charles the Bold of Burgundy was a potentate incomparably +stronger than the Emperor Frederick III from whom he sought the regal +title. + +[292] Cf. Sismondi, _Rpubliques Italiennes_, iv. chap. xxvii. + +[293] See Dante, _Paradiso_, canto vi. + +[294] + + 'Vieni a veder la tua Roma, che piange + Vedova, sola, e di e notte chiama: + "Cesare mio, perch non m' accompagne?"' + _Purgatorio_, canto vi. + +[295] _Purgatorio_, canto vii. + +[296] _Inferno_, canto xxxiv. + +[297] Not that the doctors of the civil law were necessarily political +partisans of the Emperors. Savigny says that there were on the +contrary more Guelfs than Ghibelines among the jurists of +Bologna.--_Roman Law in the Middle Ages_, vol. iii. p. 80. + +[298] Cf. Palgrave, _Normandy and England_, vol. ii. (of Otto and +Adelheid). The _Ordo Romanus_ talks of a 'Camera Iuli' in the Lateran +palace, reserved for the Empress. + +[299] See notes to _Chron. Casin._ in Muratori, _S. R. I._ iv. 515. + +[300] Zu aller Zeiten Mehrer des Reichs. + +[301] _Novell Constitutiones_. + +[302] Marquard Freher. The question whether the seven electors vote as +_singuli_ or as a _collegium_, is solved by shewing that they have +stepped into the place of the senate and people of Rome, whose duty it +was to choose the Emperor, though (it is navely added) the soldiers +sometimes usurped it.--Peter de Andlo, _De Imperio Romano_. + +[303] Thus Charles, in a capitulary added to a revised edition of the +Lombard law issued in A.D. 801, says, 'Anno consulatus nostri primo.' +So Otto III calls himself 'Consul Senatus populique Romani.' + +[304] Francis II, the last Emperor, was one hundred and twentieth from +Augustus. Some chroniclers call Otto the Great Otto II, counting in +Salvius Otho, the successor of Galba. + +[305] See p. 45 and note to p. 143. + +[306] Nrnberg herself was not of Roman foundation. But this makes the +imitation all the more curious. The fashion even passed from the +cities to rural communities like some of the Swiss cantons. Thus we +find 'Senatus populusque Uronensis.' + +[307] See Palgrave, _Normandy and England_, i. p. 379. + +[308] neas Sylvius, _De Ortu et Authoritate Imperii Romani_. + +[309] Thus some civilians held Constantine's Donation null; but the +canonists, we are told, were clear as to its legality. + +[310] 'Et idem dico de istis aliis regibus et principibus, qui negant +se esse subditos regi Romanorum, ut rex Franci, Angli, et similes. +Si enim fatentur ipsum esse Dominum universalem, licet ab illo +universali domino se subtrahant ex privilegio vel ex prscriptione vel +consimili, non ergo desunt esse cives Romani, per ea qu dicta sunt. +Et per hoc omnes gentes qu obediunt S. matri ecclesi sunt de populo +Romano. Et forte si quis diceret dominum Imperatorem non esse dominum +et monarcham totius orbis, esset hreticus, quia diceret contra +determinationem ecclesi et textum S. evangelii, dum dicit, "Exivit +edictum a Csare Augusto ut describeretur universus orbis." Ita et +recognovit Christus Imperatorem ut dominum.'--Bartolus, _Commentary on +the Pandects_, xlviii. i. 24; _De Captivis et postliminio reversis_. + +[311] Peter de Andlo, _multis locis_ (see esp. cap. viii.), and other +writings of the time. Cf. Dante's letter to Henry VII: 'Romanorum +potestas nec metis Itali nec tricornis Sicili margine coarctatur. +Nam etsi vim passa in angustum gubernacula sua contraxit undique, +tamen de inviolabili iure fluctus Amphitritis attingens vix ab inutili +unda Oceani se circumcingi dignatur. Scriptum est enim + + "Nascetur pulchra Troianus origine Csar, + Imperium Oceano, famam qui terminet astris."' + +So Fr. Zoannetus, in the sixteenth century, declares it to be a mortal +sin to resist the Empire, as the power ordained of God. + +[312] neas Sylvius Piccolomini (afterwards Pope Pius II), _De Ortu et +Authoritate Imperii Romani_. Cf. Gerlach Buxtorff, _Dissertatio ad +Auream Bullam_. + +[313] It has hitherto been the common opinion that the _De Monarchia_ +was written in the view of Henry's expedition. But latterly weighty +reasons have been advanced for believing that its date must be placed +some years later. + +[314] Suggesting the celestial hierarchies of Dionysius the +Areopagite. + +[315] Quoting Aristotle's _Politics_. + +[316] 'Non enim cives propter consules nec gens propter regem, sed e +converso consules propter cives, rex propter gentem.' + +[317] 'Reges et principes in hoc unico concordantes, ut adversentur +Domino suo et uncto suo Romano Principi,' having quoted 'Quare +fremuerunt gentes.' + +[318] Especially in the opportune death of Alexander the Great. + +[319] Cic., _De Off._, ii. 'Ita ut illud patrocinium orbis terrarum +potius quam imperium poterat nominari.' + +[320] 'Si Pilati imperium non de iure fuit, peccatum in Christo non +fuit adeo punitum.' + +[321] There is a curious seal of the Emperor Otto IV (figured in J. M. +Heineccius, _De veteribus Germanorum atque aliarum nationum +sigillis_), on which the sun and moon are represented over the head of +the Emperor. Heineccius says he cannot explain it, but there seems to +be no reason why we should not take the device as typifying the accord +of the spiritual and temporal powers which was brought about at the +accession of Otto, the Guelfic leader, and the favoured candidate of +Pope Innocent III. + +The analogy between the lights of heaven and the princes of earth is +one which medival writers are very fond of. It seems to have +originated with Gregory VII. + +[322] Typifying the spiritual and temporal powers. Dante meets this by +distinguishing the homage paid to Christ from that which his Vicar can +rightfully demand. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE CITY OF ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. + + +'It is related,' says Sozomen in the ninth book of his Ecclesiastical +History, 'that when Alaric was hastening against Rome, a holy monk of +Italy admonished him to spare the city, and not to make himself the +cause of such fearful ills. But Alaric answered, "It is not of my own +will that I do this; there is One who forces me on, and will not let +me rest, bidding me spoil Rome[323]."' + +Towards the close of the tenth century the Bohemian Woitech, famous in +after legend as St. Adalbert, forsook his bishopric of Prague to +journey into Italy, and settled himself in the Roman monastery of +Sant' Alessio. After some few years passed there in religious +solitude, he was summoned back to resume the duties of his see, and +laboured for awhile among his half-savage countrymen. Soon, however, +the old longing came over him: he resought his cell upon the brow of +the Aventine, and there, wandering among the ancient shrines, and +taking on himself the menial offices of the convent, he abode happily +for a space. At length the reproaches of his metropolitan, the +archbishop of Mentz, and the express commands of Pope Gregory the +Fifth, drove him back over the Alps, and he set off in the train of +Otto the Third, lamenting, says his biographer, that he should no more +enjoy his beloved quiet in the mother of martyrs, the home of the +Apostles, golden Rome. A few months later he died a martyr among the +pagan Lithuanians of the Baltic[324]. + +Nearly four hundred years later, and nine hundred after the time of +Alaric, Francis Petrarch writes thus to his friend John Colonna:-- + +'Thinkest thou not that I long to see that city to which there has +never been any like nor ever shall be; which even an enemy called a +city of kings; of whose people it hath been written, "Great is the +valour of the Roman people, great and terrible their name;" concerning +whose unexampled glory and incomparable empire, which was, and is, and +is to be, divine prophets have sung; where are the tombs of the +apostles and martyrs and the bodies of so many thousands of the saints +of Christ[325]?' + +It was the same irresistible impulse that drew the warrior, the monk, +and the scholar towards the mystical city which was to medival Europe +more than Delphi had been to the Greek or Mecca to the Islamite, the +Jerusalem of Christianity, the city which had once ruled the earth, +and now ruled the world of disembodied spirits[326]. For there was +then, as there is now, something in Rome to attract men of every +class. The devout pilgrim came to pray at the shrine of the Prince of +the Apostles, too happy if he could carry back to his monastery in the +forests of Saxony or by the bleak Atlantic shore the bone of some holy +martyr; the lover of learning and poetry dreamed of Virgil and Cicero +among the shattered columns of the Forum; the Germanic kings, in spite +of pestilence, treachery and seditions, came with their hosts to seek +in the ancient capital of the world the fountain of temporal dominion. +Nor has the spell yet wholly lost its power. To half the Christian +nations Rome is the metropolis of religion, to all the metropolis of +art. In her streets, and hers alone among the cities of the world, may +every form of human speech be heard: she is more glorious in her decay +and desolation than the stateliest seats of modern power. + +But while men thought thus of Rome, what was Rome herself? + +The modern traveller, after his first few days in Rome, when he has +looked out upon the Campagna from the summit of St. Peter's, paced the +chilly corridors of the Vatican, and mused under the echoing dome of +the Pantheon, when he has passed in review the monuments of regal and +republican and papal Rome, begins to seek for some relics of the +twelve hundred years that lie between Constantine and Pope Julius the +Second. 'Where,' he asks, 'is the Rome of the Middle Ages, the Rome of +Alberic and Hildebrand and Rienzi? the Rome which dug the graves of so +many Teutonic hosts; whither the pilgrims flocked; whence came the +commands at which kings bowed? Where are the memorials of the +brightest age of Christian architecture, the age which reared Cologne +and Rheims and Westminster, which gave to Italy the cathedrals of +Tuscany and the wave-washed palaces of Venice?' + +To this question there is no answer. Rome, the mother of the arts, has +scarcely a building to commemorate those times, for to her they were +times of turmoil and misery, times in which the shame of the present +was embittered by recollections of a brighter past. Nevertheless a +minute scrutiny may still discover, hidden in dark corners or +disguised under an unbecoming modern dress, much that carries us back +to the medival town, and helps us to realize its social and political +condition. Therefore a brief notice of the state of Rome during the +Middle Ages, with especial reference to those monuments which the +visitor may still examine for himself, may not be without its use, and +is at any rate no unfitting pendant to an account of the institution +which drew from the city its name and its magnificent pretensions. +Moreover, as will appear more fully in the sequel, the history of the +Roman people is an instructive illustration of the influence of those +ideas upon which the Empire itself rested, as well in their weakness +as in their strength[327]. + +[Sidenote: Causes of the rapid decay of the city.] + +It is not from her capture by Alaric, nor even from the more +destructive ravages of the Vandal Genseric, that the material and +social ruin of Rome must be dated, but rather from the repeated sieges +which she sustained in the war of Belisarius with the Ostrogoths. This +struggle however, long and exhausting as it was, would not have proved +so fatal had the previous condition of the city been sound and +healthy. Her wealth and population in the middle of the fifth century +were probably little inferior to what they had been in the most +prosperous days of the imperial government. But this wealth was +entirely gathered into the hands of a small and effeminate +aristocracy. The crowd that filled her streets was composed partly of +poor and idle freemen, unaccustomed to arms and debarred from +political rights; partly of a far more numerous herd of slaves, +gathered from all parts of the world, and morally even lower than +their masters. There was no middle class, and no system of municipal +institutions, for although the senate and consuls with many of the +lesser magistracies continued to exist, they had for centuries enjoyed +no effective power, and were nowise fitted to lead and rule the +people. Hence it was that when the Gothic war and the subsequent +inroads of the Lombards had reduced the great families to beggary, the +framework of society dissolved and could not be replaced. In a state +rotten to the core there was no vital force left for reconstruction. +The old forms of political activity had been too long dead to be +recalled to life: the people wanted the moral force to produce new +ones, and all the authority that could be said to exist in the midst +of anarchy tended to centre itself in the chief of the new religious +society. + +[Sidenote: Peculiarities in the position of Rome.] + +So far Rome's condition was like that of the other great towns of +Italy and Gaul. But in two points her case differed from theirs, and +to these the difference of her after fortunes may be traced. Her +bishop had no temporal potentate to overshadow his dignity or check +his ambition, for the vicar of the Eastern court lived far away at +Ravenna, and seldom interfered except to ratify a papal election or +punish a more than commonly outrageous sedition. Her population +received an all but imperceptible infusion of that Teutonic blood and +those Teutonic customs by whose stern discipline the inhabitants of +northern Italy were in the end renovated. Everywhere the old +institutions had perished of decay: in Rome alone there was nothing +except the ecclesiastical system out of which new ones could arise. +Her condition was therefore the most pitiable in which a community can +find itself, one of struggle without purpose or progress. The citizens +were divided into three orders: the military class, including what was +left of the ancient aristocracy; the clergy, a host of priests, monks +and nuns, attached to the countless churches and convents; and the +people or _plebs_, as they are called, a poverty-stricken rabble +without trade, without industry, without any municipal organization to +bind them together. Of these two latter classes the Pope was the +natural leader, the first was divided into factions headed by some +three or four of the great families, whose quarrels kept the town in +incessant bloodshed. The internal history of Rome from the sixth to +the twelfth century is an obscure and tedious record of the contest of +these factions with each other, and of the aristocracy as a whole with +the slowly growing power of the Church. + +[Sidenote: Her condition in the ninth and tenth centuries.] + +The revolt of the Romans from the Iconoclastic Emperors of the East, +followed as it was by the reception of the Franks as patricians and +emperors, is an event of the highest importance in the history of +Italy and of the popedom. In the domestic constitution of Rome it made +little change. With the instinct of a profound genius, Charles the +Great saw that Rome, though it might be ostensibly the capital, could +not be the real centre of his dominions. He continued to reside in +Germany, and did not even build a palace at Rome. For a time the awe +of his power, the presence of his _missus_ or lieutenant, and the +occasional visits of his successors Lothar and Lewis II to the city, +repressed her internal disorders. But after the death of the prince +last named, and still more after the dissolution of the Carolingian +Empire itself, Rome relapsed into a state of profligacy and barbarism +to which, even in that age, Europe supplied no parallel, a barbarism +which had inherited all the vices of civilization without any of its +virtues. The papal office in particular seems to have lost its +religious character, as it had certainly lost all claim to moral +purity. For more than a century the chief priest of Christendom was no +more than a tool of some ferocious faction among the nobles. Criminal +means had raised him to the throne; violence, sometimes going the +length of mutilation or murder, deprived him of it. The marvel is, a +marvel in which papal historians have not unnaturally discovered a +miracle, that after sinking so low, the Papacy should ever have risen +again. Its rescue and exaltation to the pinnacle of glory was +accomplished not by the Romans but by the efforts of the Transalpine +Church, aiding and prompting the Saxon and Franconian Emperors. Yet +even the religious reform did not abate intestine turmoil, and it was +not till the twelfth century that a new spirit began to work in +politics, which ennobled if it could not heal the sufferings of the +Roman people. + +[Sidenote: Growth of a republican feeling: hostility to the Popes.] + +[Sidenote: Arnold of Brescia.] + +[Sidenote: Short-sighted policy of the Emperors.] + +Ever since the time of Alberic their pride had revolted against the +haughty behaviour of the Teutonic emperors. From still earlier times +they had been jealous of sacerdotal authority, and now watched with +alarm the rapid extension of its influence. The events of the twelfth +century gave these feelings a definite direction. It was the time of +the struggle of the Investitures, in which Hildebrand and his +disciples had been striving to draw all the things of this world as +well as of the next into their grasp. It was the era of the revived +study of Roman law, by which alone the extravagant pretensions of the +decretalists could be resisted. The Lombard and Tuscan towns had +become flourishing municipalities, independent of their bishops, and +at open war with their Emperor. While all these things were stirring +the minds of the Romans, Arnold of Brescia came preaching reform, +denouncing the corrupt life of the clergy, not perhaps, like some +others of the so-called schismatics of his time, denying the need of a +sacerdotal order, but at any rate urging its restriction to purely +spiritual duties. On the minds of the Romans such teaching fell like +the spark upon dry grass; they threw off the yoke of the Pope[328], +drove out the imperial prefect, reconstituted the senate and the +equestrian order, appointed consuls, struck their own coins, and +professed to treat the German Emperors as their nominees and +dependants. To have successfully imitated the republican constitution +of the cities of northern Italy would have been much, but with this +they were not content. Knowing in a vague ignorant way that there had +been a Roman republic before there was a Roman empire, they fed their +vanity with visions of a renewal of all their ancient forms, and saw +in fancy their senate and people sitting again upon the Seven Hills +and ruling over the kings of the earth. Stepping, as it were, into the +arena where Pope and Emperor were contending for the headship of the +world, they rejected the one as a priest, and declaring the other to +be only their creature, they claimed as theirs the true and lawful +inheritance of the world-dominion which their ancestors had won. +Antiquity was in one sense on their side, and to us now it seems less +strange that the Roman people should aspire to rule the earth than +that a German barbarian should rule it in their name. But practically +the scheme was absurd, and could not maintain itself against any +serious opposition. As a modern historian aptly expresses it, 'they +were setting up ruins:' they might as well have raised the broken +columns that strewed their Forum and hoped to rear out of them a +strong and stately temple. The reverence which the men of the Middle +Ages felt for Rome was given altogether to the name and to the place, +nowise to the people. As for power, they had none: so far from holding +Italy in subjection, they could scarcely maintain themselves against +the hostility of Tusculum. But it would have been well worth the while +of the Teutonic Emperors to have made the Romans their allies, and +bridled by their help the temporal ambition of the Popes. The offer +was actually made to them, first to Conrad the Third, who seems to +have taken no notice of it; and afterwards, as has been already +stated, to Frederick the First, who repelled in the most contumelious +fashion the envoys of the senate. Hating and fearing the Pope, he +always respected him: towards the Romans he felt all the contempt of a +feudal king for burghers, and of a German warrior for Italians. At the +demand of Pope Hadrian, whose foresight thought no heresy so dangerous +as one which threatened the authority of the clergy, Arnold of Brescia +was seized by the imperial prefect, put to death, and his ashes cast +into the Tiber, lest the people should treasure them up as relics. But +the martyrdom of their leader did not quench the hopes of his +followers. The republican constitution continued to exist, and rose +from time to time, during the weakness or the absence of the Popes, +into a brief and fitful activity[329]. Once awakened, the idea, +seductive at once to the imagination of the scholar and the vanity of +the Roman citizen, could not wholly disappear, and two centuries after +Arnold's time it found a more brilliant if less disinterested exponent +in the tribune Nicholas Rienzi. + +[Sidenote: Character and career of the tribune Rienzi.] + +The career of this singular personage is misunderstood by those who +suppose him to have been possessed of profound political insight, a +republican on modern principles. He was indeed, despite his +overweening conceit, and what seems to us his charlatanry, both a +patriot and a man of genius, in temperament a poet, filled with +soaring ideas. But those ideas, although dressed out in gaudier +colours by his lively fancy, were after all only the old ones, +memories of the long-faded glories of the heathen republic, and a +series of scornful contrasts levelled at her present oppressors, both +of them shewing no vista of future peace except through the revival of +those ancient names to which there were no things to correspond. It +was by declaiming on old texts and displaying old monuments that the +tribune enlisted the support of the Roman populace, not by any appeal +to democratic principles; and the whole of his acts and plans, though +they astonished men by their boldness, do not seem to have been +regarded as novel or impracticable[330]. In the breasts of men like +Petrarch, who loved Rome even more than they hated her people, the +enthusiasm of Rienzi found a sympathetic echo: others scorned and +denounced him as an upstart, a demagogue, and a rebel. Both friends +and enemies seem to have comprehended and regarded as natural his +feelings and designs, which were altogether those of his age. Being, +however, a mere matter of imagination, not of reason, having no +anchor, so to speak, in realities, no true relation to the world as it +then stood, these schemes of republican revival were as transient and +unstable as they were quick of growth and gay of colour. As the +authority of the Popes became consolidated, and free municipalities +disappeared elsewhere throughout Italy, the dream of a renovated Rome +at length withered up and fell and died. Its last struggle was made in +the conspiracy of Stephen Porcaro, in the time of Pope Nicholas the +Fifth; and from that time onward there was no question of the +supremacy of the bishop within his holy city. + +[Sidenote: Causes of the failure of the struggle for independence.] + +It is never without a certain regret that we watch the disappearance +of a belief, however illusive, around which the love and reverence for +mankind once clung. But this illusion need be the less regretted that +it had only the feeblest influence for good on the state of medival +Rome. During the three centuries that lie between Arnold of Brescia +and Porcaro, the disorders of Rome were hardly less violent than they +had been in the Dark Ages, and to all appearance worse than those of +any other European city. There was a want not only of fixed authority, +but of those elements of social stability which the other cities of +Italy possessed. In the greater republics of Lombardy and Tuscany the +bulk of the population were artizans, hard working orderly people; +while above them stood a prosperous middle class, engaged mostly in +commerce, and having in their system of trade-guilds an organization +both firm and flexible. It was by foreign trade that Genoa, Venice, +and Pisa became great, as it was the wealth acquired by manufacturing +industry that enabled Milan and Florence to overcome and incorporate +the territorial aristocracies which surrounded them. + +[Sidenote: Internal condition of the city.] + +[Sidenote: The people.] + +[Sidenote: The nobility.] + +[Sidenote: The bishop.] + +Rome possessed neither source of riches. She was ill-placed for trade; +having no market she produced no goods to be disposed of, and the +unhealthiness which long neglect had brought upon her Campagna made +its fertility unavailable. Already she stood as she stands now, lonely +and isolated, a desert at her very gates. As there was no industry, so +there was nothing that deserved to be called a citizen class. The +people were a mere rabble, prompt to follow the demagogue who +flattered their vanity, prompter still to desert him in the hour of +danger. Superstition was with them a matter of national pride, but +they lived too near sacred things to feel much reverence for them: +they ill-treated the Pope and fleeced the pilgrims who crowded to +their shrines: they were probably the only community in Europe who +sent no recruit to the armies of the Cross. Priests, monks, and all +the nondescript hangers on of an ecclesiastical court formed a large +part of the population; while of the rest many were supported in a +state of half mendicancy by the countless religious foundations, +themselves enriched by the gifts or the plunder of Latin Christendom. +The noble families were numerous, powerful, ferocious; they were +surrounded by bands of unruly retainers, and waged a constant war +against each other from their castles in the adjoining country or in +the streets of the city itself. Had things been left to take their +natural course, one of these families, the Colonna, for instance, or +the Orsini, would probably have ended by overcoming its rivals, and +have established, as was the case in the republics of Romagna and +Tuscany, a 'signoria' or local tyranny, like those which had once +prevailed in the cities of Greece. But the presence of the sacerdotal +power, as it had hindered the growth of feudalism, so also it stood in +the way of such a development as this, and in so far aggravated the +confusion of the city. Although the Pope was not as yet recognized as +legitimate sovereign, he was not only the most considerable person in +Rome, but the only one whose authority had anything of an official +character. But the reign of each pontiff was short; he had no military +force, he was frequently absent from his see. He was, moreover, very +often a member of one of the great families, and, as such, no better +than a faction leader at home, while venerated by the rest of Europe +as the universal priest. + +[Sidenote: The Emperor.] + +[Sidenote: Visits of the Emperors to Rome.] + +It remains only to speak of the person who should have been to Rome +what the national king was to the cities of France, or England, or +Germany, that is to say, of the Emperor. As has been said already, his +power was a mere chimera, chiefly important as furnishing a pretext to +the Colonna and other Ghibeline chieftains for their opposition to the +papal party. Even his abstract rights were matter of controversy. The +Popes, whose predecessors had been content to govern as the +lieutenants of Charles and Otto, now maintained that Rome as a +spiritual city could not be subject to any temporal jurisdiction, and +that she was therefore no part of the Roman Empire, though at the same +time its capital. Not only, it was urged, had Constantine yielded up +Rome to Sylvester and his successors, Lothar the Saxon had at his +coronation formally renounced his sovereignty by doing homage to the +pontiff and receiving the crown as his vassal. The Popes felt then as +they feel now, that their dignity and influence would suffer if they +should even appear to admit in their place of residence the +jurisdiction of a civil potentate, and although they could not secure +their own authority, they were at least able to exclude any other. +Hence it was that they were so uneasy whenever an Emperor came to them +to be crowned, that they raised up difficulties in his path, and +endeavoured to be rid of him as soon as possible. And here something +must be said of the programme, as one may call it, of these imperial +visits to Rome, and of the marks of their presence which the Germans +left behind them, remembering always that after the time of Frederick +the Second it was rather the exception than the rule for an Emperor to +be crowned in his capital at all. + +[Sidenote: Their approach.] + +The traveller who enters Rome now, if he comes, as he most commonly +does, by way of Civita Vecchia, slips in by the railway before he is +aware, is huddled into a vehicle at the terminus, and set down at his +hotel in the middle of the modern town before he has seen anything at +all. If he comes overland from Tuscany along the bleak road that +passes near Veii and crosses the Milvian bridge, he has indeed from +the slopes of the Ciminian range a splendid prospect of the sea-like +Campagna, girdled in by glittering hills, but of the city he sees no +sign, save the pinnacle of St. Peter's, until he is within the walls. +Far otherwise was it in the Middle Ages. Then travellers of every +grade, from the humble pilgrim to the new-made archbishop who came in +the pomp of a lengthy train to receive from the Pope the pallium of +his office, approached from the north or north-east side; following a +track along the hilly ground on the Tuscan side of the Tiber until +they halted on the brow of Monte Mario[331]--the Mount of Joy--and saw +the city of their solemnities lie spread before them, from the great +pile of the Lateran far away upon the Coelian hill, to the basilica of +St. Peter's at their feet. They saw it not, as now, a sea of billowy +cupolas, but a mass of low red-roofed houses, varied by tall brick +towers, and at rarer intervals by masses of ancient ruin, then larger +far than now; while over all rose those two monuments of the best of +the heathen Emperors, monuments that still look down, serenely +changeless, on the armies of new nations and the festivals of a new +religion--the columns of Marcus Aurelius and Trajan. + +[Sidenote: Their entrance.] + +[Sidenote: Hostility of Pope and people to the Germans.] + +From Monte Mario the Teutonic host descended, when they had paid their +orisons, into the Neronian field, the piece of flat land that lies +outside the gate of St. Angelo. Here it was the custom for the elders +of the Romans to meet the elected Emperor, present their charters for +confirmation, and receive his oath to preserve their good +customs[332]. Then a procession was formed: the priests and monks, who +had come out with hymns to greet the Emperor, led the way; the knights +and soldiers of Rome, such as they were, came next; then the monarch, +followed by a long array of Transalpine chivalry. Passing into the +city they advanced to St. Peter's, where the Pope, surrounded by his +clergy, stood on the great staircase of the basilica to welcome and +bless the Roman king. On the next day came the coronation, with +ceremonies too elaborate for description[333], ceremonies which, we +may well believe, were seldom duly completed. Far more usual were +other rites, of which the book of ritual makes no mention, unless they +are to be counted among the 'good customs of the Romans;' the clang of +war bells, the battle cry of German and Italian combatants. The Pope, +when he could not keep the Emperor from entering Rome, required him to +leave the bulk of his host without the walls, and if foiled in this, +sought his safety in raising up plots and seditions against his too +powerful friend. The Roman people, on the other hand, violent as they +often were against the Pope, felt nevertheless a sort of national +pride in him. Very different were their feelings towards the Teutonic +chieftain, who came from a far land to receive in their city, yet +without thanking them for it, the ensign of a power which the prowess +of their forefathers had won. Despoiled of their ancient right to +choose the universal bishop, they clung all the more desperately to +the belief that it was they who chose the universal prince; and were +mortified afresh when each successive sovereign contemptuously scouted +their claims, and paraded before their eyes his rude barbarian +cavalry. Thus it was that a Roman sedition was the all but invariable +accompaniment of a Roman coronation. The three revolts against Otto +the Great have been already described. His grandson Otto the Third, in +spite of his passionate fondness for the city, was met by the same +faithlessness and hatred, and departed at last in despair at the +failure of his attempts at conciliation[334]. A century afterwards +Henry the Fifth's coronation produced violent tumults, which ended in +his seizing the Pope and cardinals in St. Peter's, and keeping them +prisoners till they submitted to his terms. Remembering this, Pope +Hadrian the Fourth would fain have forced the troops of Frederick +Barbarossa to remain without the walls, but the rapidity of their +movements disconcerted his plans and anticipated the resistance of the +Roman populace. Having established himself in the Leonine city[335], +Frederick barricaded the bridge over the Tiber, and was duly crowned +in St. Peter's. But the rite was scarcely finished when the Romans, +who had assembled in arms on the Capitol, dashed over the bridge, fell +upon the Germans, and were with difficulty repulsed by the personal +efforts of Frederick. Into the city he did not venture to pursue them, +nor was he at any period of his reign able to make himself master of +the whole of it. Finding themselves similarly baffled, his successors +at last accepted their position, and were content to take the crown on +the Pope's conditions and depart without further question. + +[Sidenote: Memorials of the Germanic Emperors in Rome.] + +[Sidenote: Of Otto the Third.] + +Coming so seldom and remaining for so short a time, it is not +wonderful that the Teutonic Emperors should, in the seven centuries +from Charles the Great to Charles the Fifth, have left fewer marks of +their presence in Rome than Titus or Hadrian alone have done; fewer +and less considerable even than those which tradition attributes to +those whom it calls Servius Tullius and the elder Tarquin. Those +monuments which do exist are just sufficient to make the absence of +all others more conspicuous. The most important dates from the time of +Otto the Third, the only Emperor who attempted to make Rome his +permanent residence. Of the palace, probably nothing more than a +tower, which he built on the Aventine, no trace has been discovered; +but the church, founded by him to receive the ashes of his friend the +martyred St. Adalbert, may still be seen upon the island in the Tiber. +Having received from Benevento relics supposed to be those of +Bartholomew the Apostle[336], it became dedicated to that saint, and +is now the church of San Bartolommeo in Isola, whose quaintly +picturesque bell-tower of red brick, now grey with extreme age, looks +out from among the orange trees of a convent garden over the +swift-eddying yellow waters of the Tiber. + +[Sidenote: Of Otto the Second.] + +[Sidenote: Of Frederick the Second.] + +Otto the Second, son of Otto the Great, died at Rome, and lies buried +in the crypt of St. Peter's, the only Emperor who has found a +resting-place among the graves of the Popes[337]. His tomb is not far +from that of his nephew Pope Gregory the Fifth: it is a plain one of +roughly chiselled marble. The lid of the superb porphyry sarcophagus +in which he lay for a time now serves as the great font of St. +Peter's, and may be seen in the baptismal chapel, on the left of the +entrance of the church, not far from the tombs of the Stuarts. Last of +all must be mentioned a curious relic of the Emperor Frederick the +Second, the prince whom of all others one would least expect to see +honoured in the city of his foes. It is an inscription in the palace +of the Conservators upon the Capitoline hill, built into the wall of +the great staircase, and relates the victory of Frederick's army over +the Milanese, and the capture of the carroccio[338] of the rebel city, +which he sends as a trophy to his faithful Romans. These are all or +nearly all the traces of her Teutonic lords that Rome has preserved +till now. Pictures indeed there are in abundance, from the mosaic of +the Scala Santa at the Lateran[339] and the curious frescoes in the +church of Santi Quattro Incoronati[340], down to the paintings of the +Sistine antechapel and the Stanze of Raphael in the Vatican, where the +triumphs of the Popedom over all its foes are set forth with matchless +art and equally matchless unveracity. But these are mostly long +subsequent to the events they describe, and these all the world knows. + +Associations of the highest interest would have attached to the +churches in which the imperial coronation was performed--a ceremony +which, whether we regard the dignity of the performers or the +splendour of the adjuncts, was probably the most imposing that modern +Europe has known. But old St. Peter's disappeared in the end of the +fifteenth century, not long after the last Roman coronation, that of +Frederick the Third, while the basilica of St. John Lateran, in which +Lothar the Saxon and Henry the Seventh were crowned, has been so +wofully modernized that we can hardly figure it to ourselves as the +same building[341]. + +[Sidenote: Causes of the want of medival monuments in Rome.] + +[Sidenote: Barbarism of the aristocracy.] + +Bearing in mind what was the social condition of Rome during the +middle ages, it becomes easier to understand the architectural +barrenness which at first excites the visitor's surprise. Rome had no +temporal sovereign, and there were therefore only two classes who +could build at all, the nobles and the clergy. Of these, the former +had seldom the wealth, and never the taste, which would have enabled +them to construct palaces graceful as the Venetian or massively grand +as the Florentine and Genoese. Moreover, the constant practice of +domestic war made defence the first object of a house, beauty and +convenience the second. The nobility, therefore, either adapted +ancient edifices to their purpose or built out of their materials +those huge square towers of brick, a few of which still frown over the +narrow streets in the older parts of Rome. We may judge of their +number from the statement that the senator Brancaleone destroyed one +hundred and forty of them. With perhaps no more than one exception, +that of the so-called House of Rienzi, these towers are the only +domestic buildings in the city older than the middle of the fifteenth +century. The vast palaces to which strangers now flock for the sake of +the picture galleries they contain, have been most of them erected in +the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, some even later. Among the +earliest is that Palazzo Cenci[342], whose gloomy low-browed arch so +powerfully affected the imagination of Shelley. + +[Sidenote: Ambition, weakness, and corruption of the clergy.] + +It was no want of wealth that hampered the architectural efforts of +the clergy, for vast revenues flowed in upon them from every corner of +Christendom. A good deal was actually spent upon the erection or +repairs of churches and convents, although with a less liberal hand +than that of such great Transalpine prelates as Hugh of Lincoln or +Conrad of Cologne. But the Popes always needed money for their +projects of ambition, and in times when disorder or corruption were at +their height the work of building stopped altogether. Thus it was that +after the time of the Carolingians scarcely a church was erected until +the beginning of the twelfth century, when the reforms of Hildebrand +had breathed new zeal into the priesthood. The Babylonish captivity of +Avignon, as it was called, with the great schism of the West that +followed upon it, was the cause of a second similar intermission, +which lasted nearly a century and a half. + +[Sidenote: Tendency of the Roman builders to adhere to the ancient +manner.] + +[Sidenote: Absence of Gothic in Rome.] + +At every time, however, even when his work went on most briskly, the +labours of the Roman architect took the direction of restoring and +readorning old churches rather than of erecting new ones. While the +Transalpine countries, except in a few favoured spots, such as +Provence and part of the Rhineland, remained during several ages with +few and rudely built stone churches, Rome possessed, as the +inheritance of the earlier Christian centuries, a profusion of houses +of worship, some of them still unsurpassed in splendour, and far more +than adequate to the needs of her diminished population. In repairing +these from time to time, their original form and style of work were +usually as far as possible preserved, while in constructing new ones, +the abundance of models beautiful in themselves and hallowed as well +by antiquity as by religious feeling, enthralled the invention of the +workman, bound him down to be at best a faithful imitator, and forbade +him to deviate at pleasure from the old established manner. Thus it +befel that while his brethren throughout the rest of Europe were +passing by successive steps from the old Roman and Byzantine styles to +Romanesque, and from Romanesque to Gothic, the Roman architect +scarcely departed from the plan and arrangements of the primitive +basilica. This is one chief reason why there is so little of Gothic +work in Rome, so little even of Romanesque like that of Pisa. What +there is appears chiefly in the pointed window, more rarely in the +arch, seldom or never in spire or tower or column. Only one of the +existing churches of Rome is Gothic throughout, and that, the +Dominican church of S. Maria sopra Minerva, was built by foreign +monks. In some of the other churches, and especially in the cloisters +of the convents, instances may be observed of the same style: in +others slight traces, by accident or design almost obliterated[343]. + +[Sidenote: Destruction and alteration of the old buildings:] + +[Sidenote: By invaders.] + +[Sidenote: By the Romans of the Middle Ages.] + +[Sidenote: By modern restorers of churches.] + +The mention of obliteration suggests a third cause of the comparative +want of medival buildings in the city--the constant depredations and +changes of which she has been the subject. Ever since the time of +Constantine Rome has been a city of destruction, and Christians have +vied with pagans, citizens with enemies, in urging on the fatal work. +Her siege and capture by Robert Guiscard[344], the ally of Hildebrand +against Henry the Fourth, was far more ruinous than the attacks of the +Goths or Vandals: and itself yields in atrocity to the sack of Rome in +A.D. 1526 by the soldiers of the Catholic king and most pious Emperor +Charles the Fifth[345]. Since the days of the first barbarian +invasions the Romans have gone on building with materials taken from +the ancient temples, theatres, law-courts, baths and villas, stripping +them of their gorgeous casings of marble, pulling down their walls for +the sake of the blocks of travertine, setting up their own hovels on +the top or in the midst of these majestic piles. Thus it has been with +the memorials of paganism: a somewhat different cause has contributed +to the disappearance of the medival churches. What pillage, or +fanaticism, or the wanton lust of destruction did in the one case, the +ostentatious zeal of modern times has done in the other. The era of +the final establishment of the Popes as temporal sovereigns of the +city, is also that of the supremacy of the Renaissance style in +architecture. After the time of Nicholas the Fifth, the pontiff +against whom, it will be remembered, the spirit of municipal freedom +made its last struggle in the conspiracy of Porcaro, nothing was built +in Gothic, and the prevailing enthusiasm for the antique produced a +corresponding dislike to everything medival, a dislike conspicuous in +men like Julius the Second and Leo the Tenth, from whom the grandeur +of modern Rome may be said to begin. Not long after their time the +great religious movement of the sixteenth century, while triumphing in +the north of Europe, was in the south met and overcome by a +counter-reformation in the bosom of the old church herself, and the +construction or restoration of ecclesiastical buildings became again +the passion of the devout[346]. No employment, whether it be called an +amusement or a duty, could have been better suited to the court and +aristocracy of Rome. They were indolent; wealthy, and fond of +displaying their wealth; full of good taste, and anxious, especially +when advancing years had chased away youth's pleasures, to be full of +good works also. Popes and cardinals and the heads of the great +families vied with one another in building new churches and restoring +or enlarging those they found till little of the old was left; raising +over them huge cupolas, substituting massive pilasters for the +single-shafted columns, adorning the interior with a profusion of rare +marbles, of carving and gilding, of frescoes and altar-pieces by the +best masters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. None but a +bigoted medivalist can refuse to acknowledge the warmth of tone, the +repose, the stateliness, of the churches of modern Rome; but even in +the midst of admiration the sated eye turns away from the wealth of +ponderous ornament, and we long for the clear pure colour, the simple +yet grand proportions that give a charm to the buildings of an earlier +age. + +[Sidenote: Existing relics of the Dark and Middle Ages.] + +[Sidenote: The Mosaics.] + +[Sidenote: The Bell-towers.] + +Few of the ancient churches have escaped untouched; many have been +altogether rebuilt. There are also some, however, in which the +modernizers of the sixteenth and subsequent centuries have spared two +features of the old structure, its round apse or tribune and its +bell-tower. The apse has its interior usually covered with mosaics, +exceedingly interesting, both from the ideas they express and as the +only monuments of pictorial art that remain to us from the Dark Ages. +To speak of them, however, as they deserve to be spoken of, would +involve a digression for which there is no space here. The campanile +or bell-tower is a quaint little square brick tower, of no great +height, usually standing detached from the church, and having in its +topmost, sometimes also in its other upper stories, several arcade +windows, divided by tiny marble pillars[347]. What with these +campaniles, then far more numerous than they are now, and with the +huge brick fortresses of the nobles, towers must have held in the +landscape of the medival city very much the part which domes do now. +Although less imposing, they were probably more picturesque, the +rather as in the earlier part of the Middle Ages the houses and +churches, which are now mostly crowded together on the flat of the +Campus Martius, were scattered over the heights and slopes of the +Coelian, Aventine, and Esquiline hills[348]. Modern Rome lies chiefly +on the opposite or north-eastern side of the Capitol, and the change +from the old to the new site of the city, which can hardly be said to +have distinctly begun before the destruction of the south-western part +of the town by Robert Guiscard, was not completed until the sixteenth +century. In A.D. 1536 the Capitol was rebuilt by Michael Angelo, in +anticipation of the entry of Charles the Fifth, upon foundations that +had been laid by the first Tarquin; and the palace of the Senator, the +greatest municipal edifice of Rome, which had hitherto looked towards +the Forum and the Coliseum, was made to front in the direction of St. +Peter's and the modern town. + +[Sidenote: Changed aspect of the city of Rome.] + +[Sidenote: Analogy between her architecture and her civil and +ecclesiastical constitution.] + +[Sidenote: Preservation of an antique character in both.] + +The Rome of to-day is no more like the city of Rienzi than she is to +the city of Trajan; just as the Roman church of the nineteenth century +differs profoundly, however she may strive to disguise it, from the +church of Hildebrand. But among all their changes, both church and +city have kept themselves wonderfully free from the intrusion of +foreign, at least of Teutonic, elements, and have faithfully preserved +at all times something of an old Roman character. Latin Christianity +inherited from the imperial system of old that firmly knit yet +flexible organization, which was one of the grand secrets of its +power: the great men whom medival Rome gave to or trained up for the +Papacy were, like their progenitors, administrators, legislators, +statesmen; seldom enthusiasts themselves, but perfectly understanding +how to use and guide the enthusiasm of others--of the French and +German crusaders, of men like Francis of Assisi and Dominic and +Ignatius. Between Catholicism in Italy and Catholicism in Germany or +England there was always, as there is still, a very perceptible +difference. So also, if the analogy be not too fanciful, was it with +Rome the city. Socially she seemed always drifting towards feudalism; +yet she never fell into its grasp. Materially, her architecture was at +one time considerably influenced by Gothic forms, yet Gothic never +became, as in the rest of Europe, the dominant style. It approached +Rome late, and departed from her early, so that we scarcely notice its +presence, and seem to pass almost without a break from the old +Romanesque[349] to the Grco-Roman of the Renaissance. Thus regarded, +the history of the city, both in her political state and in her +buildings, is seen to be intimately connected with that of the Holy +Empire itself. The Empire in its title and its pretensions expressed +the idea of the permanence of the institutions of the ancient world; +Rome the city had, in externals at least, carefully preserved their +traditions: the names of her magistracies, the character of her +buildings, all spoke of antiquity, and gave it a strange and shadowy +life in the midst of new races and new forms of faith. + +[Sidenote: Relation of the City and the Empire.] + +In its essence the Empire rested on the feeling of the unity of +mankind; it was the perpetuation of the Roman dominion by which the +old nationalities had been destroyed, with the addition of the +Christian element which had created a new nationality that was also +universal. By the extension of her citizenship to all her subjects +heathen Rome had become the common home, and, figuratively, even the +local dwelling-place of the civilized races of man. By the theology of +the time Christian Rome had been made the mystical type of humanity, +the one flock of the faithful scattered over the whole earth, the holy +city whither, as to the temple on Moriah, all the Israel of God should +come up to worship. She was not merely an image of the mighty world, +she was the mighty world itself in miniature. The pastor of her local +church is also the universal bishop; the seven suffragans who +consecrate him are the overseers of petty sees in Ostia, Antium, and +the like, towns lying close round Rome: the cardinal priests and +deacons who join these seven in electing him derive their title to be +princes of the Church, the supreme spiritual council of the Christian +world, from the incumbency of a parochial cure within the precincts of +the city. Similarly, her ruler, the Emperor, is ruler of mankind; he +is chosen by the acclamations of her people[350]: he can be lawfully +crowned nowhere but in one of her basilicas. She is, like Jerusalem of +old, the mother of us all. + +[Sidenote: Extinction of the Florentine republic, A.D. 1530.] + +There is yet another way in which the record of the domestic contests +of Rome throws light upon the history of the Empire. From the eleventh +century to the fifteenth her citizens ceased not to demand in the name +of the old republic their freedom from the tyranny of the nobles and +the Pope, and their right to rule over the world at large. These +efforts--selfish and fantastic we may call them, yet men like Petrarch +did not disdain to them their sympathy--issued from the same theories +and were directed to the same ends as those which inspired Otto the +Third and Frederick Barbarossa and Dante himself. They witness to the +same incapacity to form any ideal for the future except a revival of +the past; the same belief that one universal state is both desirable +and possible, but possible only through the means of Rome: the same +refusal to admit that a right which has once existed can ever be +extinguished. In the days of the Renaissance these notions were +passing silently away: the succeeding century brought with it +misfortunes that broke the spirit of the nation. Italy was the +battle-field of Europe: her wealth became the prey of a rapacious +soldiery: the last and greatest of her republics was enslaved by an +unfeeling Emperor, and handed over as the pledge of amity to a selfish +Medicean Pope. When the hope of independence had been lost, the people +turned away from politics to live for art and literature, and found, +before many generations had passed, how little such exclusive devotion +could compensate for the departure of freedom, and a national spirit, +and the activity of civic life. A century after the golden days of +Ariosto and Raphael, Italian literature had become frigid and +affected, while Italian art was dying of mannerism. + +[Sidenote: Feelings of the modern Italians towards Rome.] + +At length, after long ages of sloth, the stagnant waters were +troubled. The Romans, who had lived in listless contentment under the +paternal sway of the Popes, received new ideas from the advent of the +revolutionary armies of France, and have found the Papal system, since +its re-establishment fifty years ago as a modern bureaucratic +despotism, far less tolerable than it was of yore. Our own days have +seen the name of Rome become again a rallying-cry for the patriots of +Italy, but in a sense most unlike the old one. The contemporaries of +Arnold and Rienzi desired freedom only as a step to universal +domination: their descendants, more wisely, yet not more from +patriotism than from a pardonable civic pride, seek only to be the +capital of the Italian kingdom. Dante prayed for a monarchy of the +world, a reign of peace and Christian brotherhood: those who invoke +his name as the earliest prophet of their creed strive after an idea +that never crossed his mind--the national union of Italy[351]. + +Plain common-sense politicians in other countries do not understand +this passion for Rome as a capital, and think it their duty to lecture +the Italians on their flightiness. The latter do not themselves +pretend that the shores of the Tiber are a suitable site for a +capital: Rome is lonely, unhealthy, and in a bad strategical position; +she has no particular facilities for trade: her people, with some fine +qualities, are less orderly and industrious than the Tuscans or the +Piedmontese. Nevertheless all Italy cries with one voice for Rome, +firmly believing that national life can never thrill with a strong and +steady pulsation till the ancient capital has become the nation's +heart. They feel that it is owing to Rome--Rome pagan as well as +Christian--that they once played so grand a part in the drama of +European history, and that they have now been able to attain that +fervid sentiment of unity which has brought them at last together +under one government. Whether they are right, whether if right they +are likely to be successful, need not be inquired here. But it +deserves to be noted that this enthusiasm for a famous name--for it is +nothing more--is substantially the same feeling as that which created +and hallowed the Holy Empire of the Middle Ages. The events of the +last few years on both sides of the Atlantic have proved that men are +not now, any more than they ever were, chiefly governed by +calculations of material profit and loss. Sentiments, fancies, +theories, have not lost their power; the spirit of poetry has not +wholly passed away from politics. And strange as seems to us the +worship paid to the name of medival Rome by those who saw the sins +and the misery of her people, it can hardly have been an intenser +feeling than is the imaginative reverence wherewith the Italians of +to-day look on the city whence, as from a fountain, all the streams of +their national life have sprung, and in which, as in an ocean, they +are all again to mingle. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[323] Hist. Eccl. l. ix. c. 6: [Greek: ton de phanai, hs ouch hekn +tade epicheirei, alla tis synechs enochln auton biazetai, kai +epitattei tn Rhmn porthein.] + +[324] See the two Lives of St. Adalbert in Pertz, _M. G. H._, iv., +evidently compiled soon after his death. + +[325] Another letter of Petrarch's to John Colonna, written +immediately after his arrival in the city, deserves to be quoted, it +is so like what a stranger would now write off after his first day in +Rome:--'In prsens nihil est quod inchoare ausim, miraculo rerum +tantarum et stuporis mole obrutus ... prsentia vero, mirum dictu, +nihil imminuit sed auxit omnia: vere maior fuit Roma maioresque sunt +reliqui quam rebar: iam non orbem ab hac urbe domitum sed tam sero +domitum miror. Vale.' + +[326] The idea of the continuance of the sway of Rome under a new +character is one which medival writers delight to illustrate. In +Appendix, Note D, there is quoted as a specimen a poem upon Rome, by +Hildebert (bishop of Le Mans, and afterwards archbishop of Tours), +written in the beginning of the twelfth century. + +[327] In writing this chapter I have derived much assistance from the +admirable work of Ferdinand Gregorovius, _Geschichte der Stadt Rom im +Mittelalter_. Unfortunately no English translation of it exists; but I +am informed by the author that one is likely ere long to appear. + +[328] Republican forms of some sort had existed before Arnold's +arrival, but we hear the name of no other leader mentioned; and +doubtless it was by him chiefly that the spirit of hostility to the +clerical power was infused into the minds of the Romans. + +[329] The series of papal coins is interrupted (with one or two slight +exceptions) from A.D. 984 (not long after the time of Alberic) to A.D. +1304. In their place we meet with various coins struck by the +municipal authorities, some of which bear on the obverse the head of +the Apostle Peter, with the legend Roman. Pricipe: on the reverse the +head of the Apostle Paul, legend, Senat. Popul. Q. R. Gregorovius, _ut +supra_. + +[330] Rienzi called himself Augustus as well as tribune; 'tribuno +Augusto de Roma.' (He pretended, or his friends pretended for him--it +was at any rate believed--that he was an illegitimate son of the +Emperor Henry the Seventh.) He cited, on his appointment, the Pope and +cardinals to appear before the people of Rome and give an account of +their conduct; and after them the Emperor. 'Ancora citao lo Bavaro +(Lewis the Fourth). Puoi citao li elettori de lo imperio in Alemagna, +e disse "Voglio vedere che rascione haco nella elettione," che +trovasse scritto che passato alcuno tempo la elettione recadeva a li +Romani.'--_Vita di Cola di Rienzi_, c. xxvi (written by a +contemporary). I give the spelling as it stands in Muratori's edition. + +[331] The Germans called this hill, which is the highest in or near +Rome, conspicuous from a beautiful group of stone-pines upon its brow, +Mons Gaudii; the origin of the Italian name, Monte Mario, is not +known, unless it be, as some think, a corruption of Mons Malus. + +It was on this hill that Otto the Third hanged Crescentius and his +followers. + +[332] I quote this from the _Ordo Romanus_ as it stands in Muratori's +third Dissertation in the _Antiquitates Itali medii vi_. + +[333] Great stress was laid on one part of the procedure,--the holding +by the Emperor of the Pope's stirrup for him to mount, and the leading +of his palfrey for some distance. Frederick Barbarossa's omission of +this mark of respect when Pope Hadrian IV met him on his way to Rome, +had nearly caused a breach between the two potentates, Hadrian +absolutely refusing the kiss of peace until Frederick should have gone +through the form, which he was at last forced to do in a somewhat +ignominious way. + +[334] A remarkable speech of expostulation made by Otto III to the +Roman people (after one of their revolts) from the tower of his house +on the Aventine has been preserved to us. It begins thus: 'Vosne estis +mei Romani? Propter vos quidem meam patriam, propinquos quoque +reliqui; amore vestro Saxones et cunctos Theotiscos, sanguinem meum, +proieci; vos in remotas partes imperii nostri adduxi, quo patres +vestri cum orbem ditione premerent numquam pedem posuerunt; scilicet +ut nomen vestrum et gloriam ad fines usque dilatarem; vos filios +adoptavi: vos cunctis prtuli.'--_Vita S. Bernwardi_; in Pertz, _M. G. +H._, t. iv. + +(It is from this form 'Theotiscus' that the Italian 'Tedesco' seems to +have been derived.) + +[335] The Leonine city, so called from Pope Leo IV, lay between the +Vatican and St. Peter's and the river. + +[336] It would seem that Otto was deceived, and that in reality they +are the bones of St. Paulinus of Nola. + +[337] The only other of the Teutonic Emperors buried in Italy were, so +far as I know, Lewis the Second (whose tomb, with an inscription +commemorating his exploits, is built into the wall of the north aisle +of the famous church of S. Ambrose at Milan), Henry the Sixth and +Frederick the Second, who lie at Palermo, Conrad IV, buried at Foggia, +and Henry the Seventh, whose sarcophagus may be seen in the Campo +Santo of Pisa, a city always conspicuous for her zeal on the imperial +side. + +Six Emperors lie buried at Speyer, three or four at Prague, two at +Aachen, two at Bamberg, one at Innsbruck, one at Magdeburg, one at +Quedlinburg, two at Munich, and most of the later ones at Vienna. + +[338] See note 198, p. 178. + +[339] See p. 117. + +[340] These highly curious frescoes are in the chapel of St. Sylvester +attached to the very ancient church of Quattro Santi on the Coelian +hill, and are supposed to have been executed in the time of Pope +Innocent III. They represent scenes in the life of the Saint, more +particularly the making of the famous donation to him by Constantine, +who submissively holds the bridle of his palfrey. + +[341] The last imperial coronation, that of Charles the Fifth, took +place in the church of St. Petronius at Bologna, Pope Clement VII +being unwilling to receive Charles in Rome. It is a grand church, but +the choir, where the ceremony took place, seems to have been +'restored,' that is to say modernized, since Charles' time. + +[342] The name of Cenci is a very old one at Rome: it is supposed to +be an abbreviation of Crescentius. We hear in the eleventh century of +a certain Cencius, who on one occasion made Gregory VII prisoner. + +[343] Thus in the church of San Lorenzo without the walls there are +several pointed windows, now bricked up; and similar ones may be seen +in the church of Ara Coeli on the summit of the Capitol. So in the apse +of St. John Lateran there are three or four windows of Gothic form: +and in its cloister, as well as in that of St. Paul without the walls, +a great deal of beautiful Lombard work. The elegant porch of the +church of Sant' Antonio Abate is Lombard. In the apse of the church of +San Giovanni e Paolo on the Coelian hill there is an external arcade +exactly like those of the Duomo at Pisa. Nor are these the only +instances. + +The ruined chapel attached to the fortress of the Caetani family--the +family to which Boniface the Eighth belonged, and whose head is now +the first of the Roman nobility--is a pretty little building, more +like northern Gothic than anything within the walls of Rome. It stands +upon the Appian Way, opposite the tomb of Ccilia Metella, which the +Caetani used as a stronghold. + +[344] A good deal of the mischief done by Robert Guiscard, from which +the parts of the city lying beyond the Coliseum towards the river and +St. John Lateran never recovered, is attributed to the Saracenic +troops in his service. Saracen pirates are said to have once before +sacked Rome. Genseric was not a heathen, but he was a furious Arian, +which, as far as respect to the churches of the orthodox went, was +nearly the same thing. He is supposed to have carried off the +seven-branched candlestick and other vessels of the Temple, which +Titus had brought from Jerusalem to Rome. + +[345] We are told that one cause of the ferocity of the German part of +the army of Charles was their anger at the ruinous condition of the +imperial palace. + +[346] Under the influence, partly of this anti-pagan spirit, partly of +his own restless vanity, partly of a passion to be doing something, +Pope Sixtus the Fifth did a great deal of mischief in the way of +destroying or spoiling the monuments of antiquity. + +[347] These campaniles are generally supposed to date from the ninth +and tenth centuries. I am informed, however, by Mr. J. H. Parker, of +Oxford, whose antiquarian skill is well known, that he is led to +believe by an examination of their mouldings that few or none, unless +it be that of San Prassede, are older than the twelfth century. + +This of course applies only to the existing buildings. The type of +tower may be, and indeed no doubt is, older. + +Somewhat similar towers may be observed in many parts of the Italian +Alps, especially in the wonderful mountain land north of Venice, where +such towers are of all dates from the eleventh or twelfth down to the +nineteenth century, the ancient type having in these remote valleys +been adhered to because the builder had no other models before him. In +the valley of Cimolais I have seen such a campanile in course of +erection, precisely similar to others in the neighbouring villages +some eight centuries old. + +The very curious round towers of Ravenna, some four or five of which +are still standing, seem to have originally had similar windows, +though these have been all, or nearly all, stopped up. The Roman +towers are all square. + +[348] The Palatine hill seems to have been then, as it is for the most +part now, a waste of stupendous ruins. In the great imperial palace +upon its northern and eastern sides was the residence of an official +of the Eastern court in the beginning of the eighth century. In the +time of Charles, some seventy years later, this palace was no longer +habitable. + +[349] Such as we see it in the later and lesser churches of basilica +form. + +[350] It was thus that most of the earlier Teutonic Emperors, and +notably Charles and Otto, professed to have obtained the crown; +although practically it was partly a matter of conquest and partly of +private arrangement with the Pope. In later times, the seven Germanic +princes were recognized as the legally qualified electoral body, but +their appearance on the stage was a result of the confusion of the +German kingdom with the Roman Empire, and in strictness they had +nothing to do with the Roman crown at all. The right to bestow it +could only--on principle--belong to some Roman authority, and those +who felt the difficulty were driven to suppose a formal cession of +their privilege by the Roman people to the seven electors. See p. 227 +_supra_: and cf. Matthew Villani (iv. 77), 'Il popolo Romano, non da +se, ma la chiesa per lui, concedette la elezione degli Imperadori a +sette principi della Magna.' + +[351] That which Dante, Arnold of Brescia, and the rest really have in +common with the modern Italian 'party of movement' is their hostility +to the temporal power of the Popes. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE RENAISSANCE: CHANGE IN THE CHARACTER OF THE EMPIRE. + + +[Sidenote: Wenzel, 1378-1400.] + +[Sidenote: Rupert, 1400-1410.] + +[Sidenote: Sigismund, 1410-1438.] + +[Sidenote: Council of Constance.] + +In Frederick the Third's reign the Empire sank to its lowest point. It +had shot forth a fitful gleam under Sigismund, who in convoking and +presiding over the council of Constance had revived one of the highest +functions of his predecessors. The precedents of the first great +oecumenical councils, and especially of the council of Nica, had +established the principle that it belonged to the Emperor, even more +properly than to the Pope, to convoke ecclesiastical assemblies from +the whole Christian world[352]. The tenet commended itself to the +reforming party in the church, headed by Gerson, the chancellor of +Paris, whose aim it was, while making no changes in matters of faith, +to correct the abuses which had grown up in discipline and government, +and limit the power of the Popes by exalting the authority of general +councils, to whom there was now attributed an immunity from error +superior even to that which resided in the successor of Peter. And +although it was only the sacerdotal body, not the whole Christian +people, who were thus made the exponents of the universal religious +consciousness, the doctrine was nevertheless a foreshadowing of that +fuller freedom which was soon to follow. The existence of the Holy +Empire and the existence of general councils were, as has been already +remarked, necessary parts of one and the same theory[353], and it was +therefore more than a coincidence that the last occasion on which the +whole of Latin Christendom met to deliberate and act as a single +commonwealth[354] was also the last on which that commonwealth's +lawful temporal head appeared in the exercise of his international +functions. Never afterwards was he, in the eyes of Europe, anything +more than a German monarch. + +[Sidenote: Weakness of Germany as compared with the other states of +Europe.] + +[Sidenote: Albert II. 1438-1440. Frederick III. 1440-1493.] + +It might seem doubtful whether he would long remain a monarch at all. +When in A.D. 1493 the calamitous reign of Frederick the Third ended, +it was impossible for the princes to see with unconcern the condition +into which their selfishness and turbulence had brought the Empire. +The time was indeed critical. Hitherto the Germans had been protected +rather by the weakness of their enemies than by their own strength. +From France there had been little to fear while the English menaced +her on one side and the Burgundian dukes on the other: from England +still less while she was torn by the strife of York and Lancaster. But +now throughout Western Europe the power of the feudal oligarchies was +broken; and its chief countries were being, by the establishment of +fixed rules of succession and the absorption of the smaller into the +larger principalities, rapidly built up into compact and aggressive +military monarchies. Thus Spain became a great state by the union of +Castile and Aragon, and the conquest of the Moors of Granada. Thus in +England there arose the popular despotism of the Tudors. Thus France, +enlarged and consolidated under Lewis the Eleventh and his successors, +began to acquire that predominant influence on the politics of Europe +which her commanding geographical position, the martial spirit of her +people, and, it must be added, the unscrupulous ambition of her +rulers, have secured to her in every succeeding century. Meantime +there had appeared in the far East a foe still more terrible. The +capture of Constantinople gave Turks a firm hold on Europe, and +inspired them with the hope of effecting in the fifteenth century what +Abderrahman and his Saracens had so nearly effected in the eighth--of +establishing the faith of Islam through all the provinces that obeyed +the Western as well as the Eastern Csars. The navies of the Ottoman +Sultans swept the Mediterranean; their well-appointed armies pierced +Hungary and threatened Vienna. + +[Sidenote: Loss of imperial territories.] + +Nor was it only that formidable enemies had arisen without: the +frontiers of Germany herself were exposed by the loss of those +adjoining territories which had formerly owned allegiance to the +Emperors. Poland, once tributary, had shaken off the yoke at the +interregnum, and had recently wrested Prussia and Lusatz from the +Teutonic knights. Bohemia, where German culture had struck deeper +roots, remained a member of the Empire; but the privileges she had +obtained from Charles the Fourth, and the subsequent acquisition of +Silesia and Moravia, made her virtually independent. The restless +Hungarians avenged their former vassalage to Germany by frequent +inroads on her eastern border. + +[Sidenote: Italy.] + +Imperial power in Italy ended with the life of Henry the Seventh. +Rupert did indeed cross the Alps, but it was as the hireling of +Florence; Frederick the Third received the Lombard crown, but it no +longer conveyed the slightest power. In the beginning of the +fourteenth century Dante still hopes the renovation of his country +from the action of the Teutonic Emperors. Some fifty years later +Matthew Villani sees clearly that they do not and cannot reign to any +purpose south of the Alps[355]. Nevertheless the phantom of imperial +authority lingers on for a time. It is put forward by the Ghibeline +tyrants of the cities to justify their attacks on their Guelfic +neighbours: even resolute republicans like the Florentines do not yet +venture altogether to reject it, however unwilling to permit its +exercise. Before the middle of the fifteenth century, the names of +Guelf and Ghibeline had ceased to have any sense or meaning; the Pope +was no longer the protector nor the Emperor the assailant of municipal +freedom, for municipal freedom itself had well-nigh disappeared. But +the old war-cries of the Church and the Empire were still repeated as +they had been three centuries before, and the rival principles that +had once enlisted the noblest spirits of Italy on one or other side +had now sunk into a pretext for wars of aggrandizement or of mere +unmeaning hate. That which had been remarked long before in Greece was +seen to be true here; the spirit of faction outlived the cause of +faction, and became itself the new and prolific source of a useless, +endless strife. + +[Sidenote: Burgundy.] + +After Frederick the Third no Emperor was crowned in Rome, and almost +the only trace of that connection between Germany and Italy to +maintain which so much had been risked and lost, was to be found in +the obstinate belief of the Hapsburg Emperors, that their own claims, +though often purely dynastic and personal, could be enforced by an +appeal to the imperial rights of their predecessors. Because +Barbarossa had overrun Lombardy with a Transalpine host they fancied +themselves entitled to demand duchies for themselves and their +relatives, and to entangle the Empire in wars wherein no interest but +their own was involved. + +The kingdom of Arles, if it had never added much strength to the +Empire, had been useful as an outwork against France. And thus its +loss--Dauphin passing over, partly in A.D. 1350, finally in 1457, +Provence in 1486--proved a serious calamity, for it brought the French +nearer to Switzerland, and opened to them a tempting passage into +Italy. The Emperors did not for a time expressly renounce their feudal +suzerainty over these lands, but if it was hard to enforce a feudal +claim over a rebellious landgrave in Germany, how much harder to +control a vassal who was also the mightiest king in Europe. + +On the north-west frontier, the fall in A.D. 1477 of the great +principality which the dukes of French Burgundy were building up, was +seen with pleasure by the Rhinelanders whom Charles the last duke had +incessantly alarmed. But the only effect of its fall was to leave +France and Germany directly confronting each other, and it was soon +seen that the balance of strength lay on the side of the less numerous +but better organized and more active nation. + +[Sidenote: Switzerland.] + +Switzerland, too, could no longer be considered a part of the Germanic +realm. The revolt of the Forest Cantons, in A.D. 1313, was against the +oppressions practised in the name of Albert count of Hapsburg, rather +than against the legitimate authority of Albert the Emperor. But +although several subsequent sovereigns, and among them conspicuously +Henry the Seventh and Sigismund, favoured the Swiss liberties, yet +while the antipathy between the Confederates and the territorial +nobility gave a peculiar direction to their policy, the accession of +new cantons to their body, and their brilliant success against Charles +the Bold in A.D. 1477, made them proud of a separate national +existence, and not unwilling to cast themselves loose from the +stranded hulk of the Empire. Maximilian tried to reconquer them, but +after a furious struggle, in which the valleys of Western Tyrol were +repeatedly laid waste by the peasants of the Engadin, he was forced to +give way, and in A.D. 1500 recognized them by treaty as practically +independent. Not, however, till the peace of Westphalia, in A.D. 1648, +was the Swiss Confederation in the eye of public law a sovereign +state, and even after that date some of the towns continued to stamp +their coins with the double eagle of the Empire. + +[Sidenote: Internal weakness.] + +If those losses of territory were serious, far more serious was the +plight in which Germany herself lay. The country had now become not so +much an empire as an aggregate of very many small states, governed by +sovereigns who would neither remain at peace with each other nor +combine against a foreign enemy, under the nominal presidency of an +Emperor who had little lawful authority, and could not exert what he +had[356]. + +[Sidenote: Influence of the theory of the Empire as an international +power upon the Germanic constitution.] + +[Sidenote: Position of the Emperor in Germany, compared with that of +his predecessors in Europe.] + +There was another cause, besides those palpable and obvious ones +already enumerated, to which this state of things must be ascribed. +That cause is to be found in the theory which regarded the Empire as +an international power, supreme among Christian states. From the day +when Otto the Great was crowned at Rome, the characters of German king +and Roman Emperor were united in one person, and it has been shewn how +that union tended more and more to become a fusion. If the two +offices, in their nature and origin so dissimilar, had been held by +different persons, the Roman Empire would most probably have soon +disappeared, while the German kingdom grew into a robust national +monarchy. Their connection gave a longer life to the one and a feebler +life to the other, while at the same time it transformed both. So long +as Germany was only one of the many countries that bowed beneath their +sceptre it was possible for the Emperors, though we need not suppose +they troubled themselves with speculations on the matter, to +distinguish their imperial authority, as international and more than +half religious, from their royal, which was, or was meant to be, +exclusively local and feudal. But when within the narrowed bounds of +Germany these international functions had ceased to have any meaning, +when the rulers of England, Spain, France, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, +Italy, Burgundy, had in succession repudiated their control, and the +Lord of the World found himself obeyed by none but his own people, he +would not sink from being lord of the world into a simple Teutonic +king, but continued to play in the more contracted theatre the part +which had belonged to him in the wider. Thus did Germany instead of +Europe become the sphere of his international jurisdiction; and her +electors and princes, originally mere vassals, no greater than a Count +of Champagne in France, or an Earl of Chester in England, stepped into +the place which it had been meant that the several monarchs of +Christendom should fill. If the power of their head had been what it +was in the eleventh century, the additional dignity so assigned to +them might have signified very little. But coming in to confirm and +justify the liberties already won, this theory of their relation to +the sovereign had a great though at the time scarcely perceptible +influence in changing the German Empire, as we may now begin to call +it, from a state into a sort of confederation or body of states, +united indeed for some of the purposes of government, but separate and +independent for others more important. Thus, and that in its +ecclesiastical as well as its civil organization, Germany became a +miniature of Christendom[357]. The Pope, though he retained the wider +sway which his rival had lost, was in an especial manner the head of +the German clergy, as the Emperor was of the laity: the three Rhenish +prelates sat in the supreme college beside the four temporal electors: +the nobility of prince-bishops and abbots was as essential a part of +the constitution and as influential in the deliberations of the Diet +as were the dukes, counts, and margraves of the Empire. The +world-embracing Christian state was to have been governed by a +hierarchy of spiritual pastors, whose graduated ranks of authority +should exactly correspond with those of the temporal magistracy, who +were to be like them endowed with worldly wealth and power, and to +enjoy a jurisdiction co-ordinate although distinct. This system, which +it was in vain attempted to establish in Europe during the eleventh +and twelfth centuries, was in its main features that which prevailed +in the Germanic Empire from the fourteenth century onwards. And +conformably to the analogy which may be traced between the position of +the archdukes of Austria in Germany and the place which the four Saxon +and the two first Franconian Emperors had held in Europe, both being +recognized as leaders and presidents in all that concerned the common +interest, in the one case of the Christian, in the other of the whole +German people, while neither of them had any power of direct +government in the territories of local kings and lords; so the plan by +which those who chose Maximilian emperor sought to strengthen their +national monarchy was in substance that which the Popes had followed +when they conferred the crown of the world on Charles and Otto. The +pontiffs then, like the electors now, finding that they could not give +with the title the power which its functions demanded, were driven to +the expedient of selecting for the office persons whose private +resources enabled them to sustain it with dignity. The first Frankish +and the first Saxon Emperors were chosen because they were already the +mightiest potentates in Europe; Maximilian because he was the +strongest of the German princes. The parallel may be carried one step +further. Just as under Otto and his successors the Roman Empire was +Teutonized, so now under the Hapsburg dynasty, from whose hands the +sceptre departed only once thenceforth, the Teutonic Empire tends more +and more to lose itself in an Austrian monarchy. + +[Sidenote: Beginning of the Hapsburg influence in Germany.] + +Of that monarchy and of the power of the house of Hapsburg, Maximilian +was, even more than Rudolph his ancestor, the founder[358]. Uniting in +his person those wide domains through Germany which had been dispersed +among the collateral branches of his house, and claiming by his +marriage with Mary of Burgundy most of the territories of Charles the +Bold, he was a prince greater than any who had sat on the Teutonic +throne since the death of Frederick the Second. But it was as archduke +of Austria, count of Tyrol, duke of Styria and Carinthia, feudal +superior of lands, in Swabia, Alsace, and Switzerland, that he was +great, not as Roman Emperor. For just as from him the Austrian +monarchy begins, so with him the Holy Empire in its old meaning ends. +That strange system of doctrines, half religious half political, which +had supported it for so many ages, was growing obsolete, and the +theory which had wrought such changes on Germany and Europe, passed +ere long so completely from remembrance that we can now do no more +than call up a faint and wavering image of what it must once have +been. + +[Sidenote: Character of the epoch of Maximilian.] + +[Sidenote: The discovery of America.] + +For it is not only in imperial history that the accession of +Maximilian is a landmark. That time--a time of change and movement in +every part of human life, a time when printing had become common, and +books were no longer confined to the clergy, when drilled troops were +replacing the feudal militia, when the use of gunpowder was changing +the face of war--was especially marked by one event, to which the +history of the world offers no parallel before or since, the discovery +of America. The cloud which from the beginning of things had hung +thick and dark round the borders of civilization was suddenly lifted: +the feeling of mysterious awe with which men had regarded the firm +plain of earth and her encircling ocean ever since the days of Homer, +vanished when astronomers and geographers taught them that she was an +insignificant globe, which, so far from being the centre of the +universe, was itself swept round in the motion of one of the least of +its countless systems. The notions that had hitherto prevailed +regarding the life of man and his relations to nature and the +supernatural, were rudely shaken by the knowledge that was soon gained +of tribes in every stage of culture and living under every variety of +condition, who had developed apart from all the influences of the +Eastern hemisphere. In A.D. 1453 the capture of Constantinople and +extinction of the Eastern Empire had dealt a fatal blow to the +prestige of tradition and an immemorial name: in A.D. 1492 there was +disclosed a world whither the eagles of all-conquering Rome had never +winged their flight. No one could now have repeated the arguments of +the _De Monarchia_. + +[Sidenote: The Renaissance.] + +Another movement, too, widely different, but even more momentous, was +beginning to spread from Italy beyond the Alps. Since the barbarian +tribes settled in the Roman provinces, no change had come to pass in +Europe at all comparable to that which followed the diffusion of the +new learning in the latter half of the fifteenth century. Enchanted by +the beauty of the ancient models of art and poetry, more particularly +those of the Greeks, men came to regard with aversion and contempt all +that had been done or produced from the days of Trajan to those of +Pope Nicholas the Fifth. The Latin style of the writers who lived +after Tacitus was debased: the architecture of the Middle Ages was +barbarous: the scholastic philosophy was an odious and unmeaning +jargon: Aristotle himself, Greek though he was, Aristotle who had been +for three centuries more than a prophet or an apostle, was hurled from +his throne, because his name was associated with the dismal quarrels +of Scotists and Thomists. That spirit, whether we call it analytical +or sceptical, or earthly, or simply secular, for it is more or less +all of these--the spirit which was the exact antithesis of medival +mysticism, had swept in and carried men away, with all the force of a +pent-up torrent. People were content to gratify their tastes and their +senses, caring little for worship, and still less for doctrine: their +hopes and ideas were no longer such as had made their forefathers +crusaders or ascetics: their imagination was possessed by associations +far different from those which had inspired Dante: they did not revolt +against the church, but they had no enthusiasm for her, and they had +enthusiasm for whatever was fresh and graceful and intelligible. From +all that was old and solemn, or that seemed to savour of feudalism or +monkery, they turned away, too indifferent to be hostile. And so, in +the midst of the Renaissance, so, under the consciousness that former +things were passing from the earth, and a new order opening, so, with +the other beliefs and memories of the Middle Age, the shadowy rights +of the Roman Empire melted away in the fuller modern light. Here and +there a jurist muttered that no neglect could destroy its universal +supremacy, or a priest declaimed to listless hearers on its duty to +protect the Holy See; but to Germany it had become an ancient device +for holding together the discordant members of her body, to its +possessors an engine for extending the power of the house of Hapsburg. + +[Sidenote: Empire henceforth German.] + +Henceforth, therefore, we must look upon the Holy Roman Empire as lost +in the German; and after a few faint attempts to resuscitate +old-fashioned claims, nothing remains to indicate its origin save a +sounding title and a precedence among the states of Europe. It was not +that the Renaissance exerted any direct political influence either +against the Empire or for it; men were too busy upon statues and coins +and manuscripts to care what befel Popes or Emperors. It acted rather +by silently withdrawing the whole system of doctrines upon which the +Empire had rested, and thus leaving it, since it had previously no +support but that of opinion, without any support at all. + +[Sidenote: Attempts to reform the Germanic Constitution.] + +[Sidenote: Causes of the failure of the projects of reform.] + +During Maximilian's eventful reign several efforts were made to +construct a new constitution, but it is to German, rather than to +imperial history that they properly belong. Here, indeed, the history +of the Holy Empire might close, did not the title unchanged beckon us +on, and were it not that the events of these later centuries may in +their causes be traced back to times when the name of Roman was not +wholly a mockery. It may be enough to remark that while the +preservation of peace and the better administration of justice were in +some measure attained by the Public Peace and Imperial Chamber, +established in A.D. 1495, schemes still more important failed through +the bad constitution of the Diet, and the unconquerable jealousy of +the Emperor and the Estates. Maximilian refused to have his +prerogative, indefinite though weak, restricted by the appointment of +an administrative council[359], and when the Estates extorted it from +him, did his best to ensure its failure. In the Diet, which consisted +of three colleges, electors, princes, and cities, the lower nobility +and knights of the Empire were unrepresented, and resented every +decree that affected their position, refusing to pay taxes in voting +which they had no voice. The interests of the princes and the cities +were often irreconcilable, while the strength of the crown would not +have been sufficient to make its adhesion to the latter of any effect. +The policy of conciliating the commons, which Sigismund had tried, +succeeding Emperors seldom cared to repeat, content to gain their +point by raising factions among the territorial magnates, and so to +stave off the unwelcome demand for reform. After many earnest attempts +to establish a representative system, such as might resist the +tendency to local independence and cure the evils of separate +administration, the hope so often baffled died away. Forces were too +nearly balanced: the sovereign could not extend his personal control, +nor could the reforming party limit him by a strong council of +government, for such a measure would have equally trenched on the +independence of the states. So ended the first great effort for German +unity, interesting from its bearing on the events and aspirations of +our own day; interesting, too, as giving the most convincing proof of +the decline of the imperial office. For the projects of reform did not +propose to effect their objects by restoring to Maximilian the +authority his predecessors had once enjoyed, but by setting up a body +which would resemble far more nearly the senate of a federal state +than the administrative council which surrounds a monarch. The +existing system developed itself further: relieved from external +pressure, the princes became more despotic in their own territories: +distinct codes were framed, and new systems of administration +introduced: the insurgent peasantry were crushed down with more +confident harshness. Already had leagues of princes and cities been +formed[360] (that of Swabia was one of the strongest forces in +Germany, and often the monarch's firmest support); now alliances begin +to be contracted with foreign powers, and receive a direction of +formidable import from the rivalry which the pretensions on Naples and +Milan of Charles the Eighth and Lewis the Twelfth of France kindled +between their house and the Austrian. It was no slight gain to have +friends in the heart of the enemy's country, such as French intrigue +found in the Elector Palatine and the count of Wrtemberg. + +[Sidenote: Germanic nationality.] + +[Sidenote: Change of Titles.] + +[Sidenote: The title 'Imperator Electus.'] + +Nevertheless this was also the era of the first conscious feeling of +German nationality, as distinct from imperial. Driven in on all hands, +with Italy and the Slavic lands and Burgundy hopelessly lost, +Teutschland learnt to separate itself from Welschland[361]. The Empire +became the representative of a narrower but more practicable national +union. It is not a mere coincidence that at this date there appear +several notable changes of style. 'Nationis Teutonic' (Teutscher +Nation) is added to the simple 'sacrum imperium Romanum.' The title of +'Imperator electus,' which Maximilian obtains leave from Pope Julius +the Second to assume, when the Venetians prevent him from reaching his +capital, marks the severance of Germany from Rome. No subsequent +Emperor received his crown in the ancient capital (Charles the Fifth +was indeed crowned by the Pope's hands, but the ceremony took place at +Bologna, and was therefore of at least questionable validity); each +assumed after his German coronation[362] the title of Emperor +Elect[363], and employed this in all documents issued in his name. But +the word 'elect' being omitted when he was addressed by others, partly +from motives of courtesy, partly because the old rules regarding the +Roman coronation were forgotten, or remembered only by antiquaries, he +was never called, even when formality was required, anything but +Emperor. The substantial import of another title now first introduced +is the same. Before Otto the First, the Teutonic king had called +himself either 'rex' alone, or 'Francorum orientalium rex,' or +'Francorum atque Saxonum rex:' after A.D. 962, all lesser dignities +had been merged in the 'Romanorum Imperator[364].' To this Maximilian +appended 'Germani rex,' or, adding Frederick the Second's +bequest[365], 'Knig in Germanien und Jerusalem.' It has been thought +that from a mixture of the title King of Germany, and that of Emperor, +has been formed the phrase 'German Emperor,' or less correctly, +'Emperor of Germany[366].' But more probably the terms 'German +Emperor' and 'Emperor of Germany' are nothing but convenient +corruptions of the technical description of the Germanic +sovereign[367]. + +That the Empire was thus sinking into a merely German power cannot be +doubted. But it was only natural that those who lived at the time +should not discern the tendency of events. Again and again did the +restless and sanguine Maximilian propose the recovery of Burgundy and +Italy,--his last scheme was to adjust the relations of Papacy and +Empire by becoming Pope himself: nor were successive Diets less +zealous to check private war, still the scandal of Germany, to set +right the gear of the imperial chamber, to make the imperial officials +permanent, and their administration uniform throughout the country. +But while they talked the heavens darkened, and the flood came and +destroyed them all. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[352] See Dean Stanley's _Lectures on the History of the Eastern +Church_, Lecture II. + +[353] It is not without interest to observe that the council of Basel +shewed signs of reciprocating imperial care by claiming those very +rights over the Empire to which the Popes were accustomed to pretend. + +[354] The councils of Basel and Florence were not recognized from +first to last by all Europe, as was the council of Constance. When the +assembly of Trent met, the great religious schism had already made a +general council, in the true sense of the word, impossible. + +[355] 'E pero venendo gl'imperadori della Magna col supremo titolo, e +volendo col senno e colla forza della Magna reggiere gli Italiani, non +lo fanno e non lo possono fare.'--M. Villani, iv. 77. + +Matthew Villani's etymology of the two great faction names of Italy is +worth quoting, as a fair sample of the skill of medivals in such +matters:--'La Italia tutta e divisa mistamente in due parti, l'una che +seguita ne' fatti del mondo la santa chiesa--e questi son dinominati +Guelfi; cio, guardatori di f. E l'altra parte seguitano lo 'mperio o +fedele o enfedele che sia delle cose del mondo a santa chiesa. E +chiamansi Ghibellini, quasi guida belli; cio, guidatori di +battaglie.' + +[356] 'Nam quamvis Imperatorem et regem et dominum vestrum esse +fateamini, precario tamen ille imperare videtur: nulla ei potentia +est; tantum ei paretis quantum vultis, vultis autem minimum.'--neas +Sylvius to the princes of Germany, quoted by Hippolytus a Lapide. + +[357] See gidi, _Der Frstenrath nach dem Luneviller Frieden_; a book +which throws more light than any other with which I am acquainted on +the inner nature of the Empire. + +[358] The two immediately preceding Emperors, Albert II (1438-1439) +and Frederick III, father of Maximilian (1439-1493), had been +Hapsburgs. It is nevertheless from Maximilian that the ascendancy of +that family must be dated. + +[359] Reichsregiment. + +[360] Wenzel had encouraged the leagues of the cities, and incurred +thereby the hatred of the nobles. + +[361] The Germans, like our own ancestors, called foreign, _i. e._ +non-Teutonic nations, Welsh. Yet apparently not all such nations, but +only those which they in some way associated with the Roman Empire, +the Cymry of Roman Britain, the Romanized Kelts of Gaul, the Italians, +the Roumans or Wallachs of Transylvania and the Principalities. It +does not appear that either the Magyars or any Slavonic people were +called by any form of the name Welsh. + +[362] The German crown was received at Aachen, the ancient Frankish +capital, where may still be seen, in the gallery of the basilica, the +marble throne on which the Emperors from the days of Charles to those +of Ferdinand I were crowned. It was upon this chair that Otto III had +found the body of Charles seated, when he opened his tomb in A.D. +1001. After Ferdinand I, the coronation as well as the election took +place at Frankfort. An account of the ceremony may be found in +Goethe's _Wahrheit und Dichtung_. Aachen, though it remained and +indeed is still a German town, lay in too remote a corner of the +country to be a convenient capital, and was moreover in dangerous +proximity to the West Franks, as stubborn old Germans continue to call +them. As early as A.D. 1353 we find bishop Leopold of Bamberg +complaining that the French had arrogated to themselves the honours of +the Frankish name, and called themselves 'reges Franci,' instead of +'reges Franci occidentalis.'--Lupoldus Bebenburgensis, apud +Schardium, _Sylloge Tractatuum_. + +[363] Erwhlter Kaiser. See Appendix, Note C. + +[364] Romanorum rex (after Henry II) till the coronation at Rome. + +[365] But the Emperor was only one of many claimants to this kingdom; +they multiplied as the prospect of regaining it died away. + +[366] The latter does not occur, even in English books, till +comparatively recent times. English writers of the seventeenth century +always call him 'The Emperor,' pure and simple, just as they +invariably say 'the French king.' But the phrase 'Empereur d'Almayne' +may be found in very early French writers. + +[367] See Moser, _Rmische Kayser_; Goldast's and other collections of +imperial edicts and proclamations. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE REFORMATION AND ITS EFFECTS UPON THE EMPIRE. + + +The Reformation falls to be mentioned here, of course not as a +religious movement, but as the cause of political changes, which still +further rent the Empire, and struck at the root of the theory by which +it had been created and upheld. Luther completed the work of +Hildebrand. Hitherto it had seemed not impossible to strengthen the +German state into a monarchy, compact if not despotic; the very Diet +of Worms, where the monk of Wittenberg proclaimed to an astonished +church and Emperor that the day of spiritual tyranny was past, had +framed and presented a fresh scheme for the construction of a central +council of government. The great religious schism put an end to all +such hopes, for it became a source of political disunion far more +serious and permanent than any that had existed before, and it taught +the two factions into which Germany was henceforth divided to regard +each other with feelings more bitter than those of hostile nations. + +[Sidenote: Accession of Charles V (1519-1558).] + +The breach came at the most unfortunate time possible. After an +election, more memorable than any preceding, an election in which +Francis the First of France and Henry the Eighth of England had been +his competitors, a prince had just ascended the imperial throne who +united dominions vaster than any Europe had seen since the days of his +great namesake. Spain and Naples, Flanders, and other parts of the +Burgundian lands, as well as large regions in Eastern Germany, obeyed +Charles: he drew inexhaustible revenues from a new empire beyond the +Atlantic. Such a power, directed by a mind more resolute and profound +than that of Maximilian his grandfather, might have well been able, +despite the stringency of his coronation engagements[368], and the +watchfulness of the electors[369], to override their usurped +privileges, and make himself practically as well as officially the +head of the nation. Charles the Fifth, though from the coldness of his +manner[370] and his Flemish speech never a favourite among the +Germans, was in point of fact far stronger than Maximilian or any +other Emperor who had reigned for three centuries. In Italy he +succeeded, after long struggles with the Pope and the French, in +rendering himself supreme: England he knew how to lead, by flattering +Henry and cajoling Wolsey: from no state but France had he serious +opposition to fear. To this strength his imperial dignity was indeed a +mere accident: its sources were the infantry of Spain, the looms of +Flanders, the sierras of Peru. But the conquest once achieved, might +could lose itself in right; and as an earlier Charles had veiled the +terror of the Frankish sword under the mask of Roman election, so +might his successor sway a hundred provinces with the sole name of +Roman Emperor, and transmit to his race a dominion as wide and more +enduring. + +[Sidenote: Attitude of Charles towards the religious movement.] + +One is tempted to speculate as to what might have happened had Charles +espoused the reforming cause. His reverence for the Pope's person is +sufficiently seen in the sack of Rome and the captivity of Clement; +the traditions of his office might have led him to tread in the steps +of the Henrys and the Fredericks, into which even the timid Lewis the +Fourth and the unstable Sigismund had sometimes ventured; the +awakening zeal of the German people, exasperated by the exactions of +the Romish court, would have strengthened his hands, and enabled him, +while moderating the excesses of change, to fix his throne on the deep +foundations of national love. It may well be doubted--Englishmen at +least have reason for the doubt--whether the Reformation would not +have lost as much as it could have gained by being entangled in the +meshes of royal patronage. But, setting aside Charles's personal +leaning to the old faith, and forgetting that he was king of the most +bigoted race of Europe, his position as Emperor made him almost +perforce the Pope's ally. The Empire had been called into being by +Rome, had vaunted the protection of the Apostolic See as its highest +earthly privilege, had latterly been wont, especially in Hapsburg +hands, to lean on the papacy for support. Itself founded entirely on +prescription and the traditions of immemorial reverence, how could it +abandon the cause which the longest prescription and the most solemn +authority had combined to consecrate? With the German clergy, despite +occasional quarrels, it had been on better terms than with the lay +aristocracy; their heads had been the chief ministers of the crown; +the advocacies of their abbeys were the last source of imperial +revenue to disappear. To turn against them now, when furiously +assailed by heretics; to abrogate claims hallowed by antiquity and a +hundred laws, would be to pronounce its own sentence, and the fall of +the eternal city's spiritual dominion must involve the fall of what +still professed to be her temporal. Charles would have been glad to +see some abuses corrected; but a broad line of policy was called for, +and he cast in his lot with the Catholics[371]. + +[Sidenote: Ultimate failure of the repressive policy of Charles.] + +[Sidenote: Ferdinand I, 1558-1564.] + +[Sidenote: Maximilian II, 1564-1576.] + +[Sidenote: Destruction of the Germanic state-system.] + +Of many momentous results only a few need be noticed here. The +reconstruction of the old imperial system, upon the basis of Hapsburg +power, proved in the end impossible. Yet for some years it had seemed +actually accomplished. When the Smalkaldic league had been dissolved +and its leaders captured, the whole country lay prostrate before +Charles. He overawed the Diet at Augsburg by the Spanish soldiery: he +forced formularies of doctrine upon the vanquished Protestants: he set +up and pulled down whom he would throughout Germany, amid the muttered +discontent of his own partisans. Then, as in the beginning of the year +1552, he lay at Innsbruck, fondly dreaming that his work was done, +waiting the spring weather to cross to Trent, where the Catholic +fathers had again met to settle the world's faith for it, news was +suddenly brought that North Germany was in arms, and that the revolted +Maurice of Saxony had seized Donauwerth, and was hurrying through the +Bavarian Alps to surprise his sovereign. Charles rose and fled +southwards over the snows of the Brenner, then eastwards, under the +blood-red cliffs of dolomite that wall in the Pusterthal, far away +into the valleys of Carinthia: the council of Trent broke up in +consternation: Europe saw and the Emperor acknowledged that in his +fancied triumph over the spirit of revolution he had done no more than +block up for the moment an irresistible torrent. When this last effort +to produce religious uniformity by violence had failed as hopelessly +as the previous devices of holding discussions of doctrine and calling +a general council, a sort of armistice was agreed to in 1554, which +lasted in mutual fear and suspicion for more than sixty years. Four +years after this disappointment of the hopes and projects which had +occupied his busy life, Charles, weighed down by cares and with the +shadow of coming death already upon him, resigned the sovereignty of +Spain and the Indies, of Flanders and Naples, into the hands of his +son Philip the Second; while the imperial sceptre passed to his +brother Ferdinand, who had been some time before chosen King of the +Romans. Ferdinand was content to leave things much as he found them, +and the amiable Maximilian II, who succeeded him, though personally +well inclined to the Protestants, found himself fettered by his +position and his allies, and could do little or nothing to quench the +flame of religious and political hatred. Germany remained divided into +two omnipresent factions, and so further than ever from harmonious +action, or a tightening of the long-loosened bond of feudal +allegiance. The states of either creed being gathered into a league, +there could no longer be a recognized centre of authority for judicial +or administrative purposes. Least of all could a centre be sought in +the Emperor, the leader of the papal party, the suspected foe of every +Protestant. Too closely watched to do anything of his own authority, +too much committed to one party to be accepted as a mediator by the +other, he was driven to attain his own objects by falling in with the +schemes and furthering the selfish ends of his adherents, by becoming +the accomplice or the tool of the Jesuits. The Lutheran princes +addressed themselves to reduce a power of which they had still an +over-sensitive dread, and found when they exacted from each successive +sovereign engagements more stringent than his predecessor's, that in +this, and this alone, their Catholic brethren were not unwilling to +join them. Thus obliged to strip himself one by one of the ancient +privileges of his crown, the Emperor came to have little influence on +the government except that which his intrigues might exercise. Nay, it +became almost impossible to maintain a government at all. For when the +Reformers found themselves outvoted at the Diet, they declared that in +matters of religion a majority ought not to bind a minority. As the +measures were few which did not admit of being reduced to this +category, for whatever benefited the Emperor or any other Catholic +prince injured the Protestants, nothing could be done save by the +assent of two bitterly hostile factions. Thus scarce anything was +done; and even the courts of justice were stopped by the disputes that +attended the appointment of every judge or assessor. + +[Sidenote: Alliance of the Protestants with France.] + +In the foreign politics of Germany another result followed. Inferior +in military force and organization, the Protestant princes at first +provided for their safety by forming leagues among themselves. The +device was an old one, and had been employed by the monarch himself +before now, in despair at the effete and cumbrous forms of the +imperial system. Soon they began to look beyond the Vosges, and found +that France, burning heretics at home, was only too happy to smile on +free opinions elsewhere. The alliance was easily struck; Henry the +Second assumed in 1552 the title of 'Protector of the Germanic +liberties,' and a pretext for interference was never wanting in +future. + +[Sidenote: The Reformation spirit, and its influence upon the Empire.] + +[Sidenote: Effect of the Reformation on the doctrines regarding the +Visible Church.] + +These were some of the visible political consequences of the great +religious schism of the sixteenth century. But beyond and above them +there was a change far more momentous than any of its immediate +results. There is perhaps no event in history which has been represented +in so great a variety of lights as the Reformation. It has been called +a revolt of the laity against the clergy, or of the Teutonic races +against the Italians, or of the kingdoms of Europe against the +universal monarchy of the Popes. Some have seen in it only a burst of +long-repressed anger at the luxury of the prelates and the manifold +abuses of the ecclesiastical system; others a renewal of the youth of +the church by a return to primitive forms of doctrine. All these +indeed to some extent it was; but it was also something more profound, +and fraught with mightier consequences than any of them. It was in its +essence the assertion of the principle of individuality--that is to +say, of true spiritual freedom. Hitherto the personal consciousness +had been a faint and broken reflection of the universal; obedience had +been held the first of religious duties; truth had been conceived as a +something external and positive, which the priesthood who were its +stewards were to communicate to the passive layman, and whose saving +virtue lay not in its being felt and known by him to be truth, but in +a purely formal and unreasoning acceptance. The great principles which +medival Christianity still cherished were obscured by the limited, +rigid, almost sensuous forms which had been forced on them in times of +ignorance and barbarism. That which was in its nature abstract, had +been able to survive only by taking a concrete expression. The +universal consciousness became the Visible Church: the Visible Church +hardened into a government and degenerated into a hierarchy. Holiness +of heart and life was sought by outward works, by penances and +pilgrimages, by gifts to the poor and to the clergy, wherein there +dwelt often little enough of a charitable mind. The presence of divine +truth among men was symbolized under one aspect by the existence on +earth of an infallible Vicar of God, the Pope; under another, by the +reception of the present Deity in the sacrifice of the mass; in a +third, by the doctrine that the priest's power to remit sins and +administer the sacraments depended upon a transmission of miraculous +gifts which can hardly be called other than physical. All this system +of doctrine, which might, but for the position of the church as a +worldly and therefore obstructive power, have expanded, renewed, and +purified itself during the four centuries that had elapsed since its +completion[372], and thus remained in harmony with the growing +intelligence of mankind, was suddenly rent in pieces by the convulsion +of the Reformation, and flung away by the more religious and more +progressive peoples of Europe. That which was external and concrete, +was in all things to be superseded by that which was inward and +spiritual. It was proclaimed that the individual spirit, while it +continued to mirror itself in the world-spirit, had nevertheless an +independent existence as a centre of self-issuing force, and was to be +in all things active rather than passive. Truth was no longer to be +truth to the soul until it should have been by the soul recognized, +and in some measure even created; but when so recognized and felt, it +is able under the form of faith to transcend outward works and to +transform the dogmas of the understanding; it becomes the living +principle within each man's breast, infinite itself, and expressing +itself infinitely through his thoughts and acts. He who as a spiritual +being was delivered from the priest, and brought into direct relation +with the Divinity, needed not, as heretofore, to be enrolled a member +of a visible congregation of his fellows, that he might live a pure +and useful life among them. Thus by the Reformation the Visible Church +as well as the priesthood lost that paramount importance which had +hitherto belonged to it, and sank from being the depositary of all +religious tradition, the source and centre of religious life, the +arbiter of eternal happiness or misery, into a mere association of +Christian men, for the expression of mutual sympathy and the better +attainment of certain common ends. Like those other doctrines which +were now assailed by the Reformation, this medival view of the nature +of the Visible Church had been naturally, and so, it may be said, +necessarily developed between the third and the twelfth century, and +must therefore have represented the thoughts and satisfied the wants +of those times. By the Visible Church the flickering lamp of knowledge +and literary culture, as well as of religion, had been fed and tended +through the long night of the Dark Ages. But, like the whole +theological fabric of which it formed a part, it was now hard and +unfruitful, identified with its own worst abuses, capable apparently +of no further development, and unable to satisfy minds which in +growing stronger had grown more conscious of their strength. Before +the awakened zeal of the northern nations it stood a cold and lifeless +system, whose organization as a hierarchy checked the free activity of +thought, whose bestowal of worldly power and wealth on spiritual +pastors drew them away from their proper duties, and which by +maintaining alongside of the civil magistracy a co-ordinate and rival +government, maintained also that separation of the spiritual element +in man from the secular, which had been so complete and so pernicious +during the Middle Ages, which debases life, and severs religion from +morality. + +[Sidenote: Consequent effect upon the Empire.] + +The Reformation, it may be said, was a religious movement: and it is +the Empire, not the Church, that we have here to consider. The +distinction is only apparent. The Holy Empire is but another name for +the Visible Church. It has been shewn already how medival theory +constructed the State on the model of the Church; how the Roman Empire +was the shadow of the Popedom--designed to rule men's bodies as the +pontiff ruled their souls. Both alike claimed obedience on the ground +that Truth is One, and that where there is One faith there must be One +government[373]. And, therefore, since it was this very principle of +Formal Unity that the Reformation overthrew, it became a revolt +against despotism of every kind; it erected the standard of civil as +well as of religious liberty, since both of them are needed, though +needed in a different measure, for the worthy development of the +individual spirit. The Empire had never been conspicuously the +antagonist of popular freedom, and was, even under Charles the Fifth, +far less formidable to the commonalty than were the petty princes of +Germany. But submission, and submission on the ground of indefeasible +transmitted right, upon the ground of Catholic traditions and the duty +of the Christian magistrate to suffer heresy and schism as little as +the parallel sins of treason and rebellion, had been its constant +claim and watchword. Since the days of Julius Csar it had passed +through many phases, but in none of them had it ever been a +constitutional monarchy, pledged to the recognition of popular rights. +And hence the indirect tendency of the Reformation to narrow the +province of government and exalt the privileges of the subject was as +plainly adverse to the Empire as the Protestant claim of the right of +private judgment was to the pretensions of the Papacy and the +priesthood. + +[Sidenote: Immediate influence of the Reformation on political and +religious liberty.] + +[Sidenote: Conduct of the Protestant States.] + +The remark must not be omitted in passing, how much less than might +have been expected the religious movement did at first actually effect +in the way of promoting either political progress or freedom of +conscience. The habits of centuries were not to be unlearnt in a few +years, and it was natural that ideas struggling into existence and +activity should work erringly and imperfectly for a time. By a few +inflammable minds liberty was carried into antinomianism, and produced +the wildest excesses of life and doctrine. Several fantastic sects +arose, refusing to conform to the ordinary rules without which human +society could not subsist. But these commotions neither spread widely +nor lasted long. Far more pervading and more remarkable was the other +error, if that can be called an error which was the almost unavoidable +result of the circumstances of the time. The principles which had led +the Protestants to sever themselves from the Roman Church, should have +taught them to bear with the opinions of others, and warned them from +the attempt to connect agreement in doctrine or manner of worship with +the necessary forms of civil government. Still less ought they to have +enforced that agreement by civil penalties; for faith, upon their own +shewing, had no value save when it was freely given. A church which +does not claim to be infallible is bound to allow that some part of +the truth may possibly be with its adversaries: a church which permits +or encourages human reason to apply itself to revelation has no right +first to argue with people and then to punish them if they are not +convinced. But whether it was that men only half saw what they had +done, or that finding it hard enough to unrivet priestly fetters, they +welcomed all the aid a temporal prince could give, the result was that +religion, or rather religious creeds, began to be involved with +politics more closely than had ever been the case before. Through the +greater part of Christendom wars of religion raged for a century or +more, and down to our own days feelings of theological antipathy +continue to affect the relations of the powers of Europe. In almost +every country the form of doctrine which triumphed associated itself +with the state, and maintained the despotic system of the Middle Ages, +while it forsook the grounds on which that system had been based. It +was thus that there arose National Churches, which were to be to the +several countries of Europe that which the Church Catholic had been to +the world at large; churches, that is to say, each of which was to be +co-extensive with its respective state, was to enjoy landed wealth and +exclusive political privilege, and was to be armed with coercive +powers against recusants. It was not altogether easy to find a set of +theoretical principles on which such churches might be made to rest, +for they could not, like the old church, point to the historical +transmission of their doctrines; they could not claim to have in any +one man or body of men an infallible organ of divine truth; they could +not even fall back upon general councils, or the argument, whatever it +may be worth, '_Securus iudicat orbis terrarum_.' But in practice +these difficulties were soon got over, for the dominant party in each +state, if it was not infallible, was at any rate quite sure that it +was right, and could attribute the resistance of other sects to +nothing but moral obliquity. The will of the sovereign, as in England, +or the will of the majority, as in Holland, Scandinavia, and Scotland, +imposed upon each country a peculiar form of worship, and kept up the +practices of medival intolerance without their justification. +Persecution, which might be at least excused in an infallible Catholic +and Apostolic Church, was peculiarly odious when practised by those +who were not catholic, who were no more apostolic than their +neighbours, and who had just revolted from the most ancient and +venerable authority in the name of rights which they now denied to +others. If union with the visible church by participation in a +material sacrament be necessary to eternal life, persecution may be +held a duty, a kindness to perishing souls. But if the kingdom of +heaven be in every sense a kingdom of the spirit, if saving faith be +possible out of one visible body and under a diversity of external +forms, persecution becomes at once a crime and a folly. Therefore the +intolerance of Protestants, if the forms it took were less cruel than +those practised by the Roman Catholics, was also far less defensible; +for it had seldom anything better to allege on its behalf than motives +of political expediency, or, more often, the mere headstrong passion +of a ruler or a faction to silence the expressions of any opinions but +their own. To enlarge upon this theme, did space permit it, would not +be to digress from the proper subject of this narrative. For the +Empire, as has been said more than once already, was far less an +institution than a theory or doctrine. And hence it is not too much to +say, that the ideas which have but recently ceased to prevail +regarding the duty of the magistrate to compel uniformity in doctrine +and worship by the civil arm, may all be traced to the relation which +that doctrine established between the Roman Church and the Roman +Empire; to the conception, in fact, of an Empire Church itself. + +[Sidenote: Influence of the Reformation on the name and associations +of the Empire.] + +Two of the ways in which the Reformation affected the Empire have been +now described: its immediate political results, and its far more +profound doctrinal importance, as implanting new ideas regarding the +nature of freedom and the province of government. A third, though +apparently almost superficial, cannot be omitted. Its name and its +traditions, little as they retained of their former magic power, were +still such as to excite the antipathy of the German reformers. The +form which the doctrine of the supreme importance of one faith and one +body of the faithful had taken was the dominion of the ancient capital +of the world through her spiritual head, the Roman bishop, and her +temporal head, the Emperor. As the names of Roman and Christian had +been once convertible, so long afterwards were those of Roman and +Catholic. The Reformation, separating into its parts what had hitherto +been one conception, attacked Romanism but not Catholicity, and formed +religious communities which, while continuing to call themselves +Christian, repudiated the form with which Christianity had been so +long identified in the West. As the Empire was founded upon the +assumption that the limits of Church and State are exactly +co-extensive, a change which withdrew half of its subjects from the +one body while they remained members of the other, transformed it +utterly, destroyed the meaning and value of its old arrangements, and +forced the Emperor into a strange and incongruous position. To his +Protestant subjects he was merely the head of the administration, to +the Catholics he was also the Defender and Advocate of their church. +Thus from being chief of the whole state he became the chief of a +party within it, the Corpus Catholicorum, as opposed to the Corpus +Evangelicorum; he lost what had been hitherto his most holy claim to +the obedience of the subject; the awakened feeling of German +nationality was driven into hostility to an institution whose title +and history bound it to the centre of foreign tyranny. After exulting +for seven centuries in the heritage of Roman rule, the Teutonic +nations cherished again the feelings with which their ancestors had +resisted Julius Csar and Germanicus. Two mutually repugnant systems +could not exist side by side without striving to destroy one another. +The instincts of theological sympathy overcame the duties of political +allegiance, and men who were subjects both of the Empire and of their +local prince, gave all their loyalty to him who espoused their +doctrines and protected their worship. For in North Germany, princes +as well as people were mostly Lutheran: in the southern and especially +the south-eastern lands, where the magnates held to the old faith, +Protestants were scarcely to be found except in the free cities. The +same causes which injured the Emperor's position in Germany swept away +the last semblance of his authority through other countries. In the +great struggle which followed, the Protestants of England and France, +of Holland and Sweden, thought of him only as the ally of Spain, of +the Vatican, of the Jesuits; and he of whom it had been believed a +century before that by nothing but his existence was the coming of +Antichrist on earth delayed, was in the eyes of the northern divines +either Antichrist himself or Antichrist's foremost champion. The +earthquake that opened a chasm in Germany was felt through Europe; its +states and peoples marshalled themselves under two hostile banners, +and with the Empire's expiring power vanished that united Christendom +it had been created to lead[374]. + +[Sidenote: Troubles of Germany.] + +[Sidenote: Rudolf II, 1576-1612.] + +[Sidenote: Matthias, 1612-1619.] + +Some of the effects thus sketched began to shew themselves as early as +that famous Diet of Worms, from Luther's appearance at which, in A.D. +1521, we may date the beginning of the Reformation. But just as the +end of the religious conflict in England can hardly be placed earlier +than the Revolution of 1688, nor in France than the Revocation of the +Edict of Nantes in 1685, so it was not till after more than a century +of doubtful strife that the new order of things was fully and finally +established in Germany. The arrangements of Augsburg, like most +treaties on the basis of _uti possidetis_, were no better than a +hollow truce, satisfying no one, and consciously made to be broken. +The church lands which Protestants had seized, and Jesuit confessors +urged the Catholic princes to reclaim, furnished an unceasing ground +of quarrel: neither party yet knew the strength of its antagonists +sufficiently to abstain from insulting or persecuting their modes of +worship, and the smouldering hate of half a century was kindled by the +troubles of Bohemia into the Thirty Years' War. + +[Sidenote: Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648.] + +[Sidenote: Ferdinand II, A.D. 1619-37.] + +[Sidenote: Plans of Ferdinand II.] + +[Sidenote: Gustavus Adolphus.] + +[Sidenote: Ferdinand III, 1637-1658.] + +[Sidenote: The peace of Westphalia.] + +The imperial sceptre had now passed from the indolent and vacillating +Rudolf II (1576-1612), the corrupt and reckless policy of whose +ministers had done much to exasperate the already suspicious minds of +the Protestants, into the firmer grasp of Ferdinand the Second[375]. +Jealous, bigoted, implacable, skilful in forming and concealing his +plans, resolute to obstinacy in carrying them out in action, the house +of Hapsburg could have had no abler and no more unpopular leader in +their second attempt to turn the German Empire into an Austrian +military monarchy. They seemed for a time as near to the +accomplishment of the project as Charles the Fifth had been. Leagued +with Spain, backed by the Catholics of Germany, served by such a +leader as Wallenstein, Ferdinand proposed nothing less than the +extension of the Empire to its old limits, and the recovery of his +crown's full prerogative over all its vassals. Denmark and Holland +were to be attacked by sea and land: Italy to be reconquered with the +help of Spain: Maximilian of Bavaria and Wallenstein to be rewarded +with principalities in Pomerania and Mecklenburg. The latter general +was all but master of Northern Germany when the successful resistance +of Stralsund turned the wavering balance of the war. Soon after (A.D. +1630), Gustavus Adolphus crossed the Baltic, and saved Europe from an +impending reign of the Jesuits. Ferdinand's high-handed proceedings +had already alarmed even the Catholic princes. Of his own authority he +had put the Elector Palatine and other magnates to the ban of the +Empire: he had transferred an electoral vote to Bavaria; had treated +the districts overrun by his generals as spoil of war, to be portioned +out at his pleasure; had unsettled all possession by requiring the +restitution of church property occupied since A.D. 1555. The +Protestants were helpless; the Catholics, though they complained of +the flagrant illegality of such conduct, did not dare to oppose it: +the rescue of Germany was the work of the Swedish king. In four +campaigns he destroyed the armies and the prestige of the Emperor; +devastated his lands, emptied his treasury, and left him at last so +enfeebled that no subsequent successes could make him again +formidable. Such, nevertheless, was the selfishness and apathy of the +Protestant princes, divided by the mutual jealousy of the Lutheran and +the Calvinist party--some, like the Saxon elector, most inglorious of +his inglorious house, bribed by the cunning Austrian; others afraid to +stir lest a reverse should expose them unprotected to his +vengeance--that the issue of the long protracted contest would have +gone against them but for the interference of France. It was the +leading principle of Richelieu's policy to depress the house of +Hapsburg and keep Germany disunited: hence he fostered Protestantism +abroad while trampling it down at home. The triumph he did not live to +see was sealed in A.D. 1648, on the utter exhaustion of all the +combatants, and the treaties of Mnster and Osnabrck were +thenceforward the basis of the Germanic constitution. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[368] The so-called 'Wahlcapitulation.' + +[369] The electors long refused to elect Charles, dreading his great +hereditary power, and were at last induced to do so only by their +overmastering fear of the Turks. + +[370] Nearly all the Hapsburgs seem to have wanted that sort of genial +heartiness which, apt as it is to be stifled by education in the +purple, has nevertheless been possessed by several other royal lines, +greatly contributing to their vitality; as for instance by more than +one prince of the houses of Brunswick and Hohenzollern. + +[371] See this brought out with great force in the very interesting +work of Padre Tosti, _Prolegomeni alla Storia Universale della +Chiesa_, from which I quote one passage, which bears directly on the +matter in hand: 'Il grido della riforma clericale aveva un eco +terribile in tutta la compagnia civile dei popoli: essa percuoteva le +cime del laicale potere, e rimbalzava per tutta la gerarchia sociale. +Se l'imperadore Sigismondo nel concilio di Costanza non avesse +fiutate queste consequenze nella eresia di Hus e di Girolamo di Praga, +forse non avrebbe con tanto zelo mandati alle fiamme que' novatori. +Rotto da Lutero il vincolo di suggezione al Papa ed ai preti in fatti +di religione, avvenne che anche quello che sommetteva il vassallo al +barone, il barone al imperadore si allentasse. Il popolo con la Bibbia +in mano era prete, vescovo, e papa; e se prima contristato della +prepotenza di chi gli soprastava, ricorreva al successore di San +Pietro, ora ricorreva a se stesso, avendogli commesse Fra Martino le +chiavi del regno dei Cieli.'--vol. ii. pp. 398, 9. + +[372] It was not till the end of the eleventh century that +transubstantiation was definitely established as a dogma. + +[373] See the passages quoted in note 113, p. 98; and note 132, p. 110. + +[374] Henry VIII of England when he rebelled against the Pope called +himself King of Ireland (his predecessors had used only the title +'Dominus Hiberni') without asking the Emperor's permission, in order +to shew that he repudiated the temporal as well as the spiritual +dominion of Rome. + +So the Statute of Appeals is careful to deny and reject the authority +of 'other foreign potentates,' meaning, no doubt, the Emperor as well +as the Pope. + +[375] Matthias, brother of Rudolf II, reigned from 1612 till 1619. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA: LAST STAGE IN THE DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. + + +The Peace of Westphalia is the first, and, with the exception perhaps +of the Treaties of Vienna in 1815, the most important of those +attempts to reconstruct by diplomacy the European states-system which +have played so large a part in modern history. It is important, +however, not as marking the introduction of new principles, but as +winding up the struggle which had convulsed Germany since the revolt +of Luther, sealing its results, and closing definitively the period of +the Reformation. Although the causes of disunion which the religious +movement called into being had now been at work for more than a +hundred years, their effects were not fully seen till it became +necessary to establish a system which should represent the altered +relations of the German states. It may thus be said of this famous +peace, as of the other so-called 'fundamental law of the Empire,' the +Golden Bull, that it did no more than legalize a condition of things +already in existence, but which by being legalized acquired new +importance. To all parties alike the result of the Thirty Years' War +was thoroughly unsatisfactory: to the Protestants, who had lost +Bohemia, and still were obliged to hold an inferior place in the +electoral college and in the Diet: to the Catholics, who were forced +to permit the exercise of heretical worship, and leave the church +lands in the grasp of sacrilegious spoilers: to the princes, who could +not throw off the burden of imperial supremacy: to the Emperor, who +could turn that supremacy to no practical account. No other conclusion +was possible to a contest in which every one had been vanquished and +no one victorious; which had ceased because while the reasons for war +continued the means of war had failed. Nevertheless, the substantial +advantage remained with the German princes, for they gained the formal +recognition of that territorial independence whose origin may be +placed as far back as the days of Frederick the Second, and the +maturity of which had been hastened by the events of the last +preceding century. It was, indeed, not only recognized but justified +as rightful and necessary. For while the political situation, to use a +current phrase, had changed within the last two hundred years, the +eyes with which men regarded it had changed still more. Never by their +fiercest enemies in earlier times, not once by the Popes or Lombard +republicans in the heat of their strife with the Franconian and +Swabian Csars, had the Emperors been reproached as mere German kings, +or their claim to be the lawful heirs of Rome denied. The Protestant +jurists of the sixteenth or rather of the seventeenth century were the +first persons who ventured to scoff at the pretended lordship of the +world, and declare their Empire to be nothing more than a German +monarchy, in dealing with which no superstitious reverence need +prevent its subjects from making the best terms they could for +themselves, and controlling a sovereign whose religious predilections +made him the friend of their enemies. + +[Sidenote: The treatise of Hippolytus a Lapide.] + +[Sidenote: Rights of the Emperor and the Diet, as settled in A.D. +1648.] + +It is very instructive to turn suddenly from Dante or Peter de Andlo +to a book published shortly before A.D. 1648, under the name of +Hippolytus a Lapide[376], and notice the matter-of-fact way, the +almost contemptuous spirit in which, disregarding the traditional +glories of the Empire, he comments on its actual condition and +prospects. Hippolytus, the pseudonym which the jurist Chemnitz +assumed, urges with violence almost superfluous, that the Germanic +constitution must be treated entirely as a native growth: that the +'lex regia' (so much discussed and so often misunderstood) and the +whole system of Justinianean absolutism which the Emperor had used so +dexterously, were in their applications to Germany not merely +incongruous but positively absurd. With eminent learning, Chemnitz +examines the early history of the Empire, draws from the unceasing +contests of the monarch with the nobility the unexpected moral that +the power of the former has been always dangerous, and is now more +dangerous than ever, and then launches out into a long invective +against the policy of the Hapsburgs, an invective which the ambition +and harshness of the late Emperor made only too plausible. The one +real remedy for the evils that menace Germany he states +concisely--'domus Austriac extirpatio:' but, failing this, he would +have the Emperor's prerogative restricted in every way, and provide +means for resisting or dethroning him. It was by these views, which +seem to have made a profound impression in Germany, that the states, +or rather France and Sweden acting on their behalf, were guided in the +negotiations of Osnabrck and Mnster. By extorting a full recognition +of the sovereignty of all the princes, Catholics and Protestants +alike, in their respective territories, they bound the Emperor from +any direct interference with the administration, either in particular +districts or throughout the Empire. All affairs of public importance, +including the rights of making war or peace, of levying contributions, +raising troops, building fortresses, passing or interpreting laws, +were henceforth to be left entirely in the hands of the Diet. The +Aulic Council, which had been sometimes the engine of imperial +oppression, and always of imperial intrigue, was so restricted as to +be harmless for the future. The 'reservata' of the Emperor were +confined to the rights of granting titles and confirming tolls. In +matters of religion, an exact though not perfectly reciprocal equality +was established between the two chief ecclesiastical bodies, and the +right of 'Itio in partes,' that is to say, of deciding questions in +which religion was involved by amicable negotiations between the +Protestant and Catholic states, instead of by a majority of votes in +the Diet, was definitely conceded. Both Lutherans and Calvinists were +declared free from all jurisdiction of the Pope or any Catholic +prelate. Thus the last link which bound Germany to Rome was snapped, +the last of the principles by virtue of which the Empire had existed +was abandoned. For the Empire now contained and recognized as its +members persons who formed a visible body at open war with the Holy +Roman Church; and its constitution admitted schismatics to a full +share in all those civil rights which, according to the doctrines of +the early Middle Age, could be enjoyed by no one who was out of the +communion of the Catholic Church. The Peace of Westphalia was +therefore an abrogation of the sovereignty of Rome, and of the theory +of Church and State with which the name of Rome was associated. And in +this light was it regarded by Pope Innocent the Tenth, who commanded +his legate to protest against it, and subsequently declared it void by +the bull 'Zelo domus Dei[377].' + +[Sidenote: Loss of imperial territories.] + +The transference of power within the Empire, from its head to its +members, was a small matter compared with the losses which the Empire +suffered as a whole. The real gainers by the treaties of Westphalia +were those who had borne the brunt of the battle against Ferdinand the +Second and his son. To France were ceded Brisac, the Austrian part of +Alsace, and the lands of the three bishoprics in Lorraine--Metz, Toul, +and Verdun, which her armies had seized in A.D. 1552: to Sweden, +northern Pomerania, Bremen, and Verden. There was, however, this +difference between the position of the two, that whereas Sweden became +a member of the German Diet for what she received (as the king of +Holland was, until 1866-7, a member for Dutch Luxemburg, and as the +kings of Denmark, up till the accession of the present sovereign, were +for Holstein), the acquisitions of France were delivered over to her +in full sovereignty, and for ever severed from the Germanic body. And +as it was by their aid that the liberties of the Protestants had been +won, these two states obtained at the same time what was more valuable +than territorial accessions--the right of interfering at imperial +elections, and generally whenever the provisions of the treaties of +Osnabrck and Mnster, which they had guaranteed, might be supposed to +be endangered. The bounds of the Empire were further narrowed by the +final separation of two countries, once integral parts of Germany, and +up to this time legally members of her body. Holland and Switzerland +were, in A.D. 1648, declared independent. + +[Sidenote: Germany after the Peace.] + +[Sidenote: Number of petty independent states: effects of such a +system on Germany.] + +The Peace of Westphalia is an era in imperial history not less clearly +marked than the coronation of Otto the Great, or the death of +Frederick the Second. As from the days of Maximilian it had borne a +mixed or transitional character, well expressed by the name +Romano-Germanic, so henceforth it is in everything but title purely +and solely a German Empire. Properly, indeed, it was no longer an +Empire at all, but a Confederation, and that of the loosest sort. For +it had no common treasury, no efficient common tribunals[378], no +means of coercing a refractory member[379]; its states were of +different religions, were governed according to different forms, were +administered judicially and financially without any regard to each +other. The traveller in Central Germany now is amused to find, every +hour or two, by the change in the soldiers' uniforms, and the colour +of the stripes on the railway fences, that he has passed out of one +and into another of its miniature kingdoms. Much more surprised and +embarrassed would he have been a century ago, when, instead of the +present thirty-two there were three hundred petty principalities +between the Alps and the Baltic, each with its own laws, its own +courts (in which the ceremonious pomp of Versailles was faintly +reproduced), its little armies, its separate coinage, its tolls and +custom-houses on the frontier, its crowd of meddlesome and pedantic +officials, presided over by a prime minister who was generally the +unworthy favourite of his prince and the pensioner of some foreign +court. This vicious system, which paralyzed the trade, the literature, +and the political thought of Germany, had been forming itself for some +time, but did not become fully established until the Peace of +Westphalia, by emancipating the princes from imperial control, had +made them despots in their own territories. The impoverishment of the +inferior nobility and the decline of the commercial cities caused by a +war that had lasted a whole generation, removed every counterpoise to +the power of the electors and princes, and made absolutism supreme +just where absolutism wants all its justification, in states too small +to have any public opinion, states in which everything depends on the +monarch, and the monarch depends on his favourites. After A.D. 1648 +the provincial estates or parliaments became obsolete in most of these +principalities, and powerless in the rest. Germany was forced to drink +to its very dregs the cup of feudalism, feudalism from which all the +feelings that once ennobled it had departed. + +[Sidenote: Feudalism in France, England, Germany.] + +It is instructive to compare the results of the system of feudality in +the three chief countries of modern Europe. In France, the feudal head +absorbed all the powers of the state, and left to the aristocracy only +a few privileges, odious indeed, but politically worthless. In +England, the medival system expanded into a constitutional monarchy, +where the oligarchy was still strong, but the commons had won the full +recognition of equal civil rights. In Germany, everything was taken +from the sovereign, and nothing given to the people; the +representatives of those who had been fief-holders of the first and +second rank before the Great Interregnum were now independent +potentates; and what had been once a monarchy was now an aristocratic +federation. The Diet, originally an assembly of magnates meeting from +time to time like our early English Parliaments, became in A.D. 1654 a +permanent body, at which the electors, princes, and cities were +represented by their envoys. In other words, it was now not a national +council, but an international congress of diplomatists. + +[Sidenote: Causes of the continuance of the Empire.] + +Where the sacrifice of imperial, or rather federal, rights to state +rights was so complete, we may wonder that the farce of an Empire +should have been retained at all. A mere German Empire would probably +have perished; but the Teutonic people could not bring itself to +abandon the venerable heritage of Rome. Moreover, the Germans were of +all European peoples the most slow-moving and long-suffering; and as, +if the Empire had fallen, something must have been erected in its +place, they preferred to work on with the clumsy machine so long as it +would work at all. Properly speaking, it has no history after this; +and the history of the particular states of Germany which takes its +place is one of the dreariest chapters in the annals of mankind. It +would be hard to find, from the Peace of Westphalia to the French +Revolution, a single grand character or a single noble enterprise; a +single sacrifice made to great public interests, a single instance in +which the welfare of nations was preferred to the selfish passions of +their princes. The military history of those times will always be read +with interest; but free and progressive countries have a history of +peace not less rich and varied than that of war; and when we ask for +an account of the political life of Germany in the eighteenth century, +we hear nothing but the scandals of buzzing courts, and the wrangling +of diplomatists at never-ending congresses. + +[Sidenote: The Empire and the Balance of power.] + +Useless and helpless as the Empire had become, it was not without its +importance to the neighbouring countries, with whose fortunes it had +been linked by the Peace of Westphalia. It was the pivot on which the +political system of Europe was to revolve: the scales, so to speak, +which marked the equipoise of power that had become the grand object +of the policy of all states. This modern caricature of the plan by +which the theorists of the fourteenth century had proposed to keep the +world at peace, used means less noble and attained its end no better +than theirs had done. No one will deny that it was and is desirable to +prevent a universal monarchy in Europe. But it may be asked whether a +system can be considered successful which allowed Frederick of Prussia +to seize Silesia, which did not check the aggressions of Russia and +France upon their neighbours, which was for ever bartering and +exchanging lands in every part of Europe without thought of the +inhabitants, which permitted and has never been able to redress that +greatest of public misfortunes, the partitionment of Poland. And if it +be said that bad as things have been under this system, they would +have been worse without it, it is hard to refrain from asking whether +any evils could have been greater than those which the people of +Europe have suffered through constant wars with each other, and +through the withdrawal, even in time of peace, of so large a part of +their population from useful labour to be wasted in maintaining a +standing army. + +[Sidenote: Position of the Empire in Europe.] + +[Sidenote: Weakness and stagnation of Germany.] + +The result of the extended relations in which Germany now found +herself to Europe, with two foreign kings never wanting an occasion, +one of them never the wish, to interfere, was that a spark from her +set the Continent ablaze, while flames kindled elsewhere were sure to +spread hither. Matters grew worse as her princes inherited or created +so many thrones abroad. The Duke of Holstein acquired Denmark, the +Count Palatine Sweden, the Elector of Saxony Poland, the Elector of +Hanover England, the Archduke of Austria Hungary and Bohemia, while +the Elector (originally Margrave) of Brandenburg obtained, on the +strength of non-imperial territories to the north-eastward which had +come into his hands, the style and title of King of Prussia. Thus the +Empire seemed again about to embrace Europe; but in a sense far +different from that which those words would have expressed under +Charles and Otto. Its history for a century and a half is a dismal +list of losses and disgraces. The chief external danger was from +French influence, for a time supreme, always menacing. For though +Lewis the Fourteenth, on whom, in A.D. 1658, half the electoral +college wished to confer the imperial crown, was before the end of his +life an object of intense hatred, officially entitled 'Hereditary +enemy of the Holy Empire[380],' France had nevertheless a strong party +among the princes always at her beck. The Rhenish and Bavarian +electors were her favourite tools. The '_runions_' begun in A.D. +1680, a pleasant euphemism for robbery in time of peace, added +Strasburg and other places in Alsace, Lorraine, and Franche Comt to +the monarchy of Lewis, and brought him nearer the heart of the Empire; +his ambition and cruelty were witnessed to by repeated wars, and by +the devastation of the Rhine countries; the ultimate though +short-lived triumph of his policy was attained when Marshal Belleisle +dictated the election of Charles VII in A.D. 1742. In the Turkish +wars, when the princes left Vienna to be saved by the Polish Sobieski, +the Empire's weakness appeared in a still more pitiable light. There +was, indeed, a complete loss of hope and interest in the old system. +The princes had been so long accustomed to consider themselves the +natural foes of a central government, that a request made by it was +sure to be disregarded; they aped in their petty courts the pomp and +etiquette of Vienna or Paris, grumbling that they should be required +to garrison the great frontier fortresses which alone protected them +from an encroaching neighbour. The Free Cities had never recovered the +famines and sieges of the Thirty Years' War: Hanseatic greatness had +waned, and the southern towns had sunk into languid oligarchies. All +the vigour of the people in a somewhat stagnant age either found its +sphere in rising states like the Prussia of Frederick the Great, or +turned away from politics altogether into other channels. The Diet had +become contemptible from the slowness with which it moved, and its +tedious squabbles on matters the most frivolous. Many sittings were +consumed in the discussion of a question regarding the time of keeping +Easter, more ridiculous than that which had distracted the Western +churches in the seventh century, the Protestants refusing to reckon by +the reformed calendar because it was the work of a Pope. Collective +action through the old organs was confessed impossible, when the +common object of defence against France was sought by forming a league +under the Emperor's presidency, and when at European congresses the +Empire was not represented at all[381]. No change could come from the +Emperor, whom the capitulation of A.D. 1658 deposed _ipso facto_ if he +violated its provisions. As Dohm[382] said, to keep him from doing +harm, he was kept from doing anything. + +[Sidenote: Leopold I, 1658-1705.] + +[Sidenote: Joseph I, 1705-1711.] + +[Sidenote: Charles VI, 1711-1742.] + +[Sidenote: The Hapsburg Emperors and their policy.] + +[Sidenote: Causes of the long retention of the throne by Austria.] + +[Sidenote: Charles VII, 1742-1745.] + +[Sidenote: Francis I, 1745-1765.] + +[Sidenote: Seven Years' War.] + +[Sidenote: Joseph II, 1765-1790.] + +[Sidenote: Leopold II, 1790-1792. Last phase of the Empire.] + +[Sidenote: The Diet.] + +Yet little was lost by his inactivity, for what could have been hoped +from his action? From the election of Albert the Second, A.D. 1437, to +the death of Charles the Sixth, A.D. 1742, the sceptre had remained in +the hands of one family. So far from being fit subjects for +undistinguishing invective, the Hapsburg Emperors may be contrasted +favourably with the contemporary dynasties of France, Spain, or +England. Their policy, viewed as a whole from the days of Rudolf +downwards, had been neither conspicuously tyrannical, nor faltering, +nor dishonest. But it had been always selfish. Entrusted with an +office which might, if there be any power in those memories of the +past to which the champions of hereditary monarchy so constantly +appeal, have stirred their sluggish souls with some enthusiasm for the +heroes on whose throne they sat, some wish to advance the glory and +the happiness of Germany, they had cared for nothing, sought nothing, +used the Empire as an instrument for nothing but the attainment of +their own personal or dynastic ends. Placed on the eastern verge of +Germany, the Hapsburgs had added to their ancient lands in Austria +proper and Tyrol, non-German territories far more extensive, and had +thus become the chiefs of a separate and independent state. They +endeavoured to reconcile its interests with the interests of the +Empire, so long as it seemed possible to recover part of the old +imperial prerogative. But when such hopes were dashed by the defeats +of the Thirty Years' War, they hesitated no longer between an elective +crown and the rule of their hereditary states, and comported +themselves thenceforth in European politics not as the representatives +of Germany, but as heads of the great Austrian monarchy. There would +have been nothing culpable in this had they not at the same time +continued to entangle Germany in wars with which she had no concern: +to waste her strength in tedious combats with the Turks, or plunge her +into a new struggle with France, not to defend her frontiers or +recover the lands she had lost, but that some scion of the house of +Hapsburg might reign in Spain or Italy. Watching the whole course of +their foreign policy, marking how in A.D. 1736 they had bartered away +Lorraine for Tuscany, a German for a non-German territory, and seeing +how at home they opposed every scheme of reform which could in the +least degree trench upon their own prerogative, how they strove to +obstruct the imperial chamber lest it should interfere with their own +Aulic council, men were driven to separate the body of the Empire from +the imperial office and its possessors[383], and when plans for +reinvigorating the one failed, to leave the others to their fate. +Still the old line clung to the crown with that Hapsburg gripe which +has almost passed into a proverb. Odious as Austria was, no one could +despise her, or fancy it easy to shake her commanding position in +Europe. Her alliances were fortunate: her designs were steadily +pursued: her dismembered territories always returned to her. Though +the throne continued strictly elective, it was impossible not to be +influenced by long prescription. Projects were repeatedly formed to +set the Hapsburgs aside by electing a prince of some other line[384], +or by passing a law that there should never be more than two, or four, +successive Emperors of the same house. France[385] ever and anon +renewed her warnings to the electors, that their freedom was passing +from them, and the sceptre becoming hereditary in one haughty family. +But it was felt that a change would be difficult and disagreeable, and +that the heavy expense and scanty revenues of the Empire required to +be supported by larger patrimonial domains than most German princes +possessed. The heads of states like Prussia and Hanover, states whose +size and wealth would have made them suitable candidates, were +Protestants, and so excluded both by the connexion of the imperial +office with the Church, and by the majority of Roman Catholics in the +electoral college[386], who, however jealous they might be of Austria, +were led both by habit and sympathy to rally round her in moments of +peril. The one occasion on which these considerations were disregarded +shewed their force. On the extinction of the male line of Hapsburg in +the person of Charles the Sixth, the intrigues of the French envoy, +Marshal Belleisle, procured the election of Charles Albert of Bavaria, +who stood first among the Catholic princes. His reign was a succession +of misfortunes and ignominies. Driven from Munich by the Austrians, +the head of the Holy Empire lived in Frankfort on the bounty of +France, cursed by the country on which his ambition had brought the +miseries of a protracted war[387]. The choice in 1745 of Duke Francis +of Lorraine, husband of the archduchess of Austria and queen of +Hungary, Maria Theresa, was meant to restore the crown to the only +power capable of wearing it with dignity: in Joseph the Second, her +son, it again rested on the brow of a Hapsburg[388]. In the war of the +Austrian succession, which followed on the death of Charles the Sixth, +the Empire as a body took no part; in the Seven Years' War its whole +might broke in vain against one resolute member. Under Frederick the +Great Prussia approved herself at least a match for France and Austria +leagued against her, and the semblance of unity which the predominance +of a single power had hitherto given to the Empire was replaced by the +avowed rivalry of two military monarchies. The Emperor Joseph the +Second, a sort of philosopher-king, than whom few have more narrowly +missed greatness, made a desperate effort to set things right, +striving to restore the disordered finances, to purge and vivify the +Imperial Chamber. Nay, he renounced the intolerant policy of his +ancestors, quarrelled with the Pope[389], and presumed to visit Rome, +whose streets heard once more the shout that had been silent for three +centuries, 'Evviva il nostro imperatore! Siete a casa vostra: siete il +padrone[390].' But his indiscreet haste was met by a sullen +resistance, and he died disappointed in plans for which the time was +not yet ripe, leaving no result save the league of princes which +Frederick the Great had formed to oppose his designs on Bavaria. His +successor, Leopold the Second, abandoned the projected reforms, and a +calm, the calm before the hurricane, settled down again upon Germany. +The existence of the Empire was almost forgotten by its subjects: +there was nothing to remind them of it but a feudal investiture now +and then at Vienna (real feudal rights were obsolete[391]); a +concourse of solemn old lawyers at Wetzlar puzzling over interminable +suits[392]; and some thirty diplomatists at Regensburg[393], the +relics of that Imperial Diet where once a hero-king, a Frederick or a +Henry, enthroned amid mitred prelates and steel-clad barons, had +issued laws for every tribe from the Mediterranean to the Baltic[394]. +The solemn triflings of this so-called 'Diet of Deputation' have +probably never been equalled elsewhere[395]. Questions of precedence +and title, questions whether the envoys of princes should have chairs +of red cloth like those of the electors, or only of the less +honourable green, whether they should be served on gold or on silver, +how many hawthorn boughs should be hung up before the door of each on +May-day; these, and such as these, it was their chief employment not +to settle but to discuss. The pedantic formalism of old Germany passed +that of Spaniards or Turks; it had now crushed under a mountain of +rubbish whatever meaning or force its old institutions had contained. +It is the penalty of greatness that its form should outlive its +substance: that gilding and trappings should remain when that which +they were meant to deck and clothe has departed. So our sloth or our +timidity, not seeing that whatever is false must be also bad, +maintains in being what once was good long after it has become +helpless and hopeless: so now at the close of the eighteenth century, +strings of sounding titles were all that was left of the Empire which +Charles had founded, and Frederick adorned, and Dante sung. + +[Sidenote: Feelings of the German people.] + +The German mind, just beginning to put forth the blossoms of its +wondrous literature, turned away in disgust from the spectacle of +ceremonious imbecility more than Byzantine. National feeling seemed +gone from princes and people alike. Lessing, who did more than any one +else to create the German literary spirit, says, 'Of the love of +country I have no conception: it appears to me at best a heroic +weakness which I am right glad to be without[396].' The Emperor Joseph +II writes to his brother of France: 'You must know that the +annihilation of German nationality is a necessary leading principle of +my policy[397].' There were nevertheless persons who saw how fatal +such a system was, lying like a nightmare on the people's soul. +Speaking of the union of princes formed by Frederick of Prussia to +preserve the existing condition of things, Johannes von Mller +writes[398]: 'If the German Union serves for nothing better than to +maintain the _status quo_, it is against the eternal order of God, by +which neither the physical nor the moral world remains for a moment in +the _status quo_, but all is life and motion and progress. To exist +without law or justice, without security from arbitrary imposts, +doubtful whether we can preserve from day to day our honours, our +liberties, our rights, our lives, helpless before superior force, +without a beneficial connexion between our states, without a national +spirit at all, this is the _status quo_ of our nation. And it was this +that the Union was meant to confirm. If it be this and nothing more, +then bethink you how when Israel saw that Rehoboam would not hearken, +the people gave answer to the king and spake, "What portion have we in +David, or what inheritance in the son of Jesse? to your tents, O +Israel: David, see to thine own house." See then to your own houses, +ye princes.' + +Nevertheless, though the Empire stood like a corpse brought forth from +some Egyptian sepulchre, ready to crumble at a touch, there seemed no +reason why it should not stand so for centuries more. Fate was kind, +and slew it in the light. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[376] _De Ratione Status in Imperio nostro Romano-Germanico_. + +[377] Even then the Roman pontiffs had lapsed into that scolding, +anile tone (so unlike the fiery brevity of Hildebrand, or the stern +precision of Innocent III) which is now seldom absent from their +public utterances. Pope Innocent the Tenth pronounces the provisions +of the treaty, 'ipso iure nulla, irrita, invalida, iniqua, iniusta, +damnata, reprobata, inania, viribusque et effectu vacua, omnino +fuisse, esse, et perpetuo fore.' In spite of which they were observed. + +This bull may be found in vol. xvii. of the _Bullarium_. It bears date +Nov. 20th, A.D. 1648. + +[378] The Imperial Chamber (Kammergericht) continued, with frequent +and long interruptions, to sit while the Empire lasted. But its +slowness and formality passed that of any other legal body the world +has yet seen, and it had no power to enforce its sentences. The Aulic +council was little more efficient, and was generally disliked as the +tool of imperial intrigue. + +[379] The 'matricula' specifying the quota of each state to the +imperial army could not be any longer employed. + +[380] _Erbfeind des heiligen Reichs._ + +[381] Only the envoys of the several states were present at Utrecht in +1713. + +[382] Quoted by Ludwig Hasser, _Deutsche Geschichte_. + +[383] The distinction is well expressed by the German 'Reich' and +'Kaiserthum,' to which we have unfortunately no terms to correspond. + +[384] So the Elector of Saxony proposed in 1532 that Albert II, +Frederick III, and Maximilian having been all of one house, Charles +V's successor should be chosen from some other.--Moser, _Rmische +Kayser_. See the various attempts of France in Moser. The coronation +engagements (Wahlcapitulation) of every Emperor bound him not to +attempt to make the throne hereditary in his family. + +[385] In 1658 France offered to subsidize the Elector of Bavaria if he +would become Emperor. + +[386] Whether an Evangelical was eligible for the office of Emperor +was a question often debated, but never actually raised by the +candidature of any but a Roman Catholic prince. The 'exacta qualitas' +conceded by the Peace of Westphalia might appear to include so +important a privilege. But when we consider that the peculiar relation +in which the Emperor stood to the Holy Roman Church was one which no +heretic could hold, and that the coronation oaths could not have been +taken by, nor the coronation ceremonies (among which was a sort of +ordination) performed upon a Protestant, the conclusion must be +unfavourable to the claims of any but a Catholic. + +[387] + + 'The bold Bavarian, in a luckless hour, + Tries the dread summits of Csarian power. + With unexpected legions bursts away, + And sees defenceless realms receive his sway.... + The baffled prince in honour's flattering bloom + Of hasty greatness finds the fatal doom; + His foes' derision and his subjects' blame, + And steals to death from anguish and from shame.' + JOHNSON, _Vanity of Human Wishes_. + +[388] The following nine reasons for the long continuance of the +Empire in the House of Hapsburg are given by Pfeffinger (_Vitriarius +Illustratus_), writing early in the eighteenth century:-- + + 1. The great power of Austria. + + 2. Her wealth, now that the Empire was so poor. + + 3. The majority of Catholics among the electors. + + 4. Her fortunate matrimonial alliances. + + 5. Her moderation. + + 6. The memory of benefits conferred by her. + + 7. The example of evils that had followed a departure from + the blood of former Csars. + + 8. The fear of the confusion that would ensue if she were + deprived of the crown. + + 9. Her own eagerness to have it. + +[389] The Pope undertook a journey to Vienna to mollify Joseph, and +met with a sufficiently cold reception. When he saw the famous +minister Kaunitz and gave him his hand to kiss, Kaunitz took it and +shook it. + +[390] 'You are in your own house: be the master.' + +[391] Joseph II was foiled in his attempt to assert them. + +[392] Goethe spent some time in studying law at Wetzlar among those +who practised in the Kammergericht. + +[393] Cf. Ptter, _Historical Developement of the Political +Constitution of the German Empire_, vol. iii. + +[394] Frederick the Great said of the Diet, 'Es ist ein Schattenbild, +eine Versammlung aus Publizisten die mehr mit Formalien als mit Sachen +sich beschftigen, und, wie Hofhunde, den Mond anbellen.' + +[395] Cf. Hasser, _Deutsche Geschichte_; Introduction. + +[396] Quoted by Hasser. + +[397] Rotteck and Welcker, _Staats Lexikon_, s. v. 'Deutsches Reich.' + +[398] _Deutschlands Erwartungen vom Frstenbunde_, quoted in the +_Staats Lexikon_. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +FALL OF THE EMPIRE. + + +[Sidenote: Francis II, 1792-1806.] + +[Sidenote: Napoleon, Emperor of the West.] + +[Sidenote: Belief of Napoleon that he was the successor of +Charlemagne.] + +[Sidenote: Attitude of the Papacy towards Napoleon.] + +Goethe has described the uneasiness with which, in the days of his +childhood, the burghers of his native Frankfort saw the walls of the +Roman Hall covered with the portraits of Emperor after Emperor, till +space was left for few, at last for one[399]. In A.D. 1792 Francis the +Second mounted the throne of Augustus, and the last place was filled. +Three years before there had arisen on the western horizon a little +cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, and now the heaven was black with +storms of ruin. There was a prophecy[400], dating from the first days +of the Empire's decline, that when all things were falling to ruin, +and wickedness rife in the world, a second Frankish Charles should +rise as Emperor to purge and heal, to bring back peace and purify +religion. If this was not exactly the mission of the new ruler of the +West Franks, he was at least anxious to tread in the steps and revive +the glories of the hero whose crown he professed to have inherited. It +were a task superfluously easy to shew how delusive is that minute +historical parallel of which every Parisian was full in A.D. 1804, the +parallel between the heir of a long line of fierce Teutonic +chieftains, whose vigorous genius had seized what it could of the +monkish learning of the eighth century, and the son of the Corsican +lawyer, with all the brilliance of a Frenchman and all the resolute +profundity of an Italian, reared in, yet only half believing, the +ideas of the Encyclopdists, swept up into the seat of absolute power +by the whirlwind of a revolution. Alcuin and Talleyrand are not more +unlike than are their masters. But though in the characters and temper +of the men there is little resemblance, though their Empires agree in +this only, and hardly even in this, that both were founded on +conquest, there is nevertheless a sort of grand historical similarity +between their positions. Both were the leaders of fiery and warlike +nations, the one still untamed as the creatures of their native woods, +the other drunk with revolutionary fury. Both aspired to found, and +seemed for a time to have succeeded in founding, universal monarchies. +Both were gifted with a strong and susceptible imagination, which if +it sometimes overbore their judgment, was yet one of the truest and +highest elements of their greatness. As the one looked back to the +kings under the Jewish theocracy and the Emperors of Christian Rome, +so the other thought to model himself after Csar and Charlemagne. +For, useful as was the fancied precedent of the title and career of +the great Carolingian to a chief determined to be king, yet unable to +be king after the fashion of the Bourbons, and seductive as was such a +connexion to the imaginative vanity of the French people, it was no +studied purpose or simulating art that led Napoleon to remind his +subjects so frequently of the hero he claimed to represent. No one who +reads the records of his life can doubt that he believed, as fully as +he believed anything, that the same destiny which had made France the +centre of the modern world had also appointed him to sit on the throne +and carry out the projects of Charles the Frank, to rule all Europe +from Paris, as the Csars had ruled it from Rome[401]. It was in this +belief that he went to the ancient capital of the Frankish Emperors to +receive there the Austrian recognition of his imperial title: that he +talked of 'revendicating' Catalonia and Aragon, because they had +formed a part of the Carolingian realm, though they had never obeyed +the descendants of Hugh Capet: that he undertook a journey to +Nimeguen, where he had ordered the ancient palace to be restored, and +inscribed on its walls his name below that of Charles: that he +summoned the Pope to attend his coronation as Stephen had come ten +centuries before to instal Pipin in the throne of the last +Merovingian[402]. The same desire to be regarded as lawful Emperor of +the West shewed itself in his assumption of the Lombard crown at +Milan; in the words of the decree by which he annexed Rome to the +Empire, revoking 'the donations which my predecessors, the French +Emperors, have made[403];' in the title 'King of Rome,' which he +bestowed on his ill-fated son, in imitation of the German 'King of the +Romans[404].' We are even told that it was at one time his intention +to eject the Hapsburgs, and be chosen Roman Emperor in their stead. +Had this been done, the analogy would have been complete between the +position which the French ruler held to Austria now, and that in which +Charles and Otto had stood to the feeble Csars of Byzantium. It was +curious to see the head of the Roman church turning away from his +ancient ally to the reviving power of France--France, where the +Goddess of Reason had been worshipped eight years before--just as he +had sought the help of the first Carolingians against his Lombard +enemies[405]. The difference was indeed great between the feelings +wherewith Pius the Seventh addressed his 'very dear son in Christ,' +and those that had pervaded the intercourse of Pope Hadrian the First +with the son of Pipin; just as the contrast is strange between the +principles that shaped Napoleon's policy and the vision of a theocracy +that had floated before the mind of Charles. Neither comparison is +much to the advantage of the modern; but Pius might be pardoned for +catching at any help in his distress, and Napoleon found that the +protectorship of the church strengthened his position in France, and +gave him dignity in the eyes of Christendom[406]. + +[Sidenote: The French Empire.] + +[Sidenote: Napoleon in Germany.] + +[Sidenote: The Confederation of the Rhine.] + +[Sidenote: Abdication of the Emperor Francis II.] + +[Sidenote: End of the Empire.] + +A swift succession of triumphs had left only one thing still +preventing the full recognition of the Corsican warrior as sovereign +of Western Europe, and that one was the existence of the old +Romano-Germanic Empire. Napoleon had not long assumed his new title +when he began to mark a distinction between 'la France' and 'l'Empire +Franaise.' France had, since A.D. 1792, advanced to the Rhine, and, +by the annexation of Piedmont, had overstepped the Alps; the French +Empire included, besides the kingdom of Italy, a mass of dependent +states, Naples, Holland, Switzerland, and many German principalities, +the allies of France in the same sense in which the 'socii populi +Romani' were allies of Rome[407]. When the last of Pitt's coalitions +had been destroyed at Austerlitz, and Austria had made her submission +by the peace of Presburg, the conqueror felt that his hour was come. +He had now overcome two Emperors, those of Austria and Russia, +claiming to represent the old and the new Rome respectively, and had +in eighteen months created more kings than the occupants of the +Germanic throne in as many centuries. It was time, he thought, to +sweep away obsolete pretensions, and claim the sole inheritance of +that Western Empire, of which the titles and ceremonies of his court +presented a grotesque imitation[408]. The task was an easy one after +what had been already accomplished. Previous wars and treaties had so +redistributed the territories and changed the constitution of the +Germanic Empire that it could hardly be said to exist in anything but +name. In French history Napoleon appears as the restorer of peace, the +rebuilder of the shattered edifice of social order: the author of a +code and an administrative system which the Bourbons who dethroned him +were glad to preserve. Abroad he was the true child of the Revolution, +and conquered only to destroy. It was his mission--a mission more +beneficent in its result than in its means[409]--to break up in +Germany and Italy the abominable system of petty states, to reawaken +the spirit of the people, to sweep away the relics of an effete +feudalism, and leave the ground clear for the growth of newer and +better forms of political life. Since A.D. 1797, when Austria at Campo +Formio perfidiously exchanged the Netherlands for Venetia, the work of +destruction had gone on apace. All the German sovereigns west of the +Rhine had been dispossessed, and their territories incorporated with +France, while the rest of the country had been revolutionized by the +arrangements of the peace of Luneville and the 'Indemnities,' dictated +by the French to the Diet in February 1803. New kingdoms were erected, +electorates created and extinguished, the lesser princes mediatized, +the free cities occupied by troops and bestowed on some neighbouring +potentate. More than any other change, the secularization of the +dominions of the prince-bishops and abbots proclaimed the fall of the +old constitution, whose principles had required the existence of a +spiritual alongside of the temporal aristocracy. The Emperor Francis, +partly foreboding the events that were at hand, partly in order to +meet Napoleon's assumption of the imperial name by depriving that name +of its peculiar meaning, began in A.D. 1805 to style himself +'Hereditary Emperor of Austria,' while retaining at the same time his +former title[410]. The next act of the drama was one in which we may +more readily pardon the ambition of a foreign conqueror than the +traitorous selfishness of the German princes, who broke every tie of +ancient friendship and duty to grovel at his throne. By the Act of the +Confederation[411] of the Rhine, signed at Paris, July 12th, 1806, +Bavaria, Wrtemberg, Baden, and several other states, sixteen in all, +withdrew from the body and repudiated the laws of the Empire, while on +August 1st the French envoy at Regensburg announced to the Diet that +his master, who had consented to become Protector of the Confederate +princes, no longer recognized the existence of the Empire. Francis the +Second resolved at once to anticipate this new Odoacer, and by a +declaration, dated August 6th, 1806, resigned the imperial dignity. +His deed states that finding it impossible, in the altered state of +things, to fulfil the obligations imposed by his capitulation, he +considers as dissolved the bonds which attached him to the Germanic +body, releases from their allegiance the states who formed it, and +retires to the government of his hereditary dominions under the title +of 'Emperor of Austria[412].' Throughout, the term 'German Empire' +(_Deutsches Reich_) is employed. But it was the crown of Augustus, of +Constantine, of Charles, of Maximilian, that Francis of Hapsburg laid +down, and a new era in the world's history was marked by the fall of +its most venerable institution. One thousand and six years after Leo +the Pope had crowned the Frankish king, eighteen hundred and +fifty-eight years after Csar had conquered at Pharsalia, the Holy +Roman Empire came to its end. + +[Sidenote: Congress of Vienna.] + +There was a time when this event would have been thought a sign that +the last days of the world were at hand. But in the whirl of change +that had bewildered men since A.D. 1789, it passed almost unnoticed. +No one could yet fancy how things would end, or what sort of a new +order would at last shape itself out of chaos. When Napoleon's +universal monarchy had dissolved, and old landmarks shewed themselves +again above the receding waters, it was commonly supposed that the +Empire would be re-established on its former footing[413]. Such was +indeed the wish of many states, and among them of Hanover, +representing Great Britain[414]. Though a simple revival of the old +Romano-Germanic Empire was plainly out of the question, it still +appeared to them that Germany would be best off under the presidency +of a single head, entrusted with the ancient office of maintaining +peace among the members of the confederation. But the new kingdoms, +Bavaria especially, were unwilling to admit a superior; Prussia, +elated at the glory she had won in the war of independence, would have +disputed the crown with Austria; Austria herself cared little to +resume an office shorn of much of its dignity, with duties to perform +and no resources to enable her to discharge them. Use was therefore +made of an expression in the Peace of Paris which spoke of uniting +Germany by a federative bond[415], and the Congress of Vienna was +decided by the wishes of Austria to establish a Confederation. Thus +was brought about the present German federal constitution, which is +itself confessed, by the attempts so often made to reform it, to be a +mere temporary expedient, oppressive in the hands of the strong, and +useless for the protection of the weak. Of late years, one school of +liberal politicians, justly indignant at their betrayal by the princes +after the enthusiastic uprising of A.D. 1814, has aspired to the +restoration of the Empire, either as an hereditary kingdom in the +Prussian or some other family, or in a more republican fashion under a +head elected by the people[416]. The obstacles in the way of such +plans are evidently very great; but even were the horizon more clear +than it is, this would not be the place from which to scan it[417]. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[399] _Wahrheit und Dichtung_, book i. The Rmer Saal is still one of +the sights of Frankfort. The portraits, however, which one now sees in +it, seem to be all or nearly all of them modern; and few have any +merit as works of art. + +[400] _Jordanis Chronica_, ap. Schardium, _Sylloge Tractatuum_. + +[401] In an address by Napoleon to the Senate in 1804, bearing date +10th Frimaire (1st Dec.), are the words, 'Mes descendans conserveront +longtemps ce trne, le premier de l'univers.' Answering a deputation +from the department of the Lippe, Aug. 8th, 1811, 'La Providence, qui +a voulu que je rtablisse le trne de Charlemagne, vous a fait +naturellement rentrer, avec la Hollande et les villes ansatiques, +dans le sein de l'Empire.'--_Oeuvres de Napolon_, tom. v. p. 521. + +'Pour le Pape, je suis Charlemagne, parce que, comme Charlemagne, je +runis la couronne de France celle des Lombards, et que mon Empire +confine avec l'Orient.' (Quoted by Lanfrey, _Vie de Napoleon_, iii. +417.) + +'Votre Saintet est souveraine de Rome, mais j'en suis l'Empereur.' +(Letter of Napoleon to Pope Pius, Feb. 13th, 1806. Lanfrey.) + +'Dites bien,' says Napoleon to Cardinal Fesch, 'que je suis +Charlemagne, leur Empereur [of the Papal Court] que je dois tre +trait de mme. Je fais connaitre au Pape mes intentions en peu de +mots, s'il n'y acquiesce pas, je le rduirai la mme condition qu'il +tait avant Charlemagne.' (Lanfrey, _Vie de Napoleon_, iii. 420.) + +[402] Napoleon said on one occasion, 'Je n'ai pas succd a Louis +Quatorze, mais Charlemagne.'--Bourrienne, _Vie de Napolon_, iv. In +1804, shortly before he was crowned, he had the imperial insignia of +Charles brought from the old Frankish capital, and exhibited them in a +jeweller's shop in Paris, along with those which had just been made +for his own coronation;--(Bourrienne, _ut supra_.) Somewhat in the +same spirit in which he displayed the Bayeux tapestry, in order to +incite his subjects to the conquest of England. + +[403] 'Je n'ai pu concilier ces grands interts (of political order +and the spiritual authority of the Pope) qu'en annulant les donations +des Empereurs Franais, mes predecesseurs, et en runissant les tats +romains la France.'--Proclamation issued in 1809: _Oeuvres_, iv. + +[404] See Appendix, Note C. + +[405] Pope Pius VII wrote to the First Consul, 'Carissime in Christo +Fili noster ... tam perspecta sunt nobis tu voluntatis studia erga +nos, ut _quotiescunque_ ope aliqua in rebus nostris indigemus, eam a +te fidenter petere non dubitare debeamus.'--Quoted by gidi. + +[406] Let us place side by side the letters of Hadrian to Charles in +the _Codex Carolinus_, and the following preamble to the Concordat of +A.D. 1801, between the First Consul and the Pope (which I quote from +the _Bullarium Romanum_), and mark the changes of a thousand years. + +'Gubernium reipublic [Gallic] recognoscit religionem Catholicam +Apostolicam Romanam eam esse religionem quam longe maxima pars civium +Gallic reipublic profitetur. + +'Summus pontifex pari modo recognoscit eandem religionem maximam +utilitatem maximumque decus percepisse et hoc quoque tempore +prstolari ex catholico cultu in Gallia constituto, necnon ex +peculiari eius professione quam faciunt reipublic consules.' + +[407] Cf. Heeren, _Political System_, vol. iii. 273. + +[408] He had arch-chancellors, arch-treasurers, and so forth. The +Legion of Honour, which was thought important enough to be mentioned +in the coronation oath, was meant to be something like the medival +orders of knighthood: whose connexion with the Empire has already been +mentioned. + +[409] Napoleon's feelings towards Germany may be gathered from the +phrase he once used, 'Il faut depayser l'Allemagne.' + +[410] Thus in documents issued by the Emperor during these two years +he is styled 'Roman Emperor Elect, Hereditary Emperor of Austria' +(erwhlter Rmischer Kaiser, Erbkaiser von Oesterreich). + +[411] This Act of Confederation of the Rhine (Rheinbund) is printed in +Koch's _Traits_ (continued by Schll), vol. viii., and Meyer's +_Corpus Iuris Confoederationis Germanic_, vol. i. It has every +appearance of being a translation from the French, and was no doubt +originally drawn up in that language. Napoleon is called in one place +'Der nmliche Monarch, dessen Absichten sich stets mit den wahren +Interessen Deutschlands bereinstimmend gezeigt haben.' The phrase +'Roman Empire' does not occur: we hear only of the 'German Empire,' +'body of German states' (Staatskrper), and so forth. This +Confederation of the Rhine was eventually joined by every German State +except Austria, Prussia, Electoral Hesse, and Brunswick. + +[412] _Histoire des Traits_, vol. viii. The original may be found in +Meyer's _Corpus Iuris Confoederationis Germanic_, vol. i. p. 70. It is +a document in no way remarkable, except from the ludicrous resemblance +which its language suggests to the circular in which a tradesman, +announcing the dissolution of an old partnership, solicits, and hopes +by close attention to merit, a continuance of his customers' patronage +to his business, which will henceforth be carried on under the name +of, &c., &c. + +[413] Koch (Schll), _Histoire des Traits_, vol. xi. p. 257, sqq.; +Hasser, _Deutsche Geschichte_, vol. iv. + +[414] Great Britain had refused in 1806 to recognize the dissolution +of the Empire. And it may indeed be maintained that in point of law +the Empire was never extinguished at all, but lives on as a +disembodied spirit to this day. For it is clear that, technically +speaking, the abdication of a sovereign can destroy only his own +rights, and does not dissolve the state over which he presides. + +[415] 'Les tats d'Allemagne seront independans et unis par un lien +federatif.'--_Histoire des Traits_, xi. p. 257. + +[416] The late king of Prussia was actually elected Emperor by the +revolutionary Diet at Frankfort in 1848. He refused the crown. + +[417] [Since the above was written (in A.D. 1865) sudden and momentous +changes have been effected in Germany by the war of 1866; the Prussian +kingdom has been enlarged by the annexation of Hanover, Hessen-Cassel, +Nassau, and Frankfort; the establishment of the North German +Confederation has brought all the states north of the Main under +Prussian control; while even the potentates of the south have +virtually accepted the hegemony of the house of Hohenzollern. It was +the author's intention to have added here a chapter examining these +changes by the light of the past history of Germany and the Empire, +and tracing out the causes to which the success of Prussia is to be +ascribed. But at this moment (July 15th, 1870) the French Emperor +declares war against Prussia, and there rises to meet the challenge an +united German people,--united for the time, at least, by the folly of +the enemy who has so long plotted for and profited by its disunion. +Whatever the result of the struggle may be, it is almost certain to +alter still further the internal constitution of Germany; and there is +therefore little use in discussing the existing system, and tracing +the progress hitherto of a development which, if not suddenly +arrested, is likely to be greatly accelerated by the events which we +see passing.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +CONCLUSION. + + +[Sidenote: General summary.] + +[Sidenote: Perpetuation of the name of Rome.] + +After the attempts already made to examine separately each of the +phases of the Empire, little need be said, in conclusion, upon its +nature and results in general. A general character can hardly help +being either vague or false. For the aspects which the Empire took are +as many and as various as the ages and conditions of society during +which it continued to exist. Among the exhausted peoples around the +Mediterranean, whose national feeling had died out, whose faith was +extinct or turned to superstition, whose thought and art was a faint +imitation of the Greek, there arises a huge despotism, first of a +city, then of an administrative system, which presses with equal +weight on all its subjects, and becomes to them a religion as well as +a government. Just when the mass is at length dissolving, the tribes +of the North come down, too rude to maintain the institutions they +found subsisting, too few to introduce their own, and a weltering +confusion follows, till the strong hand of the first Frankish Emperor +raises the fallen image and bids the nations bow down to it once more. +Under him it is for some brief space a theocracy; under his German +successors the first of feudal kingdoms, the centre of European +chivalry. As feudalism wanes, it is again transformed, and after +promising for a time to become an hereditary Hapsburg monarchy, sinks +at last into the presidency, not more dignified than powerless, of an +international league. To us moderns, a perpetuation under conditions +so diverse of the same name and the same pretensions, appears at first +sight absurd, a phantom too vain to impress the most superstitious +mind. Closer examination will correct such a notion. No power was ever +based on foundations so sure and deep as those which Rome laid during +three centuries of conquest and four of undisturbed dominion. If her +empire had been an hereditary or local kingdom, it might have fallen +with the extinction of the royal line, the conquest of the tribe, the +destruction of the city to which it was attached. But it was not so +limited. It was imperishable because it was universal; and when its +power had ceased, it was remembered with awe and love by the races +whose separate existence it had destroyed, because it had spared the +weak while it smote down the strong; because it had granted equal +rights to all, and closed against none of its subjects the path of +honourable ambition. When the military power of the conquering city +had departed, her sway over the world of thought began: by her the +theories of the Greeks had been reduced to practice; by her the new +religion had been embraced and organized; her language, her theology, +her laws, her architecture made their way where the eagles of war had +never flown, and with the spread of civilization have found new homes +on the Ganges and the Mississippi. + +[Sidenote: Parallel instances.] + +[Sidenote: Claims to represent the Roman Empire.] + +[Sidenote: Austria.] + +[Sidenote: France.] + +[Sidenote: Russia.] + +[Sidenote: Greece.] + +[Sidenote: The Turks.] + +Nor is such a claim of government prolonged under changed conditions +by any means a singular phenomenon. Titles sum up the political +history of nations, and are as often causes as effects: if not +insignificant now, how much less so in ages of ignorance and unreason. +It would be an instructive, if it were not a tedious task, to examine +the many pretensions that are still put forward to represent the +Empire of Rome, all of them baseless, none of them effectless. Austria +clings to a name which seems to give her a sort of precedence in +Europe, and was wont, while she held Lombardy, to justify her position +there by invoking the feudal rights of the Hohenstaufen. With no more +legal right than the prince of Reuss or the landgrave of Homburg might +pretend to, she has assumed the arms and devices of the old Empire, +and being almost the youngest of European monarchies, is respected as +the oldest and most conservative. Bonapartean France, as the +self-appointed heir of the Carolingians, grasped for a time the +sceptre of the West, and still aspires to hold the balance of European +politics, and be recognized as the leader and patron of the so-called +Latin races on both sides of the Atlantic[418]. Professing the creed +of Byzantium, Russia claims the crown of the Byzantine Csars, and +trusts that the capital which prophecy has promised for a thousand +years will not be long withheld. The doctrine of Panslavism, under an +imperial head of the whole Eastern church, has become a formidable +engine of aggression in the hands of a crafty and warlike despotism. +Another testimony to the enduring influence of old political +combinations is supplied by the eagerness with which modern Hellas has +embraced the notion of gathering all the Greek races into a revived +Empire of the East, with its capital on the Bosphorus. Nay, the +intruding Ottoman himself, different in faith as well as in blood, has +more than once declared himself the representative of the Eastern +Csars, whose dominion he extinguished. Solyman the Magnificent +assumed the name of Emperor, and refused it to Charles the Fifth: his +successors were long preceded through the streets of Constantinople by +twelve officers, bearing straws aloft, a faint semblance of the +consular fasces that had escorted a Quinctius or a Fabius through the +Roman forum. Yet in no one of these cases has there been that apparent +legality of title which the shouts of the people and the benediction +of the pontiff conveyed to Charles and Otto[419]. + +[Sidenote: Parallel of the Papacy.] + +These examples, however, are minor parallels: the complement and +illustration of the history of the Empire is to be found in that of +the Holy See. The Papacy, whose spiritual power was itself the +offspring of Rome's temporal dominion, evoked the phantom of her +parent, used it, obeyed it, rebelled and overthrew it, in its old age +once more embraced it, till in its downfall she has heard the knell of +her own approaching doom[420]. + +Both Papacy and Empire rose in an age when the human spirit was +utterly prostrated before authority and tradition, when the exercise +of private judgment was impossible to most and sinful to all. Those +who believed the miracles recorded in the _Acta Sanctorum_, and did +not question the Isidorian decretals, might well recognize as ordained +of God the twofold authority of Rome, founded, as it seemed to be, on +so many texts of Scripture, and confirmed by five centuries of +undisputed possession. + +Both sanctioned and satisfied the passion of the Middle Ages for +unity. Ferocity, violence, disorder, were the conspicuous evils of +that time: hence all the aspirations of the good were for something +which, breaking the force of passion and increasing the force of +sympathy, should teach the stubborn wills to sacrifice themselves in +the view of a common purpose. To those men, moreover, unable to rise +above the sensuous, not seeing the true connexion or the true +difference of the spiritual and the secular, the idea of the Visible +Church was full of awful meaning. Solitary thought was helpless, and +strove to lose itself in the aggregate, since it could not create for +itself that which was universal. The schism that severed a man from +the congregation of the faithful on earth was hardly less dreadful +than the heresy which excluded him from the company of the blessed in +heaven. He who kept not his appointed place in the ranks of the church +militant had no right to swell the rejoicing anthems of the church +triumphant. Here, as in so many other cases, the continued use of +traditional language seems to have prevented us from seeing how great +is the difference between our own times and those in which the phrases +we repeat were first used, and used in full sincerity. Whether the +world is better or worse for the change which has passed upon its +feelings in these matters is another question: all that it is +necessary to note here is that the change is a profound and pervading +one. Obedience, almost the first of medival virtues, is now often +spoken of as if it were fit only for slaves or fools. Instead of +praising, men are wont to condemn the submission of the individual +will, the surrender of the individual belief, to the will or the +belief of the community. Some persons declare variety of opinion to be +a positive good. The great mass have certainly no longing for an +abstract unity of faith. They have no horror of schism. They do not, +cannot, understand the intense fascination which the idea of one +all-pervading church exercised upon their medival forefathers. A life +in the church, for the church, through the church; a life which she +blessed in mass at morning and sent to peaceful rest by the vesper +hymn; a life which she supported by the constantly recurring stimulus +of the sacraments, relieving it by confession, purifying it by +penance, admonishing it by the presentation of visible objects for +contemplation and worship,--this was the life which they of the Middle +Ages conceived of as the rightful life for man; it was the actual life +of many, the ideal of all. The unseen world was so unceasingly pointed +to, and its dependence on the seen so intensely felt, that the barrier +between the two seemed to disappear. The church was not merely the +portal to heaven; it was heaven anticipated; it was already +self-gathered and complete. In one sentence from a famous medival +document may be found a key to much which seems strangest to us in the +feelings of the Middle Ages: 'The church is dearer to God than heaven. +For the church does not exist for the sake of heaven, but conversely, +heaven for the sake of the church[421].' + +Again, both Empire and Papacy rested on opinion rather than on +physical force, and when the struggle of the eleventh century came, +the Empire fell, because its rival's hold over the souls of men was +firmer, more direct, enforced by penalties more terrible than the +death of the body. The ecclesiastical body under Alexander and +Innocent was animated by a loftier spirit and more wholly devoted to a +single aim than the knights and nobles who followed the banner of the +Swabian Csars. Its allegiance was undivided; it comprehended the +principles for which it fought: they trembled at even while they +resisted the spiritual power. + +[Sidenote: Papacy and Empire compared as perpetuations of a name.] + +Both sprang from what might be called the accident of name. The power +of the great Latin patriarchate was a Form: the ghost, it has been +said, of the older Empire, favoured in its growth by circumstances, +but really vital because capable of wonderful adaptation to the +character and wants of the time. So too, though far less perfectly, +was the Empire. Its Form was the tradition of the universal rule of +Rome; it met the needs of successive centuries by civilizing barbarous +peoples, by maintaining unity in confusion and disorganization, by +controlling brute violence through the sanctions of a higher power, by +being made the keystone of a gigantic feudal arch, by assuming in its +old age the presidency of a European confederation. And the history of +both, as it shews the power of ancient names and forms, shews also +within what limits such a perpetuation is possible, and how it +sometimes deceives men, by preserving the shadow while it loses the +substance. This perpetuation itself, what is it but the expression of +the belief of mankind, a belief incessantly corrected yet never +weakened, that their old institutions do and may continue to subsist +unchanged, that what has served their fathers will do well enough for +them, that it is possible to make a system perfect and abide in it for +ever? Of all political instincts this is perhaps the strongest; often +useful, often grossly abused, but never so natural and so fitting as +when it leads men who feel themselves inferior to their predecessors, +to save what they can from the wreck of a civilization higher than +their own. It was thus that both Papacy and Empire were maintained by +the generations who had no type of greatness and wisdom save that +which they associated with the name of Rome. And therefore it is that +no examples shew so convincingly how hopeless are all such attempts to +preserve in life a system which arose out of ideas and under +conditions that have passed away. Though it never could have existed +save as a prolongation, though it was and remained through the Middle +Ages an anachronism, the Empire of the tenth century had little in +common with the Empire of the second. Much more was the Papacy, though +it too hankered after the forms and titles of antiquity, in reality a +new creation. And in the same proportion as it was new, and +represented the spirit not of a past age but of its own, was it a +power stronger and more enduring than the Empire. More enduring, +because younger, and so in fuller harmony with the feelings of its +contemporaries: stronger, because at the head of the great +ecclesiastical body, in and through which, rather than through secular +life, all the intelligence and political activity of the Middle Ages +sought its expression. The famous simile of Gregory the Seventh is +that which best describes the Empire and the Popedom. They were indeed +the 'two lights in the firmament of the militant church,' the lights +which illumined and ruled the world all through the Middle Ages. And +as moonlight is to sunlight, so was the Empire to the Papacy. The rays +of the one were borrowed, feeble, often interrupted: the other shone +with an unquenchable brilliance that was all her own. + +[Sidenote: In what sense was the Empire Roman?] + +The Empire, it has just been said, was never truly medival. Was it +then Roman in anything but name? and was that name anything better +than a piece of fantastic antiquarianism? It is easy to draw a +comparison between the Antonines and the Ottos which should shew +nothing but unlikeness. What the Empire was in the second century +every one knows. In the tenth it was a feudal monarchy, resting on a +strong territorial oligarchy. Its chiefs were barbarians, the sons of +those who had destroyed Varus and baffled Germanicus, sometimes unable +even to use the tongue of Rome. Its powers were limited. It could +scarcely be said to have a regular organization at all, whether +judicial or administrative. It was consecrated to the defence, nay, it +existed by virtue of the religion which Trajan and Marcus had +persecuted. Nevertheless, when the contrast has been stated in the +strongest terms, there will remain points of resemblance. The +thoroughly Roman idea of universal denationalization survived, and +drew with it that of a certain equality among all free subjects. It +has been remarked already, that the world's highest dignity was for +many centuries the only civil office to which any free-born Christian +was legally eligible. And there was also, during the earlier ages, +that indomitable vigour which might have made Trajan or Severus seek +their true successors among the woods of Germany rather than in the +palaces of Byzantium, where every office and name and custom had +floated down from the court of Constantine in a stream of unbroken +legitimacy. The ceremonies of Henry the Seventh's coronation would +have been strange indeed to Caius Julius Csar Octavianus Augustus; +but how much nobler, how much more Roman in force and truth than the +childish and unmeaning forms with which a Palologus was installed! It +was not in purple buskins that the dignity of the Luxemburger +lay[422]. To such a boast the Germanic Empire had long ere its death +lost right: it had lived on, when honour and nature bade it die: it +had become what the Empire of the Moguls was, and that of the Ottomans +is now, a curious relic of antiquity, over which the imaginative might +muse, but which the mass of men would push aside with impatient +contempt. But institutions, like men, should be judged by their prime. + +[Sidenote: 'Imperialism:' Roman, French, and medival.] + +[Sidenote: Political character of the Teutonic and Gallic races.] + +The comparison of the old Roman Empire with its Germanic +representative raises a question which has been a good deal canvassed +of late years. That wonderful system which Julius Csar and his subtle +nephew erected upon the ruins of the republican constitution of Rome +has been made the type of a certain form of government and of a +certain set of social as well as political arrangements, to which, or +rather to the theory whereof they are a part, there has been given the +name of Imperialism. The sacrifice of the individual to the mass, the +concentration of all legislative and judicial powers in the person of +the sovereign, the centralization of the administrative system, the +maintenance of order by a large military force, the substitution of +the influence of public opinion for the control of representative +assemblies, are commonly taken, whether rightly or wrongly, to +characterize that theory. Its enemies cannot deny that it has before +now given and may again give to nations a sudden and violent access of +aggressive energy; that it has often achieved the glory (whatever that +may be) of war and conquest; that it has a better title to respect in +the ease with which it may be made, as it was by the Flavian and +Antonine Csars of old, and at the beginning of this century by +Napoleon in France, the instrument of comprehensive reforms in law and +government. The parallel between the Roman world under the Csars and +the French people now is indeed less perfect than those who dilate +upon it fancy. That equalizing despotism which was a good to a medley +of tribes, the force of whose national life had spent itself and left +them languid, yet restless, with all the evils of isolation and none +of its advantages, is not necessarily a good to a country already the +strongest and most united in Europe, a country where the +administration is only too perfect, and the pressure of social +uniformity only too strong. But whether it be a good or an evil, no +one can doubt that France represents, and has always represented, the +imperialist spirit of Rome far more truly than those whom the Middle +Ages recognized as the legitimate heirs of her name and dominion. In +the political character of the French people, whether it be the result +of the five centuries of Roman rule in Gaul, or rather due to the +original instincts of the Gallic race, is to be found their claim, a +claim better founded than any which Napoleon put forward, to be the +Romans[423] of the modern world. The tendency of the Teuton was and is +to the independence of the individual life, to the mutual repulsion, +if the phrase may be permitted, of the social atoms, as contrasted +with Keltic and so-called Romanic peoples, among which the unit is +more completely absorbed in the mass, who live possessed by a common +idea which they are driven to realize in the concrete. Teutonic states +have been little more successful than their neighbours in the +establishment of free constitutions. Their assemblies meet, and vote, +and are dissolved, and nothing comes of it: their citizens endure +without greatly resenting outrages that would raise the more excitable +French or Italians in revolt. But, whatever may have been the form of +government, the body of the people have in Germany always enjoyed a +freedom of thought which has made them comparatively careless of +politics; and the absolutism of the Elbe is at this day no more like +that of the Seine than a revolution at Dresden is to a revolution at +Paris. The rule of the Hohenstaufen had nothing either of the good or +the evil of the imperialism which Tacitus painted, or of that which +the panegyrists of the present system in France paint in colours +somewhat different from his. + +[Sidenote: Essential principles of the medival Empire.] + +There was, nevertheless, such a thing as medival imperialism, a +theory of the nature of the state and the best form of government, +which has been described once already, and need not be described +again. It is enough to say, that from three leading principles all its +properties may be derived. The first and the least essential was the +existence of the state as a monarchy. The second was the exact +coincidence of the state's limits, and the perfect harmony of its +workings with the limits and the workings of the church. The third was +its universality. These three were vital. Forms of political +organization, the presence or absence of constitutional checks, the +degree of liberty enjoyed by the subject, the rights conceded to local +authorities, all these were matters of secondary importance. But +although there brooded over all the shadow of a despotism, it was a +despotism not of the sword but of law; a despotism not chilling and +blighting, but one which, in Germany at least, looked with favour on +municipal freedom, and everywhere did its best for learning, for +religion, for intelligence; a despotism not hereditary, but one which +constantly maintained in theory the principle that he should rule who +was found the fittest. To praise or to decry the Empire as a despotic +power is to misunderstand it altogether. We need not, because an +unbounded prerogative was useful in ages of turbulence, advocate it +now; nor need we, with Sismondi, blame the Frankish conqueror because +he granted no 'constitutional charter' to all the nations that obeyed +him. Like the Papacy, the Empire expressed the political ideas of a +time, and not of all time: like the Papacy, it decayed when those +ideas changed; when men became more capable of rational liberty; when +thought grew stronger, and the spiritual nature shook itself more free +from the bonds of sense. + +[Sidenote: Influence of the Holy Empire on Germany.] + +The influence of the Empire upon Germany is a subject too wide to be +more than glanced at here. There is much to make it appear altogether +unfortunate. For many generations the flower of Teutonic chivalry +crossed the Alps to perish by the sword of the Lombards, or the +deadlier fevers of Rome. Italy terribly avenged the wrongs she +suffered. Those who destroyed the national existence of another people +forfeited their own: the German kingdom, crushed beneath the weight of +the Roman Empire, could never recover strength enough to form a +compact and united monarchy, such as arose elsewhere in Europe: the +race whom their neighbours had feared and obeyed till the fourteenth +century saw themselves, down even to our own day, the prey of +intestine feuds and their country the battlefield of Europe. Spoiled +and insulted by a neighbour restlessly aggressive and superior in all +the arts of success, they came to regard France as the persecuted +Slave regards them. The want of national union and political liberty +from which Germany has suffered, and to some extent suffers still, +cannot be attributed to the differences of her races; for, conspicuous +as that difference was in the days of Otto the Great, it was no +greater than in France, where intruding Franks, Goths, Burgundians, +and Northmen were mingled with primitive Kelts and Basques; not so +great as in Spain, or Italy, or Britain. Rather is it due to the +decline of the central government, which was induced by its strife +with the Popedom, its endless Italian wars, and the passion for +universal dominion which made it the assailant of all the neighbouring +countries. The absence or the weakness of the monarch enabled his +feudal vassals to establish petty despotisms, debarring the nation +from united political action, and greatly retarding the emancipation +of the commons. Thus, while the princes became shamelessly selfish, +justifying their resistance to the throne as the defence of their own +liberty--liberty to oppress the subject--and ready on the least +occasion to throw themselves into the arms of France, the body of the +people were deprived of all political training, and have found the +lack of such experience impede their efforts to this day. + +For these misfortunes, however, there has not been wanting some +compensation. The inheritance of the Roman Empire made the Germans the +ruling race of Europe, and the brilliance of that glorious dawn can +never fade entirely from their name. A peaceful people now, peaceful +in sentiment even now when they have become a great military power, +submissive to paternal government, and given to the quiet enjoyments +of art, music, and meditation, they delight themselves with memories +of the time when their conquering chivalry was the terror of the Gaul +and the Slave, the Lombard and the Saracen. The national life received +a keen stimulus from the sense of exaltation which victory brought, +and from the intercourse with countries where the old civilization had +not wholly perished. It was this connexion with Italy that raised the +German lands out of barbarism, and did for them the work which Roman +conquest had performed in Gaul, Spain, and Britain. From the Empire +flowed all the richness of their medival life and literature: it +first awoke in them a consciousness of national existence; its history +has inspired and served as material to their poetry; to many ardent +politicians the splendours of the past have become the beacon of the +future[424]. There is a bright side even to their political disunion. +When they complain that they are not a nation, and sigh for the +harmony of feeling and singleness of aim which their great rival +displays, the example of the Greeks may comfort them. To the variety +which so many small governments have produced may be partly attributed +the breadth of development in German thought and literature, by virtue +of which it transcends the French hardly less than the Greek surpassed +the Roman. Paris no doubt is great, but a country may lose as well as +gain by the predominance of a single city; and Germany need not mourn +that she alone among modern states has not and never has had a +capital. + +[Sidenote: Austria as heir of the Holy Empire.] + +The merits of the old Empire were not long since the subject of a +brisk controversy among several German professors of history[425]. The +spokesmen of the Austrian or Roman Catholic party, a party which ten +years ago was not less powerful in some of the minor South German +States than in Vienna, claimed for the Hapsburg monarchy the honour of +being the legitimate representative of the medival Empire, and +declared that only by again accepting Hapsburg leadership could +Germany win back the glory and the strength that once were hers. The +North German liberals ironically applauded the comparison. 'Yes,' they +replied, 'your Austrian Empire, as it calls itself, is the true +daughter of the old despotism: not less tyrannical, not less +aggressive, not less retrograde; like its progenitor, the friend of +priests, the enemy of free thought, the trampler upon the national +feeling of the peoples that obey it. It is you whose selfish and +anti-national policy blasts the hope of German unity now, as Otto and +Frederick blasted it long ago by their schemes of foreign conquest. +The dream of Empire has been our bane from first to last.' It is +possible, one may hope, to escape the alternative of admiring the +Austrian Empire or denouncing the Holy Roman. Austria has indeed, in +some things, but too faithfully reproduced the policy of the Saxon and +Swabian Csars. Like her, they oppressed and insulted the Italian +people: but it was in the defence of rights which the Italians +themselves admitted. Like her, they lusted after a dominion over the +races on their borders, but that dominion was to them a means of +spreading civilization and religion in savage countries, not of +pampering upon their revenues a hated court and aristocracy. Like her, +they strove to maintain a strong government at home, but they did it +when a strong government was the first of political blessings. Like +her, they gathered and maintained vast armies; but those armies were +composed of knights and barons who lived for war alone, not of +peasants torn away from useful labour and condemned to the cruel task +of perpetuating their own bondage by crushing the aspirations of +another nationality. They sinned grievously, no doubt, but they sinned +in the dim twilight of a half-barbarous age, not in the noonday blaze +of modern civilization. The enthusiasm for medival faith and +simplicity which was so fervid some years ago has run its course, and +is not likely soon to revive. He who reads the history of the Middle +Ages will not deny that its heroes, even the best of them, were in +some respects little better than savages. But when he approaches more +recent times, and sees how, during the last three hundred years, kings +have dealt with their subjects and with each other, he will forget the +ferocity of the Middle Ages, in horror at the heartlessness, the +treachery, the injustice all the more odious because it sometimes +wears the mask of legality, which disgraces the annals of the military +monarchies of Europe. With regard, however, to the pretensions of +modern Austria, the truth is that this dispute about the worth of the +old system has no bearing upon them at all. The day of imperial +greatness was already past when Rudolf the first Hapsburg reached the +throne; while during what may be called the Austrian period, from +Maximilian to Francis II, the Holy Empire was to Germany a mere clog +and incumbrance, which the unhappy nation bore because she knew not +how to rid herself of it. The Germans are welcome to appeal to the old +Empire to prove that they were once a united people. Nor is there any +harm in their comparing the politics of the twelfth century with those +of the nineteenth, although to argue from the one to the other seems +to betray a want of historical judgment. But the one thing which is +wholly absurd is to make Francis Joseph of Austria the successor of +Frederick of Hohenstaufen, and justify the most sordid and ungenial of +modern despotisms by the example of the mirror of medival chivalry, +the noblest creation of medival thought. + +[Sidenote: Bearing of the Empire upon the progress of European +civilization.] + +[Sidenote: Influence upon modern jurisprudence.] + +We are not yet far enough from the Empire to comprehend or state +rightly its bearing on European progress. The mountain lies behind us, +but miles must be traversed before we can take in at a glance its +peaks and slopes and buttresses, picture its form, and conjecture its +height. Of the perpetuation among the peoples of the West of the arts +and literature of Rome it was both an effect and a cause, a cause only +less powerful than the church. It would be endless to shew in how many +ways it affected the political institutions of the Middle Ages, and +through them of the whole civilized world. Most of the attributes of +modern royalty, to take the most obvious instance, belonged originally +and properly to the Emperor, and were borrowed from him by other +monarchs. The once famous doctrine of divine right had the same +origin. To the existence of the Empire is chiefly to be ascribed the +prevalence of Roman law through Europe, and its practical importance +in our own days. For while in Southern France and Central Italy, where +the subject population greatly outnumbered their conquerors, the old +system would have in any case survived, it cannot be doubted that in +Germany, as in England, a body of customary Teutonic law would have +grown up, had it not been for the notion that since the German monarch +was the legitimate successor of Justinian, the Corpus Juris must be +binding on all his subjects. This strange idea was received with a +faith so unhesitating that even the aristocracy, who naturally +disliked a system which the Emperors and the cities favoured, could +not but admit its validity, and before the end of the Middle Ages +Roman law prevailed through all Germany[426]. When it is considered +how great are the services which German writers have rendered and +continue to render to the study of scientific jurisprudence, this +result will appear far from insignificant. But another of still wider +import followed. When by the Peace of Westphalia a crowd of petty +principalities were recognized as practically independent states, the +need of a code to regulate their intercourse became pressing. That +code Grotius and his successors formed out of what was then the +private law of Germany, which thus became the foundation whereon the +system of international jurisprudence has been built up during the +last two centuries. That system is, indeed, entirely a German +creation, and could have arisen in no country where the law of Rome +had not been the fountain of legal ideas and the groundwork of +positive codes. In Germany, too, was it first carried out in practice, +and that with a success which is the best, some might say the only, +title of the later Empire to the grateful remembrance of mankind. +Under its protecting shade small princedoms and free cities lived +unmolested beside states like Saxony and Bavaria; each member of the +Germanic body feeling that the rights of the weakest of his brethren +were also his own. + +[Sidenote: Influence of the Empire upon the history of the Church.] + +[Sidenote: Nature of the question at issue between the Emperors and +the Popes.] + +The most important chapter in the history of the Empire is that which +describes its relation to the Church and the Papacy. Of the +ecclesiastical power it was alternately the champion and the enemy. In +the ninth and tenth centuries the Emperors extended the dominion of +Peter's chair: in the tenth and eleventh they rescued it from an abyss +of guilt and shame to be the instrument of their own downfall. The +struggle which Gregory the Seventh began, although it was political +rather than religious, awoke in the Teutonic nations a hostility to +the pretensions of the Romish court. That struggle ended, with the +death of the last Hohenstaufen, in the victory of the priesthood, a +victory whose abuse by the insolent and greedy pontiffs of the +fourteenth and fifteenth centuries made it more ruinous than a defeat. +The anger which had long smouldered in the breasts of the northern +nations of Europe burst out in the sixteenth with a violence which +alarmed those whom it had hitherto defended, and made the Emperors +once more the allies of the Popedom, and the partners of its declining +fortunes. But the nature of that alliance and of the hostility which +had preceded it must not be misunderstood. It is a natural, but not +the less a serious error to suppose, as modern writers often seem to +do, that the pretensions of the Empire and the Popedom were mutually +exclusive; that each claimed all the rights, spiritual and secular, of +a universal monarch. So far was this from being the case, that we find +medival writers and statesmen, even Emperors and Popes themselves, +expressly recognizing a divinely appointed duality of government--two +potentates, each supreme in the sphere of his own activity, Peter in +things eternal, Csar in things temporal. The relative position of the +two does indeed in course of time undergo a signal alteration. In the +days of Charles, the barbarous age of modern Europe, when men were and +could not but be governed chiefly by physical force, the Emperor was +practically, if not theoretically, the grander figure. Four centuries +later, in the era of Pope Innocent the Third, when the power of ideas +had grown stronger in the world, and was able to resist or to bend to +its service the arms and the wealth of men, we see the balance +inclined the other way. Spiritual authority is conceived of as being +of a nature so high and holy that it must inspire and guide the civil +administration. But it is not proposed to supplant that administration +nor to degrade its head: the great struggle of the eleventh and two +following centuries does not aim at the annihilation of one or other +power, but turns solely upon the character of their connexion. +Hildebrand, the typical representative of the Popedom, requires the +obedience of the Emperor on the ground of his own personal +responsibility for the souls of their common subjects: he demands, not +that the functions of temporal government shall be directly committed +to himself, but that they shall be exercised in conformity with the +will of God, whereof he is the exponent. The imperialist party had no +means of meeting this argument, for they could not deny the spiritual +supremacy of the Pope, nor the transcendant importance of eternal +salvation. They could therefore only protest that the Emperor, being +also divinely appointed, was directly answerable to God, and remind +the Pope that his kingdom was not of this world. There was in truth no +way out of the difficulty, for it was caused by the attempt to sever +things that admit of no severance, life in the soul and life in the +world, life for the future and life in the present. What it is most +pertinent to remark is that neither combatant pushed his theory to +extremities, since he felt that his adversary's title rested on the +same foundations as his own. The strife was keenest at the time when +the whole world believed fervently in both powers; the alliance came +when faith had forsaken the one and grown cold towards the other; from +the Reformation onwards Empire and Popedom fought no longer for +supremacy, but for existence. One is fallen already, the other shakes +with every blast. + +[Sidenote: Ennobling influence of the conception of the World Empire.] + +Nor was that which may be called the inner life of the Empire less +momentous in its influence upon the minds of men than were its outward +dealings with the Roman church upon her greatness and decline. In the +Middle Ages, men conceived of the communion of the saints as the +formal unity of an organized body of worshippers, and found the +concrete realization of that conception in their universal religious +state, which was in one aspect, the Church; in another, the Empire. +Into the meaning and worth of the conception, into the nature of the +connexion which subsists or ought to subsist between the Church and +the State, this is not the place to inquire. That the form which it +took in the Middle Ages was always imperfect and became eventually +rigid and unprogressive was sufficiently proved by the event. But by +it the European peoples were saved from the isolation, and narrowness, +and jealous exclusiveness which had checked the growth of the earlier +civilizations of the world, and which we see now lying like a weight +upon the kingdoms of the East: by it they were brought into that +mutual knowledge and co-operation which is the condition if it be not +the source of all true culture and progress. For as by the Roman +Empire of old the nations were first forced to own a common sway, so +by the Empire of the Middle Ages was preserved the feeling of a +brotherhood of mankind, a commonwealth of the whole world, whose +sublime unity transcended every minor distinction. + +[Sidenote: Principles adverse to the Empire.] + +As despotic monarchs claiming the world for their realm, the Teutonic +Emperors strove from the first against three principles, over all of +which their forerunners of the elder Rome had triumphed,--those of +Nationality, Aristocracy, and Popular Freedom. Their early struggles +were against the first of these, and ended with its victory in the +emancipation, one after another, of England, France, Poland, Hungary, +Denmark, Burgundy, and Italy. The second, in the form of feudalism, +menaced even when seeming to embrace and obey them, and succeeded, +after the Great Interregnum, in destroying their effective strength in +Germany. Aggression and inheritance turned the numerous independent +principalities thus formed out of the greater fiefs, into a few +military monarchies, resting neither on a rude loyalty, like feudal +kingdoms, nor on religious duty and tradition, like the Empire, but on +physical force, more or less disguised by legal forms. That the +hostility to the Empire of the third was accidental rather than +necessary is seen by this, that the very same monarchs who strove to +crush the Lombard and Tuscan cities favoured the growth of the free +towns of Germany. Asserting the rights of the individual in the sphere +of religion, the Reformation weakened the Empire by denying the +necessity of external unity in matters spiritual: the extension of the +same principle to the secular world, whose fulness is still withheld +from the Germans, would have struck at the doctrine of imperial +absolutism had it not found a nearer and deadlier foe in the actual +tyranny of the princes. It is more than a coincidence, that as the +proclamation of the liberty of thought had shaken it, so that of the +liberty of action made by the revolutionary movement, whose beginning +the world saw and understood not in 1789, whose end we see not yet, +should have indirectly become the cause which overthrew the Empire. + +[Sidenote: Change marked by its fall.] + +[Sidenote: Relations of the Empire to the nationalities of Europe.] + +Its fall in the midst of the great convulsion that changed the face of +Europe marks an era in history, an era whose character the events of +every year are further unfolding: an era of the destruction of old +forms and systems and the building up of new. The last instance is the +most memorable. Under our eyes, the work which Theodoric and Lewis the +Second, Guido and Ardoin and the second Frederick essayed in vain, has +been achieved by the steadfast will of the Italian people. The fairest +province of the Empire, for which Franconian and Swabian battled so +long, is now a single monarchy under the Burgundian count, whom +Sigismund created imperial vicar in Italy, and who wants only the +possession of the capital to be able to call himself 'king of the +Romans' more truly than Greek or Frank or Austrian has done since +Constantine forsook the Tiber for the Bosphorus. No longer the prey of +the stranger, Italy may forget the past, and sympathize, as she has +now indeed, since the fortunate alliance of 1866, begun to sympathize, +with the efforts after national unity of her ancient enemy--efforts +confronted by so many obstacles that a few years ago they seemed all +but hopeless. On the new shapes that may emerge in this general +reconstruction it would be idle to speculate. Yet one prediction may +be ventured. No universal monarchy is likely to arise. More frequent +intercourse, and the progress of thought, have done much to change the +character of national distinctions, substituting for ignorant +prejudice and hatred a genial sympathy and the sense of a common +interest. They have not lessened their force. No one who reads the +history of the last three hundred years, no one, above all, who +studies attentively the career of Napoleon, can believe it possible +for any state, however great her energy and material resources, to +repeat in modern Europe the part of ancient Rome: to gather into one +vast political body races whose national individuality has grown more +and more marked in each successive age. Nevertheless, it is in great +measure due to Rome and to the Roman Empire of the Middle Ages that +the bonds of national union are on the whole both stronger and nobler +than they were ever before. The latest historian of Rome, after +summing up the results to the world of his hero's career, closes his +treatise with these words: 'There was in the world as Csar found it +the rich and noble heritage of past centuries, and an endless +abundance of splendour and glory, but little soul, still less taste, +and, least of all, joy in and through life. Truly it was an old world, +and even Csar's genial patriotism could not make it young again. The +blush of dawn returns not until the night has fully descended. Yet +with him there came to the much-tormented races of the Mediterranean a +tranquil evening after a sultry day; and when, after long historical +night, the new day broke once more upon the peoples, and fresh nations +in free self-guided movement began their course towards new and higher +aims, many were found among them in whom the seed of Csar had sprung +up, many who owed him, and who owe him still, their national +individuality[427].' If this be the glory of Julius, the first great +founder of the Empire, so is it also the glory of Charles, the second +founder, and of more than one amongst his Teutonic successors. The +work of the medival Empire was self-destructive; and it fostered, +while seeming to oppose, the nationalities that were destined to +replace it. It tamed the barbarous races of the North, and forced them +within the pale of civilization. It preserved the arts and literature +of antiquity. In times of violence and oppression, it set before its +subjects the duty of rational obedience to an authority whose +watchwords were peace and religion. It kept alive, when national +hatreds were most bitter, the notion of a great European Commonwealth. +And by doing all this, it was in effect abolishing the need for a +centralizing and despotic power like itself: it was making men capable +of using national independence aright: it was teaching them to rise to +that conception of spontaneous activity, and a freedom which is above +law but not against it, to which national independence itself, if it +is to be a blessing at all, must be only a means. Those who mark what +has been the tendency of events since A.D. 1789, and who remember how +many of the crimes and calamities of the past are still but half +redressed, need not be surprised to see the so-called principle of +nationalities advocated with honest devotion as the final and perfect +form of political development. But such undistinguishing advocacy is +after all only the old error in a new shape. If all other history did +not bid us beware the habit of taking the problems and the conditions +of our own age for those of all time, the warning which the Empire +gives might alone be warning enough. From the days of Augustus down to +those of Charles the Fifth the whole civilized world believed in its +existence as a part of the eternal fitness of things, and Christian +theologians were not behind heathen poets in declaring that when it +perished the world would perish with it. Yet the Empire is gone, and +the world remains, and hardly notes the change. + +[Sidenote: Difficulties arising from the nature of the subject.] + +This is but a small part of what might be said upon an almost +inexhaustible theme: inexhaustible not from its extent but from its +profundity: not because there is so much to say, but because, pursue +we it never so far, more will remain unexpressed, since incapable of +expression. For that which it is at once most necessary and least +possible to do, is to look at the Empire as a whole: a single +institution, in which centres the history of eighteen centuries--whose +outer form is the same, while its essence and spirit are constantly +changing. It is when we come to consider it in this light that the +difficulties of so vast a subject are felt in all their force. Try to +explain in words the theory and inner meaning of the Holy Empire, as +it appeared to the saints and poets of the Middle Ages, and that which +we cannot but conceive as noble and fertile in its life, sinks into a +heap of barren and scarcely intelligible formulas. Who has been able +to describe the Papacy in the power it once wielded over the hearts +and imaginations of men? Those persons, if such there still be, who +see in it nothing but a gigantic upas-tree of fraud and superstition, +planted and reared by the enemy of mankind, are hardly further from +entering into the mystery of its being than the complacent political +philosopher, who explains in neat phrases the process of its growth, +analyses it as a clever piece of mechanism, enumerates and measures +the interests it appealed to, and gives, in conclusion, a sort of +tabular view of its results for good and for evil. So, too, is the +Holy Empire above all description or explanation; not that it is +impossible to discover the beliefs which created and sustained it, but +that the power of those beliefs cannot be adequately apprehended by +men whose minds have been differently trained, and whose imaginations +are fired by different ideals. Something, yet still how little, we +should know of it if we knew what were the thoughts of Julius Csar +when he laid the foundations on which Augustus built: of Charles, when +he reared anew the stately pile: of Barbarossa and his grandson, when +they strove to avert the surely coming ruin. Something more succeeding +generations will know, who will judge the Middle Ages more fairly than +we, still living in the midst of a reaction against all that is +medival, can hope to do, and to whom it will be given to see and +understand new forms of political life, whose nature we cannot so much +as conjecture. Seeing more than we do, they will also see some things +less distinctly. The Empire which to us still looms largely on the +horizon of the past, will to them sink lower and lower as they journey +onwards into the future. But its importance in universal history it +can never lose. For into it all the life of the ancient world was +gathered: out of it all the life of the modern world arose. + +THE END. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[418] See Louis Napoleon's letter to General Forey, explaining the +object of the expedition to Mexico. + +[419] One may also compare the retention of the office of consul at +Rome till the time of Justinian: indeed it even survived his formal +abolition. The relinquishment of the title 'King of Great Britain, +France, and Ireland,' seriously distressed many excellent persons. + +[420] I speak, of course, of the Papacy as an autocratic power +claiming a more than spiritual authority. + +[421] 'Ipsa enim ecclesia charior Deo est quam coelum. Non enim propter +coelum ecclesia, sed e converso propter ecclesiam coelum.' From the +tract entitled 'A Letter of the four Universities to Wenzel and Urban +VIII,' quoted in an earlier chapter. + +[422] Von Raumer, _Geschichte der Hohenstaufen_, v. + +[423] Meaning thereby not the citizens of Rome in her republican days, +but the Italo-Hellenic subjects of the Roman Empire. + +[424] Take, among many instances, those of the preface to Giesebrecht, +_Die Deutsche Kaiserzeit_; and Rotteck and Welcker's _Staats Lexikon_. +The German newspapers are indeed sufficient illustration. + +[425] See especially Von Sybel, _Die Deutsche Nation und das +Kaiserreich_; and the answers of Ficker and Von Wydenbrugk. + +[426] Modified of course by the canon law, and not superseding the +feudal law of land. + +[427] Mommsen, _Rmische Geschichte_, iii. _sub. fin._ + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +NOTE A. + +ON THE BURGUNDIES. + +It would be hard to mention any geographical name which, by its +application at different times to different districts, has caused, and +continues to cause, more confusion than this name Burgundy. There may, +therefore, be some use in a brief statement of the more important of +those applications. Without going into the minuti of the subject, the +following may be given as the ten senses in which the name is most +frequently to be met with:-- + +I. The kingdom of the Burgundians (_regnum Burgundionum_), founded +A.D. 406, occupying the whole valley of the Saone and lower Rhone, +from Dijon to the Mediterranean, and including also the western half +of Switzerland. It was destroyed by the sons of Clovis in A.D. 534. + +II. The kingdom of Burgundy (_regnum Burgundi_), mentioned +occasionally under the Merovingian kings as a separate principality, +confined within boundaries apparently somewhat narrower than those of +the older kingdom last named. + +III. The kingdom of Provence or Burgundy (_regnum Provinci seu +Burgundi_)--also, though less accurately, called the kingdom of +Cis-Jurane Burgundy--was founded by Boso in A.D. 877, and included +Provence, Dauphin, the southern part of Savoy, and the country +between the Saone and the Jura. + +IV. The kingdom of Trans-Jurane Burgundy (_regnum Iurense_, _Burgundia +Transiurensis_), founded by Rudolf in A.D. 888, recognized in the same +year by the Emperor Arnulf, included the northern part of Savoy, and +all Switzerland between the Reuss and the Jura. + +V. The kingdom of Burgundy or Arles (_regnum Burgundi_, _regnum +Arelatense_), formed by the union, under Conrad the Pacific, in A.D. +937, of the kingdoms described above as III and IV. On the death, in +1032, of the last independent king, Rudolf III, it came partly by +bequest, partly by conquest, into the hands of the Emperor Conrad II +(the Salic), and thenceforward formed a part of the Empire. In the +thirteenth century, France began to absorb it, bit by bit, and has now +(since the annexation of Savoy in 1861) acquired all except the Swiss +portion of it. + +VI. The Lesser Duchy (_Burgundia Minor_), (Klein Burgund), +corresponded very nearly with what is now Switzerland west of the +Reuss, including the Valais. It was Trans-Jurane Burgundy (IV) _minus_ +the parts of Savoy which had belonged to that kingdom. It disappears +from history after the extinction of the house of Zahringen in the +thirteenth century. Legally it was part of the Empire till A.D. 1648, +though practically independent long before that date. + +VII. The Free County or Palatinate of Burgundy (Franche Comt), +(Freigrafschaft), (called also Upper Burgundy), to which the name of +Cis-Jurane Burgundy originally and properly belonged, lay between the +Saone and the Jura. It formed a part of III and V, and was therefore a +fief of the Empire. The French dukes of Burgundy were invested with it +in A.D. 1384, and in 1678 it was annexed to the crown of France. + +VIII. The Landgraviate of Burgundy (Landgrafschaft) was in Western +Switzerland, on both sides of the Aar, between Thun and Solothurn. It +was a part of the Lesser Duchy (VI), and, like it, is hardly mentioned +after the thirteenth century. + +IX. The Circle of Burgundy (Kreis Burgund), an administrative division +of the Empire, was established by Charles V in 1548; and included the +Free County of Burgundy (VII) and the seventeen provinces of the +Netherlands, which Charles inherited from his grandmother Mary, +daughter of Charles the Bold. + +X. The Duchy of Burgundy (Lower Burgundy), (Bourgogne), the most +northerly part of the old kingdom of the Burgundians, was always a +fief of the crown of France, and a province of France till the +Revolution. It was of this Burgundy that Philip the Good and Charles +the Bold were Dukes. They were also Counts of the Free County (VII). + + * * * * * + +The most copious and accurate information regarding the obscure +history of the Burgundian kingdoms (III, IV, and V) is to be found in +the contributions of Baron Frederic de Gingins la Sarraz, a Vaudois +historian, to the _Archiv fr Schweizer Geschichte_. See also an +admirable article in the _National Review_ for October 1860, entitled +'The Franks and the Gauls.' + + +NOTE B. + +ON THE RELATIONS TO THE EMPIRE OF THE KINGDOM OF DENMARK, AND THE +DUCHIES OF SCHLESWIG AND HOLSTEIN. + +The history of the relations of Denmark and the Duchies to the +Romano-Germanic Empire is a very small part of the great +Schleswig-Holstein controversy. But having been unnecessarily mixed up +with two questions properly quite distinct,--the first, as to the +relation of Schleswig to Holstein, and of both jointly to the Danish +crown; the second, as to the diplomatic engagements which the Danish +kings have in recent times contracted with the German powers,--it has +borne its part in making the whole question the most intricate and +interminable that has vexed Europe for two centuries and a half. +Setting aside irrelevant matter, the facts as to the Empire are as +follows:-- + +I. The Danish kings began to own the supremacy of the Frankish +Emperors early in the ninth century. Having recovered their +independence in the confusion that followed the fall of the +Carolingian dynasty, they were again subdued by Henry the Fowler and +Otto the Great, and continued tolerably submissive till the death of +Frederick II and the period of anarchy which followed. Since that time +Denmark has been always independent, although her king was, until the +treaty of A.D. 1865, a member of the German Confederation for +Holstein. + +II. Schleswig was in Carolingian times Danish; the Eyder being, as +Eginhard tells us, the boundary between Saxonia Transalbiana +(Holstein), and the Terra Nortmannorum (wherein lay the town of +Sliesthorp), inhabited by the Scandinavian heathen. Otto the Great +conquered all Schleswig, and, it is said, Jutland also, and added the +southern part of Schleswig to the immediate territory of the Empire, +erecting it into a margraviate. So it remained till the days of Conrad +II, who made the Eyder again the boundary, retaining of course his +suzerainty over the kingdom of Denmark as a whole. But by this time +the colonization of Schleswig by the Germans had begun; and ever since +the numbers of the Danish population seem to have steadily declined, +and the mass of the people to have grown more and more disposed to +sympathize with their southern rather than their northern neighbours. + +III. Holstein always was an integral part of the Empire, as it is at +this day of the North German Bund. + + +NOTE C. + +ON CERTAIN IMPERIAL TITLES AND CEREMONIES. + +This subject is a great deal too wide and too intricate to be more +than touched upon here. But a few brief statements may have their use; +for the practice of the Germanic Emperors varied so greatly from time +to time, that the reader becomes hopelessly perplexed without some +clue. And if there were space to explain the causes of each change of +title, it would be seen that the subject, dry as it may appear, is +very far from being a barren or a dull one. + +I. TITLES OF EMPERORS. Charles the Great styled himself 'Carolus +serenissimus Augustus, a Deo coronatus, magnus et pacificus imperator, +Romanum (_or_ Romanorum) gubernans imperium, qui et per misericordiam +Dei rex Francorum et Langobardorum.' + +Subsequent Carolingian Emperors were usually entitled simply +'Imperator Augustus.' Sometimes 'rex Francorum et Langobardorum' was +added[428]. + +Conrad I and Henry I (the Fowler) were only German kings. + +A Saxon Emperor was, before his coronation at Rome, 'rex,' or 'rex +Francorum Orientalium,' or 'Francorum atque Saxonum rex;' after it, +simply 'Imperator Augustus.' Otto III is usually said to have +introduced the form 'Romanorum Imperator Augustus,' but some +authorities state that it occurs in documents of the time of Lewis I. + +Henry II and his successors, not daring to take the title of Emperor +till crowned at Rome (in conformity with the superstitious notion +which had begun with Charles the Bald), but anxious to claim the +sovereignty of Rome, as indissolubly attached to the German crown, +began to call themselves 'reges Romanorum.' The title did not, +however, become common or regular till the time of Henry IV, in whose +proclamations it occurs constantly. + +From the eleventh century till the sixteenth, the invariable practice +was for the monarch to be called 'Romanorum rex semper Augustus,' till +his coronation at Rome by the Pope; after it, 'Romanorum Imperator +semper Augustus.' + +In A.D. 1508, Maximilian I, being refused a passage to Rome by the +Venetians, obtained a bull from Pope Julius II permitting him to call +himself 'Imperator electus' (erwhlter Kaiser). This title Ferdinand I +(brother of Charles V) and all succeeding Emperors took immediately +upon their German coronation, and it was till A.D. 1806 their strict +legal designation[429], and was always employed by them in +proclamations or other official documents. The term 'elect' was +however omitted, even in formal documents when the sovereign was +addressed or spoken of in the third person; and in ordinary practice +he was simply 'Roman Emperor.' + +Maximilian added the title 'Germani rex,' which had never been known +before, although the phrase 'rex Germanorum' may be found employed +once or twice in early times. 'Rex Teutonicorum,' 'regnum +Teutonicum[430],' occur often in the tenth and eleventh centuries. A +great many titles of less consequence were added from time to time. +Charles the Fifth had seventy-five, not, of course, as Emperor, but in +virtue of his vast hereditary possessions[431]. + +It is perhaps worth remarking that the word Emperor has not at all the +same meaning now that it had even so lately as two centuries ago. It +is now a commonplace, not to say vulgar, title, somewhat more pompous +than that of King, and supposed to belong especially to despots. It is +given to all sorts of barbarous princes, like those of China and +Abyssinia, in default of a better name. It is peculiarly affected by +new dynasties; and has indeed grown so fashionable, that what with +Emperors of Brazil, of Hayti, and of Mexico, the good old title of +King seems in a fair way to become obsolete[432]. But in former times +there was, and could be but one Emperor; he was always mentioned with +a certain reverence: his name summoned up a host of thoughts and +associations, which we cannot comprehend or sympathize with. His +office, unlike that of modern Emperors, was by its very nature +elective, and not hereditary; and, so far from resting on conquest or +the will of the people, rested on and represented pure legality. War +could give him nothing which law had not given him already: the people +could delegate no power to him who was their lord and the viceroy of +God. + +II. THE CROWNS. + +Of the four crowns something has been said in the text. They were +those of Germany, taken at Aachen; of Burgundy, at Arles; of Italy, +sometimes at Pavia, more usually at Milan or Monza; of the world, at +Rome. + +The German crown was taken by every Emperor after the time of Otto the +Great; that of Italy by every one, or almost every one, who took the +Roman down to Frederick III, by none after him; that of Burgundy, it +would appear, by four Emperors only, Conrad II, Henry III, Frederick +I, and Charles IV. The imperial crown was received at Rome by most +Emperors till Frederick III; after him by none save Charles V, who +obtained both it and the Italian at Bologna in a somewhat informal +manner. But down to A.D. 1806, every Emperor bound himself by his +capitulation to proceed to Rome to receive it. + +It should be remembered that none of these inferior crowns was +necessarily connected with that of the Roman Empire, which might have +been held by a simple knight without a foot of land in the world. For +as there had been Emperors (Lothar I, Lewis II, Lewis of Provence (son +of Boso), Guy, Lambert, and Berengar) who were not kings of Germany, +so there were several (all those who preceded Conrad II) who were not +kings of Burgundy, and others (Arnulf, for example) who were not kings +of Italy. And it is also worth remarking, that although no crown save +the German was assumed by the successors of Charles V, their wider +rights remained in full force, and were never subsequently +relinquished. There was nothing, except the practical difficulty and +absurdity of such a project, to prevent Francis II from having himself +crowned at Arles[433], Milan, and Rome. + +III. THE KING OF THE ROMANS (RMISCHER KNIG). + +It has been shewn above how and why, about the time of Henry II, the +German monarch began to entitle himself 'Romanorum rex.' Now it was +not uncommon in the Middle Ages for the heir-apparent to a throne to +be crowned during his father's lifetime, that at the death of the +latter he might step at once into his place. (Coronation, it must be +remembered, which is now merely a spectacle, was in those days not +only a sort of sacrament, but a matter of great political importance.) +This plan was specially useful in an elective monarchy, such as +Germany was after the twelfth century, for it avoided the delays and +dangers of an election while the throne was vacant. But as it seemed +against the order of nature to have two Emperors at once[434], and as +the sovereign's authority in Germany depended not on the Roman but on +the German coronation, the practice came to be that each Emperor +during his own life procured, if he could, the election of his +successor, who was crowned at Aachen, in later times at Frankfort, and +took the title of 'King of the Romans.' During the presence of the +Emperor in Germany he exercised no more authority than a Prince of +Wales does in England, but on the Emperor's death he succeeded at +once, without any second election or coronation, and assumed (after +the time of Ferdinand I) the title of 'Emperor Elect[435].' Before +Ferdinand's time, he would have been expected to go to Rome to be +crowned there. While the Hapsburgs held the sceptre, each monarch +generally contrived in this way to have his son or some other near +relative chosen to succeed him. But many were foiled in their attempts +to do so; and, in such cases, an election was held after the Emperor's +death, according to the rules laid down in the Golden Bull. + +The first person who thus became king of the Romans in the lifetime of +an Emperor seems to have been Henry VI, son of Frederick I. + +It was in imitation of this title that Napoleon called his son king of +Rome. + + +NOTE D. + +LINES CONTRASTING THE PAST AND PRESENT OF ROME. + + Dum simulacra mihi, dum numina vana placebant, + Militia, populo, moenibus alta fui: + At simul effigies arasque superstitiosas + Deiiciens, uni sum famulata Deo, + Cesserunt arces, cecidere palatia divm, + Servivit populus, degeneravit eques. + Vix scio qu fuerim, vix Rom Roma recordor; + Vix sinit occasus vel meminisse mei. + Gratior hc iactura mihi successibus illis; + Maior sum pauper divite, stante iacens: + Plus aquilis vexilla crucis, plus Csare Petrus, + Plus cinctis ducibus vulgus inerme dedit. + Stans domui terras, infernum diruta pulso, + Corpora stans, animas fracta iacensque rego. + Tunc miser plebi, modo principibus tenebrarum + Impero: tunc urbes, nunc mea regna polus. + +Written by Hildebert, bishop of Le Mans, and afterwards archbishop of +Tours (born A.D. 1057). Extracted from his works as printed by Migne, +_Patrologi Cursus Completus_[436]. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[428] Waitz (_Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte_) says that the phrase +'semper Augustus' may be found in the times of the Carolingians, but +not in official documents. + +[429] There is some reason to think that towards the end of the Empire +people had begun to fancy that 'erwhlter' did not mean 'elect,' but +'elective.' Cf. note 410, p. 362. + +[430] These expressions seem to have been intended to distinguish the +kingdom of the Eastern or Germanic Franks from that of the Western or +Gallicized Franks (Francigen), which having been for some time +'regnum Francorum Occidentalium,' grew at last to be simply 'regnum +Franci,' the East Frankish kingdom being swallowed up in the Empire. + +[431] It is right to remark that what is stated here can be taken as +only generally and probably true: so great are the discrepancies among +even the most careful writers on the subject, and so numerous the +forgeries of a later age, which are to be found among the genuine +documents of the early Empire. Goldast's _Collections_, for instance, +are full of forgeries and anachronisms. Detailed information may be +found in Pfeffinger, Moser, and Ptter, and in the host of writers to +whom they refer. + +[432] We in England may be thought to have made some slight movement +in the same direction by calling the united great council of the Three +Kingdoms the Imperial Parliament. + +[433] Although to be sure the Burgundian dominions had all passed from +the Emperor to France, the kingdom of Sardinia, and the Swiss +Confederation. + +[434] Nevertheless, Otto II was crowned Emperor, and reigned for some +time along with his father, under the title of 'Co-Imperator.' So +Lothar I was associated in the Empire with Lewis the Pious, as Lewis +himself had been crowned in the lifetime of Charles. Many analogies to +the practice of the Romano-Germanic Empire in this respect might be +adduced from the history of the old Roman, as well as of the Byzantine +Empire. + +[435] Maximilian had obtained this title, 'Emperor Elect,' from the +Pope. Ferdinand took it as of right, and his successors followed the +example. + +[436] See note 326, p. 270. + + + + +INDEX. + + + A. + + Aachen, 72, 77, 86, 148, 212, 316 note, 403. + + ADALBERT (St.), 245; the church founded at Rome to receive + his ashes, 286. + + ADELHEID (Queen of Italy), account of her adventures, 83. + + ADOLF of Nassau, 221, 222, 262. + + ADSO, his _Vita Antichristi_, 114 note. + + AISTULF the Lombard, 39. + + ALARIC, his desire to preserve the institutions of the + Empire, 17, 19. + + ALBERIC (consul or senator), 83. + + ALBERT I (son of Rudolf of Hapsburg), 221, 224, 262. + + Albigenses, revolt of the, 241. + + ALBOIN, his invasion of Italy, 36. + + ALCUIN of York, 59, 66, 96, 201. + + ALEXANDER III (Pope), Frederick I's contest with, 170; + their meeting at Venice, 171. + + ALFONSO of Castile, his double election with Richard of + England, 212, 229. + + America, discovery of, 311. + + ANASTASIUS, his account of the coronation of Charles, 55. + + ANGELO (Michael), rebuilding of the Capitol by, 295. + + Antichrist, views respecting, in the earlier Middle Ages, + 114 note; in later times, 334. + + Architecture, Roman, 48, 290; analogy between it and the + civil and ecclesiastical constitution, 296; preservation of + an antique character in both, 296. + + ARDOIN (Marquis of Ivrea), 149. + + Aristocracy, barbarism of the, in the Middle Ages, 289; + struggles of the Teutonic Emperors against the, 388. + + Arles; _see_ Burgundy. + + ARNOLD of Brescia, Rome under, 174, 252, 276; put to death + at the instance of Pope Hadrian, 278, 299 note. + + ARNULF (Emperor), 78. + + ATHANARIC, 17. + + ATHANASIUS, the triumph of, 12. + + ATHAULF the Visigoth, his thoughts and purposes respecting + the Roman Empire, 19, 30. + + Augsburg, 259; treaty of, 334. + + AUGUSTINE, 94. + + Aulic Council, the, 340, 342 note. + + Austria, privilege of, 199; her claim to represent the + Roman Empire, 368, 381. + + Austrian succession, war of the, 352. + + Avignon, exactions of the court of, 219; its subservience + to France, 219, 243. + + AVITUS, letter of, on Sigismund's behalf, 18. + + + B. + + Barbarians, feared by the Romans, 14; Roman armies largely + composed of, 14; admitted to Roman titles and honours, 15; + their feelings towards the Roman Empire, 16; their desire + to preserve its institutions, 17; value of the Roman + officials and Christian bishops to the, 19. + + BARTOLOMMEO (San), the church of, 287. + + BASIL the Macedonian and Lewis II, 191. + + 'Basileus,' the title of, 143, 191. + + Basilica, erected at Aachen by Charles the Great, 76 note. + + BELISARIUS, his war with the Ostrogoths, 29, 273. + + Bell-tower, or campanile, in the churches of Rome, 294. + + BENEDICT of Soracte, 51 note. + + BENEDICT VIII (Pope), alleged decree of, 197. + + Benevento, the Annals of, 150. + + BERENGAR of Friuli, 82; his death, 83. + + BERENGAR II (King of Italy), 83. + + BERNARD (St.), 109 note. + + Bible, rights of the Empire proved from the, 112; + perversion of its meaning, 114. + + Bohemia, acquired by Luxemburg A. D. 1309, 222; the king + of, an elector, 230. + + BONIFACE VIII (Pope), his extravagant pretensions, 109, + 247; declares himself Vicar of the Empire, 219 note. + + BOSO, 81, 395. + + Bosphorus, removal of the seat of government to the, 154. + + Britain, abandoned by Imperial Government, 24; Roman Civil + Law not forgotten in, at a late date, 32; Roman ensigns and + devices in, 258. + + Buildings, the old, destruction and alteration of, by + invaders, 291; by the Romans of the Middle Ages, 292; by + modern restorers of churches, 292. + + Bull, the Golden, of Charles IV, 225, 230, 236. + + Burgundy, the kingdom of, Otto's policy towards, 143; added + to the Empire under Conrad II, 151; effect of its loss on + the Empire, 305; confusion caused by the name, 395; ten + senses in which it is met with, 395-7. + + Byzantium, effect of the removal of the seat of power to, + 9; Otto's policy towards, 141; attitude towards Emperor, + 189. + + + C. + + Campanile; _see_ Bell-tower. + + Canon law, correspondence between it and the Corpus Juris + Civilis, 101; its consolidation by Gregory IX, 112, 217. + + CAPET (Hugh), 142. + + Capitol, rebuilding of the, by Michael Angelo, 295. + + Capitulary of A. D. 802, 65. + + CARACALLA (Emperor), effect of his edict, 6. + + Carolingian Emperors, 76. + + Carolingian Empire of the West, its end in A. D. 888, 78; + Florus the Deacon's lament over its dissolution, 85 note. + + Carroccio, the, 178 note, 328. + + Cathari and other heretics, spread of, 241. + + Catholicity or Romanism, 94, 106. + + Celibacy, enforcement of, 158. + + Cenci, name of, 289 note. + + CHARLEMAGNE; _see_ Charles I. + + CHARLES I (the Great), extinguishes the Lombard kingdom, + 41; is received with honours by Pope Hadrian and the + people, 41; his personal ambition, 42; his treatment of + Pope Leo III, 44; title of 'Champion of the Faith and + Defender of the Holy See' conferred upon, 47; crowned at + Rome, 48; important consequences of his coronation, 50, 52; + its real meaning, 52, 80, 81; contemporary accounts, 53, + 64, 65, 84; their uniformity, 56; illegality of the + transaction, 56; three theories respecting it held four + centuries after, 57; was the coronation a surprise? 58; his + reluctance to assume the imperial title, 60; solution + suggested by Dllinger, 60; seeks the hand of Irene, 61; + defect of his imperial title, 61; theoretically the + successor of the whole Eastern line of Emperors, 62, 63; + has nothing to fear from Byzantine Princes, 63; his + authority in matters ecclesiastical, 64; presses Hadrian to + declare Constantine VI a heretic, 64; his spiritual + despotism applauded by subsequent Popes, 64; importance + attached by him to the Imperial name, 65; issues a + Capitulary, 65; draws closer the connexion of Church and + State, 66; new position in civil affairs acquired with the + Imperial title, 67, 68, 69; his position as Frankish king, + 69, 70; partial failure of his attempt to breathe a + Teutonic spirit into Roman forms, 70, 71; his personal + habits and sympathies, 71; groundlessness of the claims of + the modern French to, 71; the conception of his Empire + Roman, not Teutonic, 72; his Empire held together by the + Church, 73; appreciation of his character generally, 73, + 74; impress of his mind on medival society, 74; buried at + Aachen, 74; inscription on his tomb, 74; canonised as a + saint, 75; his plan of Empire, 76. + + CHARLES II (the BALD), 77, 156, 157. + + CHARLES III (the FAT), 78, 81. + + CHARLES IV, 223; his electoral constitution, 225; his + Golden Bull, 225, 236; general results of his policy, 236; + his object through life, 236; the University of Prague + founded by, 237; welcomed into Italy by Petrarch, 254. + + CHARLES V, accession of, 319; casts in his lot with the + Catholics, 321; the momentous results, 322; failure of his + repressive policy, 322. + + CHARLES VI, 348, 351, 352. + + CHARLES VII, his disastrous reign, 351. + + CHARLES VIII (King of France), his pretensions on Naples + and Milan, 315. + + CHARLES MARTEL, 36, 38. + + CHARLES of Valois, 223. + + CHARLES the BOLD and Frederick III, 249. + + CHEMNITZ, his comments on the condition and prospects of + the Empire, 339. + + CHILDERIC, his deposition by the Holy See, 39. + + Chivalry, the orders of, 250. + + Church, the, opposed by the Emperors, 10; growth of, 10; + alliance of, with the State, 10, 66, 107, 387; organization + of, framed on the model of the secular administration, 11; + the Emperor the head of, 12; maintains the Imperial idea, + 13; attitude of Charles the Great towards, 65, 66; the bond + that holds together the Empire of Charles, 73; first gives + men a sense of unity, 92; how regarded in Middle Ages, 92, + 370; draws tighter all bonds of outward union, 94; unity + of, felt to be analogous to that of the Empire, 93; becomes + the exact counterpart of the Empire, 99, 101, 107, 328; + position of, in Germany, 128; Otto's position towards, 129; + effect of the Reformation upon, 327; influence of the + Empire upon the history of, 384. + + Churches, national, 95, 330. + + Churches of Rome, destruction of old buildings by modern + restorers of, 292; mosaics and bell-tower in the, 294. + + Cities, in Lombardy, 175; growth of in Germany, 179; their + power, 223. + + Civil law, revival of the study of, 172; its study + forbidden by the Popes in the thirteenth century, 253. + + CIVILIS, the Batavian, 17. + + Clergy, aversion of the Lombards to the, 37; their idea of + political unity, 96; their power in the eleventh century, + 128; Gregory VII's condemnation of feudal investitures to + the, 158; their ambition and corruption in the later Middle + Age, 290. + + CLOVIS, his desire to preserve the institutions of the + Empire, 17, 30; his unbroken success, 35. + + Coins, papal, 278 note. + + COLONNA (John), Petrarch's letters to, 270 and note; the + family of, 281. + + Commons, the, 132, 314. + + Concordat of Worms, 163. + + Confederation of the Rhine, provisions of the, 362. + + CONRAD I (King of the East Franks), 122, 226. + + CONRAD II, the reign of, 151; comparison between the + prerogative at his accession and at the death of Henry V, + 165; the crown of Burgundy first gained by, 194. + + CONRAD III, 165, 277. + + CONRAD IV, 210. + + CONRADIN (Frederick II's grandson), murder of, 211. + + Constance, the Council of, 220, 253, 301; the peace of, + signed by Frederick I, 178. + + CONSTANTINE, his vigorous policy, 8; the Donation of, 43, + 100, 288 note. + + Constantinople, capture of, 303, 311. + + Coronations, ceremonies at, 112; the four, gone through by + the Emperors, 193, 403; their meaning, 195; churches in + which they were performed, 284, 288. + + Corpus Juris Civilis, correspondence between, and the Canon + Law, 101. + + Councils, General, right of Emperors to summon, 111. + + Counts Palatine, Otto's institution of, 125. + + CRESCENTIUS, 146. + + Crown, the Imperial, the right to confer, 57, 61, 81; not + legally attached to Frankish crown or nation, 81; how + treated by the Popes, 82. + + Crowns, the four, 193, 403. + + Crusades, the, 164, 166, 179, 193, 205, 209. + + + D. + + DANTE, 208; his attitude towards the Empire, 255; his + treatise _De Monarchia_, 262; sketch of its argument, 264 + et seq.; its omissions, 268, 299. + + Dark Ages, existing relics of the, 294. + + Decretals, the False, 156. + + Denmark, and the Slaves, 143; imperial authority in, 184; + its relations to the Empire, 398. + + Diet, the, 126, 314, 353; its rights as settled A. D. 1648, + 340; its altered character A. D. 1654, 344; its triflings, + 353. + + DIOCLETIAN, his vigorous policy, 8. + + Divine right of the Emperor, 246. + + DLLINGER (Dr.), 60 note. + + Dominicans, the order of, 205. + + Donation of Constantine, forgery of the, 43, 100, 118 note, + 261 note. + + Dukes, the, in Germany, 125. + + + E. + + East, imperial pretensions in the, 189. + + Eastern Church, the, 191. + + Eastern Empire, its relations with the Western, 24, 25; + decay of its power in the West, 45; how regarded by the + Popes, 46. + + Edict of Caracalla, 6. + + EDWARD II (King of England), his declaration of England's + independence of the Empire, 187. + + EDWARD III (King of England) and Lewis the Bavarian, 187; + his election against Charles IV, 223. + + EGINHARD, his statement respecting Charles's coronation, + 58, 60. + + Elective constitution, the, 227; difficulty of maintaining + the principle in practice, 233; its object the choice of + the fittest man, 233; restraint of the sovereign, 233; + recognition of the popular will, 234. + + Elector, the title of, its advantage, 232 note; personages + upon whom it was conferred by Napoleon, 232. + + Electoral body in primitive times, 226. + + Electoral function, conception of the, 235. + + Electorate, the Eighth, 231; the Ninth, 231. + + Electors, the Seven, 165, 229; their names and offices, 230 + note; the question of their vote, 257 note. + + Emperor, the position of, in the second century, 5, 6; the + head of the Church, 12, 23, 111; sanctity of the name, 22, + 120; correspondence between his position and functions and + those of the Pope, 104; proofs from medival documents, + 109; and from the coronation ceremonies, 112; illustrations + from medival art, 116; nature of his power, 120; fusion of + his functions with those of German King, 127; his office + feudalized, 130; attitude of Byzantine Emperors towards, + 189; his dignities and titles, 193, 257, 261, 400; the + title not assumed till the Roman coronation, 196; origin + and results of this practice, 196; policy of, 222; his + office as peace-maker, 244, 245; divine right of the, 246; + his right of creating kings, 249; his international place + at the Council of Constance, 253; change in titles of, 316; + his rights as settled A.D. 1648, 340; altered meaning of + the word now-a-days, 402. + + Emperors, meaning of their four coronations, 193, 195, 403; + persons eligible as, 251; after Henry VII, 263; their + short-sighted policy towards Rome, 277; their visits to + Rome, 282; their approach, 283; their entrance, 284; + hostility of the Pope and people to the, 284; their + burial-places, 287 note; nature of the question at issue + between the Popes and the, 385; their titles, 400. + + Emperors, Carolingian, 76. + + Emperors, Franconian, 133. + + Emperors, Hapsburg, beginning of their influence in + Germany, 310; their policy, 305, 348; repeated attempts to + set them aside, 350; causes of the long retention of the + throne by the, 349; modern pretensions of, 368, 381. + + Emperors, Italian, 80. + + Emperors, Saxon, 133. + + Emperors, Swabian or Hohenstaufen, 57, 165, 167. + + Emperors, Teutonic, defects in their title, 61; their + short-sighted policy, 277; their memorials in Rome, 286; + names of those buried in Italy, 287 note; their struggles + against nationality, aristocracy, and popular freedom, 388. + + Empire, the Roman, growth of despotism in, 5; obliteration + of national distinctions in, 6; unity of, threatened from + without and from within, 7, 8; preserved for a time by the + policy of Diocletian and Constantine, 8, 9; partition of, + 9; influence of the Church in supporting, 13; armies of, + composed of barbarians, 15; how regarded by the barbarians, + 16; belief in eternity of, 20; reunion of Italy to, 29; its + influence in the Transalpine provinces, 30; influence of + religion and jurisprudence in supporting, 31, 32; belief + in, not extinct in the eighth century, 44; restoration of + by Charles the Great, 48; the 'translation' of the, 52, + 111, 175, 218; divided between the grandsons of Charles, + 77; dissolution of, 78; ideal state supposed to be embodied + in, 99; never, strictly speaking, restored, 102. + + Empire, the Holy Roman, created by Otto the Great, 80, 103; + a prolongation of the Empire of Charles, 80; wherein it + differed therefrom, 80; motives for establishment of, 84; + identical with Holy Roman Church, 106; its rights proved + from the Bible, 112; its anti-national character, 120; its + union with the German kingdom, 122; dissimilarity between + the two, 127; results of the union, 128; its pretensions in + Hungary, 183; in Poland, 184; in Denmark, 184; in France, + 185; in Sweden, 185; in Spain, 185; in England, 186; in + Naples, 188; in Venice, 188; in the East, 189; the epithet + 'Holy' applied by Frederick I, 199; origin and meaning of + epithet, 200; its fall with Frederick II, 210; Italy lost + to, 211; change in its position, 214; its continuance due + to its connexion with the German kingdom, 214; its + relations with the Papacy, 153, 155, 216; its financial + distress, 223; theory of, in the fourteenth and fifteenth + centuries, 238; its duties as an international judge and + mediator, 244; why an international power, 248; + illustrations, 249; attitude of new learning towards, 251, + 254, 256; doctrine of its rights and functions never + carried out in fact, 253; end of its history in Italy, 263, + 304; relation between it and the city, 297; reaches its + lowest point in Frederick III's reign, 301; its loss of + Burgundy, 305, and of Switzerland, 306; change in its + character, 308, 313; effects of the Renaissance upon, 312; + effects of the Reformation upon, 319, 325; its influence + upon the name and associations of, 332; narrowing of its + bounds, 341; causes of the continuance of, 344; its + relation to the balance of power, 345; its position in + Europe, 346; its last phase, 352; signs of its approaching + fall, 356; its end, 363; the desire for its + re-establishment, 364; unwillingness of certain states, + 364; technically never extinguished, 364 note; summary of + its nature and results, 366; claim of Austria to represent, + 368; of France, 368; of Russia, 368; of Greece, 368; of the + Turks, 368; parallel between the Papacy and, 369, 373; + never truly medival, 373; sense in which it was Roman, + 374; its condition in the tenth century, 374; essential + principles of, 377; its influence on Germany, 378; Austria + as heir of, 381; its bearing on the progress of Europe, + 383; ways in which it affected the political institutions + of the Middle Ages, 383; its influence upon modern + jurisprudence, 383; upon the history of the Church, 384; + influence of its inner life on the minds of men, 387; + principles adverse to, 388; change marked by its fall, 389; + its relations to the nationalities of Europe, 390; + difficulty of fully understanding, 392. + + Empire and Papacy, interdependence of, 101; consequences, + 102; struggle between, 153; their relations, 155, 216; + parallel between, 369; compared as perpetuation of a name, + 372. + + Empire Western, last days of the, 24; its extinction by + Odoacer, 26; its restoration, 34. + + Empire, French, under Napoleon, 360. + + ENGELBERT, 113 note. + + England, 45; Otto's position towards, 143; authority not + exercised by any Emperors in, 186; vague notion that it + must depend on the Empire, 186; imperial pretensions + towards, 187; position of the regal power in, as compared + with Germany, 215; feudalism in, 343. + + Estate, Third, did not exist in time of Otto the Great, + 132. + + EUDES (Count of Champagne), 151. + + Europe, bearing of the Empire on the progress of, 383; on + the nationalities of, 390. + + + F. + + False Decretals, the, 156. + + FERDINAND I, 316 note, 323, 401. + + FERDINAND II, accession of, 335; his plans, 335; deprives + the Palsgrave Frederick of his electoral vote, 231. + + Feudal aristocracy, power of the, 221. + + Feudal king, his peculiar relation to his tenants, 124. + + Feudalism, 90, 123; reason of its firm grasp upon society, + 124; hostility between it and imperialism, 131; its results + in France, 343; in England, 343; in Germany, 344; struggles + of the Teutonic Emperors against, 388. + + Financial distress of the Empire, 223. + + FLORUS the Deacon's lament over the dissolution of the + Carolingian Empire, 85 note. + + Fontenay, battle of, 77. + + France, modern, dates from Hugh Capet, 142; imperial + authority exercised in, 185; her irritation at Germany's + precedence, 185; growth of the regal power in, as compared + with Germany, 215; alliance of the Protestants with, 325; + territory gained by treaties of Westphalia, 341; feudalism + in, 343; under Napoleon, 360; her claim to represent the + Roman Empire, 368, 376. + + Francia occidentalis, given to Charles the Bald, 77. + + FRANCIS I, reign of, 351. + + FRANCIS II, accession of, 356; resignation of imperial + crown by, 1, 363. + + Franciscans, the order of, 205. + + Franconia, extinction of the dukedom of, 222. + + Franconian Emperors, 133. + + 'Frank,' sense in which the name was used, 142 note. + + Franks, rise of the, 34; success of their arms, 35; + Catholics from the first, 36; their greatness chiefly due + to the clergy, 36; enter Rome, 48. + + Franks, the West, Otto's policy towards, 142. + + Frankfort, synod held at, 64; coronations at, 316 note, + 404. + + FREDERICK I (Barbarossa), his brilliant reign, 167, 179; + his relations to the Popedom, 167; his contest with Pope + Hadrian IV, 169, 316; incident at their meeting on the way + to Rome, 314 note; his contest with Pope Alexander III, + 170; their meeting at Venice, 171; magnificent ascriptions + of dignity to, 173; assertion of his prerogative in Italy, + 174; his version of the 'Translation of the Empire,' 175; + his dealings with the rebels of Milan and Tortona, 175; his + temporary success, 177; victory of the Lombards over, 178; + his prosperity as German king, 178; his glorious life and + happy death, 179; legend respecting him, 180; extent of his + jurisdiction, 182; his dominion in the East, 189; his + letter to Saladin, 189; anecdote of, 214. + + FREDERICK II, character of, 207; events of his struggle + with the Papacy, 209; results of his reign, 221; the charge + of heresy against, 251 note; memorials left by, in Rome, + 287. + + FREDERICK III, abases himself before the Romish court, 220; + Charles the Bold seeks an arrangement with, 249; his + calamitous reign, 301. + + FREDERICK (Count Palatine and King of Bohemia), deprived by + Ferdinand II of his electoral vote, 231. + + FREDERICK of Prussia (the Great), 347, 352, 353 note. + + Freedom popular, growth of, 240; struggles of the Teutonic + Emperors against, 388. + + + G. + + Gallic race, political character of the, 376. + + Gauverfassung, the so-called, 123. + + GERBERT (Pope Sylvester II), 146. + + 'German Emperor,' the title of, 127, 317. + + Germanic constitution, the, 221; influence upon, of the + theory of the Empire as an international power, 307; + attempted reforms of, 313; means by which it was proposed + to effect them, 314; causes of their failure, 314. + + Germany, beginning of the national existence of, 77; + chooses Arnulf as king, 78; overrun by Hungarians, 79; + establishment of monarchy in, by Henry the Fowler, 79; + desires the restoration of the Carolingian Empire, 86; + position of in the tenth century, 122; union of the Empire + with, 122; results of the union, 128; dissimilarity of the + two systems, 127; feudalism in, 123; the feudal polity of, + generally, 125; nature of the history of, till the twelfth + century, 126; princes of, ally themselves with the Pope + against the Emperor, 162; its hatred of the Romish Court, + 169; the position of under Frederick Barbarossa, 179; + growth of towns in, 179, 223; decline of imperial power in, + 211; state of during Great Interregnum, 213; decline of + regal power in, 215; encroachments of nobles in, 221, 228; + kingdom of, not originally elective, 225; how it ultimately + became elective, 226; changes in the constitution of, 228; + its weakness as compared with other states of Europe, 302; + its loss of imperial territories, 303; its internal + weakness, 306; position of the Emperor in, compared with + that of his predecessors in Europe, 309; beginning of the + Hapsburg influence in, 310; first consciousness of its + nationality, 315; destruction of its State-system, 324; its + troubles, 324; finally severed from Rome, 340; after the + peace of Westphalia, 342; effect of a number of petty + independent states upon, 343; feudalism in, 343; its + political life in the eighteenth century, 345; foreign + thrones acquired by its princes, 346; French aggression + upon, 346; its weakness and stagnation, 347; popular + feeling in at the close of eighteenth century, 354; + Napoleon in, 361; changes in, by war of 1866, 365 note; + influence of the Holy Empire on, 378. + + GERSON, chancellor of Paris, plans of, 301. + + Ghibeline, the name of, 304. + + GOETHE, 236 note, 316 note, 356. + + Golden Bull of Charles IV, 225, 230, 236. + + Goths, wisest and least cruel of the Germanic family, 28; + Arian Goths regarded as enemies by Catholic Italians, 29. + + Greece, her influence in the fifteenth and sixteenth + centuries, 240, 252; her claim to represent the Roman + Empire, 368. + + Greeks and Latins, origin of their separation, 37 note. + + Greeks, effect of their hostility upon the Teutonic Empire, + 210. + + GREGORY THE GREAT, fame of his sanctity and writings, 31; + means by which he advanced Rome's ecclesiastical authority, + 154. + + GREGORY II (Pope), reason of his reluctance to break with + the Byzantine princes, 102. + + GREGORY III (Pope) appeals to Charles Martel for succour + against the Lombards, 39. + + GREGORY V (Pope), 146. + + GREGORY VII (Pope), his condemnation of feudal investitures + to the clergy, 158; war between him and Henry IV, 159; his + letter to William the Conqueror, 160; passage in his second + excommunication of Henry, 161; results of the struggle + between them, 162; his death, 162; his theory as to the + rights of the Pope with respect to the election of + Emperors, 217; his silence about the Translation of the + Empire, 218; his simile between the Empire and the Popedom, + 373; his demands on the Emperor, 386. + + GREGORY IX (Pope), Canon law consolidated by, 102; receives + the title of 'Justinian of the Church,' 102. + + GREGORY X (Pope), 219. + + GROTIUS, 384. + + Guelf, the name of, 304. + + GUIDO, or GUY, of Spoleto, 82. + + GUISCARD, Robert, 292. + + GUNDOBALD the Burgundian, 25. + + GUNTHER of Schwartzburg, 222. + + GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS, 336. + + + H. + + HADRIAN I (Pope), summons Charles (the Great) to resist the + Lombards, 41; motives of his policy, 42; his allusion to + Constantine's Donation, 118 note. + + HADRIAN IV (Pope), Frederick I's contest with, 169, 285; + his pretensions, 197. + + HALLAM, his view of the grant of a Roman dignity to Clovis, + 30 note. + + Hanseatic Confederacy, 223, 347. + + Hapsburg, the castle of, 213 note. + + HAROLD the BLUE-TOOTHED, 143. + + HENRY I (the Fowler), 79, 122, 132, 226. + + HENRY II crowned Emperor, 149. + + HENRY II (King of France), assumes the title of 'Protector + of the German Liberties,' 325. + + HENRY II (King of England), his submissive tone towards + Frederick I, 186. + + HENRY III, power of the Empire at its meridian under, 151; + his reform of the Popedom, 152; fatal results of his + encroachments, 152; his death, 152. + + HENRY IV, election of, 226 note; war between him and + Gregory VII, 159; his humiliation, 159; results of the + struggle, 162; his death, 162. + + HENRY V (Emperor), his claims over ecclesiastics, 163; his + quarrel with Pope Paschal II, 163; his perilous position, + 163; comparison between the prerogative at his death and + that at the accession of Conrad II, 165; tumults produced + by his coronation, 285. + + HENRY V (King of England) refuses submission to the Emperor + Sigismund, 187. + + HENRY VI, 188; his proposal to unite Naples and Sicily to + the Empire, 206; opposition to the scheme, 206; his + untimely death, 206. + + HENRY VII, 221, 223; in Italy, 262; his death, 263. + + HENRY VIII (King of England), 334 note. + + Hessen-Cassel, Elector of, dethroned, 232. + + HILARY, feelings of, towards the Roman Empire, 21 note. + + HILDEBERT (Bishop of Caen), his lines contrasting the past + and present of Rome, 406. + + HILDEBRAND; _see_ Gregory VII. + + HIPPOLYTUS a Lapide, the treatise of, 339. + + Hohenstaufen; _see_ Emperors, Swabian. + + Hohenstaufen, the castle of, 165 note. + + Holland, declared independent, 342. + + Holstein, its relations to the Empire, 398. + + HUGH CAPET, 42. + + HUGH of Burgundy, 83. + + Hungarians, the, 143. + + Hungary, imperial authority exercised in, 183; its + connexion with the Hapsburgs, 184 note. + + HUSS, the writings of, 241. + + + I. + + Iconoclastic controversy, 38. + + 'Imperator electus,' the title of, 316, 405. + + Imperialism, Roman, French, and Medival, 375. + + Imperial titles and ceremonies, 193, 400. + + INNOCENT III (Pope), his exertions on behalf of Otto IV, + 206; his pretensions, 209, 217; his struggle with Frederick + II, 208. + + INNOCENT X and the sacred number Seven of the electors, 227 + note; his protest against the Peace of Westphalia, 341. + + International power, the need of an, 242; why the Roman + Empire an, 248. + + Interregnum, the Great, frightful state of Germany during, + 213; enables the feudal aristocracy to extend their power, + 221. + + Investitures, the struggle of the, 162. + + IRENE (Empress), behaviour of, 47, 61, 68. + + Irminsl, overthrow of, by Charles the Great, 69; meaning + of term, 69 note. + + Italian Emperors, 80. + + Italian nationality, era at which its first rudiments + appeared, 140. + + Italians, modern, their feelings towards Rome, 299. + + Italy, under Odoacer, 26, 27; attempt of Theodoric to + establish a national monarchy in, 27; reconquered by + Justinian, 29; harassed by the Lombards, 37; condition of, + previous to Otto's descent into, 80; Otto the Great's first + expedition into, 84; its connexion with Germany, 87; Otto's + rule in, 139; liberties of the northern cities of, 150; + Frederick I in, 174; Henry VII in, 263; lost to the Empire, + 211, 304; names of Emperors buried in, 287 note; the nation + at the present day, 389. + + Italy, Southern, 150. + + + J. + + JOHN VIII (Pope), 156. + + JOHN XII (Pope), crowns Otto the Great, 87; plots against + him, 134; his reprobate life, 134; Liudprand's list of the + charges against, 135; letter recounting them sent to him, + 136; his reply, 136; Otto's answer, 136; deposed by Otto, + 137; regret of the Romans at his expulsion, 137; his return + and death, 138. + + JOHN XXII (Pope), his conflict with Lewis IV, 220. + + JOSEPH II, reign of, 352. + + JULIUS CSAR, 390, 392. + + JULIUS II (Pope), 316. + + Jurisprudence, influence of, in supporting the Empire, 31; + aversion of the Romish court to the ancient, 252; influence + of the Empire on modern, 383. + + Jurists, their attitude towards imperialism, 256. + + JUSTINIAN, Italy reconquered by, 29; study of the + legislation of, 240, 256. + + 'Justinian of the Church,' title of, conferred on Gregory + IX, 102. + + Jutland, Otto penetrates into, 143. + + + K. + + Kings, the Emperor's right of creating, 249. + + Knighthood, analogy between priesthood and, 250. + + + L. + + LACTANTIUS, his belief in the eternity of the Roman Empire, + 21. + + LAMBERT (son of Guido of Spoleto), 82. + + Landgrave of Thuringia, choice of the, commanded by the + Pope, 219. + + Lateran Palace at Rome, mosaic of the, 117, 288. + + Latins and Greeks, origin of their separation, 37 note. + + Lauresheim, Annals of, their account of the coronation of + Charles, 53. + + Law, old, the influence exercised by, 32; era of the + revived study of, 276. + + Learning, revival of, 240; connexion between it and + imperialism, 254. + + LEO I (Pope), his assertion of universal jurisdiction, 154. + + LEO the ISAURIAN (Emperor), his attempt to abolish the + worship of images, 38. + + LEO III (Pope), his accession, 43; his adventures, 44; + crowns Charles at Rome on Christmas Day, A.D. 800, 3, 49; + charter of, issued on same day, 106; relation of, to the + act of coronation, 52, 53; lectured by Charles, 64. + + LEO VIII (Pope), 138. + + Leonine city, the, 286 note. + + LEOPOLD I, ninth electorate conferred by, 231. + + LEOPOLD II, 352. + + LEWIS I (the Pious), 76, 77. + + LEWIS II, 77, 104 note, 191, 403. + + LEWIS III (son of Boso), 82. + + LEWIS IV, his conflict with Pope John XXII, 220. + + LEWIS XII (King of France), his pretensions on Naples and + Milan, 315. + + LEWIS XIV (King of France), 346. + + LEWIS (the German) (son of Lewis the Pious), 77. + + LEWIS the CHILD (son of Arnulf), 121. + + Literature, revival of, 240; connexion between it and + imperialism, 254. + + LIUDPRAND (Bishop of Cremona), his list of the accusations + against John XII, 135; account of his embassy to the + princess Theophano, 141. + + LIUDPRAND (King of the Lombards), attacks Rome and the + exarchate, 38. + + Lombard cities, 175; their victory over Frederick I, 178. + + Lombards, arrival of the, A.D. 568, 29, 37; their aversion + to the clergy, 37; the Popes seek help from the Franks + against the, 39; extinction of their kingdom by + Charlemagne, 41. + + LOTHAR I (son of Lewis the Pious), 77, 403. + + LOTHAR II, election of, 165, 228. + + LOTHAR (son of Hugh of Burgundy), 83. + + Lotharingia or Lorraine, 78, 79, 143, 183, 341, 349. + + Luneville, the Peace of, 361. + + LUTHER, 319. + + + M. + + Majesty, the title of, 247 note. + + Mallum, the popular assembly so called, 126. + + MANUEL COMNENUS, 193. + + Mario (Monte), 283. + + MARSILIUS of Padua, his 'de Imperio Romano,' 231 note. + + MAXIMILIAN I, 231, 310; character of his epoch, 310; events + of his reign, 313; his title of 'Imperator electus,' 316, + 405; his proposals to recover Burgundy and Italy, 317. + + MAXIMILIAN II, 323. + + Mayfield, the popular assembly so called, 126. + + Medival art, rights of the Empire set forth in, 116. + + Medival monuments, causes of the want of in Rome, 289. + + MICHAEL, 61. + + MICHAEL ANGELO, capital rebuilt by, 295. + + Middle Ages, the state of the human mind in, 90; theology + of, 95; philosophy of, 97; relations of Church and State + during, 107, 387; mode of interpreting Scriptures in, 114; + art of, 116; opposition of theory and practice in, 133, + 261; real beginning of, 204; reverence for ancient forms + and phrases in, 258; absence of the idea of change or + progress in, 259; the city of Rome in, 269; barbarism of + the aristocracy in, 289; ambition and corruption of the + clergy in the latter, 290; destruction of old buildings by + the Romans of, 292; existing relics of, 294; aspiration for + unity during, 370; the Visible Church in the, 370; ferocity + of the heroes of, 382; ways in which the Empire affected the + political institutions of, 383; idea of the communion of + saints during, 387. + + Milan, Frederick I's dealings with the rebels of, 125; the + rebuilding of, 178; victory of Frederick II over, 287; + pretensions of Charles VIII and Lewis XII of France on, + 315. + + Mahommedanism, rise of, 45. + + Moissac, Chronicle of, its account of the coronation of + Charles, 54, 84. + + MOMMSEN, 390. + + Monarchy, universal, doctrine of, 91, 97. + + Monarchy, elective, 232. + + Mosaics in the churches of Rome, 294. + + MLLER, Johannes von, 354. + + Mnster, the treaty of; _see_ Westphalia. + + + N. + + Naples, imperial authority in, 188, 205; pretensions of + Charles VIII and Lewis XII of France on, 315. + + NAPOLEON, as compared with Charles the Great, 74; + extinction of Electorates by, 232; Emperor of the West, + 357; his belief that he was the successor of Charlemagne, + 358; attitude of the Papacy towards, 359; his mission in + Germany, 361. + + Nationalities of Europe, the formation of, 242; relations + of the Empire to the, 390. + + Nationality, struggles of the Teutonic Emperors against, + 388. + + Neo-Platonism, Alexandrian, effect of, 7. + + Nica, first council of, 23, 301; second council of, 64. + + NICEPHORUS, 61, 192. + + NICHOLAS I (Pope) and the case of Teutberga, 252. + + NICHOLAS II (Pope), fixes a regular body to elect the Pope, + 158. + + NICHOLAS V (Pope), 279, 292, 312. + + Nobles, the, in feudal times, 125, 221; encroachments of + the, 228. + + Nrnberg, 259. + + + O. + + OCCAM, the English Franciscan, 220. + + ODO, 81. + + ODOACER, extinction of the Western Empire by, A.D. 476, 25; + his original position, 25 note; his assumption of the title + of King, 26; nature of his government, 27. + + OPTATUS (Bishop of Milevis), his treatise _Contra + Donatistas_, 13 note. + + Orsini, the family of, 281. + + Osnabrck, treaty of; _see_ Westphalia. + + Ostrogoths, 24; war between Belisarius and the, 273. + + OTTO I, the GREAT, appealed to by Adelheid, 83; his first + expedition into Italy, 84; invitation sent by the Pope to, + 84; his victory over the Hungarians, 85; crowned king of + Italy at Rome, 87; his coronation a favourable opening to + sacerdotal claims, 155; causes of the revival of the Empire + under, 84; his coronation feast the inauguration of the + Teutonic realm, 123; consequences of his assumption of the + imperial title, 128; his position towards the Church, 128; + changes in title, 129; his imperial office feudalized, 130; + the Germans made a single people by, 131; incidents which + befel him in Rome, 134; inquires into the character and + manners of Pope John XII, 135; his letters to John, 136; + deposes John, 136; appoints Leo in his stead, 137; his + suppression of the revolts of the Romans on account of + John, 138; his rule in Italy, 139; resumes Charles's plans + of foreign conquest, 140; his policy towards Byzantium, + 141; seeks for his heir the hand of the princess Theophano, + 141; his policy towards the West Franks, 142; his Northern + and Eastern conquests, 143; extent of his empire, 144; + comparison between it and that of Charles, 144; beneficial + results of his rule, 145; how styled by Nicephorus, 211. + + OTTO II, 142; memorials left by, in Rome, 317. + + OTTO III, his plans and ideas, 146, 147, 148; his intense + religious belief in the Emperor's duties, 147; his reason + for using the title 'Romanorum Imperator,' 147; his early + death, 148, 228; his burial at Aachen, 148; respect in + which his life was so memorable, 149; compared with + Frederick II, 207; his expostulation with the Roman people, + 285 note; memorials left by, in Rome, 286. + + OTTO IV, Pope Innocent III's exertions in behalf of, 206; + overthrown by Innocent, 207; explanation of a curious seal + of, 266 note. + + + P. + + PALGRAVE (Sir F.), his view of the grant of a Roman dignity + to Clovis, 30 note. + + PALSGRAVE, deprived of his vote, 231; reinstated, 231. + + Panslavism, Russia's doctrine of, 368. + + Papacy, the Teutonic reform of, 146; Frederick I's bad + relations with, 168; Henry III's purification of, 152, 204; + growth of its power, 153; its relations with the Empire, + 153, 155, 216; its condition after the dissolution of the + Carolingian Empire, 275; its attitude towards Napoleon, + 359. + + Papacy and Empire, interdependence of, 101; its + consequences, 102; struggle between them, 153; their + relations, 155, 216; parallel between, 369; compared as + perpetuation of a name, 372. + + Papal elections, veto of Emperor on, 138, 155. + + Partition treaty of Verdun, 77. + + PASCHAL II (Pope), his quarrel with Henry V, 163. + + Patrician of the Romans, import of the title, 40; date when + it was bestowed on Pipin, 40 note. + + PATRITIUS, secretary of Frederick III, on the poverty of + the Empire, 224. + + Pavia, the Council of, and Charles the Bald, 156. + + Persecution, Protestant, 330. + + Peter's (St.), old, 48. + + PETRARCH, his feelings towards the Empire, 254; towards the + city of Rome, 270. + + PFEFFINGER, 351 note. + + PHILIP of Hohenstaufen, contest between Otto of Brunswick + and, 206; his assassination, 206. + + Philosophy, scholastic, spread of, in the thirteenth + century, 240. + + PIPIN of Herstal, 35. + + PIPIN the SHORT appointed successor to Childeric, 39; twice + rescues Rome from the Lombards, 39; receives the title of + Patrician of the Romans, 40; import of this title, 40; date + at which it was bestowed, 40 note. + + PIUS VII (Pope), 359. + + Placitum, the popular assembly so called, 126. + + PODIEBRAD (George), (King of Bohemia), 223. + + Poland, imperial authority in, 184; partition of, 345. + + Politics, beginning of the existence of, 241. + + Popes, emancipation of the, 27, 37, 281, 282; appeal to the + Franks for succour against the Lombards, 39; their reasons + for desiring the restoration of the Western Empire, 45, 46; + their theory respecting the coronation of Charles, 57; + their profligacy in the tenth century, 82, 85, 275; their + theory respecting the chair of St. Peter, 99; their + position and functions, 104; growth of their pretensions, + 108, 156, 217; and power, 153; their relations to the + Emperor, 155; their temporal power, 157; their position as + international judges, 243; reaction against their + pretensions, 243, 275; their aversion to the study of + ancient jurisprudence, 252; hostility of, to the Germans, + 284; nature of the question at issue between the Emperors + and, 385. + + PORCARO (Stephen), conspiracy of, 279. + + Prtaxation, the so-called right of, 228, 229. + + Pragmatic Sanctions of Frederick II, 212, 221. + + Prague, University of, 237. + + Prerogative, Imperial, contrast of, at accession of Conrad + II and death of Henry V, 165. + + Priesthood, analogy between knighthood and, 250. + + Princes, league of, formed by Frederick the Great, 352. + + Protestant States, their conduct after the Reformation, + 330. + + Protestants of Germany, their alliance with France, 325. + + Public Peace and Imperial Chamber, establishment of the, + 313. + + + R. + + RADULFUS DE COLONNA, his account of the origin of the + separation of Greeks and Latins, 37 note. + + Ravenna, exarch of, 27. + + Reformation, dawnings of the, 240; Charles V's attitude + towards the, 321; influence of its spirit on the Empire, + 319, 325; its real meaning, 325; its effect on the + doctrines regarding the Visible Church, 327; consequent + effect upon the Empire, 328; its small immediate influence + on political and religious liberty, 329; conduct of the + Protestant States after the, 330; its influence on the name + and associations of the Empire, 332. + + Religion, influence of, in supporting the Empire, 31; wars + of, 330. + + Renaissance, the, 240, 311. + + 'Renovatio Romani Imperii,' signification of the seal + bearing legend of, 103. + + Rhine, towns of the, 223; provisions of the Confederation + of the, 362. + + RICHARD I (King of England), pays homage to the Emperor + Henry VI, 186; his release, 187. + + RICHARD (Earl of Cornwall), his double election with + Alfonso X of Castile, 212, 229. + + RICHELIEU, policy of, 336. + + RICIMER (patrician), 25. + + RIENZI, Petrarch's letter to the Roman people respecting, + 255; his character and career, 278. + + Romans, revolts of the, at the expulsion of Pope John XII, + 137, 138; Otto's vigorous measures against the, 138; their + revolt from the Iconoclastic Emperors of the East, 274; the + title of King of the, 404. + + Romanism or Catholicity, 94, 106. + + Rome, commanding position of, in the second century, 7; + prestige of, not destroyed by the partition of the Empire, + 9; lingering influences of her Church and Law, 31, 32; + claim of, to the right of conferring the imperial crown, + 57, 61, 81; republican institutions of, renewed, 83; + profligacy of, in the tenth century, 82, 85; under Arnold + of Brescia, 174; imitations of old, 257; in the Middle + Ages, 269; absence of Gothic in, 271; the modern traveller + in, 271, 283; causes of her rapid decay, 273; peculiarities + of her position, 274; her internal history from the sixth + to the twelfth century, 274; her condition in the ninth and + tenth centuries, 274; growth of a republican feeling in, + 276; short-sighted policy of the Emperors towards, 277; + causes of the failure of the struggle for independence in, + 280; her internal condition, 280; her people, 280; her + nobility, 281; her bishop, 281; relation of the Emperor to, + 282; the Emperors' visits to, 282; dislike of, to the + Germans, 285; memorials of Otto III in, 286; of Otto II, + 287; of Frederick II, 287; causes of the want of medival + monuments in, 289; barbarism of the aristocracy of, 289; + ambition, weakness, and corruption of the clergy of, 290; + tendency of her builders to adhere to the ancient manner, + 290; destruction and alteration of old buildings in, 291; + her modern churches, 293; existing relics of Dark and + Middle Ages in, 291; changed aspect of, 295; analogy + between her architecture and the civil and ecclesiastical + constitution, 296; relation of, to the Empire, 297; + feelings of modern Italians towards, 299; perpetuation of + the name of, 367; parallel instances, 367; Hildebert's + lines contrasting the past and present of, 406. + + ROMULUS AUGUSTULUS, his resignation at Odoacer's bidding, + 25. + + RUDOLF (King of Transjurane), 81. + + RUDOLF of Hapsburg, 213, 219, 221, 222; financial distress + under, 224; Schiller's description of the coronation feast + of, 231 note, 262. + + RUDOLF II, 335. + + RUDOLF III, 151. + + RUDOLF of Swabia, 162. + + RUDOLF III (King of Burgundy), his proposal to bequeath + Burgundy to Henry II, 151. + + Russia, her claim to represent the Roman Empire, 368. + + + S. + + Sachsenspiegel, the, 108 note. + + SALADIN (the Sultan), Frederick I's letter to, 189. + + Santa Maria Novella at Florence, fresco in, 118. + + Saxon Emperors, 133. + + Saxony, extinction of the dukedom of, 222. + + Schleswig, its annexation by Otto, 143; its relation to the + Empire, 398. + + Scholastic philosophy, spread of, in the thirteenth + century, 240. + + Seal, ascribed to A. D. 800, 103. + + SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS, concentration of power in his hands, 5, + 6. + + SERGIUS IV (Pope), 228 note. + + Seven Years' War, 352. + + Sicambri, probably the chief source of the Frankish nation, + 34. + + Sicily, imperial authority in, 188, 205. + + SIGISMUND (the Burgundian king), his desire to preserve the + institutions of the Empire, 18. + + SIGISMUND (Emperor), his visit to Henry V, 187; at the + Council of Constance, 253, 301. + + Simony, measures taken against, 158. + + Slavic races, the, 27, 143, 260, 378. + + Smalkaldic league, the, 322. + + Southern Italy, 150. + + Spain, Otto's position towards, 143; authority not + exercised by any Emperor in, 185; compared with Germany, + 303. + + Speyer, Diet of, 111 note. + + STEPHANIA (widow of Crescentius), 148. + + Swabia, extinction of the dukedom of, 222; the towns of, + 223, 313; theory of the Emperors of the house of, + respecting the coronation of Charles, 57. + + Sweden, improbability of imperial pretensions to, 185. + + Swiss Confederation, the, 306; her gains by treaties of + Westphalia, 341. + + Switzerland lost to the Empire, 306, 342. + + SYLVESTER (Pope), 43. + + + T. + + Taxes, mode of collecting in Roman Empire, 9 note. + + TERTULLIAN, his feelings towards the Roman Emperor, 21 + note, 23 note. + + TEUTBERGA (wife of Lothar), the famous case of, 252. + + Teutonic race, political character of the, 376. + + THEODEBERT (son of Clovis), his desire to preserve the + institutions of the Empire, 18. + + THEODORIC the Ostrogoth, his attempt to establish a + national monarchy in Italy, 27, 28; its failure, 29; his + usual place of residence, 28 note; prosperity under his + reign, 29. + + THEODOSIUS (the Emperor), his abasement before St. Ambrose, + 12. + + THEOPHANO (princess), 141. + + Thirty Years' War, 335; its unsatisfactory results, 336; + its substantial advantage to the German princes, 338. + + THOMAS (St.), his statement respecting the election of + Emperors, 227. + + Tithes, first enforced by Charles the Great, 67. + + Titles, change of, 129, 316, 400. + + Tortona, Frederick I's dealing with the rebels of, 175. + + Transalpine provinces, influence of the Empire in, 30. + + 'Translation of the Empire,' 52, 111, 175, 218. + + Transubstantiation, 326 note. + + Turks, the, 303; their claim to represent the Roman Empire, + 368. + + TURPIN (Archbishop), 51 note. + + + U. + + University of Prague, foundation of, 237. + + Unity, political, idea of, upheld by the clergy, 96. + + URBAN IV (Pope), on the right of choosing the Roman king, + 229. + + + V. + + Venice, her attitude, 171; imperial pretensions towards, + 188; maintains her independence, 188. + + Verdun, partition treaty of, 77. + + VESPASIAN, his dying jest, 23 note. + + Vienna, Congress of, 364. + + VILLANI (Matthew), his idea of the Teutonic Emperors, 304; + his etymology of Guelf and Ghibeline, 304 note. + + Visigothic kings of Spain, the Empire's rights admitted by + the, 30. + + + W. + + WALLENSTEIN, 335. + + WENZEL of Bohemia, 223. + + Western Empire, its last days, 24, 25; its extinction by + Odoacer, 26; its restoration, 34. + + Westphalia, the Peace of, 336; its advantages to France, + 341; to Sweden, 341; its importance in imperial history, + 342. + + WICKLIFFE, excitement caused by his writings, 241. + + WILLIAM the Conqueror, letter of Hildebrand to, 160. + + WIPPO, 227 note. + + WITUKIND, 85 note. + + WOITECH (St. Adalbert), 269. + + World-Monarchy, the idea of a, 91; influence of metaphysics + upon the theory, 97. + + World-Religion, the idea of a, 91; coincides with the + World-Empire, 92. + + Worms, Concordant of, 163; Diet of, 319, 334. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Holy Roman Empire, by James Bryce + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE *** + +***** This file should be named 44101-8.txt or 44101-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/1/0/44101/ + +Produced by Melissa McDaniel, Stephen Rowland, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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+ margin-right: 10%; +} + +h1{ + text-align: center; + clear: both; + margin-top: 6em; +} + +h2 {text-align: center; + clear: both; + margin-top: 4em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + font-size: 1.2em; +} + +h3 {text-align: center; + clear: both; + margin-top: 4em; + margin-bottom: 1em;} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: left; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} +.pagenum { + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; +} + +.center { text-align: center; } +.smcap { font-variant: small-caps; } + +ul.fn { list-style-type:none; + font-size: .9em; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%;} + +ul.idx {list-style-type: none; + margin-left: 15%; + margin-right: 15%;} + +.idx li {margin-left: 1em; + text-indent: -1em;} + +.alpha {margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: .5em; + text-align: center; + } + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.footnote { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + font-size: 0.9em; +} +.footnotes { border: dashed 1px; 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+ vertical-align: bottom;} + +.tdchap {text-align: center; + padding-top: 1.5em;} +.tdpad {padding-top: 1.5em;} +.tdcname {text-align: center; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-bottom: .5em; + font-weight: bold;} +.tdhang { margin-left: 1em; + text-indent: -1em; + vertical-align: top;} +.tnbox { margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + margin-bottom: 8em; + margin-top: auto; + text-align: center; + border: 1px solid; + padding: 1em; + color: black; + background-color: #f6f2f2; + width: 25em; +} + +.greek { border-bottom: thin dotted #999; } + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Holy Roman Empire, by James Bryce + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Holy Roman Empire + +Author: James Bryce + +Release Date: November 4, 2013 [EBook #44101] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE *** + + + + +Produced by Melissa McDaniel, Stephen Rowland, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="tnbox"> +<p class="center"><b>Transcriber's Note:</b></p> +<p>Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. +Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation in the original +document have been preserved.</p> +</div> + +<h1>THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE.</h1> + +<div class="figcenter p4"> +<img src="images/i_002.jpg" width="104" height="103" alt="Logo" /> +</div> + +<p class="center p6"><span class="b12">THE</span><br /> +<br /><span class="b20">HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE</span></p> + +<p class="center p4">BY<br /> +<span class="b15">JAMES BRYCE, D.C.L.</span><br /> +<span class="s08"><i>FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE</i></span><br /> +<span class="s08"><i>and</i></span><br /> +<span class="s08"><i>PROFESSOR OF CIVIL LAW IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD</i></span></p> + +<p class="center p4">THIRD EDITION REVISED</p> + +<p class="center p4"><span class="b13">London</span><br /> +<span class="b12">MACMILLAN AND CO.</span><br /> +1871</p> + +<p class="center p6 s08"> +OXFORD:<br /> +By T. Combe, M.A., E. B. Gardner, and E. Pickard Hall,<br /> +PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.</p> + +<h2>PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.</h2> + +<p>The object of this treatise is not so much to give a +narrative history of the countries included in the Romano-Germanic +Empire—Italy during the middle ages, Germany +from the ninth century to the nineteenth—as to +describe the Holy Empire itself as an institution or +system, the wonderful offspring of a body of beliefs and +traditions which have almost wholly passed away from +the world. Such a description, however, would not be +intelligible without some account of the great events +which accompanied the growth and decay of imperial +power; and it has therefore appeared best to give the +book the form rather of a narrative than of a dissertation; +and to combine with an exposition of what may be +called the theory of the Empire an outline of the political +history of Germany, as well as some notices of the affairs +of mediæval Italy. To make the succession of events +clearer, a Chronological List of Emperors and Popes has +been prefixed<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>.</p> + +<p>The present edition has been carefully revised and +corrected throughout; and a good many additions have +been made to both text and notes.</p> + +<p> +<span class="smcap i3">Lincoln's Inn</span>,<br /> +<span class="i2"><i>August 11, 1870</i>.</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_VII" id="Page_VII">vii</a></span></p> + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<table summary="Table of Contents"> + +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_1">CHAPTER I.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">Introductory.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_5">CHAPTER II.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">The Roman Empire before the Invasion of the Barbarians.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Empire in the Second Century</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Obliteration of National distinctions</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_6">6</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Rise of Christianity</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Its Alliance with the State</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Its Influence on the Idea of an Imperial Nationality</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_14">CHAPTER III.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">The Barbarian Invasions.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Relations between the Primitive Germans and the Romans</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Their Feelings towards Rome and her Empire</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Belief in its Eternity</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Extinction by Odoacer of the Western branch of the Empire</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Theodoric the Ostrogothic King</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Gradual Dissolution of the Empire</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Permanence of the Roman Religion and the Roman Law</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_34">CHAPTER IV.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">Restoration of the Empire in the West.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Franks</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Italy under Greeks and Lombards</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Iconoclastic Schism</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_38">38</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_VIII" id="Page_VIII">viii</a></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Alliance of the Popes with the Frankish Kings</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Frankish Conquest of Italy</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Adventures and Plans of Pope Leo III</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Coronation of Charles the Great</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_50">CHAPTER V.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">Empire and Policy of Charles.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Import of the Coronation at Rome</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Accounts given in the Annals of the time</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Question as to the Intentions of Charles</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Legal Effect of the Coronation</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Position of Charles towards the Church</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Towards his German Subjects</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Towards the other Races of Europe</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">General View of his Character and Policy</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_76">CHAPTER VI.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">Carolingian and Italian Emperors.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Reign of Lewis I</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Dissolution of the Carolingian Empire</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Beginnings of the German Kingdom</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Italian Emperors</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Otto the Saxon King</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Coronation of Otto at Rome</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_87">87</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_89">CHAPTER VII.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">Theory of the Mediæval Empire.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The World Monarchy and the World Religion</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Unity of the Christian Church</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Influence of the Doctrine of Realism</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Popes as heirs to the Roman Monarchy</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Character of the revived Roman Empire</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_102">102</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Respective Functions of the Pope and the Emperor</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Proofs and Illustrations</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Interpretations of Prophecy</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Two remarkable Pictures</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_116">116</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_IX" id="Page_IX">ix</a></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_122">CHAPTER VIII.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">The Roman Empire and the German Kingdom.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The German or East Frankish Monarchy</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_122">122</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Feudality in Germany</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Reciprocal Influence of the Roman and Teutonic Elements on +the Character of the Empire</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_133">CHAPTER IX.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">Saxon and Franconian Emperors.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Adventures of Otto the Great in Rome</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_134">134</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Trial and Deposition of Pope John XII</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Position of Otto in Italy</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">His European Policy</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Comparison of his Empire with the Carolingian</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Character and Projects of the Emperor Otto III</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_146">146</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Emperors Henry II and Conrad II</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_150">150</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Emperor Henry III</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_151">151</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_153">CHAPTER X.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">Struggle of the Empire and the Papacy.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Origin and Progress of Papal Power</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_153">153</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Relations of the Popes with the early Emperors</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_155">155</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Quarrel of Henry IV and Gregory VII</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_159">159</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Gregory's Ideas</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_160">160</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Concordat of Worms</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_163">163</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">General Results of the Contest</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_164">164</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_167">CHAPTER XI.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">The Emperors in Italy: Frederick Barbarossa.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Frederick and the Papacy</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_167">167</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Revival of the Study of the Roman Law</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Arnold of Brescia and the Roman Republicans</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_174">174</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Frederick's Struggle with the Lombard Cities</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_175">175</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">His Policy as German King</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_178">178</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_X" id="Page_X">x</a></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_182">CHAPTER XII.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">Imperial Titles and Pretensions.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Territorial Limits of the Empire—Its Claims of Jurisdiction +over other Countries</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_182">182</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Hungary</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_183">183</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Poland</td> + +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_184">184</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Denmark</td> + +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_184">184</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="tdhang">France</td> + +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Sweden</td> + +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Spain</td> + +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="tdhang">England</td> + +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_186">186</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Scotland</td> + +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_187">187</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Naples and Sicily</td> + +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_188">188</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Venice</td> + +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_188">188</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="tdhang">The East</td> + +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_189">189</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Rivalry of the Teutonic and Byzantine Emperors</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_191">191</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Four Crowns</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_193">193</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Origin and Meaning of the title 'Holy Empire'</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_199">199</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_204">CHAPTER XIII.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">Fall of the Hohenstaufen.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Reign of Henry VI</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_205">205</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Contest of Philip and Otto IV</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_206">206</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Character and Career of the Emperor Frederick II</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_207">207</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Destruction of Imperial Authority in Italy</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_211">211</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Great Interregnum</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_212">212</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Rudolf of Hapsburg</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Change in the Character of the Empire</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_214">214</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Haughty Demeanour of the Popes</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_217">217</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_221">CHAPTER XIV.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">The Germanic Constitution—the Seven Electors.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Germany in the Fourteenth Century</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_222">222</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Reign of the Emperor Charles IV</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_225">225</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Origin and History of the System of Election, and of the +Electoral Body</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_225">225</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_XI" id="Page_XI">xi</a></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Golden Bull</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_230">230</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Remarks on the Elective Monarchy of Germany</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_233">233</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Results of Charles IV's Policy</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_236">236</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_238">CHAPTER XV.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">The Empire as an International Power.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Revival of Learning</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_240">240</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Beginnings of Political Thought</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_241">241</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Desire for an International Power</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_242">242</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Theory of the Emperor's Functions as Monarch of Europe</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_244">244</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Illustrations</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_249">249</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Relations of the Empire and the New Learning</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_251">251</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Men of Letters—Petrarch, Dante</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_254">254</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Jurists</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_256">256</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Passion for Antiquity in the Middle Ages: its Causes</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_258">258</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Emperor Henry VII in Italy</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_262">262</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The <i>De Monarchia</i> of Dante</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_264">264</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_269">CHAPTER XVI.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">The City of Rome in the Middle Ages.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Rapid Decline of the City after the Gothic Wars</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_273">273</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Her Condition in the Dark Ages</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_274">274</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Republican Revival of the Twelfth Century</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_276">276</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Character and Ideas of Nicholas Rienzi</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_278">278</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Social State of Mediæval Rome</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_280">280</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Visits of the Teutonic Emperors</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_282">282</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Revolts against them</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_284">284</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Existing Traces of their Presence in Rome</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_286">286</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Want of Mediæval, and especially of Gothic Buildings, in +Modern Rome</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_289">289</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Causes of this; Ravages of Enemies and Citizens</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_291">291</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Modern Restorations</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_292">292</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Surviving Features of truly Mediæval Architecture—the Bell-towers</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_294">294</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Roman Church and the Roman City</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_296">296</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Rome since the Revolution</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_299">299</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_XII" id="Page_XII">xii</a></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_301">CHAPTER XVII.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">The Renaissance: Change in the Character of the Empire.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Weakness of Germany</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_302">302</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Loss of Imperial Territories</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_303">303</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Gradual Change in the Germanic Constitution</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_307">307</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Beginning of the Predominance of the Hapsburgs</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_310">310</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Discovery of America</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_311">311</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Renaissance and its Effects on the Empire</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_311">311</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Projects of Constitutional Reform</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_313">313</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Changes of Title</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_316">316</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_319">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">The Reformation and its Effects upon the Empire.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Accession of Charles V</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_319">319</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">His Attitude towards the Reformation</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_321">321</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Issue of his Attempts at Coercion</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_322">322</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Spirit and Essence of the Religious Movement</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_325">325</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Its Influence on the Doctrine of the Visible Church</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_327">327</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">How far it promoted Civil and Religious Liberty</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_329">329</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Its Effect upon the Mediæval Theory of the Empire</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_332">332</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Upon the Position of the Emperor in Europe</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_333">333</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Dissensions in Germany</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_334">334</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Thirty Years' War</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_335">335</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_337">CHAPTER XIX.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">The Peace of Westphalia: Last Stage in the Decline +of the Empire.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Political Import of the Peace of Westphalia</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_337">337</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Hippolytus a Lapide and his Book</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_339">339</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Changes in the Germanic Constitution</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_340">340</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Narrowed Bounds of the Empire</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_341">341</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Condition of Germany after the Peace</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_342">342</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Balance of Power</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_345">345</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Hapsburg Emperors and their Policy</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_348">348</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_XIII" id="Page_XIII">xiii</a></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Emperor Charles VII</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_351">351</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Empire in its last Phase</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_352">352</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Feelings of the German People</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_354">354</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_356">CHAPTER XX.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">Fall of the Empire.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Emperor Francis II</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_356">356</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Napoleon as the Representative of the Carolingians</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_357">357</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The French Empire</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_360">360</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Napoleon's German Policy</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_361">361</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Confederation of the Rhine</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_362">362</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">End of the Empire</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_363">363</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The German Confederation</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_364">364</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="3"><a href="#Page_366">CHAPTER XXI.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdcname" colspan="3">Conclusion: General Summary.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Causes of the Perpetuation of the Name of Rome</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_366">366</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Parallel instances: Claims now made to represent the Roman +Empire</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_367">367</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Parallel afforded by the History of the Papacy</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_369">369</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">In how far was the Empire really Roman</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_374">374</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Imperialism: Ancient and Modern</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_375">375</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Essential Principles of the Mediæval Empire</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_377">377</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Influence of the Imperial System in Germany</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_378">378</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">The Claim of Modern Austria to represent the Mediæval Empire</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_381">381</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Results of the Influence of the Empire upon Europe</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_383">383</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Upon Modern Jurisprudence</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_383">383</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Upon the Development of the Ecclesiastical Power</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_384">384</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Struggle of the Empire with three Hostile Principles</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_388">388</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Its Relations, Past and Present, to the Nationalities of Europe</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_390">390</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang" colspan="2">Conclusion: Difficulties caused by the Nature of the Subject</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_392">392</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_XIV" id="Page_XIV">xiv</a></span></td> +</tr> +</table> +<h2>APPENDIX.</h2> +<table summary="Appendix Contents"> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Note A.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang">On the Burgundies</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_395">395</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Note B.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang">On the Relations to the Empire of the Kingdom of Denmark +and the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_398">398</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Note C.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang">On certain Imperial Titles and Ceremonies</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_400">400</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdchap" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Note D.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang">Hildebert's Lines contrasting the Past and Present of Rome</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_406">406</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdpad tdhang">INDEX</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_407">407</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_XV" id="Page_XV">xv</a></span></p> + +<h2><span class="s08">DATES OF</span><br /><br /> +SEVERAL IMPORTANT EVENTS<br /><br /> +<span class="s08">IN THE HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE.</span></h2> +<table summary="Important Dates"> +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="tdr"><span class="s08">B.C.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Battle of Pharsalia</td> +<td class="tdr">48</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="tdr"><span class="s08">A.D.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Council of Nicæa</td> +<td class="tdr">325</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>End of the separate Western Empire</td> +<td class="tdr">476</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Revolt of the Italians from the Iconoclastic Emperors</td> +<td class="tdr">728</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Coronation of Charles the Great</td> +<td class="tdr">800</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>End of the Carolingian Empire</td> +<td class="tdr">888</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Coronation of Otto the Great</td> +<td class="tdr">962</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Final Union of Italy to the Empire</td> +<td class="tdr">1014</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Quarrel between Henry IV and Gregory VII</td> +<td class="tdr">1076</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>The First Crusade</td> +<td class="tdr">1096</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Battle of Legnano</td> +<td class="tdr">1176</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Death of Frederick II</td> +<td class="tdr">1250</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>League of the three Forest Cantons of Switzerland</td> +<td class="tdr">1308</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Career of Rienzi</td> +<td class="tdr">1347-1354</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>The Golden Bull</td> +<td class="tdr">1356</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Council of Constance</td> +<td class="tdr">1415</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Extinction of the Eastern Empire</td> +<td class="tdr">1453</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Discovery of America</td> +<td class="tdr">1492</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Luther at the Diet of Worms</td> +<td class="tdr">1521 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_XVI" id="Page_XVI">xvi</a></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Beginning of the Thirty Years' War</td> +<td class="tdr">1618</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Peace of Westphalia</td> +<td class="tdr">1648</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Prussia recognized as a Kingdom</td> +<td class="tdr">1701</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>End of the House of Hapsburg</td> +<td class="tdr">1742</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Seven Years' War</td> +<td class="tdr">1756-1763</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Peace of Luneville</td> +<td class="tdr">1801</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Formation of the German Confederation</td> +<td class="tdr">1815</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Establishment of the North German Confederation</td> +<td class="tdr">1866</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_XVII" id="Page_XVII">xvii</a></span></p> + +<h2><span class="s08">CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE</span><br /> +<span class="s05">of</span><br /> +EMPERORS AND POPES.</h2> + +<table summary="Emperors and Popes" class="emperors"> +<col width="8%" /> +<col width="42%" /> +<col width="42%" /> +<col width="8%" /> +<tr> +<th>Year of Accession.</th> +<th>Bishops of Rome, or Popes.</th> +<th>Emperors.</th> +<th>Year of Accession</th> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"><span class="s08">A.D.</span></td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"><span class="s08">B.C.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Augustus.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"><span class="s08">A.D.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Tiberius.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Caligula.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">37</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Claudius.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">41</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">42</td> +<td class="tdhang">St. Peter, (according to Jerome).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Nero.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">54</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">67</td> +<td class="tdhang">Linus, (according to Jerome, Irenæus, Eusebius).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">68</td> +<td class="tdhang">Clement, (according to Tertullian and Rufinus).</td> +<td class="tdhang">Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">68</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">78</td> +<td class="tdhang">Anacletus (?).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Titus.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">79</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Domitian.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">81</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">91</td> +<td class="tdhang">Clement, (according to later writers).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Nerva.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">96</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Trajan.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">98</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">100</td> +<td class="tdhang">Evaristus (?).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">109</td> +<td class="tdhang">Alexander (?).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Hadrian.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">117</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">119</td> +<td class="tdhang">Sixtus I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">129</td> +<td class="tdhang">Telesphorus.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Antoninus Pius.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">138</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">139</td> +<td class="tdhang">Hyginus.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">143</td> +<td class="tdhang">Pius I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_XVIII" id="Page_XVIII">xviii</a></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">157</td> +<td class="tdhang">Anicetus.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Marcus Aurelius.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">161</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">168</td> +<td class="tdhang">Soter.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">177</td> +<td class="tdhang">Eleutherius.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Commodus.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">180</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Pertinax.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">190</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Didius Julianus.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">191</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Niger.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">192</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">193</td> +<td class="tdhang">Victor (?).</td> +<td class="tdhang">Septimius Severus.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">193</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">202</td> +<td class="tdhang">Zephyrinus (?).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Caracalla, Geta, Diadumenian.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">211</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Opilius Macrinus.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">217</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Elagabalus.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">218</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">219</td> +<td class="tdhang">Calixtus I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Alexander Severus.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">222</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">223</td> +<td class="tdhang">Urban I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">230</td> +<td class="tdhang">Pontianus.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">235</td> +<td class="tdhang">Anterius or Anteros.</td> +<td class="tdhang">Maximin.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">235</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">236</td> +<td class="tdhang">Fabianus.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">The two Gordians, Maximus Pupienus, Balbinus.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">237</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Gordian the Younger.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">238</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Philip.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">244</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Decius.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">249</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">251</td> +<td class="tdhang">Cornelius.</td> +<td class="tdhang">Gallus.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">251</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">252</td> +<td class="tdhang">Lucius I.</td> +<td class="tdhang">Volusian.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">252</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">253</td> +<td class="tdhang">Stephen I.</td> +<td class="tdhang">Æmilian, Valerian, Gallienus.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">253</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">257</td> +<td class="tdhang">Sixtus II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">259</td> +<td class="tdhang">Dionysius.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Claudius II.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">268</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">269</td> +<td class="tdhang">Felix.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Aurelian.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">270</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">275</td> +<td class="tdhang">Eutychianus.</td> +<td class="tdhang">Tacitus.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">275</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Probus.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">276</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Carus.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">282</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">283</td> +<td class="tdhang">Caius.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Carinus, Numerian, Diocletian.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">284</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Maximian, joint Emperor with Diocletian.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">286</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">296</td> +<td class="tdhang">Marcellinus.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdc">[305(?)</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">304</td> +<td class="tdhang">Vacancy.</td> +<td class="tdhang">Constantius, Galerius.</td> +<td class="tdc">304(?) +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_XIX" id="Page_XIX">xix</a></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Licinius.</td> +<td class="tdc">or 307]</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">308</td> +<td class="tdhang">Marcellus I.</td> +<td class="tdhang">Maximin.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">308</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Constantine, Galerius, Licinius, Maximin, Maxentius, and Maximian reigning jointly.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">309</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">310</td> +<td class="tdhang">Eusebius.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">311</td> +<td class="tdhang">Melchiades.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">314</td> +<td class="tdhang">Sylvester I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Constantine (the Great) alone.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">323</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">336</td> +<td class="tdhang">Marcus I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">337</td> +<td class="tdhang">Julius I.</td> +<td class="tdhang">Constantine II, Constantius II, Constans.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">337</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Magnentius.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">350</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">352</td> +<td class="tdhang">Liberius.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Constantius alone.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">353</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">356</td> +<td class="tdhang">Felix (Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Julian.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">361</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Jovian.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">363</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Valens and Valentinian I.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">364</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">366</td> +<td class="tdhang">Damasus I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Gratian and Valentinian I.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">367</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Valentinian II and Gratian.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">375</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Theodosius.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">379</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">384</td> +<td class="tdhang">Siricius.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Arcadius (in the East), Honorius (in the West).</td> +<td class="tdrvd">395</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">398</td> +<td class="tdhang">Anastasius I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">402</td> +<td class="tdhang">Innocent I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Theodosius II. (E)</td> +<td class="tdrvd">408</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">417</td> +<td class="tdhang">Zosimus.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">418</td> +<td class="tdhang">Boniface I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">418</td> +<td class="tdhang">Eulalius (Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">422</td> +<td class="tdhang">Celestine I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Valentinian III. (W)</td> +<td class="tdrvd">424</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">432</td> +<td class="tdhang">Sixtus III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">440</td> +<td class="tdhang">Leo I (the Great).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Marcian. (E)</td> +<td class="tdrvd">450</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Maximus, Avitus. (W)</td> +<td class="tdrvd">455</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Majorian. (W)</td> +<td class="tdrvd">455</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Leo I. (E)</td> +<td class="tdrvd">457</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">461</td> +<td class="tdhang">Hilarius.</td> +<td class="tdhang">Severus. (W)</td> +<td class="tdrvd">461 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_XX" id="Page_XX">xx</a></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Vacancy. (W)</td> +<td class="tdrvd">465</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Anthemius. (W)</td> +<td class="tdrvd">467</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">468</td> +<td class="tdhang">Simplicius.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Olybrius. (W)</td> +<td class="tdrvd">472</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Glycerius. (W)</td> +<td class="tdrvd">473</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Julius Nepos. (W)</td> +<td class="tdrvd">474</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Leo II, Zeno, Basiliscus (all E.)</td> +<td class="tdrvd">474</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Romulus Augustulus. (W)</td> +<td class="tdrvd">475</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">(End of the Western Line in Romulus Augustus.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">476)</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><i>(Henceforth, till A.D. 800, Emperors reigning at Constantinople).</i></td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">483</td> +<td class="tdhang">Felix III<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Anastasius I.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">491</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">492</td> +<td class="tdhang">Gelasius I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">496</td> +<td class="tdhang">Anastasius II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">498</td> +<td class="tdhang">Symmachus.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">498</td> +<td class="tdhang">Laurentius (Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">514</td> +<td class="tdhang">Hormisdas.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Justin I.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">518</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">523</td> +<td class="tdhang">John I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">526</td> +<td class="tdhang">Felix IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Justinian.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">527</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">530</td> +<td class="tdhang">Boniface II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">530</td> +<td class="tdhang">Dioscorus (Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">532</td> +<td class="tdhang">John II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">535</td> +<td class="tdhang">Agapetus I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">536</td> +<td class="tdhang">Silverius.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">537</td> +<td class="tdhang">Vigilius.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">555</td> +<td class="tdhang">Pelagius I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">560</td> +<td class="tdhang">John III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Justin II.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">565</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">574</td> +<td class="tdhang">Benedict I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">578</td> +<td class="tdhang">Pelagius II.</td> +<td class="tdhang">Tiberius II.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">578</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Maurice.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">582</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">590</td> +<td class="tdhang">Gregory I (the Great).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Phocas.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">602</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">604</td> +<td class="tdhang">Sabinianus.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">607</td> +<td class="tdhang">Boniface III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">607</td> +<td class="tdhang">Boniface IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Heraclius.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">610</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">615</td> +<td class="tdhang">Deus dedit.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">618</td> +<td class="tdhang">Boniface V.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_XXI" id="Page_XXI">xxi</a></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">625</td> +<td class="tdhang">Honorius I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">638</td> +<td class="tdhang">Severinus.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">640</td> +<td class="tdhang">John IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Constantine III, Heracleonas, Constans II.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">641</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">642</td> +<td class="tdhang">Theodorus I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">649</td> +<td class="tdhang">Martin I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">654</td> +<td class="tdhang">Eugenius I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">657</td> +<td class="tdhang">Vitalianus.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Constantine IV (Pogonatus).</td> +<td class="tdrvd">668</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">672</td> +<td class="tdhang">Adeodatus.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">676</td> +<td class="tdhang">Domnus or Donus I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">678</td> +<td class="tdhang">Agatho.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">682</td> +<td class="tdhang">Leo II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">683(?)</td> +<td class="tdhang">Benedict II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">685</td> +<td class="tdhang">John V.</td> +<td class="tdhang">Justinian II.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">685</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">685(?)</td> +<td class="tdhang">Conon.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">687</td> +<td class="tdhang">Sergius I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">687</td> +<td class="tdhang">Paschal (Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">687</td> +<td class="tdhang">Theodorus (Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Leontius.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">694</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Tiberius.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">697</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">701</td> +<td class="tdhang">John VI.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">705</td> +<td class="tdhang">John VII.</td> +<td class="tdhang">Justinian II restored.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">705</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">708</td> +<td class="tdhang">Sisinnius.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">708</td> +<td class="tdhang">Constantine.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Philippicus Bardanes.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">711</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Anastasius II.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">713</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">715</td> +<td class="tdhang">Gregory II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Theodosius III.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">716</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Leo III (the Isaurian).</td> +<td class="tdrvd">718</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">731</td> +<td class="tdhang">Gregory III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">741</td> +<td class="tdhang">Zacharias.</td> +<td class="tdhang">Constantine V (Copronymus).</td> +<td class="tdrvd">741</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">752</td> +<td class="tdhang">Stephen (II).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">752</td> +<td class="tdhang">Stephen II (or III).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">757</td> +<td class="tdhang">Paul I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">767</td> +<td class="tdhang">Constantine (Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">768</td> +<td class="tdhang">Stephen III (IV).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">772</td> +<td class="tdhang">Hadrian I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Leo IV.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">775</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Constantine VI.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">780</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">795</td> +<td class="tdhang">Leo III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Deposition of Constantine VI by Irene.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">797 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_XXII" id="Page_XXII">xxii</a></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Charles I (the Great).</td> +<td class="tdrvd">800</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><i>(Following henceforth the new Western line).</i></td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Lewis I (the Pious).</td> +<td class="tdrvd">814</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">816</td> +<td class="tdhang">Stephen IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">817</td> +<td class="tdhang">Paschal I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">824</td> +<td class="tdhang">Eugenius II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">827</td> +<td class="tdhang">Valentinus.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">827</td> +<td class="tdhang">Gregory IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Lothar I.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">840</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">844</td> +<td class="tdhang">Sergius II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">847</td> +<td class="tdhang">Leo IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">855</td> +<td class="tdhang">Benedict III.</td> +<td class="tdhang">Lewis II.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">855</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">855</td> +<td class="tdhang">Anastasius (Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">858</td> +<td class="tdhang">Nicholas I.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">867</td> +<td class="tdhang">Hadrian II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">872</td> +<td class="tdhang">John VIII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Charles II (the Bald).</td> +<td class="tdrvd">875</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Charles III (the Fat).</td> +<td class="tdrvd">881</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">882</td> +<td class="tdhang">Martin II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">884</td> +<td class="tdhang">Hadrian III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">885</td> +<td class="tdhang">Stephen V.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">891</td> +<td class="tdhang">Formosus.</td> +<td class="tdhang">Guido.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">891</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Lambert.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">894</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">896</td> +<td class="tdhang">Boniface VI.</td> +<td class="tdhang">Arnulf.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">896</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">896</td> +<td class="tdhang">Stephen VI.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">897</td> +<td class="tdhang">Romanus.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">897</td> +<td class="tdhang">Theodore II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">898</td> +<td class="tdhang">John IX.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><i>Lewis (the Child).</i><a name="FNanchor_dag" id="FNanchor_dag" href="#Footnote_dag" class="fnanchor">[†]</a></td> +<td class="tdrvd">899</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">900</td> +<td class="tdhang">Benedict IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Lewis III (of Provence).</td> +<td class="tdrvd">901</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">903</td> +<td class="tdhang">Leo V.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">903</td> +<td class="tdhang">Christopher.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">904</td> +<td class="tdhang">Sergius III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">911</td> +<td class="tdhang">Anastasius III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><i>Conrad I.</i></td> +<td class="tdrvd">912(?)</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">913</td> +<td class="tdhang">Lando.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">914</td> +<td class="tdhang">John X.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Berengar.</td> +<td class="tdrvu">915</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><i>Henry I (the Fowler).</i></td> +<td class="tdrvd">918</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">928</td> +<td class="tdhang">Leo VI.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_XXIII" id="Page_XXIII">xxiii</a></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">929</td> +<td class="tdhang">Stephen VII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">931</td> +<td class="tdhang">John XI.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">936</td> +<td class="tdhang">Leo VII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"><i>Otto I (the Great).</i></td> +<td class="tdrvd">936</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">939</td> +<td class="tdhang">Stephen VIII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">941</td> +<td class="tdhang">Martin III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">946</td> +<td class="tdhang">Agapetus II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">955</td> +<td class="tdhang">John XII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Otto I, crowned at Rome.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">962</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">963</td> +<td class="tdhang">Leo VIII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">964</td> +<td class="tdhang">Benedict V (Anti-Pope?).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">965</td> +<td class="tdhang">John XIII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">972</td> +<td class="tdhang">Benedict VI.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Otto II.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">973</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">974</td> +<td class="tdhang">Boniface VII (Anti-pope?).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">974</td> +<td class="tdhang">Domnus II (?).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">974</td> +<td class="tdhang">Benedict VII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">983</td> +<td class="tdhang">John XIV.</td> +<td class="tdhang">Otto III</td> +<td class="tdrvd">983</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">985</td> +<td class="tdhang">John XV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">996</td> +<td class="tdhang">Gregory V.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">996</td> +<td class="tdhang">John XVI (Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">999</td> +<td class="tdhang">Sylvester II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Henry II (the Saint).</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1002</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1003</td> +<td class="tdhang">John XVII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1003</td> +<td class="tdhang">John XVIII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1009</td> +<td class="tdhang">Sergius IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1012</td> +<td class="tdhang">Benedict VIII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1024</td> +<td class="tdhang">John XIX.</td> +<td class="tdhang">Conrad II (the Salic).</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1024</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1033</td> +<td class="tdhang">Benedict IX.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Henry III.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1039</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1044</td> +<td class="tdhang">Sylvester (Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1045(?)</td> +<td class="tdhang">Gregory VI.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1046</td> +<td class="tdhang">Clement II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1048</td> +<td class="tdhang">Damasus II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1048</td> +<td class="tdhang">Leo IX.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1054</td> +<td class="tdhang">Victor II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Henry IV.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1056</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1057</td> +<td class="tdhang">Stephen IX.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1058</td> +<td class="tdhang">Benedict X.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1059</td> +<td class="tdhang">Nicholas II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1061</td> +<td class="tdhang">Alexander II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1073</td> +<td class="tdhang">Gregory VII (Hildebrand).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1080</td> +<td class="tdhang">(Clement, Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1086</td> +<td class="tdhang">Victor III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1087</td> +<td class="tdhang">Urban II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_XXIV" id="Page_XXIV">xxiv</a></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1099</td> +<td class="tdhang">Paschal II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Henry V.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1106</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1118</td> +<td class="tdhang">Gelasius II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1118</td> +<td class="tdhang">Gregory, (Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1119</td> +<td class="tdhang">Calixtus II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1121</td> +<td class="tdhang">(Celestine, Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1124</td> +<td class="tdhang">Honorius II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Lothar II (the Saxon).</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1125</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1130</td> +<td class="tdhang">Innocent II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">(Anacletus, Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1138</td> +<td class="tdhang">Victor (Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"><a name="FNanchor_star" id="FNanchor_star" href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Conrad III.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1138</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1143</td> +<td class="tdhang">Celestine II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1144</td> +<td class="tdhang">Lucius II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1145</td> +<td class="tdhang">Eugenius III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Frederick I (Barbarossa).</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1152</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1153</td> +<td class="tdhang">Anastasius IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1154</td> +<td class="tdhang">Hadrian IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1159</td> +<td class="tdhang">Alexander III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1159</td> +<td class="tdhang">(Victor, Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1164</td> +<td class="tdhang">(Paschal, Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1168</td> +<td class="tdhang">(Calixtus, Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1181</td> +<td class="tdhang">Lucius III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1185</td> +<td class="tdhang">Urban III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1187</td> +<td class="tdhang">Gregory VIII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1187</td> +<td class="tdhang">Clement III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Henry VI.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1190</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1191</td> +<td class="tdhang">Celestine III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1198</td> +<td class="tdhang">Innocent III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Philip, Otto IV (rivals).</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1198</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Otto IV.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1208</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Frederick II.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1212</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1216</td> +<td class="tdhang">Honorius III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1227</td> +<td class="tdhang">Gregory IX.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1241</td> +<td class="tdhang">Celestine IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1241</td> +<td class="tdhang">Vacancy.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1243</td> +<td class="tdhang">Innocent IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Conrad IV, <a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>William, (rivals).</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1250</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1254</td> +<td class="tdhang">Alexander IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"><i>Interregnum.</i></td> +<td class="tdrvd">1254</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Richard (earl of Cornwall). <a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Alfonso (king of Castile), (rivals).</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1257</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1261</td> +<td class="tdhang">Urban IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_XXV" id="Page_XXV">xxv</a></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1265</td> +<td class="tdhang">Clement IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1269</td> +<td class="tdhang">Vacancy.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1271</td> +<td class="tdhang">Gregory X.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Rudolf I (of Hapsburg).</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1272</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1276</td> +<td class="tdhang">Innocent V.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1276</td> +<td class="tdhang">Hadrian V.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1277</td> +<td class="tdhang">John XX or XXI.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1277</td> +<td class="tdhang">Nicholas I</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1281</td> +<td class="tdhang">Martin IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1285</td> +<td class="tdhang">Honorius IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1289</td> +<td class="tdhang">Nicholas IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1292</td> +<td class="tdhang">Vacancy.</td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Adolf (of Nassau).</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1292</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1294</td> +<td class="tdhang">Celestine V.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1294</td> +<td class="tdhang">Boniface VIII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Albert I.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1298</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1303</td> +<td class="tdhang">Benedict XI.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1305</td> +<td class="tdhang">Clement V.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Henry VII.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1308</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1314</td> +<td class="tdhang">Vacancy.</td> +<td class="tdhang">Lewis IV.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1314</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">(Frederick of Austria, rival).</td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1316</td> +<td class="tdhang">John XXI or XXII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1334</td> +<td class="tdhang">Benedict XII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1342</td> +<td class="tdhang">Clement VI.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Charles IV.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1347</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1352</td> +<td class="tdhang">Innocent VI.</td> +<td class="tdhang">(Günther of Schwartzburg, rival).</td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1362</td> +<td class="tdhang">Urban V.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1370</td> +<td class="tdhang">Gregory XI.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1378</td> +<td class="tdhang">Urban VI, Clement VII (Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Wenzel.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1378</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1389</td> +<td class="tdhang">Boniface IX.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1394</td> +<td class="tdhang">Benedict (Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Rupert.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1400</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1404</td> +<td class="tdhang">Innocent VII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1406</td> +<td class="tdhang">Gregory XII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1409</td> +<td class="tdhang">Alexander V.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1410</td> +<td class="tdhang">John XXII or XXIII.</td> +<td class="tdhang">Sigismund.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1410</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">(Jobst of Moravia, rival).</td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1417</td> +<td class="tdhang">Martin V.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1431</td> +<td class="tdhang">Eugene IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Albert II.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1438</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1439</td> +<td class="tdhang">Felix V (Anti-pope).</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_XXVI" id="Page_XXVI">xxvi</a></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Frederick III.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1440</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1447</td> +<td class="tdhang">Nicholas V.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1455</td> +<td class="tdhang">Calixtus IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1458</td> +<td class="tdhang">Pius II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1464</td> +<td class="tdhang">Paul II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1471</td> +<td class="tdhang">Sixtus IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1484</td> +<td class="tdhang">Innocent VIII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1493</td> +<td class="tdhang">Alexander VI.</td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Maximilian I.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1493</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1503</td> +<td class="tdhang">Pius III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1503</td> +<td class="tdhang">Julius II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1513</td> +<td class="tdhang">Leo X.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Charles V.<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></td> +<td class="tdrvd">1519</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1522</td> +<td class="tdhang">Hadrian VI.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1523</td> +<td class="tdhang">Clement VII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1534</td> +<td class="tdhang">Paul III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1550</td> +<td class="tdhang">Julius III.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1555</td> +<td class="tdhang">Marcellus II.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1555</td> +<td class="tdhang">Paul IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Ferdinand I.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1558</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1559</td> +<td class="tdhang">Pius IV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Maximilian II.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1564</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1566</td> +<td class="tdhang">Pius V.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1572</td> +<td class="tdhang">Gregory XIII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Rudolf II.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1576</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1585</td> +<td class="tdhang">Sixtus V.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1590</td> +<td class="tdhang">Urban VII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1590</td> +<td class="tdhang">Gregory XIV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1591</td> +<td class="tdhang">Innocent IX.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1592</td> +<td class="tdhang">Clement VIII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1604</td> +<td class="tdhang">Leo XI.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1604</td> +<td class="tdhang">Paul V.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Matthias.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1612</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Ferdinand II.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1619</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1621</td> +<td class="tdhang">Gregory XV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1623</td> +<td class="tdhang">Urban VIII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Ferdinand III.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1637</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1644</td> +<td class="tdhang">Innocent X.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1655</td> +<td class="tdhang">Alexander VII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Leopold I.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1658</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1667</td> +<td class="tdhang">Clement IX.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_XXVII" id="Page_XXVII">xxvii</a></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1670</td> +<td class="tdhang">Clement X.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1676</td> +<td class="tdhang">Innocent XI.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1689</td> +<td class="tdhang">Alexander VIII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1691</td> +<td class="tdhang">Innocent XII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1700</td> +<td class="tdhang">Clement XI.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Joseph I.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1705</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Charles VI.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1711</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1720</td> +<td class="tdhang">Innocent XIII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1724</td> +<td class="tdhang">Benedict XIII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1740</td> +<td class="tdhang">Benedict XIV.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Charles VII.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1742</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Francis I.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1745</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1758</td> +<td class="tdhang">Clement XII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Joseph II.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1765</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1769</td> +<td class="tdhang">Clement XIII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1775</td> +<td class="tdhang">Pius VI.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Leopold II.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1790</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"><a href="#Footnote_star" class="fnanchor">[*]</a>Francis II.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1792</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1800</td> +<td class="tdhang">Pius VII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu"> </td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdhang">Abdication of Francis II.</td> +<td class="tdrvd">1806</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1823</td> +<td class="tdhang">Leo XII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1829</td> +<td class="tdhang">Pius VIII.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1831</td> +<td class="tdhang">Gregory XVI.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdrvu">1846</td> +<td class="tdhang">Pius IX.</td> +<td class="tdhang"> </td> +<td class="tdrvd"> </td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_dag" id="Footnote_dag" href="#FNanchor_dag"><span class="label">[†]</span></a>The names in italics are those of German kings who never made any claim +to the imperial title.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_star" id="Footnote_star" href="#FNanchor_star"><span class="label">[*]</span></a> +Those marked with an asterisk were never actually crowned at Rome.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">1</a></span></p> + +<p class="center b15 p6">THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE.</p> + +<h2 class="p2">CHAPTER I.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">INTRODUCTORY.</span></h2> + +<p>Of those who in August, 1806, read in the English +newspapers that the Emperor Francis II had announced +to the Diet his resignation of the imperial +crown, there were probably few who reflected that the +oldest political institution in the world had come to +an end. Yet it was so. The Empire which a note +issued by a diplomatist on the banks of the Danube +extinguished, was the same which the crafty nephew +of Julius had won for himself, against the powers of +the East, beneath the cliffs of Actium; and which had +preserved almost unaltered, through eighteen centuries +of time, and through the greatest changes in extent, in +power, in character, a title and pretensions from which +all meaning had long since departed. Nothing else so +directly linked the old world to the new—nothing else +displayed so many strange contrasts of the present and +the past, and summed up in those contrasts so much +of European history. From the days of Constantine till +far down into the middle ages it was, conjointly with the +Papacy, the recognised centre and head of Christendom, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">2</a></span> +exercising over the minds of men an influence such as +its material strength could never have commanded. It +is of this influence and of the causes that gave it power +rather than of the external history of the Empire, that +the following pages are designed to treat. That history +is indeed full of interest and brilliance, of grand characters +and striking situations. But it is a subject too +vast for any single canvas. Without a minuteness of +detail sufficient to make its scenes dramatic and give us +a lively sympathy with the actors, a narrative history can +have little value and still less charm. But to trace with +any minuteness the career of the Empire, would be to +write the history of Christendom from the fifth century +to the twelfth, of Germany and Italy from the twelfth +to the nineteenth; while even a narrative of more restricted +scope, which should attempt to disengage from +a general account of the affairs of those countries the +events that properly belong to imperial history, could +hardly be compressed within reasonable limits. It is +therefore better, declining so great a task, to attempt +one simpler and more practicable though not necessarily +inferior in interest; to speak less of events than +of principles, and endeavour to describe the Empire not +as a State but as an Institution, an institution created by +and embodying a wonderful system of ideas. In pursuance +of such a plan, the forms which the Empire took +in the several stages of its growth and decline must be +briefly sketched. The characters and acts of the great +men who founded, guided, and overthrew it must from +time to time be touched upon. But the chief aim of +the treatise will be to dwell more fully on the inner +nature of the Empire, as the most signal instance of +the fusion of Roman and Teutonic elements in modern +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span> +civilization: to shew how such a combination was possible; +how Charles and Otto were led to revive the +imperial title in the West; how far during the reigns +of their successors it preserved the memory of its +origin, and influenced the European commonwealth of +nations.</p> + +<p>Strictly speaking, it is from the year 800 <span class="s08">A.D.</span>, when +a King of the Franks was crowned Emperor of the +Romans by Pope Leo III, that the beginning of the Holy +Roman Empire must be dated. But in history there is +nothing isolated, and just as to explain a modern Act +of Parliament or a modern conveyance of lands we must +go back to the feudal customs of the thirteenth century, +so among the institutions of the Middle Ages there is +scarcely one which can be understood until it is traced +up either to classical or to primitive Teutonic antiquity. +Such a mode of inquiry is most of all needful in the case +of the Holy Empire, itself no more than a tradition, a +fancied revival of departed glories. And thus, in order +to make it clear out of what elements the imperial system +was formed, we might be required to scrutinize the antiquities +of the Christian Church; to survey the constitution +of Rome in the days when Rome was no more +than the first of the Latin cities; nay, to travel back yet +further to that Jewish theocratic polity whose influence +on the minds of the mediæval priesthood was necessarily +so profound. Practically, however, it may suffice to begin +by glancing at the condition of the Roman world in +the third and fourth centuries of the Christian era. We +shall then see the old Empire with its scheme of absolutism +fully matured; we shall mark how the new religion, +rising in the midst of a hostile power, ends by +embracing and transforming it; and we shall be in a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">4</a></span> +position to understand what impression the whole huge +fabric of secular and ecclesiastical government which +Roman and Christian had piled up made upon the barbarian +tribes who pressed into the charmed circle of the +ancient civilization. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER II.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">THE ROMAN EMPIRE BEFORE THE INVASIONS OF THE +BARBARIANS.</span></h2> + +<p class="sidenote">The Roman +Empire in +the second +century.</p> + +<p>That ostentation of humility which the subtle policy +of Augustus had conceived, and the jealous hypocrisy +of Tiberius maintained, was gradually dropped by their +successors, till despotism became at last recognised in +principle as the government of the Roman Empire. +With an aristocracy decayed, a populace degraded, an +army no longer recruited from Italy, the semblance of +liberty that yet survived might be swept away with impunity. +Republican forms had never been known in the +provinces at all, and the aspect which the imperial administration +had originally assumed there, soon reacted +on its position in the capital. Earlier rulers had disguised +their supremacy by making a slavish senate the +instrument of their more cruel or arbitrary acts. As time +went on, even this veil was withdrawn; and in the age of +Septimius Severus, the Emperor stood forth to the whole +Roman world as the single centre and source of power +and political action. The warlike character of the Roman +state was preserved in his title of General; his provincial +lieutenants were military governors; and a more +terrible enforcement of the theory was found in his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">6</a></span> +dependence on the army, at once the origin and support +of all authority. But, as he united in himself every +function of government, his sovereignty was civil as well +as military. Laws emanated from him; all officials acted +under his commission; the sanctity of his person bordered +on divinity. This increased concentration of power +was mainly required by the necessities of frontier defence, +for within there was more decay than disaffection. Few +troops were quartered through the country: few fortresses +checked the march of armies in the struggles which +placed Vespasian and Severus on the throne. The distant +crash of war from the Rhine or the Euphrates was +scarcely heard or heeded in the profound quiet of the +Mediterranean coasts, where, with piracy, fleets had disappeared. +No quarrels of race or religion disturbed that +calm, for all national distinctions were becoming merged +<span class="sidenote">Obliteration +of national +distinctions.</span> +in the idea of a common Empire. The gradual extension +of Roman citizenship through the <i>coloniæ</i>, the working +of the equalized and equalizing Roman law, the even +pressure of the government on all subjects, the movement +of population caused by commerce and the slave +traffic, were steadily assimilating the various peoples. +Emperors who were for the most part natives of the +provinces cared little to cherish Italy or conciliate Rome: +it was their policy to keep open for every subject a +career by whose freedom they had themselves risen to +greatness, and to recruit the senate from the most illustrious +families in the cities of Gaul, Spain, and Asia. +The edict by which Caracalla extended to all natives +of the Roman world the rights of Roman citizenship, +though prompted by no motives of kindness, proved in +the end a boon. Annihilating legal distinctions, it completed +the work which trade and literature and toleration +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span> +to all beliefs but one were already performing, and left, +so far as we can tell, only two nations still cherishing +a national feeling. The Jew was kept apart by his +religion: the Greek boasted his original intellectual superiority. +Speculative philosophy lent her aid to this +general assimilation. Stoicism, with its doctrine of a +universal system of nature, made minor distinctions between +man and man seem insignificant: and by its +teachers the idea of cosmopolitanism was for the first +time proclaimed. Alexandrian Neo-Platonism, uniting +the tenets of many schools, first bringing the mysticism +of the East into connection with the logical philosophies +of Greece, had opened up a new ground of agreement +or controversy for the minds of all the world. Yet +<span class="sidenote">The Capital.</span> +Rome's commanding position was scarcely shaken. Her +actual power was indeed confined within narrow limits. +Rarely were her senate and people permitted to choose +the sovereign: more rarely still could they control his +policy; neither law nor custom raised them above other +subjects, or accorded to them any advantage in the career +of civil or military ambition. As in time past Rome had +sacrificed domestic freedom that she might be the mistress +of others, so now to be universal, she, the conqueror, had +descended to the level of the conquered. But the sacrifice +had not wanted its reward. From her came the +laws and the language that had overspread the world: +at her feet the nations laid the offerings of their labour: +she was the head of the Empire and of civilization, and +in riches, fame, and splendour far outshone as well the +cities of that time as the fabled glories of Babylon or +Persepolis.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Diocletian +and Constantine.</p> + +<p>Scarcely had these slowly working influences brought +about this unity, when other influences began to threaten +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span> +it. New foes assailed the frontiers; while the loosening +of the structure within was shewn by the long struggles +for power which followed the death or deposition of each +successive emperor. In the period of anarchy after the +fall of Valerian, generals were raised by their armies in +every part of the Empire, and ruled great provinces as +monarchs apart, owning no allegiance to the possessor +of the capital.</p> + +<p>The founding of the kingdoms of modern Europe +might have been anticipated by two hundred years, had +the barbarians been bolder, or had there not arisen +in Diocletian a prince active and politic enough to +bind up the fragments before they had lost all cohesion, +meeting altered conditions by new remedies. By +dividing and localizing authority, he confessed that the +weaker heart could no longer make its pulsations felt +to the body's extremities. He parcelled out the supreme +power among four persons, and then sought to give it a +factitious strength, by surrounding it with an oriental +pomp which his earlier predecessors would have scorned. +The sovereign's person became more sacred, and was +removed further from the subject by the interposition of +a host of officials. The prerogative of Rome was menaced +by the rivalry of Nicomedia, and the nearer greatness +of Milan. Constantine trod in the same path, +extending the system of titles and functionaries, separating +the civil from the military, placing counts and +dukes along the frontiers and in the cities, making the +household larger, its etiquette stricter, its offices more +important, though to a Roman eye degraded by their +attachment to the monarch's person. The crown became, +for the first time, the fountain of honour. These +changes brought little good. Heavier taxation depressed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span> +the aristocracy<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>: +population decreased, agriculture withered, +serfdom spread: it was found more difficult to raise native +troops and to pay any troops whatever. The removal of +the seat of power to Byzantium, if it prolonged the life +of a part of the Empire, shook it as a whole, by making +the separation of East and West inevitable. By it Rome's +self-abnegation that she might Romanize the world, was +completed; for though the new capital preserved her +name, and followed her customs and precedents, yet now +the imperial sway ceased to be connected with the city +which had created it. Thus did the idea of Roman +monarchy become more universal; for, having lost its +local centre, it subsisted no longer historically, but, so +to speak, naturally, as a part of an order of things which +a change in external conditions seemed incapable of disturbing. +Henceforth the Empire would be unaffected by +the disasters of the city. And though, after the partition +of the Empire had been confirmed by Valentinian, and +finally settled on the death of Theodosius, the seat of the +Western government was removed first to Milan and then +to Ravenna, neither event destroyed Rome's prestige, nor +the notion of a single imperial nationality common to +all her subjects. The Syrian, the Pannonian, the Briton, +the Spaniard, still called himself a Roman<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>.</p> + +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span></p> + +<p class="sidenote">Christianity.</p> + +<p>For that nationality was now beginning to be supported +by a new and vigorous power. The Emperors +had indeed opposed it as disloyal and revolutionary: had +more than once put forth their whole strength to root it +out. But the unity of the Empire, and the ease of communication +through its parts, had favoured the spread of +Christianity: persecution had scattered the seeds more +widely, had forced on it a firm organization, had given it +martyr-heroes and a history. When Constantine, partly +perhaps from a genuine moral sympathy, yet doubtless +far more in the well-grounded belief that he had more +to gain from the zealous sympathy of its professors than +he could lose by the aversion of those who still cultivated +a languid paganism, took Christianity to be the religion +of the Empire, it was already a great political force, able, +and not more able than willing, to repay him by aid and +submission. +<span class="sidenote">Its alliance +with the +State.</span> +Yet the league was struck in no mere mercenary +spirit, for the league was inevitable. Of the evils +and dangers incident to the system then founded, there +was as yet no experience: of that antagonism between +Church and State which to a modern appears so natural, +there was not even an idea. Among the Jews, the State +had rested upon religion; among the Romans, religion +had been an integral part of the political constitution, a +matter far more of national or tribal or family feeling +than of personal<a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>. Both in Israel and at Rome the +mingling of religious with civic patriotism had been harmonious, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span> +giving strength and elasticity to the whole body +politic. So perfect a union was now no longer possible +in the Roman Empire, for the new faith had already a +governing body of her own in those rulers and teachers +whom the growth of sacramentalism, and of sacerdotalism +its necessary consequence, was making every day more +powerful, and marking off more sharply from the mass +of the Christian people. Since therefore the ecclesiastical +organization could not be identical with the civil, it became +its counterpart. Suddenly called from danger and +ignominy to the seat of power, and finding her inexperience +perplexed by a sphere of action vast and varied, +the Church was compelled to frame herself upon the +model of the secular administration. Where her own +machinery was defective, as in the case of doctrinal disputes +affecting the whole Christian world, she sought the +interposition of the sovereign; in all else she strove not +to sink in, but to reproduce for herself the imperial system. +And just as with the extension of the Empire all +the independent rights of districts, towns, or tribes had +disappeared, so now the primitive freedom and diversity +of individual Christians and local Churches, already circumscribed +by the frequent struggles against heresy, was +finally overborne by the idea of one visible catholic +Church, uniform in faith and ritual; uniform too in her +relation to the civil power and the increasingly oligarchical +character of her government. Thus, under the +combined force of doctrinal theory and practical needs, +there shaped itself a hierarchy of patriarchs, metropolitans, +and bishops, their jurisdiction, although still +chiefly spiritual, enforced by the laws of the State, +their provinces and dioceses usually corresponding to +the administrative divisions of the Empire. As no +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span> +patriarch yet enjoyed more than an honorary supremacy, +the head of the Church—so far as she could be said +to have a head—was virtually the Emperor himself. +The inchoate right to intermeddle in religious affairs +which he derived from the office of Pontifex Maximus +was readily admitted; and the clergy, preaching the +duty of passive obedience now as it had been preached +in the days of Nero and Diocletian<a name="FNanchor_7" id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a>, +were well pleased +to see him preside in councils, issue edicts against +heresy, and testify even by arbitrary measures his zeal +for the advancement of the faith and the overthrow of +pagan rites. But though the tone of the Church remained +humble, her strength waxed greater, nor were +occasions wanting which revealed the future that was +in store for her. The resistance and final triumph of +Athanasius proved that the new society could put forth +a power of opinion such as had never been known before: +the abasement of Theodosius the Emperor before +Ambrose the Archbishop admitted the supremacy of +spiritual authority. In the decrepitude of old institutions, +in the barrenness of literature and the feebleness +of art, it was to the Church that the life and feelings +of the people sought more and more to attach themselves; +and when in the fifth century the horizon grew +black with clouds of ruin, those who watched with despair +or apathy the approach of irresistible foes, fled for +comfort to the shrine of a religion which even those foes +revered.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">It embraces +and preserves +the +imperial +idea.</p> + +<p>But that which we are above all concerned to remark +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span> +here is, that this church system, demanding a more rigid +uniformity in doctrine and organization, making more +and more vital the notion of a visible body of worshippers +united by participation in the same sacraments, +maintained and propagated afresh the feeling of a single +Roman people throughout the world. Christianity as +well as civilization became conterminous with the Roman +Empire<a name="FNanchor_8" id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a>.</p> + +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER III.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS.</span></h2> + +<p class="sidenote">The Barbarians.</p> + +<p>Upon a world so constituted did the barbarians of the +North descend. From the dawn of history they shew as +a dim background to the warmth and light of the Mediterranean +coast, changing little while kingdoms rise and fall +in the South: only thought on when some hungry swarm +comes down to pillage or to settle. It is always as foes +that they are known. The Romans never forgot the +invasion of Brennus; and their fears, renewed by the +irruption of the Cimbri and Teutones, could not let them +rest till the extension of the frontier to the Rhine and +the Danube removed Italy from immediate danger. A +little more perseverance under Tiberius, or again under +Hadrian, would probably have reduced all Germany as +far as the Baltic and the Oder. But the politic or jealous +advice of Augustus<a name="FNanchor_9" id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> + was followed, and it was only along +the frontiers that Roman arts and culture affected the +Teutonic races. Commerce was brisk; Roman envoys +penetrated the forests to the courts of rude chieftains; +adventurous barbarians entered the provinces, sometimes +to admire, oftener, like the brother of Arminius<a name="FNanchor_10" id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>, +to take +service under the Roman flag, and rise to a distinction in +the legion which some feud denied them at home. This +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Admitted +to Roman +titles and +honours.</span> +was found even more convenient by the hirer than by the +employed; till by degrees barbarian mercenaries came +to form the largest, or at least the most effective, part of +the Roman armies. The body-guard of Augustus had +been so composed; the prætorians were generally selected +from the bravest frontier troops, most of them German; +the practice could not but increase with the extinction of +the free peasantry, the growth of villenage, and the effeminacy +of all classes. Emperors who were, like Maximin, +themselves foreigners, encouraged a system by +whose means they had risen, and whose advantages they +knew. After Constantine, the barbarians form the majority +of the troops; after Theodosius, a Roman is the +exception. The soldiers of the Eastern Empire in the +time of Arcadius are almost all Goths, vast bodies of +whom had been settled in the provinces; while in the +West, Stilicho<a name="FNanchor_11" id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> + can oppose Rhodogast only by summoning +the German auxiliaries from the frontiers. Along +with this practice there had grown up another, which did +still more to make the barbarians feel themselves members +of the Roman state. Whatever the pride of the old republic +might assert, the maxim of the Empire had always +been that birth and race should exclude no subject from +any post which his abilities deserved. This principle, +which had removed all obstacles from the path of the +Spaniard Trajan, the Pannonian Maximin, the Numidian +Philip, was afterwards extended to the conferring of +honour and power on persons who did not even profess +to have passed through the grades of Roman service, but +remained leaders of their own tribes. Ariovistus had been +soothed by the title of Friend of the Roman People; in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span> +the third century the insignia of the consulship<a name="FNanchor_12" id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> + were +conferred on a Herulian chief: Crocus and his Alemanni +entered as an independent body into the service of Rome; +along the Rhine whole tribes received, under the name of +Laeti, lands within the provinces on condition of military +service; and the foreign aid which the Sarmatian had +proffered to Vespasian against his rival, and Marcus +Aurelius had indignantly rejected in the war with Cassius, +became the usual, at last the sole support of the Empire, +in civil as well as in external strife.</p> + +<p>Thus in many ways was the old antagonism broken +down—Romans admitting barbarians to rank and office, +barbarians catching something of the manners and culture +of their neighbours. And thus when the final movement +came, and the Teutonic tribes slowly established themselves +through the provinces, they entered not as savage +strangers, but as colonists knowing something of the +system into which they came, and not unwilling to be +considered its members; despising the degenerate provincials +who struck no blow in their own defence, but full +of respect for the majestic power which had for so many +centuries confronted and instructed them.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Their feelings +towards +the +Roman +Empire.</p> + +<p>Great during all these ages, but greatest when they +were actually traversing and settling in the Empire, must +have been the impression which its elaborate machinery +of government and mature civilization made upon the +minds of the Northern invaders. With arms whose fabrication +they had learned from their foes, these dwellers in +the forest conquered well-tilled fields, and entered towns +whose busy workshops, marts stored with the productions +of distant countries, and palaces rich in monuments of +art, equally roused their wonder. To the beauty of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span> +statuary or painting they might often be blind, but the +rudest mind must have been awed by the massive piles +with which vanity or devotion, or the passion for amusement, +had adorned Milan and Verona, Arles, Treves, and +Bordeaux. A deeper awe would strike them as they +gazed on the crowding worshippers and stately ceremonial +of Christianity, most unlike their own rude sacrifices. +The exclamation of the Goth Athanaric, when led into +the market-place of Constantinople, may stand for the +feelings of his nation: 'Without doubt the Emperor is a +God upon earth, and he who attacks him is guilty of his +own blood<a name="FNanchor_13" id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a>.'</p> + +<p>The social and political system, with its cultivated language +and literature, into which they came, would impress +fewer of the conquerors, but by those few would be admired +beyond all else. Its regular organization supplied +what they most needed and could least construct for +themselves, and hence it was that the greatest among +them were the most desirous to preserve it. The Mongol +Attila excepted, there is among these terrible hosts no +destroyer; the wish of each leader is to maintain the existing +order, to spare life, to respect every work of skill +and labour, above all to perpetuate the methods of +Roman administration, and rule the people as the deputy +or successor of their Emperor. Titles conferred by him +<span class="sidenote">Their desire +to preserve +its institutions.</span> +were the highest honours they knew: they were also the +only means of acquiring something like a legal claim to +the obedience of the subject, and of turning a patriarchal +or military chieftainship into the regular sway of an +hereditary monarch. Civilis had long since endeavoured +to govern his Batavians as a Roman general<a name="FNanchor_14" id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a>. Alaric +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span> +became master-general of the armies of Illyricum. Clovis +exulted in the consulship; his son Theodebert received +Provence, the conquest of his own battle-axe, as the +gift of Justinian. Sigismund the Burgundian king, +created count and patrician by the Emperor Anastasius, +professed the deepest gratitude and the firmest faith to +that Eastern court which was absolutely powerless to help +or to hurt him. 'My people is yours,' he writes, 'and +to rule them delights me less than to serve you; the +hereditary devotion of my race to Rome has made us +account those the highest honours which your military +titles convey; we have always preferred what an Emperor +gave to all that our ancestors could bequeath. In ruling +our nation we hold ourselves but your lieutenants: you, +whose divinely-appointed sway no barrier bounds, whose +blessed beams shine from the Bosphorus into distant +Gaul, employ us to administer the remoter regions of +your Empire: your world is our fatherland<a name="FNanchor_15" id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>.' A contemporary +historian has recorded the remarkable disclosure of +his own thoughts and purposes, made by one of the ablest +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span> +of the barbarian chieftains, Athaulf the Visigoth, the +brother-in-law and successor of Alaric. 'It was at first +my wish to destroy the Roman name, and erect in its +place a Gothic empire, taking to myself the place and the +powers of Cæsar Augustus. But when experience taught +me that the untameable barbarism of the Goths would not +suffer them to live beneath the sway of law, and that the +abolition of the institutions on which the state rested +would involve the ruin of the state itself, I chose the glory +of renewing and maintaining by Gothic strength the fame +of Rome, desiring to go down to posterity as the restorer +of that Roman power which it was beyond my power to +replace. Wherefore I avoid war and strive for peace<a name="FNanchor_16" id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a>.'</p> + +<p>Historians have remarked how valuable must have been +the skill of Roman officials to princes who from leaders +of tribes were become rulers of wide lands; and in particular +how indispensable the aid of the Christian bishops, +the intellectual aristocracy of their new subjects, whose +advice could alone guide their policy and conciliate the +vanquished. Not only is this true; it is but a small part +of the truth; one form of that manifold and overpowering +influence which the old system exercised over its foes not +less than its own children. For it is hardly too much to +say that the thought of antagonism to the Empire and the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span> +wish to extinguish it never crossed the mind of the barbarians<a name="FNanchor_17" id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a>. +The conception of that Empire was too universal, +too august, too enduring. It was everywhere +around them, and they could remember no time when it +had not been so. It had no association of people or +place whose fall could seem to involve that of the whole +fabric; it had that connection with the Christian Church +which made it all-embracing and venerable.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The belief +in its +eternity.</p> + +<p>There were especially two ideas whereon it rested, and +from which it obtained a peculiar strength and a peculiar +direction. The one was the belief that as the dominion +of Rome was universal, so must it be eternal. Nothing +like it had been seen before. The empire of Alexander +had lasted a short lifetime; and within its wide compass +were included many arid wastes, and many tracts where +none but the roving savage had ever set foot. That of +the Italian city had for fourteen generations embraced all +the most wealthy and populous regions of the civilized +world, and had laid the foundations of its power so deep +that they seemed destined to last for ever. If Rome +moved slowly for a time, her foot was always planted +firmly: the ease and swiftness of her later conquests +proved the solidity of the earlier; and to her, more justly +than to his own city, might the boast of the Athenian +historian be applied: that she advanced farthest in prosperity, +and in adversity drew back the least. From the +end of the republican period her poets, her orators, her +jurists, ceased not to repeat the claim of world-dominion, +and confidently predict its eternity<a name="FNanchor_18" id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a>. The proud belief of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span> +his countrymen which Virgil had expressed—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1"><span lang="la">'His ego nec metas rerum, nec tempora pono:</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Imperium sine fine dedi'—</span></p> +</div></div> +<p>was shared by the early Christians when they prayed for +the persecuting power whose fall would bring Antichrist +upon earth. Lactantius writes: 'When Rome the head +of the world shall have fallen, who can doubt that the end +is come of human things, aye, of the earth itself. She, +she alone is the state by which all things are upheld even +until now; wherefore let us make prayers and supplications +to the God of heaven, if indeed his decrees and his +purposes can be delayed, that that hateful tyrant come +not sooner than we look for, he for whom are reserved +fearful deeds, who shall pluck out that eye in whose +extinction the world itself shall perish<a name="FNanchor_19" id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a>.' With the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span> +triumph of Christianity this belief had found a new basis. +For as the Empire had decayed, the Church had grown +stronger; and now while the one, trembling at the approach +of the destroyer, saw province after province torn +away, the other, rising in stately youth, prepared to fill +her place and govern in her name, and in doing so, to +adopt and sanctify and propagate anew the notion of a +universal and unending state.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Sanctity of +the imperial +name.</p> + +<p>The second chief element in this conception was the +association of such a state with one irresponsible governor, +the Emperor. The hatred to the name of King, +which their earliest political struggles had left in the Romans, +by obliging their ruler to take a new and strange +title, marked him off from all the other sovereigns of +the world. To the provincials especially he became an +awful impersonation of the great machine of government +which moved above and around them. It was not merely +that he was, like a modern king, the centre of power and +the dispenser of honour: his pre-eminence, broken by no +comparison with other princes, by the ascending ranks of +no aristocracy, had in it something almost supernatural. +The right of legislation had become vested in him alone: +the decrees of the people, and resolutions of the senate, +and edicts of the magistrates were, during the last three +centuries, replaced by imperial constitutions; his domestic +council, the consistory, was the supreme court +of appeal; his interposition, like that of some terrestrial +Providence, was invoked, and legally provided so to be, +to reverse or overleap the ordinary rules of law<a name="FNanchor_20" id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a>. From +the time of Julius and Augustus his person had been +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span> +hallowed by the office of chief pontiff<a name="FNanchor_21" id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> + and the tribunician +power; to swear by his head was considered the +most solemn of all oaths<a name="FNanchor_22" id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a>; +his effigy was sacred<a name="FNanchor_23" id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a>, +even +on a coin; to him or to his Genius temples were erected +and divine honours paid while he lived<a name="FNanchor_24" id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a>; +and when, as it +was expressed, he ceased to be among men, the title of +Divus was accorded to him, after a solemn consecration<a name="FNanchor_25" id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a>. +In the confused multiplicity of mythologies, the worship +of the Emperor was the only worship common to the +whole Roman world, and was therefore that usually proposed +as a test to the Christians on their trial. Under +the new religion the form of adoration vanished, the +sentiment of reverence remained: the right to control +Church as well as State, admitted at Nicæa, and habitually +exercised by the sovereigns of Constantinople, +made the Emperor hardly less essential to the new conception +of a world-wide Christian monarchy than he had +been to the military despotism of old. These considerations +explain why the men of the fifth century, clinging to +preconceived ideas, refused to believe in that dissolution +of the Empire which they saw with their own eyes. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span> +Because it could not die, it lived. And there was in the +slowness of the change and its external aspect, as well +as in the fortunes of the capital, something to favour the +illusion. The Roman name was shared by every subject; +the Roman city was no longer the seat of government, +nor did her capture extinguish the imperial power, +for the maxim was now accepted, Where the Emperor is, +there is Rome<a name="FNanchor_26" id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a>. But her continued existence, not permanently +occupied by any conqueror, striking the nations +with an awe which the history or the external splendours +of Constantinople, Milan, or Ravenna could nowise inspire, +was an ever new assertion of the endurance of +the Roman race and dominion. Dishonoured and defenceless, +the spell of her name was still strong enough +to arrest the conqueror in the moment of triumph. The +irresistible impulse that drew Alaric was one of glory or +revenge, not of destruction: the Hun turned back from +Aquileia with a vague fear upon him: the Ostrogoth +adorned and protected his splendid prize.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Last days +of the Western +Empire.</p> + +<p>In the history of the last days of the Western Empire, +two points deserve special remark: its continued +union with the Eastern branch, and the way in which its +ideal dignity was respected while its representatives were +despised. After Stilicho's death, and Alaric's invasion, +its fall was a question of time. While one by one the +provinces were abandoned by the central government, +left either to be occupied by invading tribes or to maintain +a precarious independence, like Britain and Armorica<a name="FNanchor_27" id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> +, +by means of municipal unions, Italy lay at the +mercy of the barbarian auxiliaries and was governed by +their leaders. The degenerate line of Theodosius might +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span> +have seemed to reign by hereditary right, but after their +extinction in Valentinian III each phantom Emperor—Maximus, +Avitus, Majorian, Anthemius, Olybrius—received +the purple from the haughty Ricimer, general of +the troops, only to be stripped of it when he presumed to +forget his dependence. Though the division between +Arcadius and Honorius had definitely severed the two +realms for administrative purposes, they were still supposed +to constitute a single Empire, and the rulers of the +East interfered more than once to raise to the Western +throne princes they could not protect upon it. Ricimer's +insolence quailed before the shadowy grandeur of the +imperial title: his ambition, and Gundobald his successor's, +were bounded by the name of patrician. The bolder +genius of Odoacer<a name="FNanchor_28" id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a>, +general of the barbarian auxiliaries, +resolved to abolish an empty pageant, and extinguish the +title and office of Emperor of the West. Yet over him too +the spell had power; and as the Gaulish warrior had +gazed on the silent majesty of the senate in a deserted +city, so the Herulian revered the power before which the +world had bowed, and though there was no force to +check or to affright him, shrank from grasping in his +own barbarian hand the sceptre of the Cæsars. When, +at Odoacer's bidding, Romulus Augustulus, the boy +whom a whim of fate had chosen to be the last native +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Its extinction +by +Odoacer, +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 476.</span> +Cæsar of Rome, had formally announced his resignation +to the senate, a deputation from that body proceeded to +the Eastern court to lay the insignia of royalty at the feet +of the Eastern Emperor Zeno. The West, they declared, +no longer required an Emperor of its own; one monarch +sufficed for the world; Odoacer was qualified by his wisdom +and courage to be the protector of their state, and upon +him Zeno was entreated to confer the title of patrician and +the administration of the Italian provinces<a name="FNanchor_29" id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a>. The Emperor +granted what he could not refuse, and Odoacer, taking +the title of King<a name="FNanchor_30" id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a>, +continued the consular office, respected +the civil and ecclesiastical institutions of his subjects, and +ruled for fourteen years as the nominal vicar of the +Eastern Emperor. There was thus legally no extinction +of the Western Empire at all, but only a reunion of East +and West. In form, and to some extent also in the +belief of men, things now reverted to their state during +the first two centuries of the Empire, save that Byzantium +instead of Rome was the centre of the civil government. +The joint tenancy which had been conceived by Diocletian, +carried further by Constantine, renewed under +Valentinian I and again at the death of Theodosius, had +come to an end; once more did a single Emperor sway +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span> +the sceptre of the world, and head an undivided Catholic +Church<a name="FNanchor_31" id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a>. To those who lived at the time, this year +(476 <span class="s08">A.D.</span>) was no such epoch as it has since become, +nor was any impression made on men's minds commensurate +with the real significance of the event. For though +it did not destroy the Empire in idea, nor wholly even in +fact, its consequences were from the first great. It hastened +the development of a Latin as opposed to Greek +and Oriental forms of Christianity: it emancipated the +Popes: it gave a new character to the projects and +government of the Teutonic rulers of the West. But +the importance of remembering its formal aspect to those +who witnessed it will be felt as we approach the era when +the Empire was revived by Charles the Frank.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Odoacer.</p> + +<p>Odoacer's monarchy was not more oppressive than +those of his neighbours in Gaul, Spain, and Africa. But +the mercenary <i>fœderati</i> who supported it were a loose +swarm of predatory tribes: themselves without cohesion, +they could take no firm root in Italy. During the +eighteen years of his reign no progress seems to have +been made towards the re-organization of society; and +the first real attempt to blend the peoples and maintain +the traditions of Roman wisdom in the hands of a new +and vigorous race was reserved for a more famous chieftain, +the greatest of all the barbarian conquerors, the forerunner +of the first barbarian Emperor, Theodoric the +<span class="sidenote">Theodoric.</span> +Ostrogoth. The aim of his reign, though he professed +allegiance to the Eastern court which had favoured his +invasion<a name="FNanchor_32" id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a>, +was the establishment of a national monarchy +in Italy. Brought up as a hostage in the court of Byzantium, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span> +he learnt to know the advantages of an orderly and +cultivated society and the principles by which it must be +maintained; called in early manhood to roam as a warrior-chief +over the plains of the Danube, he acquired along +with the arts of command a sense of the superiority of +his own people in valour and energy and truth. When +the defeat and death of Odoacer had left the peninsula at +his mercy, he sought no further conquest, easy as it would +have been to tear away new provinces from the Eastern +realm, but strove only to preserve and strengthen the +ancient polity of Rome, to breathe into her decaying +institutions the spirit of a fresh life, and without endangering +the military supremacy of his own Goths, to conciliate +by indulgence and gradually raise to the level of their +masters the degenerate population of Italy. The Gothic +nation appears from the first less cruel in war and more +prudent in council than any of their Germanic brethren<a name="FNanchor_33" id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> +: +all that was most noble among them shone forth now in +the rule of the greatest of the Amali. From his palace at +Verona<a name="FNanchor_34" id="FNanchor_34" href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a>, +commemorated in the song of the Nibelungs, he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span> + +issued equal laws for Roman and Goth, and bade the +intruder, if he must occupy part of the lands, at least +respect the goods and the person of his fellow-subject. +Jurisprudence and administration remained in native hands: +two annual consuls, one named by Theodoric, the other +by the Eastern monarch, presented an image of the ancient +state; and while agriculture and the arts revived in the +provinces, Rome herself celebrated the visits of a master +who provided for the wants of her people and preserved +with care the monuments of her former splendour. With +peace and plenty men's minds took hope, and the study +of letters revived. The last gleam of classical literature +gilds the reign of the barbarian. By the consolidation of +the two races under one wise government, Italy might +have been spared six hundred years of gloom and degradation. +It was not so to be. Theodoric was tolerant, but +toleration was itself a crime in the eyes of his orthodox +subjects: the Arian Goths were and remained strangers +and enemies among the Catholic Italians. Scarcely had +the sceptre passed from the hands of Theodoric to his +unworthy offspring, when Justinian, who had viewed +<span class="sidenote">Italy reconquered, +by Justinian.</span> +with jealousy the greatness of his nominal lieutenant, +determined to assert his dormant rights over Italy; its +people welcomed Belisarius as a deliverer, and in the +struggle that followed the race and name of the Ostrogoths +perished for ever. Thus again reunited in fact, as +it had been all the while united in name, to the Roman +Empire, the peninsula was divided into counties and dukedoms, +and obeyed the exarch of Ravenna, viceroy of the +Byzantine court, till the arrival of the Lombards in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 568 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span> +drove him from some districts, and left him only a feeble +authority in the rest.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The Transalpine +provinces.</p> + +<p>Beyond the Alps, though the Roman population had +now ceased to seek help from the Eastern court, the +Empire's rights still subsisted in theory, and were never +legally extinguished. As has been said, they were admitted +by the conquerors themselves: by Athaulf, when +he reigned in Aquitaine as the vicar of Honorius, and +recovered Spain from the Suevi to restore it to its ancient +masters; by the Visigothic kings of Spain, when they +permitted the Mediterranean cities to send tribute to +Byzantium; by Clovis, when, after the representatives of +the old government, Syagrius and the Armorican cities, +had been overpowered or absorbed, he received with delight +from the Eastern emperor Anastasius the grant of a +Roman dignity to confirm his possession. Arrayed like a +Fabius or Valerius in the consul's embroidered robe, the +Sicambrian chieftain rode through the streets of Tours, +while the shout of the provincials hailed him Augustus<a name="FNanchor_35" id="FNanchor_35" href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a>. +They already obeyed him, but his power was now legalised +in their eyes, and it was not without a melancholy +pride that they saw the terrible conqueror himself yield to +the spell of the Roman name, and do homage to the +enduring majesty of their legitimate sovereign<a name="FNanchor_36" id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Lingering +influences +of Rome.</p> + +<p>Yet the severed limbs of the Empire forgot by degrees +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span> +their original unity. As in the breaking up of the old +society, which we trace from the sixth to the eighth +century, rudeness and ignorance grew apace, as language +and manners were changed by the infiltration of Teutonic +settlers, as men's thoughts and hopes and interests were +narrowed by isolation from their fellows, as the organization +of the Roman province and the Germanic tribe alike +dissolved into a chaos whence the new order began to +shape itself, dimly and doubtfully as yet, the memory of +the old Empire, its symmetry, its sway, its civilization, +must needs wane and fade. It might have perished altogether +but for the two enduring witnesses Rome had left—her +Church and her Law. The barbarians had at first +<span class="sidenote">Religion.</span> +associated Christianity with the Romans from whom they +learned it: the Romans had used it as their only bulwark +against oppression. The hierarchy were the natural leaders +of the people, and the necessary councillors of the king. +Their power grew with the extinction of civil government +and the spread of superstition; and when the Frank found +it too valuable to be abandoned to the vanquished people, +he insensibly acquired the feelings and policy of the order +he entered.</p> + +<p>As the Empire fell to pieces, and the new kingdoms +which the conquerors had founded themselves began to +dissolve, the Church clung more closely to her unity of +faith and discipline, the common bond of all Christian +men. That unity must have a centre, that centre +was Rome. A succession of able and zealous pontiffs +extended her influence (the sanctity and the writings of +Gregory the Great were famous through all the West): +<span class="sidenote">Jurisprudence.</span> +never occupied by barbarians, she retained her peculiar +character and customs, and laid the foundations of a +power over men's souls more durable than that which she +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span> +had lost over their bodies<a name="FNanchor_37" id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a>. Only second in importance +to this influence was that which was exercised by the permanence +of the old law, and of its creature the municipality. +The barbarian invaders retained the customs of +their ancestors, characteristic memorials of a rude people, +as we see them in the Salic law or in the ordinances of +Ina and Alfred. But the subject population and the +clergy continued to be governed by that elaborate system +which the genius and labour of many generations had +raised to be the most lasting monument of Roman +greatness.</p> + +<p>The civil law had maintained itself in Spain and +Southern Gaul, nor was it utterly forgotten even in the +North, in Britain, on the borders of Germany. Revised +editions of the Theodosian code were issued by the Visigothic +and Burgundian princes. For some centuries it +was the patrimony of the subject population everywhere, +and in Aquitaine and Italy has outlived feudalism. The +presumption in later times was that all men were to be +judged by it who could not be proved to be subject to +some other<a name="FNanchor_38" id="FNanchor_38" href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a>. Its phrases, its forms, its courts, its subtlety +and precision, all recalled the strong and refined +society which had produced it. Other motives, as well as +those of kindness to their subjects, made the new kings +favour it; for it exalted their prerogative, and the submission +enjoined by it on one class of their subjects soon +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span> +came to be demanded from the other, by their own laws +the equals of the prince. Considering attentively how +many of the old institutions continued to subsist, and +studying the feelings of that time, as they are faintly preserved +in its scanty records, it seems hardly too much to +say that in the eighth century the Roman Empire still +existed in the West: existed in men's minds as a power +weakened, delegated, suspended, but not destroyed.</p> + +<p>It is easy for those who read the history of an age in +the light of those that followed it, to perceive that in this +men erred; that the tendency of events was wholly different; +that society had entered on a new phase, wherein +every change did more to localize authority and strengthen +the aristocratic principle at the expense of the despotic. +We can see that other forms of life, more full of promise +for the distant future, had already begun to shew themselves: +they—with no type of power or beauty, but that +which had filled the imagination of their forefathers, and +now loomed on them grander than ever through the mist +of centuries—mistook, as it has been said of Rienzi in +later days, memories for hopes, and sighed only for the +renewal of its strength. Events were at hand by which +these hopes seemed destined to be gratified. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER IV.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">RESTORATION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE.</span></h2> + +<p>It was towards Rome as their ecclesiastical capital that +the thoughts and hopes of the men of the sixth and +seventh centuries were constantly directed. Yet not from +Rome, feeble and corrupt, nor on the exhausted soil of +Italy, was the deliverer to arise. Just when, as we may +suppose, the vision of a renewal of imperial authority in +the Western provinces was beginning to vanish away, +there appeared in the furthest corner of Europe, sprung of +a race but lately brought within the pale of civilization, a +line of chieftains devoted to the service of the Holy See, +and among them one whose power, good fortune, and +heroic character pointed him out as worthy of a dignity +to which doctrine and tradition had attached a sanctity +almost divine.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The +Franks.</p> + +<p>Of the new monarchies that had risen on the ruins of +Rome, that of the Franks was by far the greatest. In the +third century they appear, with Saxons, Alemanni, and +Thuringians, as one of the greatest German tribe leagues. +The Sicambri (for it seems probable that this famous race +was a chief source of the Frankish nation) had now laid +aside their former hostility to Rome, and her future representatives +were thenceforth, with few intervals, her faithful +allies. Many of their chiefs rose to high place: Malarich +receives from Jovian the charge of the Western provinces; +Bauto and Mellobaudes figure in the days of Theodosius +and his sons; Meroveus (if Meroveus be a real name) +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span> +fights under Aetius against Attila in the great battle of +Chalons; his countrymen endeavour in vain to save Gaul +from the Suevi and Burgundians. Not till the Empire +was evidently helpless did they claim a share of the booty; +then Clovis, or Chlodovech, chief of the Salian tribe, +leaving his kindred the Ripuarians in their seats on the +lower Rhine, advances from Flanders to wrest Gaul from +the barbarian nations which had entered it some sixty +years before. +<span class="sidenote"><span class="s08">A.D.</span> 486.</span> +Few conquerors have had a career of more +unbroken success. By the defeat of the Roman governor +Syagrius he was left master of the northern provinces: the +Burgundian kingdom in the valley of the Rhone was in +no long time reduced to dependence: last of all, the +Visigothic power was overthrown in one great battle, and +Aquitaine added to the dominions of Clovis. Nor were +the Frankish arms less prosperous on the other side of +the Rhine. The victory of Tolbiac led to the submission +of the Alemanni: their allies the Bavarians followed, and +when the Thuringian power had been broken by Theodorich +I (son of Clovis), the Frankish league embraced +all the tribes of western and southern Germany. The +state thus formed, stretching from the Bay of Biscay to +the Inn and the Ems, was of course in no sense a French, +that is to say, a Gallic monarchy. Nor, although the +widest and strongest empire that had yet been founded by +a Teutonic race, was it, under the Merovingian kings, a +united kingdom at all, but rather a congeries of principalities, +held together by the predominance of a single +nation and a single family, who ruled in Gaul as masters +over a subject race, and in Germany exercised a sort of +hegemony among kindred and scarcely inferior tribes. +But towards the middle of the eighth century a change +began. Under the rule of Pipin of Herstal and his son +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span> +Charles Martel, mayors of the palace to the last feeble +Merovingians, the Austrasian Franks in the lower Rhineland +became acknowledged heads of the nation, and were +able, while establishing a firmer government at home, to +direct its whole strength in projects of foreign ambition. +The form those projects took arose from a circumstance +which has not yet been mentioned. It was not solely or +even chiefly to their own valour that the Franks owed +their past greatness and the yet loftier future which awaited +them, it was to the friendship of the clergy and the favour +of the Apostolic See. The other Teutonic nations, Goths, +Vandals, Burgundians, Suevians, Lombards, had been +most of them converted by Arian missionaries who proceeded +from the Roman Empire during the short period +when Arian doctrines were in the ascendant. The Franks, +who were among the latest converts, were Catholics from +the first, and gladly accepted the clergy as their teachers +and allies. Thus it was that while the hostility of their orthodox +subjects destroyed the Vandal kingdom in Africa and +the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy, the eager sympathy of +the priesthood enabled the Franks to vanquish their Burgundian +and Visigothic enemies, and made it comparatively +easy for them to blend with the Roman population +in the provinces. They had done good service against +the Saracens of Spain; they had aided the English Boniface +in his mission to the heathen of Germany<a name="FNanchor_39" id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a>; +and at +length, as the most powerful among Catholic nations, they +attracted the eyes of the ecclesiastical head of the West, +now sorely bested by domestic foes.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Italy: the +Lombards.</p> + +<p>Since the invasion of Alboin, Italy had groaned under +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span> +a complication of evils. The Lombards who had entered +along with that chief in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 568 had settled in considerable +numbers in the valley of the Po, and founded the duchies +of Spoleto and Benevento, leaving the rest of the country +to be governed by the exarch of Ravenna as viceroy of +the Eastern crown. This subjection was, however, little +better than nominal. Although too few to occupy the +whole peninsula, the invaders were yet strong enough to +harass every part of it by inroads which met with no resistance +from a population unused to arms, and without +the spirit to use them in self-defence. More cruel and +repulsive, if we may believe the evidence of their enemies, +than any other of the Northern tribes, the Lombards were +certainly singular in their aversion to the clergy, never +admitting them to the national councils. Tormented by +their repeated attacks, Rome sought help in vain from +Byzantium, whose forces, scarce able to repel from their +walls the Avars and Saracens, could give no support to +the distant exarch of Ravenna. +<span class="sidenote">The Popes.</span> +The Popes were the +Emperor's subjects; they awaited his confirmation, like +other bishops; they had more than once been the victims +of his anger<a name="FNanchor_40" id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a>. But as the city became more accustomed +in independence, and the Pope rose to a predominance, +real if not yet legal, his tone grew bolder than that of the +Eastern patriarchs. In the controversies that had raged +in the Church, he had had the wisdom or good fortune +to espouse (though not always from the first) the orthodox +side: it was now by another quarrel of religion that his +deliverance from an unwelcome yoke was accomplished<a name="FNanchor_41" id="FNanchor_41" href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a>.</p> + +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span></p> + +<p class="sidenote">Iconoclastic +controversy.</p> + +<p>The Emperor Leo, born among the Isaurian mountains, +where a purer faith may yet have lingered, and +stung by the Mohammedan taunt of idolatry, determined +to abolish the worship of images, which seemed fast obscuring +the more spiritual part of Christianity. An attempt +sufficient to cause tumults among the submissive Greeks, +excited in Italy a fiercer commotion. The populace rose +with one heart in defence of what had become to them +more than a symbol: the exarch was slain: the Pope, +though unwilling to sever himself from the lawful head +and protector of the Church, must yet excommunicate the +prince whom he could not reclaim from so hateful a +heresy. Liudprand, king of the Lombards, improved his +opportunity: falling on the exarchate as the champion of +images, on Rome as the minister of the Greek Emperor, +he overran the one, and all but succeeded in capturing +the other. The Pope escaped for the moment, but saw +his peril; placed between a heretic and a robber, he +turned his gaze beyond the Alps, to a Catholic chief who +had just achieved a signal deliverance for Christendom +on the field of Poitiers. Gregory II had already opened +communications with Charles Martel, mayor of the palace, +and virtual ruler of the Frankish realm<a name="FNanchor_42" id="FNanchor_42" href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a>. As the crisis +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">The Popes +appeal to +the Franks.</span> +becomes more pressing, Gregory III finds in the same +quarter his only hope, and appeals to him, in urgent +letters, to haste to the succour of Holy Church<a name="FNanchor_43" id="FNanchor_43" href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a>. Some +accounts add that Charles was offered, in the name of the +Roman people, the office of consul and patrician. It is +at least certain that here begins the connection of the old +imperial seat with the rising German power: here first +the pontiff leads a political movement, and shakes off the +ties that bound him to his legitimate sovereign. Charles +died before he could obey the call; but his son Pipin +(surnamed the Short) made good use of the new friendship +with Rome. He was the third of his family who had +ruled the Franks with a monarch's full power: it seemed +time to abolish the pageant of Merovingian royalty; yet +a departure from the ancient line might shock the feelings +of the people. A course was taken whose dangers no +one then foresaw: the Holy See, now for the first time +invoked as an international power, pronounced the deposition +of Childeric, and gave to the royal office of his +successor Pipin a sanctity hitherto unknown; adding to +the old Frankish election, which consisted in raising the +chief on a shield amid the clash of arms, the Roman +diadem and the Hebrew rite of anointing. The compact +between the chair of Peter and the Teutonic throne +was hardly sealed, when the latter was summoned to discharge +its share of the duties. Twice did Aistulf the +Lombard assail Rome, twice did Pipin descend to the +rescue: the second time at the bidding of a letter written +in the name of St. Peter himself<a name="FNanchor_44" id="FNanchor_44" href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a>. Aistulf could make no +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Pipin patrician +of +the Romans, +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 754.</span> +resistance; and the Frank bestowed on the Papal chair +all that belonged to the exarchate in North Italy, receiving +as the meed of his services the title of Patrician<a name="FNanchor_45" id="FNanchor_45" href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Import of +this title.</p> + +<p>As a foreshadowing of the higher dignity that was to +follow, this title requires a passing notice. Introduced by +Constantine at a time when its original meaning had been +long forgotten, it was designed to be, and for awhile remained, +the name not of an office but of a rank, the highest +after those of emperor and consul. As such, it was +usually conferred upon provincial governors of the first +class, and in time also upon barbarian potentates whose +vanity the Roman court might wish to flatter. Thus +Odoacer, Theodoric, the Burgundian king Sigismund, +Clovis himself, had all received it from the Eastern emperor; +so too in still later times it was given to Saracenic +and Bulgarian princes<a name="FNanchor_46" id="FNanchor_46" href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a>. In the sixth and seventh centuries +an invariable practice seems to have attached it to +the Byzantine viceroys of Italy, and thus, as we may conjecture, +a natural confusion of ideas had made men take +it to be, in some sense, an official title, conveying an extensive +though undefined authority, and implying in particular +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span> +the duty of overseeing the Church and promoting +her temporal interests. It was doubtless with such a +meaning that the Romans and their bishop bestowed it +upon the Frankish kings, acting quite without legal right, +for it could emanate from the emperor alone, but choosing +it as the title which bound its possessor to render to the +Church support and defence against her Lombard foes. +Hence the phrase is always '<i lang="la">Patricius Romanorum</i>;' not, +as in former times, '<i lang="la">Patricius</i>' alone: hence it is usually +associated with the terms '<i>defensor</i>' and '<i>protector</i>.' And +since 'defence' implies a corresponding measure of obedience +on the part of those who profit by it, there must have +been conceded to the new patrician more or less of the +positive authority in Rome, although not such as to extinguish +the supremacy of the Emperor.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Extinction +of the Lombard +kingdom +by +Charles +king of the +Franks.</p> + +<p class="sidenote"><span class="s08">A.D.</span> 774.</p> + +<p>So long indeed as the Franks were separated by a +hostile kingdom from their new allies, this control remained +little better than nominal. But when on Pipin's +death the restless Lombards again took up arms and +menaced the possessions of the Church, Pipin's son +Charles or Charlemagne swept down like a whirlwind +from the Alps at the call of Pope Hadrian, seized king +Desiderius in his capital, assumed himself the Lombard +crown, and made northern Italy thenceforward an integral +part of the Frankish empire. Proceeding to Rome +at the head of his victorious army, the first of a long line +of Teutonic kings who were to find her love more deadly +than her hate, he was received by Hadrian with distinguished +honours, and welcomed by the people as their +leader and deliverer. Yet even then, whether out of +policy or from that sentiment of reverence to which his +ambitious mind did not refuse to bow, he was moderate +in claims of jurisdiction, he yielded to the pontiff the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span> +place of honour in processions, and renewed, although +in the guise of a lord and conqueror, the gift of the +Exarchate and Pentapolis, which Pipin had made to +the Roman Church twenty years before.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Charles and +Hadrian.</p> + +<p>It is with a strange sense, half of sadness, half of +amusement, that in watching the progress of this grand +historical drama, we recognise the meaner motives by +which its chief actors were influenced. The Frankish +king and the Roman pontiff were for the time the two +most powerful forces that urged the movement of the +world, leading it on by swift steps to a mighty crisis of +its fate, themselves guided, as it might well seem, by the +purest zeal for its spiritual welfare. Their words and +acts, their whole character and bearing in the sight of +expectant Christendom, were worthy of men destined to +leave an indelible impress on their own and many succeeding +ages. Nevertheless in them too appears the +undercurrent of vulgar human desires and passions. +The lofty and fervent mind of Charles was not free from +the stirrings of personal ambition: yet these may be +excused, if not defended, as almost inseparable from +an intense and restless genius, which, be it never so unselfish +in its ends, must in pursuing them fix upon everything +its grasp and raise out of everything its monument. +The policy of the Popes was prompted by motives less +noble. Ever since the extinction of the Western Empire +had emancipated the ecclesiastical potentate from secular +control, the first and most abiding object of his schemes +and prayers had been the acquisition of territorial wealth +in the neighbourhood of his capital. He had indeed +a sort of justification—for Rome, a city with neither trade +nor industry, was crowded with poor, for whom it devolved +on the bishop to provide. Yet the pursuit was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span> +one which could not fail to pervert the purposes of the +Popes and give a sinister character to all they did. It +was this fear for the lands of the Church far more than +for religion or the safety of the city—neither of which +were really endangered by the Lombard attacks—that +had prompted their passionate appeals to Charles Martel +and Pipin; it was now the well-grounded hope of having +these possessions confirmed and extended by Pipin's +greater son that made the Roman ecclesiastics so forward +in his cause. And it was the same lust after worldly +wealth and pomp, mingled with the dawning prospect +of an independent principality, that now began to seduce +them into a long course of guile and intrigue. For this +is probably the very time, although the exact date cannot +be established, to which must be assigned the extraordinary +forgery of the Donation of Constantine, whereby +it was pretended that power over Italy and the whole +West had been granted by the first Christian Emperor to +Pope Sylvester and his successors in the Chair of the +Apostle.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Accession +of Pope +Leo III, +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 796.</p> + +<p>For the next twenty-four years Italy remained quiet. +The government of Rome was carried on in the name +of the Patrician Charles, although it does not appear that +he sent thither any official representative; while at the +same time both the city and the exarchate continued to +admit the nominal supremacy of the Eastern Emperor, +employing the years of his reign to date documents. +In <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 796, Leo the Third succeeded Pope Hadrian, and +signalized his devotion to the Frankish throne by sending +to Charles the banner of the city and the keys of the +holiest of all Rome's shrines, the confession of St. Peter, +asking that some officer should be deputed to the city +to receive from the people their oath of allegiance to the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span> +Patrician. He had soon need to seek the Patrician's +help for himself. In <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 798 a sedition broke out: the +Pope, going in solemn procession from the Lateran to +the church of S. Lorenzo in Lucina, was attacked by +a band of armed men, headed by two officials of his +court, nephews of his predecessor; was wounded and +left for dead, and with difficulty succeeded in escaping +to Spoleto, whence he fled northward into the Frankish +lands. Charles had led his army against the revolted +Saxons: thither Leo following overtook him at Paderborn +in Westphalia. The king received with respect his +spiritual father, entertained and conferred with him for +some time, and at length sent him back to Rome under +the escort of Angilbert, one of his trustiest ministers; +promising to follow ere long in person. After some +months peace was restored in Saxony, and in the autumn +of 799 Charles descended from the Alps once more, +while Leo revolved deeply the great scheme for whose +accomplishment the time was now ripe.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Belief in the +Roman +Empire not +extinct.</p> + +<p>Three hundred and twenty-four years had passed since +the last Cæsar of the West resigned his power into the +hands of the senate, and left to his Eastern brother the +sole headship of the Roman world. To the latter Italy +had from that time been nominally subject; but it was +only during one brief interval between the death of Totila +the last Ostrogothic king and the descent of Alboin the +first Lombard, that his power had been really effective. +In the further provinces, Gaul, Spain, Britain, it was only +a memory. But the idea of a Roman Empire as a necessary +part of the world's order had not vanished: it had +been admitted by those who seemed to be destroying it; +it had been cherished by the Church; was still recalled +by laws and customs; was dear to the subject populations, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span> +who fondly looked back to the days when slavery +was at least mitigated by peace and order. We have +seen the Teuton endeavouring everywhere to identify +himself with the system he overthrew. As Goths, Burgundians, +and Franks sought the title of consul or patrician, +as the Lombard kings when they renounced their +Arianism styled themselves Flavii, so even in distant +England the fierce Saxon and Anglian conquerors used +the names of Roman dignities, and before long began +to call themselves <i lang="la">imperatores</i> and <i lang="la">basileis</i> of Britain. +Within the last century and a half the rise of Mohammedanism<a name="FNanchor_47" id="FNanchor_47" href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> +had brought out the common Christianity +of Europe into a fuller relief. The false prophet had +left one religion, one Empire, one Commander of the +faithful: the Christian commonwealth needed more than +ever an efficient head and centre. Such leadership it +could nowise find in the Court of the Bosphorus, growing +ever feebler and more alien to the West. The name +of <span lang="la">'respublica,'</span> permanent at the elder Rome, had never +been applied to the Eastern Empire. Its government +was from the first half Greek, half Asiatic; and had now +drifted away from its ancient traditions into the forms +of an Oriental despotism. Claudian had already sneered +at 'Greek Quirites<a name="FNanchor_48" id="FNanchor_48" href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> +:' the general use, since Heraclius's +reign, of the Greek tongue, and the difference of manners +and usages, made the taunt now more deserved. +<span class="sidenote">Motives of +the Pope.</span> +The +Pope had no reason to wish well to the Byzantine princes, +who while insulting his weakness had given him no help +against the savage Lombards, and who for nearly seventy +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span> +years<a name="FNanchor_49" id="FNanchor_49" href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> + had been contaminated by a heresy the more +odious that it touched not speculative points of doctrine +but the most familiar usages of worship. In North Italy +their power was extinct: no pontiff since Zacharias had +asked their confirmation of his election: nay, the appointment +of the intruding Frank to the patriciate, an office +which it belonged to the Emperor to confer, was of itself +an act of rebellion. Nevertheless their rights subsisted: +they were still, and while they retained the imperial name, +must so long continue, titular sovereigns of the Roman +city. Nor could the spiritual head of Christendom dispense +with the temporal: without the Roman Empire +there could not be a Roman, nor by necessary consequence +a Catholic and Apostolic Church<a name="FNanchor_50" id="FNanchor_50" href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a>. For, as will +be shewn more fully hereafter, men could not separate in +fact what was indissoluble in thought: Christianity must +stand or fall along with the great Christian state: they +were but two names for the same thing. Thus urged, +the Pope took a step which some among his predecessors +are said to have already contemplated<a name="FNanchor_51" id="FNanchor_51" href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a>, and towards +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span> +which the events of the last fifty years had pointed. The +moment was opportune. The widowed empress Irene, +equally famous for her beauty, her talents, and her crimes, +had deposed and blinded her son Constantine VI: a +woman, an usurper, almost a parricide, sullied the throne +of the world. By what right, it might well be asked, +did the factions of Byzantium impose a master on the +original seat of empire? It was time to provide better +for the most august of human offices: an election at +Rome was as valid as at Constantinople—the possessor +of the real power should also be clothed with the outward +dignity. Nor could it be doubted where that possessor +was to be found. The Frank had been always faithful +to Rome: his baptism was the enlistment of a new barbarian +auxiliary. His services against Arian heretics and +Lombard marauders, against the Saracen of Spain and +the Avar of Pannonia, had earned him the title of Champion +of the Faith and Defender of the Holy See. He +was now unquestioned lord of Western Europe, whose +subject nations, Keltic and Teutonic, were eager to be +called by his name and to imitate his customs<a name="FNanchor_52" id="FNanchor_52" href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a>. In +Charles, the hero who united under one sceptre so +many races, who ruled all as the vicegerent of God, the +pontiff might well see—as later ages saw—the new +golden head of a second image<a name="FNanchor_53" id="FNanchor_53" href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a>, +erected on the ruins +of that whose mingled iron and clay seemed crumbling +to nothingness behind the impregnable bulwarks of +Constantinople.</p> + +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span></p> + +<p class="sidenote">Coronation +of Charles +at Rome, +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 800.</p> + +<p>At length the Frankish host entered Rome. The +Pope's cause was heard; his innocence, already vindicated +by a miracle, was pronounced by the Patrician in +full synod; his accusers condemned in his stead. Charles +remained in the city for some weeks; and on Christmas-day, +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 800<a name="FNanchor_54" id="FNanchor_54" href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a>, +he heard mass in the basilica of St. Peter. +On the spot where now the gigantic dome of Bramante +and Michael Angelo towers over the buildings of the +modern city, the spot which tradition had hallowed as +that of the Apostle's martyrdom, Constantine the Great +had erected the oldest and stateliest temple of Christian +Rome. Nothing could be less like than was this basilica +to those northern cathedrals, shadowy, fantastic, irregular, +crowded with pillars, fringed all round by clustering +shrines and chapels, which are to most of us the types of +mediæval architecture. In its plan and decorations, in +the spacious sunny hall, the roof plain as that of a Greek +temple, the long rows of Corinthian columns, the vivid +mosaics on its walls, in its brightness, its sternness, its +simplicity, it had preserved every feature of Roman art, +and had remained a perfect expression of the Roman +character<a name="FNanchor_55" id="FNanchor_55" href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a>. Out of the transept, a flight of steps led up +to the high altar underneath and just beyond the great +arch, the arch of triumph as it was called: behind in the +semicircular apse sat the clergy, rising tier above tier +around its walls; in the midst, high above the rest, and +looking down past the altar over the multitude, was +placed the bishop's throne<a name="FNanchor_56" id="FNanchor_56" href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a>, +itself the curule chair of some +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span> +forgotten magistrate<a name="FNanchor_57" id="FNanchor_57" href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a>. From that chair the Pope now +rose, as the reading of the Gospel ended, advanced to +where Charles—who had exchanged his simple Frankish +dress for the sandals and the chlamys of a Roman +patrician<a name="FNanchor_58" id="FNanchor_58" href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> +—knelt in prayer by the high altar, and as in +the sight of all he placed upon the brow of the barbarian +chieftain the diadem of the Cæsars, then bent in obeisance +before him, the church rang to the shout of the multitude, +again free, again the lords and centre of the world, +<span lang="la">'Karolo Augusto a Deo coronato magno et pacifico +imperatori vita et victoria<a name="FNanchor_59" id="FNanchor_59" href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a>.'</span> In that shout, echoed by +the Franks without, was pronounced the union, so long +in preparation, so mighty in its consequences, of the +Roman and the Teuton, of the memories and the civilization +of the South with the fresh energy of the North, and +from that moment modern history begins.</p> + +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER V.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">EMPIRE AND POLICY OF CHARLES.</span></h2> + +<p>The coronation of Charles is not only the central +event of the Middle Ages, it is also one of those very few +events of which, taking them singly, it may be said that if +they had not happened, the history of the world would +have been different. In one sense indeed it has scarcely +a parallel. The assassins of Julius Cæsar thought that +they had saved Rome from monarchy, but monarchy +came inevitable in the next generation. The conversion +of Constantine changed the face of the world, but +Christianity was spreading fast, and its ultimate triumph +was only a question of time. Had Columbus never +spread his sails, the secret of the western sea would yet +have been pierced by some later voyager: had Charles V +broken his safe-conduct to Luther, the voice silenced at +Wittenberg would have been taken up by echoes elsewhere. +But if the Roman Empire had not been restored +in the West in the person of Charles, it would never have +been restored at all, and the inexhaustible train of consequences +for good and for evil that followed could not +have been. Why this was so may be seen by examining +the history of the next two centuries. In that day, as +through all the Dark and Middle Ages, two forces were +striving for the mastery. The one was the instinct of +separation, disorder, anarchy, caused by the ungoverned +impulses and barbarous ignorance of the great bulk of +mankind; the other was that passionate longing of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span> +better minds for a formal unity of government, which had +its historical basis in the memories of the old Roman +Empire, and its most constant expression in the devotion +to a visible and catholic Church. The former tendency, +as everything shews, was, in politics at least, the stronger, +but the latter, used and stimulated by an extraordinary +genius like Charles, achieved in the year 800 a victory +whose results were never to be lost. When the hero was +gone, the returning wave of anarchy and barbarism swept +up violent as ever, yet it could not wholly obliterate the +past: the Empire, maimed and shattered though it was, +had struck its roots too deep to be overthrown by force, +and when it perished at last, perished from inner decay. +It was just because men felt that no one less than Charles +could have won such a triumph over the evils of the time, +by framing and establishing a gigantic scheme of government, +that the excitement and hope and joy which the +coronation evoked were so intense. Their best evidence +is perhaps to be found not in the records of that time +itself, but in the cries of lamentation that broke forth +when the Empire began to dissolve towards the close of +the ninth century, in the marvellous legends which attached +themselves to the name of Charles the Emperor, +a hero of whom any exploit was credible<a name="FNanchor_60" id="FNanchor_60" href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a>, +in the devout +admiration wherewith his German successors looked back +to, and strove in all things to imitate, their all but superhuman +prototype.</p> + +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span></p> + +<p class="sidenote">Import of +the coronation.</p> + +<p>As the event of <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 800 made an unparalleled impression +on those who lived at the time, so has it engaged the +attention of men in succeeding ages, has been viewed in +the most opposite lights, and become the theme of interminable +controversies. It is better to look at it simply as +it appeared to the men who witnessed it. Here, as in so +many other cases, may be seen the errors into which +jurists have been led by the want of historical feeling. In +rude and unsettled states of society men respect forms and +obey facts, while careless of rules and principles. In England, +for example, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, it +signified very little whether an aspirant to the throne was +next lawful heir, but it signified a great deal whether he +had been duly crowned and was supported by a strong +party. Regarding the matter thus, it is not hard to see +why those who judged the actors of <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 800 as they +would have judged their contemporaries should have misunderstood +the nature of that which then came to pass. +Baronius and Bellarmine, Spanheim and Conring, are +advocates bound to prove a thesis, and therefore believing +it; nor does either party find any lack of plausible arguments<a name="FNanchor_61" id="FNanchor_61" href="#Footnote_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a>. +But civilian and canonist alike proceed upon +strict legal principles, and no such principles can be found +in the case, or applied to it. Neither the instances cited +by the Cardinal from the Old Testament of the power of +priests to set up and pull down princes, nor those which +shew the earlier Emperors controlling the bishops of +Rome, really meet the question. Leo acted not as having +alone the right to transfer the crown; the practice of +hereditary succession and the theory of popular election +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span> +would have equally excluded such a claim; he was the +spokesman of the popular will, which, identifying itself +with the sacerdotal power, hated the Greeks and was +grateful to the Franks. Yet he was also something more. +The act, as it specially affected his interests, was mainly +his work, and without him would never have been brought +about at all. It was natural that a confusion of his secular +functions as leader, and his spiritual as consecrating priest, +should lay the foundation of the right claimed afterwards +of raising and deposing monarchs at the will of Christ's +vicar. The Emperor was passive throughout; he did +not, as in Lombardy, appear as a conqueror, but was received +by the Pope and the people as a friend and ally. +Rome no doubt became his capital, but it had already +obeyed him as Patrician, and the greatest fact that stood +out to posterity from the whole transaction was that the +crown was bestowed, was at least imposed, by the hands +of the pontiff. He seemed the trustee and depositary of +the imperial authority<a name="FNanchor_62" id="FNanchor_62" href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Contemporary +accounts.</p> + +<p>The best way of shewing the thoughts and motives of +those concerned in the transaction is to transcribe the +narratives of three contemporary, or almost contemporary +annalists, two of them German and one Italian. The +Annals of Lauresheim say:—</p> + +<p>'And because the name of Emperor had now ceased +among the Greeks, and their Empire was possessed by a +woman, it then seemed both to Leo the Pope himself, and +to all the holy fathers who were present in the selfsame +council, as well as to the rest of the Christian people, that +they ought to take to be Emperor Charles king of the +Franks, who held Rome herself, where the Cæsars had +always been wont to sit, and all the other regions which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span> +he ruled through Italy and Gaul and Germany; and inasmuch +as God had given all these lands into his hand, it +seemed right that with the help of God and at the prayer +of the whole Christian people he should have the name +of Emperor also. Whose petition king Charles willed +not to refuse, but submitting himself with all humility to +God, and at the prayer of the priests and of the whole +Christian people, on the day of the nativity of our Lord +Jesus Christ he took on himself the name of Emperor, +being consecrated by the lord Pope Leo<a name="FNanchor_63" id="FNanchor_63" href="#Footnote_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a>.'</p> + +<p>Very similar in substance is the account of the +Chronicle of Moissac (ad ann. 801):—</p> + +<p>'Now when the king upon the most holy day of the +Lord's birth was rising to the mass after praying before +the confession of the blessed Peter the Apostle, Leo the +Pope, with the consent of all the bishops and priests and +of the senate of the Franks and likewise of the Romans, +set a golden crown upon his head, the Roman people also +shouting aloud. And when the people had made an +end of chanting the Laudes, he was adored by the Pope +after the manner of the emperors of old. For this also +was done by the will of God. For while the said Emperor +abode at Rome certain men were brought unto him, +who said that the name of Emperor had ceased among +the Greeks, and that among them the Empire was held +by a woman called Irene, who had by guile laid hold on +her son the Emperor, and put out his eyes, and taken the +Empire to herself, as it is written of Athaliah in the Book +of the Kings; which when Leo the Pope and all the assembly +of the bishops and priests and abbots heard, and the +senate of the Franks and all the elders of the Romans, +they took counsel with the rest of the Christian people, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span> +that they should name Charles king of the Franks to be +Emperor, seeing that he held Rome the mother of empire +where the Cæsars and Emperors were always used to sit; +and that the heathen might not mock the Christians if +the name of Emperor should have ceased among the +Christians<a name="FNanchor_64" id="FNanchor_64" href="#Footnote_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a>.'</p> + +<p>These two accounts are both from a German source: +that which follows is Roman, written probably within +some fifty or sixty years of the event. It is taken from +the Life of Leo III in the <i lang="la">Vitæ Pontificum Romanorum</i>, +compiled by Anastasius the papal librarian.</p> + +<p>'After these things came the day of the birth of our +Lord Jesus Christ, and all men were again gathered together +in the aforesaid basilica of the blessed Peter the +Apostle: and then the gracious and venerable pontiff did +with his own hands crown Charles with a very precious +crown. Then all the faithful people of Rome, seeing the +defence that he gave and the love that he bare to the holy +Roman Church and her Vicar, did by the will of God and +of the blessed Peter, the keeper of the keys of the kingdom +of heaven, cry with one accord with a loud voice, 'To +Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned of God, the +great and peacegiving Emperor, be life and victory.' +While he, before the holy confession of the blessed Peter +the Apostle, was invoking divers saints, it was proclaimed +thrice, and he was chosen by all to be Emperor of the +Romans. Thereon the most holy pontiff anointed Charles +with holy oil, and likewise his most excellent son to be +king, upon the very day of the birth of our Lord Jesus +Christ; and when the mass was finished, then after the +mass the most serene lord Emperor offered gifts<a name="FNanchor_65" id="FNanchor_65" href="#Footnote_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a>.'</p> + +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span></p> + +<p class="sidenote">Impression +which they +convey.</p> + +<p>In these three accounts there is no serious discrepancy +as to the facts, although the Italian priest, as is natural, +heightens the importance of the part played by the Pope, +while the Germans are too anxious to rationalize the event, +talking of a synod of the clergy, a consultation of the +people, and a formal request to Charles, which the silence +of Eginhard, as well as the other circumstances of the +case, forbid us to accept as literally true. Similarly +Anastasius passes over the adoration rendered by the +Pope to the Emperor, upon which most of the Frankish +records insist in a way which puts it beyond doubt. But +the impression which the three narratives leave is essentially +the same. They all shew how little the transaction +can be made to wear a strictly legal character. The +Frankish king does not of his own might seize the crown, +but rather receives it as coming naturally to him, as the +legitimate consequence of the authority he already enjoyed. +The Pope bestows the crown, not in virtue of any right +of his own as head of the Church: he is merely the instrument +of God's providence, which has unmistakeably +pointed out Charles as the proper person to defend and +lead the Christian commonwealth. The Roman people +do not formally elect and appoint, but by their applause +accept the chief who is presented to them. The act is +conceived of as directly ordered by the Divine Providence +which has brought about a state of things that admits +of but one issue, an issue which king, priest, and +people have only to recognise and obey; their personal +ambitions, passions, intrigues, sinking and vanishing in +reverential awe at what seems the immediate interposition +of Heaven. And as the result is desired by all parties +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span> +alike, they do not think of inquiring into one another's +rights, but take their momentary harmony to be natural +and necessary, never dreaming of the difficulties and conflicts +which were to arise out of what seemed then so +simple. And it was just because everything was thus +left undetermined, resting not on express stipulation but +rather on a sort of mutual understanding, a sympathy of +beliefs and wishes which augured no evil, that the event +admitted of being afterwards represented in so many different +lights. +<span class="sidenote">Later +theories respecting +the +coronation.</span> +Four centuries later, when Papacy and +Empire had been forced into the mortal struggle by which +the fate of both was decided, three distinct theories regarding +the coronation of Charles will be found advocated +by three different parties, all of them plausible, all of them +to some extent misleading. The Swabian Emperors held +the crown to have been won by their great predecessor as +the prize of conquest, and drew the conclusion that the +citizens and bishop of Rome had no rights as against +themselves. The patriotic party among the Romans, +appealing to the early history of the Empire, declared +that by nothing but the voice of their senate and people +could an Emperor be lawfully created, he being only their +chief magistrate, the temporary depositary of their authority. +The Popes pointed to the indisputable fact that Leo imposed +the crown, and argued that as God's earthly vicar it +was then his, and must always continue to be their right to +give to whomsoever they would an office which was created +to be the handmaid of their own. Of these three it was the +last view that eventually prevailed, yet to an impartial eye +it cannot claim, any more than do the two others, to contain +the whole truth. Charles did not conquer, nor the +Pope give, nor the people elect. As the act was unprecedented +so was it illegal; it was a revolt of the ancient +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span> +Western capital against a daughter who had become a +mistress; an exercise of the sacred right of insurrection, +justified by the weakness and wickedness of the Byzantine +princes, hallowed to the eyes of the world by the sanction +of Christ's representative, but founded upon no law, nor +competent to create any for the future.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Was the +coronation +a surprise?</p> + +<p>It is an interesting and somewhat perplexing question, +how far the coronation scene, an act as imposing in its +circumstances as it was momentous in its results, was +prearranged among the parties. Eginhard tells us that +Charles was accustomed to declare that he would not, +even on so high a festival, have entered the church had +he known of the Pope's intention. Even if the monarch +had uttered, the secretary would hardly have recorded a +falsehood long after the motive that might have prompted +it had disappeared. Of the existence of that motive which +has been most commonly assumed, a fear of the discontent +of the Franks who might think their liberties endangered, +little or no proof can be brought from the +records of the time, wherein the nation is represented as +exulting in the new dignity of their chief as an accession +of grandeur to themselves. Nor can we suppose that +Charles's disavowal was meant to soothe the offended +pride of the Byzantine princes, from whom he had nothing +to fear, and who were none the more likely to recognise +his dignity, if they should believe it to be not of his own +seeking. Yet it is hard to suppose the whole affair a surprise; +for it was the goal towards which the policy of the +Frankish kings had for many years pointed, and Charles +himself, in sending before him to Rome many of the +spiritual and temporal magnates of his realm, in summoning +thither his son Pipin from the war against the Lombards +of Benevento, had shewn that he expected some +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span> +more than ordinary result from this journey to the imperial +city. Alcuin moreover, Alcuin of York, the prime minister +of Charles in matters religious and literary, appears from +one of his extant letters to have sent as a Christmas gift to +his royal pupil a carefully corrected and superbly adorned +copy of the Scriptures, with the words <span lang="la">'ad splendorem imperialis +potentiæ.'</span> This has commonly been taken for +conclusive evidence that the plan had been settled beforehand, +and such it would be were there not some reasons +for giving the letter an earlier date, and looking upon the +word <span lang="la">'imperialis'</span> as a mere magniloquent flourish<a name="FNanchor_66" id="FNanchor_66" href="#Footnote_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a>. More +weight is therefore to be laid upon the arguments supplied +by the nature of the case itself. The Pope, whatever his +confidence in the sympathy of the people, would never +have ventured on so momentous a step until previous conferences +had assured him of the feelings of the king, nor +could an act for which the assembly were evidently prepared +have been kept a secret. Nevertheless, the declaration +of Charles himself can neither be evaded nor set down +to mere dissimulation. It is more just to him, and on the +whole more reasonable, to suppose that Leo, having satisfied +himself of the wishes of the Roman clergy and people +as well as of the Frankish magnates, resolved to seize an +occasion and place so eminently favourable to his long-cherished +plan, while Charles, carried away by the enthusiasm +of the moment and seeing in the pontiff the prophet +and instrument of the divine will, accepted a dignity which +he might have wished to receive at some later time or in +some other way. If, therefore, any positive conclusion be +adopted, it would seem to be that Charles, although he had +probably given a more or less vague consent to the project, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span> +was surprised and disconcerted by a sudden fulfilment +which interrupted his own carefully studied designs. +And although a deed which changed the history of the +world was in any case no accident, it may well have worn +to the Frankish and Roman spectators the air of a surprise. +For there were no preparations apparent in the +church; the king was not, like his Teutonic successors in +aftertime, led in procession to the pontifical throne: suddenly, +at the very moment when he rose from the sacred +hollow where he had knelt among the ever-burning lamps +before the holiest of Christian relics—the body of the +prince of the Apostles—the hands of that Apostle's representative +placed upon his head the crown of glory and +poured upon him the oil of sanctification. There was something +in this to thrill the beholders with the awe of a divine +presence, and make them hail him whom that presence +seemed almost visibly to consecrate, the 'pious and +peace-giving Emperor, crowned of God.'</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Theories of +the motives +of Charles.</p> + +<p>The reluctance of Charles to assume the imperial title +is ascribed by Eginhard to a fear of the jealous hostility of +the Greeks, who could not only deny his claim to it, but +might disturb by their intrigues his dominions in Italy. +Accepting this statement, the problem remains, how is +this reluctance to be reconciled with those acts of his +which clearly shew him aiming at the Roman crown? An +ingenious and probable, if not certain solution, is suggested +by a recent historian<a name="FNanchor_67" id="FNanchor_67" href="#Footnote_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a>, +who argues from a minute +examination of the previous policy of Charles, that while +it was the great object of his reign to obtain the crown of +the world, he foresaw at the same time the opposition of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span> +the Eastern Court, and the want of legality from which his +title would in consequence suffer. He was therefore bent +on getting from the Byzantines, if possible, a transference +of their crown; if not, at least a recognition of his own: +and he appears to have hoped to win this by the negotiations +which had been for some time kept on foot with the +Empress Irene. Just at this moment came the coronation +by Pope Leo, interrupting these deep-laid schemes, irritating +the Eastern Court, and forcing Charles into the +position of a rival who could not with dignity adopt a +soothing or submissive tone. Nevertheless, he seems not +even then to have abandoned the hope of obtaining a +peaceful recognition. Irene's crimes did not prevent him, +if we may credit Theophanes<a name="FNanchor_68" id="FNanchor_68" href="#Footnote_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a>, +from seeking her hand in +marriage. And when the project of thus uniting the East +and West in a single Empire, baffled for a time by the opposition +of her minister Ætius, was rendered impossible by +her subsequent dethronement and exile, he did not abandon +the policy of conciliation until a surly acquiescence in +rather than admission of his dignity had been won from +the Byzantine sovereigns Michael and Nicephorus<a name="FNanchor_69" id="FNanchor_69" href="#Footnote_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Defect in +the title of +the Teutonic +Emperors.</p> + +<p>Whether, supposing Leo to have been less precipitate, a +cession of the crown, or an acknowledgment of the right +of the Romans to confer it, could ever have been obtained +by Charles is perhaps more than doubtful. But it is clear +that he judged rightly in rating its importance high, for +the want of it was the great blemish in his own and his +successors' dignity. To shew how this was so, reference +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span> +must be made to the events of <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 476. Both the extinction +of the Western Empire in that year and its revival +in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 800 have been very generally misunderstood in +modern times, and although the mistake is not, in a certain +sense, of practical importance, yet it tends to confuse +history and to blind us to the ideas of the people who +acted on both occasions. When Odoacer compelled the +abdication of Romulus Augustulus, he did not abolish the +Western Empire as a separate power, but caused it to be +reunited with or sink into the Eastern, so that from that +time there was, as there had been before Diocletian, a +single undivided Roman Empire. In <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 800 the very +memory of the separate Western Empire, as it had stood +from the death of Theodosius till Odoacer, had, so far as +appears, been long since lost, and neither Leo nor Charles +nor any one among their advisers dreamt of reviving it. They +too, like their predecessors, held the Roman Empire to be +one and indivisible, and proposed by the coronation of the +Frankish king not to proclaim a severance of the East +and West, but to reverse the act of Constantine, and make +Old Rome again the civil as well as the ecclesiastical +capital of the Empire that bore her name. Their deed +was in its essence illegal, but they sought to give it every +semblance of legality: they professed and partly believed +that they were not revolting against a reigning sovereign, +but legitimately filling up the place of the deposed Constantine +the Sixth; the people of the imperial city exercising +their ancient right of choice, their bishop his right +of consecration.</p> + +<p>Their purpose was but half accomplished. They could +create but they could not destroy: they set up an Emperor +of their own, whose representatives thenceforward ruled +the West, but Constantinople retained her sovereigns as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span> +of yore; and Christendom saw henceforth two imperial +lines, not as in the time before <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 476, the conjoint +heads of a single realm, but rivals and enemies, each +denouncing the other as an impostor, each professing +to be the only true and lawful head of the Christian +Church and people. Although therefore we must in +practice speak during the next seven centuries (down till +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1453, when Constantinople fell before the Mohammedan) +of an Eastern and a Western Empire, the +phrase is in strictness incorrect, and was one which either +court ought to have repudiated. The Byzantines always +did repudiate it; the Latins usually; although, yielding +to facts, they sometimes condescended to employ it +themselves. But their theory was always the same. +Charles was held to be the legitimate successor, not of +Romulus Augustulus, but of Basil, Heraclius, Justinian, Arcadius, +and all the Eastern line; and hence it is that in all +the annals of the time and of many succeeding centuries, +the name of Constantine VI, the sixty-seventh in order +from Augustus, is followed without a break by that of +Charles, the sixty-eighth.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Government +of Charles +as Emperor.</p> + +<p>The maintenance of an imperial line among the Greeks +was a continuing protest against the validity of Charles's +title. But from their enmity he had little to fear, and in +the eyes of the world he seemed to step into their place, +adding the traditional dignity which had been theirs to +the power that he already enjoyed. North Italy and +Rome ceased for ever to own the supremacy of Byzantium; +and while the Eastern princes paid a shameful +tribute to the Mussulman, the Frankish Emperor—as the +recognised head of Christendom—received from the +patriarch of Jerusalem the keys of the Holy Sepulchre +and the banner of Calvary; the gift of the Sepulchre +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span> +itself, says Eginhard, from Aaron king of the Persians<a name="FNanchor_70" id="FNanchor_70" href="#Footnote_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a>. +Out of this peaceful intercourse with the great Khalif the +romancers created a crusade. Within his own dominions +his sway assumed a more sacred character. +<span class="sidenote">His authority +in matters +ecclesiastical.</span> +Already had his +unwearied and comprehensive activity made him throughout +his reign an ecclesiastical no less than a civil ruler, +summoning and sitting in councils, examining and +appointing bishops, settling by capitularies the smallest +points of church discipline and polity. A synod held at +Frankfort in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 794 condemned the decrees of the +second council of Nicæa, which had been approved by +Pope Hadrian, censured in violent terms the conduct of +the Byzantine rulers in suggesting them, and without +excluding images from churches, altogether forbade them +to be worshipped or even venerated. Not only did +Charles preside in and direct the deliberations of this +synod, although legates from the Pope were present—he +also caused a treatise to be drawn up stating and urging +its conclusions; he pressed Hadrian to declare Constantine +VI a heretic for enouncing doctrines to which +Hadrian had himself consented. There are letters of his +extant in which he lectures Pope Leo in a tone of easy +superiority, admonishes him to obey the holy canons, and +bids him pray earnestly for the success of the efforts +which it is the monarch's duty to make for the subjugation +of pagans and the establishment of sound doctrine +throughout the Church. Nay, subsequent Popes themselves<a name="FNanchor_71" id="FNanchor_71" href="#Footnote_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> +admitted and applauded the despotic superintendence +of matters spiritual which he was wont to +exercise, and which led some one to give him playfully a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span> +title that had once been applied to the Pope himself, +<span lang="la">'Episcopus episcoporum.'</span></p> + +<p class="sidenote">The imperial +office +in its ecclesiastical +relations.</p> + +<p>Acting and speaking thus when merely king, it may be +thought that Charles needed no further title to justify +his power. The inference is in truth rather the converse +of this. Upon what he had done already the imperial +title must necessarily follow: the attitude of protection +and control which he held towards the Church and the +Holy See belonged, according to the ideas of the time, +especially and only to an Emperor. Therefore his coronation +was the fitting completion and legitimation of his +authority, sanctifying rather than increasing it. We have, +however, one remarkable witness to the importance that +was attached to the imperial name, and the enhancement +which he conceived his office to have received from it. +In a great assembly held at Aachen, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 802, the lately-crowned +<span class="sidenote">Capitulary +of <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 802.</span> +Emperor revised the laws of all the races that +obeyed him, endeavouring to harmonize and correct them, +and issued a capitulary singular in subject and tone<a name="FNanchor_72" id="FNanchor_72" href="#Footnote_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a>. +All persons within his dominions, as well ecclesiastical as +civil, who have already sworn allegiance to him as king, +are thereby commanded to swear to him afresh as Cæsar; +and all who have never yet sworn, down to the age of +twelve, shall now take the same oath. 'At the same +time it shall be publicly explained to all what is the force +and meaning of this oath, and how much more it includes +than a mere promise of fidelity to the monarch's person. +Firstly, it binds those who swear it to live, each and every +one of them, according to his strength and knowledge, in +the holy service of God; since the lord Emperor cannot +extend over all his care and discipline. Secondly, it +binds them neither by force nor fraud to seize or molest +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span> +any of the goods or servants of his crown. Thirdly, to +do no violence nor treason towards the holy Church, or +to widows, or orphans, or strangers, seeing that the lord +Emperor has been appointed, after the Lord and his +saints, the protector and defender of all such.' Then in +similar fashion purity of life is prescribed to the monks; +homicide, the neglect of hospitality, and other offences +are denounced, the notions of sin and crime being intermingled +and almost identified in a way to which no +parallel can be found, unless it be in the Mosaic code. +There God, the invisible object of worship, is also, though +almost incidentally, the judge and political ruler of Israel; +here the whole cycle of social and moral duty is deduced +from the obligation of obedience to the visible autocratic +head of the Christian state.</p> + +<p>In most of Charles's words and deeds, nor less distinctly +in the writings of his adviser Alcuin, may be discerned +the working of the same theocratic ideas. Among his +intimate friends he chose to be called by the name of +David, exercising in reality all the powers of the Jewish +king; presiding over this kingdom of God upon earth +rather as a second Constantine or Theodosius than in the +spirit and traditions of the Julii or the Flavii. Among +his measures there are two which in particular recall the +first Christian Emperor. As Constantine founds so +Charles erects on a firmer basis the connection of Church +and State. Bishops and abbots are as essential a part of +rising feudalism as counts and dukes. Their benefices +are held under the same conditions of fealty and the +service in war of their vassal tenants, not of the spiritual +person himself: they have similar rights of jurisdiction, +and are subject alike to the imperial <i lang="la">missi</i>. The monarch +tries often to restrict the clergy, as persons, to spiritual +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span> +duties; quells the insubordination of the monasteries; +endeavours to bring the seculars into a monastic life by +instituting and regulating chapters. But after granting +wealth and power, the attempt was vain; his strong hand +withdrawn, they laughed at control. Again, it was by +him first that the payment of tithes, for which the priesthood +had long been pleading, was made compulsory in +Western Europe, and the support of the ministers of +religion entrusted to the laws of the state.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Influence of +the imperial +title in +Germany +and Gaul.</p> + +<p>In civil affairs also Charles acquired, with the imperial +title, a new position. Later jurists labour to distinguish +his power as Roman Emperor from that which he held +already as king of the Franks and their subject allies: +they insist that his coronation gave him the capital only, +that it is absurd to talk of a Roman Empire in regions +whither the eagles had never flown<a name="FNanchor_73" id="FNanchor_73" href="#Footnote_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a>. In such expressions +there seems to lurk either confusion or misconception. +It was not the actual government of the city that Charles +obtained in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 800: that his father had already held as +Patrician and he had constantly exercised in the same capacity: +it was far more than the titular sovereignty of Rome +which had hitherto been supposed to be vested in the +Byzantine princes: it was nothing less than the headship +of the world, believed to appertain of right to the lawful +Roman Emperor, whether he reigned on the Bosphorus, +the Tiber, or the Rhine. As that headship, although never +denied, had been in abeyance in the West for several +centuries, its bestowal on the king of so vast a realm was +a change of the first moment, for it made the coronation +not merely a transference of the seat of Empire, but a +renewal of the Empire itself, a bringing back of it from +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span> +faith to sight, from the world of belief and theory to the +world of fact and reality. And since the powers it gave +were autocratic and unlimited, it must swallow up all +minor claims and dignities: the rights of Charles the +Frankish king were merged in those of Charles the +successor of Augustus, the lord of the world. That his +imperial authority was theoretically irrespective of place +is clear from his own words and acts, and from all the +monuments of that time. He would not, indeed, have +dreamed of treating the free Franks as Justinian had +treated his half-Oriental subjects, nor would the warriors +who followed his standard have brooked such an attempt. +Yet even to German eyes his position must have been +altered by the halo of vague splendour which now surrounded +him; for all, even the Saxon and the Slave, had heard of +Rome's glories, and revered the name of Cæsar. +<span class="sidenote">Action of +Charles on +Europe.</span> +And in +his effort to weld discordant elements into one body, to +introduce regular gradations of authority, to control the +Teutonic tendency to localization by his <i lang="la">missi</i>—officials +commissioned to traverse each some part of his dominions, +reporting on and redressing the evils they found—and by +his own oft-repeated personal progresses, Charles was +guided by the traditions of the old Empire. His sway is +the revival of order and culture, fusing the West into a +compact whole, whose parts are never thenceforward to +lose the marks of their connection and their half-Roman +character, gathering up all that is left in Europe of spirit +and wealth and knowledge, and hurling it with the new +force of Christianity on the infidel of the South and the +masses of untamed barbarism to the North and East. +Ruling the world by the gift of God, and the transmitted +rights of the Romans and their Cæsar whom God had +chosen to conquer it, he renews the original aggressive +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span> +movement of the Empire: the civilized world has subdued +her invader<a name="FNanchor_74" id="FNanchor_74" href="#Footnote_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a>, +and now arms him against savagery and +heathendom. Hence the wars, not more of the sword +than of the cross, against Saxons, Avars, Slaves, Danes, +Spanish Arabs, where monasteries are fortresses and +baptism the badge of submission. The overthrow of the +Irminsûl<a name="FNanchor_75" id="FNanchor_75" href="#Footnote_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a>, +in the first Saxon campaign<a name="FNanchor_76" id="FNanchor_76" href="#Footnote_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a>, +sums up the +changes of seven centuries. The Romanized Teuton +destroys the monument of his country's freedom, for it is +also the emblem of paganism and barbarism. The work +of Arminius is undone by his successor.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">His position +as Frankish +king.</p> + +<p>This, however, is not the only side from which +Charles's policy and character may be regarded. If the +unity of the Church and the shadow of imperial prerogative +was one pillar of his power, the other was the +Frankish nation. The Empire was still military, though +in a sense strangely different from that of Julius or +Severus. The warlike Franks had permeated Western +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span> +Europe; their primacy was admitted by the kindred +tribes of Lombards, Bavarians, Thuringians, Alemannians, +and Burgundians; the Slavic peoples on the borders +trembled and paid tribute; Alfonso of Asturias found in +the Emperor a protector against the infidel foe. His +influence, if not his exerted power, crossed the ocean: +the kings of the Scots sent gifts and called him lord<a name="FNanchor_77" id="FNanchor_77" href="#Footnote_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> +: +the restoration of Eardulf to Northumbria, still more of +Egbert to Wessex, might furnish a better ground for +the claim of suzerainty than many to which his successors +had afterwards recourse. As it was by Frankish +arms that this predominance in Europe which the imperial +title adorned and legalized had been won, so was +the government of Charles Roman in semblance rather +than in fact. It was not by restoring the effete mechanism +of the old Empire, but by his own vigorous personal action +and that of his great officers, that he strove to administer +and reform. With every effort for a strong central +government, there is no despotism; each nation retains +its laws, its hereditary chiefs, its free popular assemblies. +The conditions granted to the Saxons after such cruel +warfare, conditions so favourable that in the next century +their dukes hold the foremost place in Germany, shew +how little he desired to make the Franks a dominant caste.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">General results +of his +Empire.</p> + +<p>He repeats the attempt of Theodoric to breathe a Teutonic +spirit into Roman forms. The conception was +magnificent; great results followed its partial execution. +Two causes forbade success. The one was the ecclesiastical, +especially the Papal power, apparently subject +to the temporal, but with a strong and undefined prerogative +which only waited the occasion to trample on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span> +what it had helped to raise. The Pope might take away +the crown he had bestowed, and turn against the Emperor +the Church which now obeyed him. The other +was to be found in the discordance of the component +parts of the Empire. The nations were not ripe for +settled life or extensive schemes of polity; the differences +of race, language, manners, over vast and thinly-peopled +lands baffled every attempt to maintain their connection: +and when once the spell of the great mind was withdrawn, +the mutually repellent forces began to work, and +the mass dissolved into that chaos out of which it had +been formed. Nevertheless, the parts separated not as +they met, but having all of them undergone influences +which continued to act when political connection had +ceased. For the work of Charles—a genius pre-eminently +creative—was not lost in the anarchy that followed: +rather are we to regard his reign as the beginning of a +new era, or as laying the foundations whereon men continued +for many generations to build.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Personal +habits and +sympathies.</p> + +<p>No claim can be more groundless than that which the +modern French, the sons of the Latinized Kelt, set up to +the Teutonic Charles. At Rome he might assume the +chlamys and the sandals, but at the head of his Frankish +host he strictly adhered to the customs of his country, +and was beloved by his people as the very ideal of their +own character and habits<a name="FNanchor_78" id="FNanchor_78" href="#Footnote_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a>. Of strength and stature +almost superhuman, in swimming and hunting unsurpassed, +steadfast and terrible in fight, to his friends +gentle and condescending, he was a Roman, much less +a Gaul, in nothing but his culture and his width of view, +otherwise a Teuton. The centre of his realm was the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span> +Rhine; his capitals Aachen<a name="FNanchor_79" id="FNanchor_79" href="#Footnote_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> + and Engilenheim<a name="FNanchor_80" id="FNanchor_80" href="#Footnote_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a>; +his +army Frankish; his sympathies as they are shewn in +the gathering of the old hero-lays<a name="FNanchor_81" id="FNanchor_81" href="#Footnote_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a>, +the composition +of a German grammar, the ordinance against confining +prayer to the three languages,—Hebrew, Greek, and +Latin,—were all for the race from which he sprang, +and whose advance, represented by the victory of Austrasia, +the true Frankish fatherland, over Neustria and +Aquitaine, spread a second Germanic wave over the +conquered countries.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">His Empire +and +character +generally.</p> + +<p>There were in his Empire, as in his own mind, two +elements; those two from the union and mutual action +and reaction of which modern civilization has arisen. +These vast domains, reaching from the Ebro to the +Carpathian mountains, from the Eyder to the Liris, were +all the conquests of the Frankish sword, and were still +governed almost exclusively by viceroys and officers of +Frankish blood. But the conception of the Empire, +that which made it a State and not a mere mass of +subject tribes like those great Eastern dominions which +rise and perish in a lifetime, the realms of Sesostris, or +Attila, or Timur, was inherited from an older and a +grander system, was not Teutonic but Roman—Roman +in its ordered rule, in its uniformity and precision, in its +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span> +endeavour to subject the individual to the system—Roman +in its effort to realize a certain limited and human perfection, +whose very completeness shall exclude the hope +of further progress. And the bond, too, by which the +Empire was held together was Roman in its origin, +although Roman in a sense which would have surprised +Trajan or Severus, could it have been foretold them. +The ecclesiastical body was already organized and centralized, +and it was in his rule over the ecclesiastical +body that the secret of Charles's power lay. Every +Christian—Frank, Gaul, or Italian—owed loyalty to the +head and defender of his religion: the unity of the +Empire was a reflection of the unity of the Church.</p> + +<p>Into a general view of the government and policy of +Charles it is not possible here to enter. Yet his legislation, +his assemblies, his administrative system, his magnificent +works, recalling the projects of Alexander and +Cæsar<a name="FNanchor_82" id="FNanchor_82" href="#Footnote_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a>, +the zeal for education and literature which he +shewed in the collection of manuscripts, the founding of +schools, the gathering of eminent men from all quarters +around him, cannot be appreciated apart from his position +as restorer of the Roman Empire. Like all the +foremost men of our race, Charles was all great things +in one, and was so great just because the workings of his +genius were so harmonious. He was not a mere barbarian +warrior any more than he was an astute diplomatist; +there is none of all his qualities which would +not be forced out of its place were we to characterize +him chiefly by it. Comparisons between famous men +of different ages are generally as worthless as they are +easy: the circumstances among which Charles lived do +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span> +not permit us to institute a minute parallel between his +greatness and that of those two to whom it is the modern +fashion to compare him, nor to say whether he was or +could have become as profound a politician as Cæsar, as +skilful a commander as Napoleon<a name="FNanchor_83" id="FNanchor_83" href="#Footnote_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a>. But neither to the +Roman nor to the Corsican was he inferior in that one +quality by which both he and they chiefly impress our +imaginations—that intense, vivid, unresting energy which +swept him over Europe in campaign after campaign, +which sought a field for its workings in theology, science, +literature, no less than in politics and war. As it was +this wondrous activity that made him the conqueror of +Europe, so was it by the variety of his culture that he +became her civilizer. From him, in whose wide deep +mind the whole mediæval theory of the world and human +life mirrored itself, did mediæval society take the form +and impress which it retained for centuries, and the traces +whereof are among us and upon us to this day.</p> + +<p>The great Emperor was buried at Aachen, in that +basilica which it had been the delight of his later years +to erect and adorn with the treasures of ancient art. +His tomb under the dome—where now we see an enormous +slab, with the words <span lang="la">'Carolo Magno'</span>—was inscribed, +'<i lang="la">Magnus atque Orthodoxus Imperator</i><a name="FNanchor_84" id="FNanchor_84" href="#Footnote_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a>.' Poets, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span> +fostered by his own zeal, sang of him who had given to +the Franks the sway of Romulus<a name="FNanchor_85" id="FNanchor_85" href="#Footnote_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a>. The gorgeous drapery +of romance gradually wreathed itself round his +name, till by canonization as a saint he received the +highest glory the world or the Church could confer. For +the Roman Church claimed then, as she claims still, the +privilege which humanity in one form or another seems +scarce able to deny itself, of raising to honours almost +divine its great departed; and as in pagan times temples +had risen to a deified Emperor, so churches were dedicated +to St. Charlemagne. Between Sanctus Carolus and +Divus Julius how strange an analogy and how strange +a contrast!</p> + +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER VI.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">CAROLINGIAN AND ITALIAN EMPERORS.</span></h2> + +<p class="sidenote">Lewis the +Pious.</p> + +<p>Lewis the Pious<a name="FNanchor_86" id="FNanchor_86" href="#Footnote_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a>, +left by Charles's death sole heir, had +been some years before associated with his father in the +Empire, and had been crowned by his own hands in a +way which, intentionally or not, appeared to deny the +need of Papal sanction. But it was soon seen that the +strength to grasp the sceptre had not passed with it. +Too mild to restrain his turbulent nobles, and thrown +by over-conscientiousness into the hands of the clergy, +he had reigned few years when dissensions broke out +on all sides. Charles had wished the Empire to continue +one, under the supremacy of a single Emperor, +but with its several parts, Lombardy, Aquitaine, Austrasia, +Bavaria, each a kingdom held by a scion of the reigning +house. A scheme dangerous in itself, and rendered +more so by the absence or neglect of regular rules of +succession, could with difficulty have been managed by +a wise and firm monarch. Lewis tried in vain to satisfy +his sons (Lothar, Lewis, and Charles) by dividing and +redividing: they rebelled; he was deposed, and forced +by the bishops to do penance; again restored, but +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Partition +of Verdun, +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 843.</span> +without power, a tool in the hands of contending factions. +On his death the sons flew to arms, and the +first of the dynastic quarrels of modern Europe was +fought out on the field of Fontenay. In the partition +treaty of Verdun which followed, the Teutonic principle +of equal division among heirs triumphed over the Roman +one of the transmission of an indivisible Empire: the +practical sovereignty of all three brothers was admitted +in their respective territories, a barren precedence only +reserved to Lothar, with the imperial title which he, as +the eldest, already enjoyed. A more important result +was the separation of the Gaulish and German nationalities. +Their difference of feeling, shewn already +in the support of Lewis the Pious by the Germans +against the Gallo-Franks and the Church<a name="FNanchor_87" id="FNanchor_87" href="#Footnote_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a>, +took now a +permanent shape: modern Germany proclaims the era +of <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 843 the beginning of her national existence, and +celebrated its thousandth anniversary twenty-seven years +ago. To Charles the Bald was given Francia Occidentalis, +that is to say, Neustria and Aquitaine; to Lothar, +who as Emperor must possess the two capitals, Rome +and Aachen, a long and narrow kingdom stretching from +the North Sea to the Mediterranean, and including the +northern half of Italy: Lewis (surnamed, from his kingdom, +the German) received all east of the Rhine, Franks, +Saxons, Bavarians, Austria, Carinthia, with possible supremacies +over Czechs and Moravians beyond. Throughout +these regions German was spoken; through Charles's +kingdom a corrupt tongue, equally removed from Latin +and from modern French. Lothar's, being mixed and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span> +having no national basis, was the weakest of the three, +and soon dissolved into the separate sovereignties of +Italy, Burgundy, and Lotharingia, or, as we call it, +Lorraine.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">End of the +Carolingian +Empire of +the West, +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 888.</p> + +<p>On the tangled history of the period that follows it is +not possible to do more than touch. After passing from +one branch of the Carolingian line to another<a name="FNanchor_88" id="FNanchor_88" href="#Footnote_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a>, +the imperial +sceptre was at last possessed and disgraced by Charles the +Fat, who united all the dominions of his great-grandfather. +This unworthy heir could not avail himself of recovered +territory to strengthen or defend the expiring monarchy. +He was driven out of Italy in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 887, and his death in 888 +has been usually taken as the date of the extinction of the +Carolingian Empire of the West. The Germans, still +attached to the ancient line, chose Arnulf, an illegitimate +Carolingian, for their king: he entered Italy and was +crowned Emperor by his partizan Pope Formosus, in +894. But Germany, divided and helpless, was in no +condition to maintain her power over the southern lands: +Arnulf retreated in haste, leaving Rome and Italy to sixty +years of stormy independence.</p> + +<p>That time was indeed the nadir of order and civilization. +From all sides the torrent of barbarism which +Charles the Great had stemmed was rushing down upon +his empire. The Saracen wasted the Mediterranean +coasts, and sacked Rome herself. The Dane and Norseman +swept the Atlantic and the North Sea, pierced +France and Germany by their rivers, burning, slaying, +carrying off into captivity: pouring through the Straits +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span> +of Gibraltar, they fell upon Provence and Italy. By land, +while Wends and Czechs and Obotrites threw off the +German yoke and threatened the borders, the wild Hungarian +bands, pressing in from the steppes of the Caspian, +dashed over Germany like the flying spray of a new wave +of barbarism, and carried the terror of their battleaxes +to the Apennines and the ocean. Under such strokes +the already loosened fabric swiftly dissolved. No one +thought of common defence or wide organization: the +strong built castles, the weak became their bondsmen, +or took shelter under the cowl: the governor—count, +abbot, or bishop—tightened his grasp, turned a delegated +into an independent, a personal into a territorial authority, +and hardly owned a distant and feeble suzerain. +The grand vision of a universal Christian empire was +utterly lost in the isolation, the antagonism, the increasing +localization of all powers: it might seem to +have been but a passing gleam from an older and +better world.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The German +Kingdom.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Henry the +Fowler.</p> + +<p>In Germany, the greatness of the evil worked at last +its cure. When the male line of the eastern branch of +the Carolingians had ended in Lewis (surnamed the +Child), son of Arnulf, the chieftains chose and the people +accepted Conrad the Franconian, and after him Henry +the Saxon duke, both representing the female line of +Charles. Henry laid the foundations of a firm monarchy, +driving back the Magyars and Wends, recovering Lotharingia, +founding towns to be centres of orderly life +and strongholds against Hungarian irruptions. He had +meant to claim at Rome his kingdom's rights, rights +which Conrad's weakness had at least asserted by the +demand of tribute; but death overtook him, and the plan +was left to be fulfilled by Otto his son. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span></p> +<p class="sidenote">Otto the +Great.</p> + +<p>The Holy Roman Empire, taking the name in the +sense which it commonly bore in later centuries, as denoting +the sovereignty of Germany and Italy vested in +a Germanic prince, is the creation of Otto the Great. +Substantially, it is true, as well as technically, it was a +prolongation of the Empire of Charles; and it rested (as +will be shewn in the sequel) upon ideas essentially the +same as those which brought about the coronation of +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 800. But a revival is always more or less a revolution: +the one hundred and fifty years that had passed +since the death of Charles had brought with them changes +which made Otto's position in Germany and Europe less +commanding and less autocratic than his predecessor's. +With narrower geographical limits, his Empire had a less +plausible claim to be the heir of Rome's universal dominion; +and there were also differences in its inner +character and structure sufficient to justify us in considering +Otto (as he is usually considered by his countrymen) +not a mere successor after an interregnum, but +rather a second founder of the imperial throne in the +West.</p> + +<p>Before Otto's descent into Italy is described, something +must be said of the condition of that country, where circumstances +had again made possible the plan of Theodoric, +permitted it to become an independent kingdom, +and attached the imperial title to its sovereign.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Italian +Emperors.</p> + +<p>The bestowal of the purple on Charles the Great was +not really that 'translation of the Empire from the Greeks +to the Franks,' which it was afterwards described as +having been. It was not meant to settle the office in one +nation or one dynasty: there was but an extension of +that principle of the equality of all Romans which had +made Trajan and Maximin Emperors. The '<i lang="la">arcanum +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span> +imperii</i>,' whereof Tacitus speaks, '<i lang="la">posse principem alibi +quam Romæ fieri</i><a name="FNanchor_89" id="FNanchor_89" href="#Footnote_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> +,' had long before become <i lang="la">alium quam +Romanum</i>; and now, the names of Roman and Christian +having grown co-extensive, a barbarian chieftain was, +as a Roman citizen, eligible to the office of Roman +Emperor. Treating him as such, the people and pontiff +of the capital had in the vacancy of the Eastern throne +asserted their ancient rights of election, and while attempting +to reverse the act of Constantine, had re-established +the division of Valentinian. The dignity was +therefore in strictness personal to Charles; in point of +fact, and by consent, hereditarily transmissible, just as it +had formerly become in the families of Constantine and +Theodosius. To the Frankish crown or nation it was by +no means legally attached, though they might think it so; +it had passed to their king only because he was the +greatest European potentate, and might equally well pass +to some stronger race, if any such appeared. Hence, +when the line of Carolingian Emperors ended in Charles +the Fat, the rights of Rome and Italy might be taken to +revive, and there was nothing to prevent the citizens +from choosing whom they would. At that memorable +era (<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 888) the four kingdoms which this prince had +united fell asunder; West France, where Odo or Eudes +then began to reign, was never again united to Germany; +East France (Germany) chose Arnulf; Burgundy<a name="FNanchor_90" id="FNanchor_90" href="#Footnote_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> + split +up into two principalities, in one of which (Transjurane) +Rudolf proclaimed himself king, while the other (Cisjurane +with Provence) submitted to Boso<a name="FNanchor_91" id="FNanchor_91" href="#Footnote_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a>; +while Italy +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span> +was divided between the parties of Berengar of Friuli +and Guido of Spoleto. The former was chosen king by +the estates of Lombardy; the latter, and on his speedy +death his son Lambert, was crowned Emperor by the +Pope. Arnulf's descent chased them away and vindicated +the claims of the Franks, but on his flight Italy and the +anti-German faction at Rome became again free. Berengar +was made king of Italy, and afterwards Emperor. +Lewis of Burgundy, son of Boso, renounced his fealty +to Arnulf, and procured the imperial dignity, whose vain +title he retained through years of misery and exile, till +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 928<a name="FNanchor_92" id="FNanchor_92" href="#Footnote_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a>. None of these Emperors were strong enough +to rule well even in Italy; beyond it they were not so +much as recognized. The crown had become a bauble +with which unscrupulous Popes dazzled the vanity of +princes whom they summoned to their aid, and soothed +the credulity of their more honest supporters. The demoralization +and confusion of Italy, the shameless profligacy +of Rome and her pontiffs during this period, were +enough to prevent a true Italian kingdom from being +built up on the basis of Roman choice and national unity. +Italian indeed it can scarcely be called, for these Emperors +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span> +were still in blood and manners Teutonic, and akin rather +to their Transalpine enemies than their Romanic subjects. +But Italian it might soon have become under a vigorous +rule which should have organized it within and knit it +together to resist attacks from without. And therefore +the attempt to establish such a kingdom is remarkable, +for it might have had great consequences; might, if it +had prospered, have spared Italy much suffering and +Germany endless waste of strength and blood. He who +from the summit of Milan cathedral sees across the misty +plain the gleaming turrets of its icy wall sweep in a great +arc from North to West, may well wonder that a land +which nature has so severed from its neighbours should, +since history begins, have been always the victim of their +intrusive tyranny.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Adelheid +Queen of +Italy.</p> + +<p>In <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 924 died Berengar, the last of these phantom +Emperors. After him Hugh of Burgundy, and Lothar +his son, reigned as kings of Italy, if puppets in the hands +of a riotous aristocracy can be so called. Rome was +meanwhile ruled by the consul or senator Alberic<a name="FNanchor_93" id="FNanchor_93" href="#Footnote_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a>, +who +had renewed her never quite extinct republican institutions, +and in the degradation of the papacy was almost +absolute in the city. Lothar dying, his widow Adelheid<a name="FNanchor_94" id="FNanchor_94" href="#Footnote_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> + +was sought in marriage by Adalbert son of Berengar +II, the new Italian monarch. A gleam of romance +is shed on the Empire's revival by her beauty and her +adventures. Rejecting the odious alliance, she was seized +by Berengar, escaped with difficulty from the loathsome +prison where his barbarity had confined her, and appealed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Otto's first +expedition +into Italy, +A.D. 951.</span> +<span class="sidenote">Invitation +sent by the +Pope to +Otto.</span> +<span class="sidenote">Motives for +reviving the +Empire.</span> +to Otto the German king, the model of that knightly +virtue which was beginning to shew itself after the fierce +brutality of the last age. He listened, descended into +Lombardy by the Adige valley, espoused the injured +queen, and forced Berengar to hold his kingdom as a +vassal of the East Frankish crown. That prince was +turbulent and faithless; new complaints reached ere long +his liege lord, and envoys from the Pope offered Otto +the imperial title if he would re-visit and pacify Italy. +The proposal was well-timed. Men still thought, as they +had thought in the centuries before the Carolingians, that +the Empire was suspended, not extinct; and the desire +to see its effective power restored, the belief that without +it the world could never be right, might seem better +grounded than it had been before the coronation of +Charles. Then the imperial name had recalled only the +faint memories of Roman majesty and order; now it +was also associated with the golden age of the first +Frankish Emperor, when a single firm and just hand had +guided the state, reformed the church, repressed the excesses +of local power: when Christianity had advanced +against heathendom, civilizing as she went, fearing neither +Hun nor Paynim. One annalist tells us that Charles was +elected 'lest the pagans should insult the Christians, if +the name of Emperor should have ceased among the +Christians<a name="FNanchor_95" id="FNanchor_95" href="#Footnote_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a>.' The motive would be bitterly enforced +by the calamities of the last fifty years. In a time of +disintegration, confusion, strife, all the longings of every +wiser and better soul for unity, for peace and law, for +some bond to bring Christian men and Christian states +together against the common enemy of the faith, were +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span> +but so many cries for the restoration of the Roman +Empire<a name="FNanchor_96" id="FNanchor_96" href="#Footnote_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a>. These were the feelings that on the field of +Merseburg broke forth in the shout of 'Henry the Emperor:' +these the hopes of the Teutonic host when after +the great deliverance of the Lechfeld they greeted Otto, +conqueror of the Magyars, as 'Imperator Augustus, +Pater Patriæ<a name="FNanchor_97" id="FNanchor_97" href="#Footnote_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a>.'</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Condition +of Italy.</p> + +<p>The anarchy which an Emperor was needed to heal +was at its worst in Italy, desolated by the feuds of +a crowd of petty princes. A succession of infamous +Popes, raised by means yet more infamous, the lovers +and sons of Theodora and Marozia, had disgraced the +chair of the Apostle, and though Rome herself might +be lost to decency, Western Christendom was roused to +anger and alarm. Men had not yet learned to satisfy +their consciences by separating the person from the office. +The rule of Alberic had been succeeded by the wildest +confusion, and demands were raised for the renewal of +that imperial authority which all admitted in theory<a name="FNanchor_98" id="FNanchor_98" href="#Footnote_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a> +, +and which nothing but the resolute opposition of Alberic +himself had prevented Otto from claiming in 951. From +the Byzantine Empire, whither Italy was more than once +tempted to turn, nothing could be hoped; its dangers +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span> +from foreign enemies were aggravated by the plots of the +court and the seditions of the capital; it was becoming +more and more alienated from the West by the Photian +schism and the question regarding the Procession of the +Holy Ghost, which that quarrel had started. Germany +was extending and consolidating herself, had escaped +domestic perils, and might think of reviving ancient +claims. No one could be more willing to revive them +than Otto the Great. His ardent spirit, after waging +a bold and successful struggle against the turbulent magnates +of his German realm, had engaged him in wars +with the surrounding nations, and was now captivated by +the vision of a wider sway and a loftier world-embracing +dignity. Nor was the prospect which the papal offer +opened up less welcome to his people. Aachen, their +capital, was the ancestral home of the house of Pipin: +their sovereign, although himself a Saxon by race, titled +himself king of the Franks, in opposition to the Frankish +rulers of the Western branch, whose Teutonic character +was disappearing among the Romans of Gaul; they held +themselves in every way the true representatives of the +Carolingian power, and accounted the period since +Arnulf's death nothing but an interregnum which had +suspended but not impaired their rights over Rome. +'For so long,' says a writer of the time, 'as there remain +kings of the Franks, so long will the dignity of the Roman +Empire not wholly perish, seeing that it will abide in its +kings<a name="FNanchor_99" id="FNanchor_99" href="#Footnote_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a>.' The recovery of Italy was therefore to German +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span> +eyes a righteous as well as a glorious design: approved +by the Teutonic Church which had lately been negotiating +with Rome on the subject of missions to the heathen; +embraced by the people, who saw in it an accession of +strength to their young kingdom. Everything smiled +on Otto's enterprise, and the connection which was destined +to bring so much strife and woe to Germany and +to Italy was welcomed by the wisest of both countries +as the beginning of a better era.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Descent of +Otto the +Great into +Italy.</p> + +<p>Whatever were Otto's own feelings, whether or not +he felt that he was sacrificing, as modern writers have +thought that he did sacrifice, the greatness of his German +kingdom to the lust of universal dominion, he shewed +no hesitation in his acts. Descending from the Alps +with an overpowering force, he was acknowledged as +king of Italy at Pavia<a name="FNanchor_100" id="FNanchor_100" href="#Footnote_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a>; +and, having first taken an +oath to protect the Holy See and respect the liberties +of the city, advanced to Rome. +<span class="sidenote">His coronation +at +Rome, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> +962.</span> +There, with Adelheid +his queen, he was crowned by John XII, on the day +of the Purification, the second of February, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 962. +The details of his election and coronation are unfortunately +still more scanty than in the case of his great +predecessor. Most of our authorities represent the +act as of the Pope's favour<a name="FNanchor_101" id="FNanchor_101" href="#Footnote_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a>, +yet it is plain that the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span> +consent of the people was still thought an essential part +of the ceremony, and that Otto rested after all on his +host of conquering Saxons. Be this as it may, there +was neither question raised nor opposition made in +Rome; the usual courtesies and promises were exchanged +between Emperor and Pope, the latter owning himself a +subject, and the citizens swore for the future to elect no +pontiff without Otto's consent. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER VII.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">THEORY OF THE MEDIÆVAL EMPIRE.</span></h2> + +<p class="sidenote">Why the +revival of +the Empire +was desired.</p> + +<p>These were the events and circumstances of the time: +let us now look at the causes. The restoration of the +Empire by Charles may seem to be sufficiently accounted +for by the width of his conquests, by the peculiar connection +which already subsisted between him and the +Roman Church, by his commanding personal character, +by the temporary vacancy of the Byzantine throne. The +causes of its revival under Otto must be sought deeper. +Making every allowance for the favouring incidents which +have already been dwelt upon, there must have been +some further influence at work to draw him and his +successors, Saxon and Frankish kings, so far from home +in pursuit of a barren crown, to lead the Italians to accept +the dominion of a stranger and a barbarian, to make +the Empire itself appear through the whole Middle Age +not what it seems now, a gorgeous anachronism, but an +institution divine and necessary, having its foundations in +the very nature and order of things. The empire of the +elder Rome had been splendid in its life, yet its judgment +was written in the misery to which it had brought the +provinces, and the helplessness that had invited the +attacks of the barbarian. Now, as we at least can see, it +had long been dead, and the course of events was adverse +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span> +to its revival. Its actual representatives, the Roman +people, were a turbulent rabble, sunk in a profligacy +notorious even in that guilty age. Yet not the less for +all this did men cling to the idea, and strive through long +ages to stem the irresistible time-current, fondly believing +that they were breasting it even while it was sweeping +them ever faster and faster away from the old order into a +region of new thoughts, new feelings, new forms of life. Not +till the days of the Reformation was the illusion dispelled.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Mediæval +theories.</p> + +<p>The explanation is to be found in the state of the +human mind during these centuries. The Middle Ages +were essentially unpolitical. Ideas as familiar to the +commonwealths of antiquity as to ourselves, ideas of the +common good as the object of the State, of the rights of +the people, of the comparative merits of different forms +of government, were to them, though sometimes carried +out in fact, in their speculative form unknown, perhaps +incomprehensible. Feudalism was the one great institution +to which those times gave birth, and feudalism was +a social and a legal system, only indirectly and by consequence +a political one. Yet the human mind, so far +from being idle, was in certain directions never more +active; nor was it possible for it to remain without +general conceptions regarding the relation of men to each +other in this world. Such conceptions were neither made +an expression of the actual present condition of things +nor drawn from an induction of the past; they were +partly inherited from the system that had preceded, +partly evolved from the principles of that metaphysical +theology which was ripening into scholasticism<a name="FNanchor_102" id="FNanchor_102" href="#Footnote_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a>. Now +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span> +the two great ideas which expiring antiquity bequeathed +to the ages that followed were those of a World-Monarchy +and a World-Religion.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The World-Religion.</p> + +<p>Before the conquests of Rome, men, with little knowledge +of each other, with no experience of wide political +union<a name="FNanchor_103" id="FNanchor_103" href="#Footnote_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a>, +had held differences of race to be natural and +irremovable barriers. Similarly, religion appeared to them +a matter purely local and national; and as there were gods +of the hills and gods of the valleys, of the land and of the +sea, so each tribe rejoiced in its peculiar deities, looking on +the natives of another country who worshipped other gods +as Gentiles, natural foes, unclean beings. Such feelings, +if keenest in the East, frequently shew themselves in the +early records of Greece and Italy: in Homer the hero who +wanders over the unfruitful sea glories in sacking the cities +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span> +of the stranger<a name="FNanchor_104" id="FNanchor_104" href="#Footnote_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a>; +the primitive Latins have the same word +for a foreigner and an enemy: the exclusive systems of +Egypt, Hindostan, China, are only more vehement expressions +of the belief which made Athenian philosophers look +on a state of war between Greeks and barbarians as +natural<a name="FNanchor_105" id="FNanchor_105" href="#Footnote_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a>, +and defend slavery on the same ground of the +original diversity of the races that rule and the races that +serve. The Roman dominion giving to many nations a +common speech and law, smote this feeling on its political +side; Christianity more effectually banished it from +the soul by substituting for the variety of local pantheons +the belief in one God, before whom all men are equal<a name="FNanchor_106" id="FNanchor_106" href="#Footnote_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Coincides +with the +World-Empire.</p> + +<p>It is on the religious life that nations repose. Because +divinity was divided, humanity had been divided likewise; +the doctrine of the unity of God now enforced the unity +of man, who had been created in His image<a name="FNanchor_107" id="FNanchor_107" href="#Footnote_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a>. The first +lesson of Christianity was love, a love that was to join in +one body those whom suspicion and prejudice and pride +of race had hitherto kept apart. There was thus formed +by the new religion a community of the faithful, a Holy +Empire, designed to gather all men into its bosom, and +standing opposed to the manifold polytheisms of the older +world, exactly as the universal sway of the Cæsars was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span> +contrasted with the innumerable kingdoms and republics +that had gone before it. The analogy of the two made +them appear parts of one great world-movement toward +unity: the coincidence of their boundaries, which had +begun before Constantine, lasted long enough after him +to associate them indissolubly together, and make the +names of Roman and Christian convertible<a name="FNanchor_108" id="FNanchor_108" href="#Footnote_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a>. Œcumenical +councils, where the whole spiritual body gathered itself +from every part of the temporal realm under the presidency +of the temporal head, presented the most visible and +impressive examples of their connection<a name="FNanchor_109" id="FNanchor_109" href="#Footnote_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a>. The language +of civil government was, throughout the West, that of the +sacred writings and of worship; the greatest mind of his +generation consoled the faithful for the fall of their earthly +commonwealth Rome, by describing to them its successor +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span> +and representative, the 'city which hath foundations, whose +builder and maker is God<a name="FNanchor_110" id="FNanchor_110" href="#Footnote_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a>.'</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Preservation +of the +unity of the +Church.</p> + +<p>Of these two parallel unities, that of the political and +that of the religious society, meeting in the higher unity +of all Christians, which may be indifferently called Catholicity +or Romanism (since in that day those words would +have had the same meaning), that only which had been entrusted +to the keeping of the Church survived the storms of +the fifth century. Many reasons may be assigned for the +firmness with which she clung to it. Seeing one institution +after another falling to pieces around her, seeing how +countries and cities were being severed from each other +by the irruption of strange tribes and the increasing difficulty +of communication, she strove to save religious fellowship +by strengthening the ecclesiastical organization, by +drawing tighter every bond of outward union. Necessities +of faith were still more powerful. Truth, it was said, is +one, and as it must bind into one body all who hold it, so +it is only by continuing in that body that they can preserve +it. +Thus with the growing rigidity of dogma, which +may be traced from the council of Jerusalem to the +council of Trent, there had arisen the idea of supplementing +revelation by tradition as a source of doctrine, of +exalting the universal conscience and belief above the +individual, and allowing the soul to approach God only +through the universal consciousness, represented by the +sacerdotal order: principles still maintained by one branch +<span class="sidenote">Mediæval +Theology +requires +One Visible +Catholic +Church.</span> +of the Church, and for some at least of which far weightier +reasons could be assigned then, in the paucity of written +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span> +records and the blind ignorance of the mass of the people, +than any to which their modern advocates have recourse. +There was another cause yet more deeply seated, and +which it is hard adequately to describe. It was not exactly +a want of faith in the unseen, nor a shrinking fear +which dared not look forth on the universe alone: it was +rather the powerlessness of the untrained mind to realize +the idea as an idea and live in it: it was the tendency to +see everything in the concrete, to turn the parable into a +fact, the doctrine into its most literal application, the +symbol into the essential ceremony; the tendency which +intruded earthly Madonnas and saints between the worshipper +and the spiritual Deity, and could satisfy its +devotional feelings only by visible images even of these: +which conceived of man's aspirations and temptations as +the result of the direct action of angels and devils: which +expressed the strivings of the soul after purity by the +search for the Holy Grail: which in the Crusades sent +myriads to win at Jerusalem by earthly arms the sepulchre +of Him whom they could not serve in their own spirit nor +approach by their own prayers. And therefore it was +that the whole fabric of mediæval Christianity rested upon +the idea of the Visible Church. Such a Church could be +in nowise local or limited. To acquiesce in the establishment +of National Churches would have appeared to those +men, as it must always appear when scrutinized, contradictory +to the nature of a religious body, opposed to the +genius of Christianity, defensible, when capable of defence +at all, only as a temporary resource in the presence of insuperable +difficulties. Had this plan, on which so many +have dwelt with complacency in later times, been proposed +either to the primitive Church in its adversity or to the +dominant Church of the ninth century, it would have been +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span> +rejected with horror; but since there were as yet no +nations, the plan was one which did not and could not +present itself. The Visible Church was therefore the +Church Universal, the whole congregation of Christian +men dispersed throughout the world.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Idea of +political +unity upheld +by the +clergy.</p> + +<p>Now of the Visible Church the emblem and stay was +the priesthood; and it was by them, in whom dwelt +whatever of learning and thought was left in Europe, that +the second great idea whereof mention has been made—the +belief in one universal temporal state—was preserved. As +a matter of fact, that state had perished out of the West, +and it might seem their interest to let its memory be lost. +They, however, did not so calculate their interest. So far +from feeling themselves opposed to the civil authority in +the seventh and eighth centuries, as they came to do in +the twelfth and thirteenth, the clergy were fully persuaded +that its maintenance was indispensable to their own welfare. +They were, be it remembered, at first Romans themselves +living by the Roman law, using Latin as their proper +tongue, and imbued with the idea of the historical connection +of the two powers. And by them chiefly was that +idea expounded and enforced for many generations, by +none more earnestly than by Alcuin of York, the adviser +of Charles<a name="FNanchor_111" id="FNanchor_111" href="#Footnote_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a>. The limits of those two powers had become +confounded in practice: bishops were princes, the chief +ministers of the sovereign, sometimes even the leaders of +their flocks in war: kings were accustomed to summon +ecclesiastical councils, and appoint to ecclesiastical offices.</p> + +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span></p> + +<p class="sidenote">Influence of +the metaphysics +of +the time +upon the +theory of +a World-State.</p> + +<p>But, like the unity of the Church, the doctrine of a +universal monarchy had a theoretical as well as an historical +basis, and may be traced up to those metaphysical +ideas out of which the system we call Realism developed +itself. The beginnings of philosophy in those times were +logical; and its first efforts were to distribute and classify: +system, subordination, uniformity, appeared to be that +which was most desirable in thought as in life. The +search after causes became a search after principles of +classification; since simplicity and truth were held to +consist not in an analysis of thought into its elements, +nor in an observation of the process of its growth, but +rather in a sort of genealogy of notions, a statement of +the relations of classes as containing or excluding each +other. These classes, genera or species, were not themselves +held to be conceptions formed by the mind from +phenomena, nor mere accidental aggregates of objects +grouped under and called by some common name; they +were real things, existing independently of the individuals +who composed them, recognized rather than created by +the human mind. In this view, Humanity is an essential +quality present in all men, and making them what they +are: as regards it they are therefore not many but one, +the differences between individuals being no more than +accidents. The whole truth of their being lies in the +universal property, which alone has a permanent and +independent existence. The common nature of the +individuals thus gathered into one Being is typified in its +two aspects, the spiritual and the secular, by two persons, +the World-Priest and the World-Monarch, who present +on earth a similitude of the Divine unity. For, as we +have seen, it was only through its concrete and symbolic +expression that a thought could then be apprehended<a name="FNanchor_112" id="FNanchor_112" href="#Footnote_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a>. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span> +Although it was to unity in religion that the clerical +body was both by doctrine and by practice attached, +they found this inseparable from the corresponding unity in +politics. They saw that every act of man has a social and +public as well as a moral and personal bearing, and concluded +that the rules which directed and the powers which +rewarded or punished must be parallel and similar, not +so much two powers as different manifestations of one +and the same. That the souls of all Christian men should +be guided by one hierarchy, rising through successive +grades to a supreme head, while for their deeds they +were answerable to a multitude of local, unconnected, +mutually irresponsible potentates, appeared to them necessarily +opposed to the Divine order. As they could not +imagine, nor value if they had imagined, a communion of +the saints without its expression in a visible Church, so in +matters temporal they recognized no brotherhood of spirit +without the bonds of form, no universal humanity save in +the image of a universal State<a name="FNanchor_113" id="FNanchor_113" href="#Footnote_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a>. In this, as in so much +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span> +else, the men of the Middle Ages were the slaves of the +letter, unable, with all their aspirations, to rise out of the +concrete, and prevented by the very grandeur and boldness +of their conceptions from carrying them out in +practice against the enormous obstacles that met them.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The ideal +state supposed +to be +embodied in +the Roman +Empire.</p> + +<p>Deep as this belief had struck its roots, it might never +have risen to maturity nor sensibly affected the progress +of events, had it not gained in the pre-existence of the +monarchy of Rome a definite shape and a definite purpose. +It was chiefly by means of the Papacy that this +came to pass. When under Constantine the Christian +Church was framing her organization on the model of the +state which protected her, the bishop of the metropolis +perceived and improved the analogy between himself and +the head of the civil government. The notion that the +chair of Peter was the imperial throne of the Church had +dawned upon the Popes very early in their history, and +grew stronger every century under the operation of causes +already specified. Even before the Empire of the West +had fallen, St. Leo the Great could boast that to Rome, +exalted by the preaching of the chief of the Apostles to +be a holy nation, a chosen people, a priestly and royal +city, there had been appointed a spiritual dominion wider +than her earthly sway<a name="FNanchor_114" id="FNanchor_114" href="#Footnote_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a>. In <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 476 Rome ceased to be +the political capital of the Western countries, and the +Papacy, inheriting no small part of the Emperor's power, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Constantine's +Donation.</span> +drew to herself the reverence which the name of the +city still commanded, until by the middle of the eighth, +or, at latest, of the ninth century she had perfected +in theory a scheme which made her the exact counterpart +of the departed despotism, the centre of the +hierarchy, absolute mistress of the Christian world. The +character of that scheme is best set forth in the singular +document, most stupendous of all the mediæval +forgeries, which under the name of the Donation of +Constantine commanded for seven centuries the unquestioning +belief of mankind<a name="FNanchor_115" id="FNanchor_115" href="#Footnote_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a>. Itself a portentous +falsehood, it is the most unimpeachable evidence of the +thoughts and beliefs of the priesthood which framed it, +some time between the middle of the eighth and the +middle of the tenth century. It tells how Constantine the +Great, cured of his leprosy by the prayers of Sylvester, +resolved, on the fourth day from his baptism, to forsake +the ancient seat for a new capital on the Bosphorus, lest +the continuance of the secular government should cramp +the freedom of the spiritual, and how he bestowed therewith +upon the Pope and his successors the sovereignty +over Italy and the countries of the West. But this is not +all, although this is what historians, in admiration of its +splendid audacity, have chiefly dwelt upon. The edict +proceeds to grant to the Roman pontiff and his clergy a +series of dignities and privileges, all of them enjoyed by +the Emperor and his senate, all of them shewing the +same desire to make the pontifical a copy of the imperial +office. The Pope is to inhabit the Lateran palace, to +wear the diadem, the collar, the purple cloak, to carry +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span> +the sceptre, and to be attended by a body of chamberlains. +Similarly his clergy are to ride on white horses and +receive the honours and immunities of the senate and +patricians<a name="FNanchor_116" id="FNanchor_116" href="#Footnote_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Interdependence +of +Papacy and +Empire.</p> + +<p>The notion which prevails throughout, that the chief of +the religious society must be in every point conformed to +his prototype the chief of the civil, is the key to all the +thoughts and acts of the Roman clergy; not less plainly +seen in the details of papal ceremonial than it is in the +gigantic scheme of papal legislation. The Canon law +was intended by its authors to reproduce and rival the +imperial jurisprudence; a correspondence was traced +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span> +between its divisions and those of the <span lang="la">Corpus Juris Civilis</span>, +and Gregory IX, who was the first to consolidate it into a +code, sought the fame and received the title of the Justinian +of the Church. But the wish of the clergy was always, +even in the weakness or hostility of the temporal power, to +imitate and rival, not to supersede it; since they held it +the necessary complement of their own, and thought the +Christian people equally imperilled by the fall of either. +Hence the reluctance of Gregory II to break with the +Byzantine princes<a name="FNanchor_117" id="FNanchor_117" href="#Footnote_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a>, +and the maintenance of their titular +sovereignty till <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 800: hence the part which the Holy +See played in transferring the crown to Charles, the first +sovereign of the West capable of fulfilling its duties; +hence the grief with which its weakness under his successors +was seen, the gladness when it descended to Otto +as representative of the Frankish kingdom.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The Roman +Empire +revived in a +new character.</p> + +<p>Up to the era of <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 800 there had been at Constantinople +a legitimate historical prolongation of the +Roman Empire. Technically, as we have seen, the +election of Charles, after the deposition of Constantine +VI, was itself a prolongation, and maintained the +old rights and forms in their integrity. But the Pope, +though he knew it not, did far more than effect a change +of dynasty when he rejected Irene and crowned the +barbarian chief. Restorations are always delusive. As +well might one hope to stop the earth's course in her +orbit as to arrest that ceaseless change and movement +in human affairs which forbids an old institution, suddenly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span> +transplanted into a new order of things, from filling +its ancient place and serving its former ends. The dictatorship +at Rome in the second Punic war was not more +unlike the dictatorships of Sulla and Cæsar, nor the +States-general of Louis XIII to the assembly which his +unhappy descendant convoked in 1789, than was the +imperial office of Theodosius to that of Charles the +Frank; and the seal, ascribed to <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 800, which bears +the legend <span lang="la">'Renovatio Romani Imperii<a name="FNanchor_118" id="FNanchor_118" href="#Footnote_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> +,'</span> expresses, +more justly perhaps than was intended by its author, a +second birth of the Roman Empire.</p> + +<p>It is not, however, from Carolingian times that a +proper view of this new creation can be formed. That +period was one of transition, of fluctuation and uncertainty, +in which the office, passing from one dynasty and +country to another, had not time to acquire a settled +character and claims, and was without the power that +would have enabled it to support them. From the coronation +of Otto the Great a new period begins, in which +the ideas that have been described as floating in men's +minds took clearer shape, and attached to the imperial +title a body of definite rights and definite duties. It is +this new phase, the Holy Empire, that we have now to +consider.</p> + +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span></p> + +<p class="sidenote">Position +and functions +of the +Emperor.</p> + +<p>The realistic philosophy, and the needs of a time when +the only notion of civil or religious order was submission +to authority, required the World-State to be a monarchy; +tradition, as well as the continuance of certain institutions, +gave the monarch the name of Roman Emperor. +A king could not be universal sovereign, for there were +many kings: the Emperor must be, for there had never +been but one Emperor; he had in older and brighter +days been the actual lord of the civilized world; the seat +of his power was placed beside that of the spiritual autocrat +of Christendom<a name="FNanchor_119" id="FNanchor_119" href="#Footnote_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a>. His functions will be seen most +clearly if we deduce them from the leading principle of +mediæval mythology, the exact correspondence of earth +and heaven. As God, in the midst of the celestial +hierarchy, ruled blessed spirits in paradise, so the Pope, +His Vicar, raised above priests, bishops, metropolitans, +reigned over the souls of mortal men below. But as +God is Lord of earth as well as of heaven, so must he +(the <i>Imperator cœlestis</i><a name="FNanchor_120" id="FNanchor_120" href="#Footnote_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a>) be represented by a second +earthly viceroy, the Emperor (<i lang="la">Imperator terrenus</i><a href="#Footnote_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a> +), whose +authority shall be of and for this present life. And as in +this present world the soul cannot act save through the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span> +body, while yet the body is no more than an instrument +and means for the soul's manifestation, so must +there be a rule and care of men's bodies as well as of +their souls, yet subordinated always to the well-being +of that which is the purer and the more enduring. It +is under the emblem of soul and body that the relation +of the papal and imperial power is presented to us +throughout the Middle Ages<a name="FNanchor_121" id="FNanchor_121" href="#Footnote_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a>. The Pope, as God's +vicar in matters spiritual, is to lead men to eternal life; +the Emperor, as vicar in matters temporal, must so control +them in their dealings with one another that they +may be able to pursue undisturbed the spiritual life, and +thereby attain the same supreme and common end of +everlasting happiness. In the view of this object his +chief duty is to maintain peace in the world, while +towards the Church his position is that of Advocate, a +title borrowed from the practice adopted by churches +and monasteries of choosing some powerful baron to +protect their lands and lead their tenants in war<a name="FNanchor_122" id="FNanchor_122" href="#Footnote_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a>. The +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Correspondence +and +harmony of +the spiritual +and temporal +powers.</span> +functions of Advocacy are twofold: at home to make +the Christian people obedient to the priesthood, and to +execute their decrees upon heretics and sinners; abroad +to propagate the faith among the heathen, not sparing +to use carnal weapons<a name="FNanchor_123" id="FNanchor_123" href="#Footnote_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a>. Thus does the Emperor answer +in every point to his antitype the Pope, his power being +yet of a lower rank, created on the analogy of the papal, +as the papal itself had been modelled after the elder +Empire. The parallel holds good even in its details; +for just as we have seen the churchman assuming the +crown and robes of the secular prince, so now did he +array the Emperor in his own ecclesiastical vestments, +the stole and the dalmatic, gave him a clerical as well +as a sacred character, removed his office from all narrowing +associations of birth or country, inaugurated him +by rites every one of which was meant to symbolize +and enjoin duties in their essence religious. Thus the +Holy Roman Church and the Holy Roman Empire are +one and the same thing, in two aspects; and Catholicism, +the principle of the universal Christian society, is also +Romanism; that is, rests upon Rome as the origin and +type of its universality; manifesting itself in a mystic +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span> +dualism which corresponds to the two natures of its +Founder. As divine and eternal, its head is the Pope, +to whom souls have been entrusted; as human and temporal, +the Emperor, commissioned to rule men's bodies +and acts.</p> + +<p>In nature and compass the government of these two +potentates is the same, differing only in the sphere of +its working; and it matters not whether we call the Pope +a spiritual Emperor or the Emperor a secular Pope. +Nor, though the one office is below the other as far +as man's life on earth is less precious than his life +hereafter, is therefore, on the older and truer theory, +the imperial authority delegated by the papal. For, as +has been said already, God is represented by the Pope +not in every capacity, but only as the ruler of spirits +in heaven: as sovereign of earth, He issues His commission +directly to the Emperor. Opposition between +two servants of the same King is inconceivable, each +being bound to aid and foster the other: the co-operation +of both being needed in all that concerns the welfare +of Christendom at large. This is the one perfect and +self-consistent scheme of the union of Church and State; +<span class="sidenote">Union of +Church and +State.</span> +for, taking the absolute coincidence of their limits to be +self-evident, it assumes the infallibility of their joint government, +and derives, as a corollary from that infallibility, +the duty of the civil magistrate to root out heresy +and schism no less than to punish treason and rebellion. +It is also the scheme which, granting the possibility of +their harmonious action, places the two powers in that +relation which gives each of them its maximum of +strength. But by a law to which it would be hard to +find exceptions, in proportion as the State became more +Christian, the Church, who to work out her purposes +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span> +had assumed worldly forms, became by the contact +worldlier, meaner, spiritually weaker; and the system +which Constantine founded amid such rejoicings, which +culminated so triumphantly in the Empire Church of +the Middle Ages, has in each succeeding generation +been slowly losing ground, has seen its brightness dimmed +and its completeness marred, and sees now those +who are most zealous on behalf of its surviving institutions +feebly defend or silently desert the principle upon +which all must rest.</p> + +<p>The complete accord of the papal and imperial powers +which this theory, as sublime as it is impracticable, requires, +was attained only at a few points in their history<a name="FNanchor_124" id="FNanchor_124" href="#Footnote_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a>. +It was finally supplanted by another view of their relation, +which, professing to be a development of a principle +recognized as fundamental, the superior importance of +the religious life, found increasing favour in the eyes of +fervent churchmen<a name="FNanchor_125" id="FNanchor_125" href="#Footnote_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a>. Declaring the Pope sole representative +on earth of the Deity, it concluded that from him, +and not directly from God, must the Empire be held—held +feudally, it was said by many—and it thereby thrust +down the temporal power, to be the slave instead of the +sister of the spiritual<a name="FNanchor_126" id="FNanchor_126" href="#Footnote_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a>. Nevertheless, the Papacy in her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span> +meridian, and under the guidance of her greatest minds, +of Hildebrand, of Alexander, of Innocent, not seeking to +abolish or absorb the civil government, required only its +obedience, and exalted its dignity against all save herself<a name="FNanchor_127" id="FNanchor_127" href="#Footnote_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a>. +It was reserved for Boniface VIII, whose extravagant +pretensions betrayed the decay that was already +at work within, to show himself to the crowding pilgrims +at the jubilee of <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1300, seated on the throne of +Constantine, arrayed with sword, and crown, and sceptre, +shouting aloud, 'I am Cæsar—I am Emperor<a name="FNanchor_128" id="FNanchor_128" href="#Footnote_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a>.'</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Proofs +from mediæval +documents.</p> + +<p>The theory of an Emperor's place and functions thus +sketched cannot be definitely assigned to any point of +time; for it was growing and changing from the fifth +century to the fifteenth. Nor need it surprise us that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span> +we do not find in any one author a statement of the +grounds whereon it rested, since much of what seems +strangest to us was then too obvious to be formally +explained. No one, however, who examines mediæval +writings can fail to perceive, sometimes from direct +words, oftener from allusions or assumptions, that such +ideas as these are present to the minds of the authors<a name="FNanchor_129" id="FNanchor_129" href="#Footnote_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a>. +That which it is easiest to prove is the connection of the +Empire with religion. From every record, from chronicles +and treatises, proclamations, laws, and sermons, +passages may be adduced wherein the defence and +spread of the faith, and the maintenance of concord +among the Christian people, are represented as the function +to which the Empire has been set apart. The belief +expressed by Lewis II, <span lang="la">'Imperii dignitas non in vocabuli +voce sed in gloriosæ pietatis culmine consistit<a name="FNanchor_130" id="FNanchor_130" href="#Footnote_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a> +,'</span> appears +again in the address of the Archbishop of Mentz to +Conrad II<a name="FNanchor_131" id="FNanchor_131" href="#Footnote_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a>, +as Vicar of God; is reiterated by Frederick +I<a name="FNanchor_132" id="FNanchor_132" href="#Footnote_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a>, +when he writes to the prelates of Germany, 'On +earth God has placed no more than two powers, and as +there is in heaven but one God, so is there here one +Pope and one Emperor. Divine providence has specially +appointed the Roman Empire to prevent the continuance +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span> +of schism in the Church<a name="FNanchor_133" id="FNanchor_133" href="#Footnote_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> +;' is echoed by jurists and +divines down to the days of Charles V<a name="FNanchor_134" id="FNanchor_134" href="#Footnote_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a>. It was a +doctrine which we shall find the friends and foes of the +Holy See equally concerned to insist on, the one to make +the transference (<i lang="la">translatio</i>) from the Greeks to the +Germans appear entirely the Pope's work, and so establish +his right of overseeing or cancelling his rival's +election, the others by setting the Emperor at the head +of the Church to reduce the Pope to the place of chief +bishop of his realm<a name="FNanchor_135" id="FNanchor_135" href="#Footnote_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a>. His headship was dwelt upon +chiefly in the two duties already noticed. As the counterpart +of the Mussulman Commander of the Faithful, he +was leader of the Church militant against her infidel foes, +was in this capacity summoned to conduct crusades, and +in later times recognized chief of the confederacies +against the conquering Ottomans. As representative of +the whole Christian people, it belonged to him to convoke +General Councils, a right not without importance +even when exercised concurrently with the Pope, but far +more weighty when the object of the council was to settle +a disputed election, or, as at Constance, to depose the +reigning pontiff himself.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The Coronation +ceremonies.</p> + +<p>No better illustrations can be desired than those to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span> +be found in the office for the imperial coronation at +Rome, too long to be transcribed here, but well worthy +of an attentive study<a name="FNanchor_136" id="FNanchor_136" href="#Footnote_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a>. The rites prescribed in it are +rights of consecration to a religious office: the Emperor, +besides the sword, globe, and sceptre of temporal power, +receives a ring as the symbol of his faith, is ordained a +subdeacon, assists the Pope in celebrating mass, partakes +as a clerical person of the communion in both kinds, is +admitted a canon of St. Peter and St. John Lateran. +The oath to be taken by an elector begins, <span lang="la">'Ego N. volo +regem Romanorum in Cæsarem promovendum, temporale +caput populo Christiano eligere.'</span> The Emperor swears +to cherish and defend the Holy Roman Church and her +bishop: the Pope prays after the reading of the Gospel, +<span lang="la">'Deus qui ad prædicandum æterni regni evangelium +Imperium Romanum præparasti, prætende famulo tuo +Imperatori nostro arma cœlestia.'</span> Among the Emperor's +official titles there occur these: 'Head of Christendom,' +'Defender and Advocate of the Christian Church,' 'Temporal +Head of the Faithful,' 'Protector of Palestine and +of the Catholic Faith<a name="FNanchor_137" id="FNanchor_137" href="#Footnote_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a>.'</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The rights +of the Empire +proved +from the +Bible.</p> + +<p>Very singular are the reasonings used by which the +necessity and divine right of the Empire are proved out +of the Bible. The mediæval theory of the relation of the +civil power to the priestly was profoundly influenced by +the account in the Old Testament of the Jewish theocracy, +in which the king, though the institution of his +office was a derogation from the purity of the older +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span> +system, appears divinely chosen and commissioned, and +stood in a peculiarly intimate relation to the national +religion. From the New Testament the authority and +eternity of Rome herself was established. Every passage +was seized on where submission to the powers that be +is enjoined, every instance cited where obedience had +actually been rendered to imperial officials, a special emphasis +being laid on the sanction which Christ Himself +had given to Roman dominion by pacifying the world +through Augustus, by being born at the time of the +taxing, by paying tribute to Cæsar, by saying to Pilate, +'Thou couldest have no power at all against Me except it +were given thee from above.'</p> + +<p>More attractive to the mystical spirit than these direct +arguments were those drawn from prophecy, or based on +the allegorical interpretation of Scripture. Very early +in Christian history had the belief formed itself that the +Roman Empire—as the fourth beast of Daniel's vision, +as the iron legs and feet of Nebuchadnezzar's image—was +to be the world's last and universal kingdom. From +Origen and Jerome downwards it found unquestioned +acceptance<a name="FNanchor_138" id="FNanchor_138" href="#Footnote_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a>, +and that not unnaturally. For no new +power had arisen to extinguish the Roman, as the Persian +monarchy had been blotted out by Alexander, as the +realms of his successors had fallen before the conquering +republic herself. Every Northern conqueror, Goth, Lombard, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span> +Burgundian, had cherished her memory and +preserved her laws; Germany had adopted even the +name of the Empire 'dreadful and terrible and strong +exceedingly, and diverse from all that were before it.' +To these predictions, and to many others from the Apocalypse, +were added those which in the Gospels and +Epistles foretold the advent of Antichrist<a name="FNanchor_139" id="FNanchor_139" href="#Footnote_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a>. He was to +succeed the Roman dominion, and the Popes are more +than once warned that by weakening the Empire they +are hastening the coming of the enemy and the end of +the world<a name="FNanchor_140" id="FNanchor_140" href="#Footnote_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a>. It is not only when groping in the dark +labyrinths of prophecy that mediæval authors are quick +in detecting emblems, imaginative in explaining them. +Men were wont in those days to interpret Scripture in +a singular fashion. Not only did it not occur to them to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span> +ask what meaning words had to those to whom they were +originally addressed; they were quite as careless whether +the sense they discovered was one which the language +used would naturally and rationally bear to any reader at +any time. No analogy was too faint, no allegory too +fanciful, to be drawn out of a simple text; and, once +propounded, the interpretation acquired in argument all +the authority of the text itself. Thus the two swords of +which Christ said, 'It is enough,' became the spiritual +and temporal powers, and the grant of the spiritual to +Peter involves the supremacy of the Papacy<a name="FNanchor_141" id="FNanchor_141" href="#Footnote_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a>. Thus one +writer proves the eternity of Rome from the seventy-second +Psalm, 'They shall fear thee as long as the sun +and moon endure, throughout all generations;' the moon +being of course, since Gregory VII, the Roman Empire, +as the sun, or greater light, is the Popedom. Another +quoting, <span lang="la">'Qui tenet teneat donec auferatur<a name="FNanchor_142" id="FNanchor_142" href="#Footnote_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a> +,'</span> with Augustine's +explanation thereof<a name="FNanchor_143" id="FNanchor_143" href="#Footnote_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a>, +says, that when 'he who +letteth' is removed, tribes and provinces will rise in rebellion, +and the Empire to which God has committed the +government of the human race will be dissolved. From +the miseries of his own time (he wrote under Frederick +III) he predicts that the end is near. The same spirit of +symbolism seized on the number of the electors: 'the +seven lamps burning in the unity of the sevenfold spirit +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span> +which illumine the Holy Empire<a name="FNanchor_144" id="FNanchor_144" href="#Footnote_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a>.' Strange legends told +how Romans and Germans were of one lineage; how +Peter's staff had been found on the banks of the Rhine, +the miracle signifying that a commission was issued to +the Germans to reclaim wandering sheep to the one fold. +So complete does the scriptural proof appear in the +hands of mediæval churchmen, many holding it a mortal +sin to resist the power ordained of God, that we forget +they were all the while only adapting to an existing institution +what they found written already; we begin to +fancy that the Empire was maintained, obeyed, exalted +for centuries, on the strength of words to which we +attach in almost every case a wholly different meaning.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Illustrations +from +Mediæval +Art.</p> + +<p>It would be a task both pleasant and profitable to pass +on from the theologians to the poets and artists of the +Middle Ages, and endeavour to trace through their works +the influence of the ideas which have been expounded +above. But it is one far too wide for the scope of the +present treatise; and one which would demand an acquaintance +with those works themselves such as only +minute and long-continued study could give. For even +a slight knowledge enables any one to see how much +still remains to be interpreted in the imaginative literature +and in the paintings of those times, and how apt we are +in glancing over a piece of work to miss those seemingly +trifling indications of the artist's thought or belief which +are all the more precious that they are indirect or unconscious. +Therefore a history of mediæval art which +shall evolve its philosophy from its concrete forms, if it +is to have any value at all, must be minute in description +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span> +as well as subtle in method. But lest this class of illustrations +should appear to have been wholly forgotten, +it may be well to mention here two paintings in which +the theory of the mediæval empire is unmistakeably set +forth. One of them is in Rome, the other in Florence; +every traveller in Italy may examine both for himself.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Mosaic of +the Lateran +Palace at +Rome.</p> + +<p>The first of these is the famous mosaic of the Lateran +triclinium, constructed by Pope Leo III about <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 800, +and an exact copy of which, made by the order of Sextus +V, may still be seen over against the façade of St. John +Lateran. Originally meant to adorn the state banqueting-hall +of the Popes, it is now placed in the open air, in the +finest situation in Rome, looking from the brow of a hill +across the green ridges of the Campagna to the olive-groves +of Tivoli and the glistering crags and snow-capped +summits of the Umbrian and Sabine Apennine. It represents +in the centre Christ surrounded by the Apostles, +whom He is sending forth to preach the Gospel; one +hand is extended to bless, the other holds a book with +the words <span lang="la">'Pax Vobis.'</span> Below and to the right Christ +is depicted again, and this time sitting: on his right hand +kneels Pope Sylvester, on his left the Emperor Constantine; +to the one he gives the keys of heaven and +hell, to the other a banner surmounted by a cross. In +the group on the opposite, that is, on the left side of the +arch, we see the Apostle Peter seated, before whom in +like manner kneel Pope Leo III and Charles the Emperor; +the latter wearing, like Constantine, his crown. +Peter, himself grasping the keys, gives to Leo the pallium +of an archbishop, to Charles the banner of the +Christian army. The inscription is, <span lang="la">'Beatus Petrus dona +vitam Leoni PP et bictoriam Carulo regi dona;'</span> while +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span> +round the arch is written, <span lang="la">'Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in +terra pax omnibus bonæ voluntatis.'</span></p> + +<p>The order and nature of the ideas here symbolized is +sufficiently clear. First comes the revelation of the +Gospel, and the divine commission to gather all men +into its fold. Next, the institution, at the memorable era +of Constantine's conversion, of the two powers by which +the Christian people is to be respectively taught and +governed. Thirdly, we are shewn the permanent Vicar +of God, the Apostle who keeps the keys of heaven and +hell, re-establishing these same powers on a new and +firmer basis<a name="FNanchor_145" id="FNanchor_145" href="#Footnote_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a>. The badge of ecclesiastical supremacy he +gives to Leo as the spiritual head of the faithful on earth, +the banner of the Church Militant to Charles, who is to +maintain her cause against heretics and infidels.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Fresco in +S. Maria +Novella at +Florence.</p> + +<p>The second painting is of greatly later date. It is a +fresco in the chapter-house of the Dominican convent of +Santa Maria Novella<a name="FNanchor_146" id="FNanchor_146" href="#Footnote_146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a> + at Florence, usually known as the +<span lang="it">Capellone degli Spagnuoli</span>. It has been commonly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span> +ascribed, on Vasari's authority, to Simone Martini of +Siena, but an examination of the dates of his life seems +to discredit this view<a name="FNanchor_147" id="FNanchor_147" href="#Footnote_147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a>. Most probably it was executed +between <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1340 and 1350. It is a huge work, covering +one whole wall of the chapter-house, and filled with +figures, some of which, but seemingly on no sufficient +authority, have been taken to represent eminent persons +of the time—Cimabue, Arnolfo, Boccaccio, Petrarch, +Laura, and others. In it is represented the whole +scheme of man's life here and hereafter—the Church on +earth and the Church in heaven. Full in front are seated +side by side the Pope and the Emperor: on their right +and left, in a descending row, minor spiritual and temporal +officials; next to the Pope a cardinal, bishops, and +doctors; next to the Emperor, the king of France and +a line of nobles and knights. Behind them appears the +Duomo of Florence as an emblem of the Visible Church, +while at their feet is a flock of sheep (the faithful) attacked +by ravening wolves (heretics and schismatics), whom a +pack of spotted dogs (the Dominicans<a name="FNanchor_148" id="FNanchor_148" href="#Footnote_148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a> +) combat and chase +away. From this, the central foreground of the picture, +a path winds round and up a height to a great gate where +the Apostle sits on guard to admit true believers: they +passing through it are met by choirs of seraphs, who lead +them on through the delicious groves of Paradise. Above +all, at the top of the painting and just over the spot where +his two lieutenants, Pope and Emperor, are placed below, +is the Saviour enthroned amid saints and angels<a name="FNanchor_149" id="FNanchor_149" href="#Footnote_149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a>.</p> + +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span></p> + +<p class="sidenote">Anti-national +character +of +the Empire.</p> + +<p>Here, too, there needs no comment. The Church +Militant is the perfect counterpart of the Church Triumphant: +her chief danger is from those who would rend +the unity of her visible body, the seamless garment of her +heavenly Lord; and that devotion to His person which is +the sum of her faith and the essence of her being, must +on earth be rendered to those two lieutenants whom He +has chosen to govern in His name.</p> + +<p>A theory, such as that which it has been attempted to +explain and illustrate, is utterly opposed to restrictions of +place or person. The idea of one Christian people, all +whose members are equal in the sight of God,—an idea +so forcibly expressed in the unity of the priesthood, where +no barrier separated the successor of the Apostle from the +humblest curate,—and in the prevalence of one language +for worship and government, made the post of Emperor +independent of the race, or rank, or actual resources of +its occupant. The Emperor was entitled to the obedience +of Christendom, not as hereditary chief of a victorious +tribe, or feudal lord of a portion of the earth's surface, +but as solemnly invested with an office. Not only did he +excel in dignity the kings of the earth: his power was +different in its nature; and, so far from supplanting or +rivalling theirs, rose above them to become the source and +needful condition of their authority in their several territories, +the bond which joined them in one harmonious +body. The vast dominions and vigorous personal action +of Charles the Great had concealed this distinction while +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span> +he reigned; under his successors the imperial crown appeared +disconnected from the direct government of the +kingdoms they had established, existing only in the form +of an undefined suzerainty, as the type of that unity without +which men's minds could not rest. It was characteristic +of the Middle Ages, that demanding the existence +of an Emperor, they were careless who he was or how he +was chosen, so he had been duly inaugurated; and that +they were not shocked by the contrast between unbounded +rights and actual helplessness. At no time in the world's +history has theory, pretending all the while to control +practice, been so utterly divorced from it. Ferocious and +sensual, that age worshipped humility and asceticism: +there has never been a purer ideal of love, nor a grosser +profligacy of life.</p> + +<p>The power of the Roman Emperor cannot as yet be +called international; though this, as we shall see, became +in later times its most important aspect; for in the tenth +century national distinctions had scarcely begun to exist. +But its genius was clerical and old Roman, in nowise +territorial or Teutonic: it rested not on armed hosts or +wide lands, but upon the duty, the awe, the love of its +subjects. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE GERMAN KINGDOM.</span></h2> + +<p class="sidenote">Union of +the Roman +Empire +with the +German +kingdom.</p> + +<p>This was the office which Otto the Great assumed in +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 962. But it was not his only office. He was already +a German king; and the new dignity by no means superseded +the old. This union in one person of two characters, +a union at first personal, then official, and which +became at last a fusion of the two into something different +from either, is the key to the whole subsequent +history of Germany and the Empire.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Germany +and its +monarchy.</p> + +<p>Of the German kingdom little need be said, since it +differs in no essential respect from the other kingdoms of +Western Europe as they stood in the tenth century. The +five or six great tribes or tribe-leagues which composed +the German nation had been first brought together under +the sceptre of the Carolingians; and, though still retaining +marks of their independent origin, were prevented +from separating by community of speech and a common +pride in the great Frankish Empire. When the line of +Charles the Great ended in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 911, by the death of +Lewis the Child (son of Arnulf), Conrad, duke of the +Franconians, and after him Henry (the Fowler), duke of +the Saxons, was chosen to fill the vacant throne. By his +vigorous yet conciliatory action, his upright character, his +courage and good fortune in repelling the Hungarians, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span> +Henry laid deep the foundations of royal power: under +his more famous son it rose into a stable edifice. Otto's +coronation feast at Aachen, where the great nobles of the +realm did him menial service, where Franks, Bavarians, +Suabians, Thuringians, and Lorrainers gathered round the +Saxon monarch, is the inauguration of a true Teutonic +realm, which, though it called itself not German but East +Frankish, and claimed to be the lawful representative of +the Carolingian monarchy, had a constitution and a tendency +in many respects different.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Feudalism.</p> + +<p>There had been under those princes a singular mixture +of the old German organization by tribes or districts +(the so-called <span lang="de">Gauverfassung</span>), such as we find in the +earliest records, with the method introduced by Charles of +maintaining by means of officials, some fixed, others +moving from place to place, the control of the central +government. In the suspension of that government which +followed his days, there grew up a system whose seeds +had been sown as far back as the time of Clovis, a system +whose essence was the combination of the tenure of land +by military service with a peculiar personal relation between +the landlord and his tenant, whereby the one was +bound to render fatherly protection, the other aid and +obedience. This is not the place for tracing the origin of +feudality on Roman soil, nor for shewing how, by a sort +of contagion, it spread into Germany, how it struck firm +root in the period of comparative quiet under Pipin and +Charles, how from the hands of the latter it took the impress +which determined its ultimate form, how the weakness +of his successors allowed it to triumph everywhere. +Still less would it be possible here to examine its social +and moral influence. Politically it might be defined as +the system which made the owner of a piece of land, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span> +whether large or small, the sovereign of those who dwelt +thereon: an annexation of personal to territorial authority +more familiar to Eastern despotism than to the free races +of primitive Europe. On this principle were founded, +and by it are explained, feudal law and justice, feudal +finance, feudal legislation, each tenant holding towards his +lord the position which his own tenants held towards himself. +And it is just because the relation was so uniform, +the principle so comprehensive, the ruling class so firmly +bound to its support, that feudalism has been able to lay +upon society that grasp which the struggles of more than +twenty generations have scarcely shaken off.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The feudal +king.</p> + +<p>Now by the middle of the tenth century, Germany, less +fully committed than France to feudalism's worst feature, +the hopeless bondage of the peasantry, was otherwise +thoroughly feudalized. As for that equality of all the +freeborn save the sacred line which we find in the Germany +of Tacitus, there had been substituted a gradation +of ranks and a concentration of power in the hands of a +landholding caste, so had the monarch lost his ancient +character as leader and judge of the people, to become +the head of a tyrannical oligarchy. He was titular lord of +the soil, could exact from his vassals service and aid in +arms and money, could dispose of vacant fiefs, could at +pleasure declare war or make peace. But all these rights +he exercised far less as sovereign of the nation than as +standing in a peculiar relation to the feudal tenants, a relation +in its origin strictly personal, and whose prominence +obscured the political duties of prince and subject. And +great as these rights might become in the hands of an +ambitious and politic ruler, they were in practice limited +by the corresponding duties he owed to his vassals, and +by the difficulty of enforcing them against a powerful +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">The nobility.</span> + +offender. The king was not permitted to retain in his +own hands escheated fiefs, must even grant away those he +had held before coming to the throne; he could not interfere +with the jurisdiction of his tenants in their own lands, +nor prevent them from waging war or forming leagues +with each other like independent princes. Chief among +the nobles stood the dukes, who, although their authority +was now delegated, theoretically at least, instead of independent, +territorial instead of personal, retained nevertheless +much of that hold on the exclusive loyalty of their +subjects which had belonged to them as hereditary leaders +of the tribe under the ancient system. They were, with +the three Rhenish archbishops, by far the greatest subjects, +often aspiring to the crown, sometimes not unable to resist +its wearer. The constant encroachments which Otto +made upon their privileges, especially through the institution +of the Counts Palatine, destroyed their ascendancy, +but not their importance. It was not till the thirteenth +century that they disappeared with the rise of the second +order of nobility. That order, at this period far less +powerful, included the counts, margraves or marquises +and landgraves, originally officers of the crown, now +feudal tenants; holding their lands of the dukes, and +maintaining against them the same contest which they in +turn waged with the crown. Below these came the barons +and simple knights, then the diminishing class of freemen, +the increasing one of serfs. +<span class="sidenote">The Germanic +feudal +polity +generally.</span> +The institutions of primitive +Germany were almost all gone; supplanted by a new +system, partly the natural result of the formation of a +settled from a half-nomad society, partly imitated from +that which had arisen upon Roman soil, west of the Rhine +and south of the Alps. The army was no longer the +Heerban of the whole nation, which had been wont to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span> +follow the king on foot in distant expeditions, but a +cavalry militia of barons and their retainers, bound to +service for a short period, and rendering it unwillingly +where their own interest was not concerned. The frequent +popular assemblies, whereof under the names of the +Mallum, the Placitum, the Mayfield, we hear so much +under Clovis and Charles, were now never summoned, +and the laws that had been promulgated there were, if +not abrogated, practically obsolete. No national council +existed, save the Diet in which the higher nobility, lay and +and clerical, met their sovereign, sometimes to decide on +foreign war, oftener to concur in the grant of a fief or the +proscription of a rebel. Every district had its own rude +local customs administered by the court of the local lord: +other law there was none, for imperial jurisprudence had +in these lately civilized countries not yet filled the place +left empty by the disuse of the barbarian codes.</p> + +<p>This condition of things was indeed better than that +utter confusion which had gone before, for a principle of +order had begun to group and bind the tossing atoms; +and though the union into which it drove men was a hard +and narrow one, it was something that they should have +learnt to unite themselves at all. Yet nascent feudality +was but one remove from anarchy; and the tendency to +isolation and diversity continued, despite the efforts of the +Church and the Carolingian princes, to be all-powerful in +Western Europe. The German kingdom was already a +bond between the German races, and appears strong +and united when we compare it with the France of Hugh +Capet, or the England of Ethelred II; yet its history to +the twelfth century is little else than a record of disorders, +revolts, civil wars, of a ceaseless struggle on the part of +the monarch to enforce his feudal rights, a resistance by +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">The Roman +Empire +and the +German +kingdom.</span> +his vassals equally obstinate and more frequently successful. +What the issue of the contest might have been if +Germany had been left to take her own course is matter +of speculation, though the example of every European +state except England and Norway may incline the balance +in favour of the crown. But the strife had scarcely begun +when a new influence was interposed: the German king +became Roman Emperor. No two systems can be more +unlike than those whose headship became thus vested in +one person: the one centralized, the other local; the one +resting on a sublime theory, the other the rude offspring +of anarchy; the one gathering all power into the hands of +an irresponsible monarch, the other limiting his rights and +authorizing resistance to his commands; the one demanding +the equality of all citizens as creatures equal before +Heaven, the other bound up with an aristocracy the +proudest, and in its gradations of rank the most exact, +that Europe had ever seen. Characters so repugnant +could not, it might be thought, meet in one person, or if +they met must strive till one swallowed up the other. It +was not so. In the fusion which began from the first, +though it was for a time imperceptible, each of the two +characters gave and each lost some of its attributes: the +king became more than German, the Emperor less than +Roman, till, at the end of six centuries, the monarch in +whom two 'persons' had been united, appeared as a third +different from either of the former, and might not inappropriately +be entitled 'German Emperor<a name="FNanchor_150" id="FNanchor_150" href="#Footnote_150" class="fnanchor">[150]</a>.' The nature +and progress of this change will appear in the after history +of Germany, and cannot be described here without in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span> +some measure anticipating subsequent events. A word or +two may indicate how the process of fusion began.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Results of +this union +in one person.</p> + +<p>It was natural that the great mass of Otto's subjects, to +whom the imperial title, dimly associated with Rome and +the Pope, sounded grander than the regal, without being +known as otherwise different, should in thought and +speech confound them. The sovereign and his ecclesiastical +advisers, with far clearer views of the new office +and of the mutual relation of the two, found it impossible +to separate them in practice, and were glad to merge the +lesser in the greater. For as lord of the world, Otto was +Emperor north as well as south of the Alps. When he +issued an edict, he claimed the obedience of his Teutonic +subjects in both capacities; when as Emperor he led the +armies of the gospel against the heathen, it was the +standard of their feudal superior that his armed vassals +followed; when he founded churches and appointed +bishops, he acted partly as suzerain of feudal lands, partly +as protector of the faith, charged to guide the Church in +matters temporal. Thus the assumption of the imperial +crown brought to Otto as its first result an apparent increase +of domestic authority; it made his position by its +historical associations more dignified, by its religious more +hallowed; it raised him higher above his vassals and above +other sovereigns; it enlarged his prerogative in ecclesiastical +affairs, and by necessary consequence gave to ecclesiastics +a more important place at court and in the +administration of government than they had enjoyed +before. Great as was the power of the bishops and +abbots in all the feudal kingdoms, it stood nowhere so +high as in Germany. There the Emperor's double position, +as head both of Church and State, required the two +organizations to be exactly parallel. In the eleventh +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span> +century a full half of the land and wealth of the country, +and no small part of its military strength, was in the hands +of Churchmen: their influence predominated in the Diet; +the archchancellorship of the Empire, highest of all offices, +belonged of right to the archbishop of Mentz, as primate +of Germany. It was by Otto, who in resuming the attitude +must repeat the policy of Charles, that the greatness +of the clergy was thus advanced. He is commonly said +to have wished to weaken the aristocracy by raising up +rivals to them in the hierarchy. It may have been so, +and the measure was at any rate a disastrous one, for the +clergy soon approved themselves not less rebellious than +those whom they were to restrain. But in accusing Otto's +judgment, historians have often forgotten in what position +he stood to the Church, and how it behoved him, according +to the doctrine received, to establish in her an order +like in all things to that which he found already subsisting +in the State.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Changes in +title.</p> + +<p>The style which Otto adopted shewed his desire thus to +merge the king in the Emperor<a name="FNanchor_151" id="FNanchor_151" href="#Footnote_151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a>. Charles had called +himself <span lang="la">'Imperator Cæsar Carolus rex Francorum invictissimus;'</span> +and again, <span lang="la">'Carolus serenissimus Augustus, +Pius, Felix, Romanorum gubernans Imperium, qui et per +misericordiam Dei rex Francorum atque Langobardorum.'</span> +Otto and his first successors, who until their coronation at +Rome had used the titles of <span lang="la">'Rex Francorum,'</span> or <span lang="la">'Rex +Francorum Orientalium,'</span> or oftener still 'Rex' alone, discarded +after it all titles save the highest of <span lang="la">'Imperator +Augustus;'</span> seeming thereby, though they too had been +crowned at Aachen and Milan, to claim the authority of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span> +Cæsar through all their dominions. Tracing as we are +the history of a title, it is needless to dwell on the significance +of the change<a name="FNanchor_152" id="FNanchor_152" href="#Footnote_152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a>. Charles, son of the Ripuarian +allies of Probus, had been a Frankish chieftain on the +Rhine; Otto, the Saxon, successor of the Cheruscan +Arminius, would rule his native Elbe with a power borrowed +from the Tiber.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Imperial +power +feudalized.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the imperial element did not in every +respect predominate over the royal. The monarch might +desire to make good against his turbulent barons the +boundless prerogative which he acquired with his new +crown, but he lacked the power to do so; and they, disputing +neither the supremacy of that crown nor his right +to wear it, refused with good reason to let their own +freedom be infringed upon by any act of which they had +not been the authors. So far was Otto from embarking +on so vain an enterprise, that his rule was even more direct +and more personal than that of Charles had been. There +was no scheme of mechanical government, no claim of +absolutism; there was only the resolve to make the +energetic assertion of the king's feudal rights subserve the +further aims of the Emperor. What Otto demanded he +demanded as Emperor, what he received he received as +king; the singular result was that in Germany the imperial +office was itself pervaded and transformed by feudal ideas. +Feudality needing, to make its theory complete, a lord +paramount of the world, from whose grant all ownership +in land must be supposed to have emanated, and finding +such a suzerain in the Emperor, constituted him liege lord +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span> +of all kings and potentates, keystone of the feudal arch, +himself, as it was expressed, 'holding' the world from God. +There were not wanting Roman institutions to which +these notions could attach themselves. Constantine, imitating +the courts of the East, had made the dignitaries of +his household great officials of the State: these were now +reproduced in the cup-bearer, the seneschal, the marshal, +the chamberlain of the Empire, so soon to become its +electoral princes. The holding of land on condition of +military service was Roman in its origin: the divided +ownership of feudal law found its analogies in the +Roman tenure of emphyteusis. Thus while Germany +was Romanized the Empire was feudalized, and came +to be considered not the antagonist but the perfection +of an aristocratic system. And it was this adaptation +to existing political facts that enabled it afterwards to +assume an international character. Nevertheless, even +while they seemed to blend, there remained between +the genius of imperialism (if one may use a now perverted +word) and that of feudalism a deep and lasting +hostility. And so the rule of Otto and his successors was +in a measure adverse to feudal polity, not from knowledge +of what Roman government had been, but from the necessities +of their position, raised as they were to an unapproachable +height above their subjects, surrounded with a +halo of sanctity as protectors of the Church. Thus were they +driven to reduce local independence, and assimilate the +various races through their vast territories. It was Otto +who made the Germans, hitherto an aggregate of tribes, +a single people, and welding them into a strong political +body taught them to rise through its collective greatness +to the consciousness of national life, never thenceforth +to be extinguished. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span></p> + +<p class="sidenote">The Commons.</p> + +<p>One expedient against the land-holding oligarchy +which Roman traditions as well as present needs might +have suggested, it was scarcely possible for Otto to use. +He could not invoke the friendship of the Third Estate, +for as yet none existed. The Teutonic order of freemen, +which two centuries earlier had formed the bulk of the +population, was now fast disappearing, just as in England +all who did not become thanes were classed as ceorls, +and from ceorls sank for the most part, after the +Conquest, into villeins. It was only in the Alpine +valleys and along the shores of the ocean that free +democratic communities maintained themselves. Town-life +there was none, till Henry the Fowler forced +his forest-loving people to dwell in fortresses that might +repel the Hungarian invaders; and the burgher class thus +beginning to form was too small to be a power in the +state. But popular freedom, as it expired, bequeathed to +the monarch such of its rights as could be saved from the +grasp of the nobles; and the crown thus became what +it has been wherever an aristocracy presses upon both, +the ally, though as yet the tacit ally, of the people. +More, too, than the royal could have done, did the imperial +name invite the sympathy of the commons. For +in all, however ignorant of its history, however unable to +comprehend its functions, there yet lived a feeling that it +was in some mysterious way consecrated to Christian +brotherhood and equality, to peace and law, to the +restraint of the strong and the defence of the helpless. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER IX.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">SAXON AND FRANCONIAN EMPERORS.</span></h2> + +<p>He who begins to read the history of the Middle Ages +is alternately amused and provoked by the seeming absurdities +that meet him at every step. He finds writers +proclaiming amidst universal assent magnificent theories +which no one attempts to carry out. He sees men who +are stained with every vice full of sincere devotion to +a religion which, even when its doctrines were most obscured, +never sullied the purity of its moral teaching. +He is disposed to conclude that such people must have +been either fools or hypocrites. Yet such a conclusion +would be wholly erroneous. Every one knows how little +a man's actions conform to the general maxims which +he would lay down for himself, and how many things +there are which he believes without realizing: believes +sufficiently to be influenced, yet not sufficiently to be +governed by them. Now in the Middle Ages this perpetual +opposition of theory and practice was peculiarly +abrupt. Men's impulses were more violent and their +conduct more reckless than is often witnessed in modern +society; while the absence of a criticizing and measuring +spirit made them surrender their minds more unreservedly +than they would now do to a complete and imposing +theory. Therefore it was, that while everyone believed in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span> +the rights of the Empire as a part of divine truth, no one +would yield to them where his own passions or interests +interfered. Resistance to God's Vicar might be and +indeed was admitted to be a deadly sin, but it was one +which nobody hesitated to commit. Hence, in order to +give this unbounded imperial prerogative any practical +efficiency, it was found necessary to prop it up by the +limited but tangible authority of a feudal king. And the +one spot in Otto's empire on which feudality had never +fixed its grasp, and where therefore he was forced to rule +merely as emperor, and not also as king, was that in +which he and his successors were never safe from insult +and revolt. That spot was his capital. Accordingly an +account of what befel the first Saxon emperor in Rome +is a not unfitting comment on the theory expounded +above, as well as a curious episode in the history +of the Apostolic Chair.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Otto the +Great in +Rome.</p> + +<p>After his coronation Otto had returned to North Italy, +where the partizans of Berengar and his son Adalbert +still maintained themselves in arms. Scarcely was he +gone when the restless John the Twelfth, who found too +late that in seeking an ally he had given himself a master, +renounced his allegiance, opened negotiations with Berengar, +and even scrupled not to send envoys pressing +the heathen Magyars to invade Germany. The Emperor +was soon informed of these plots, as well as of the +flagitious life of the pontiff, a youth of twenty-five, the +most profligate if not the most guilty of all who have +worn the tiara. But he affected to despise them, saying, +with a sort of unconscious irony, 'He is a boy, the example +of good men may reform him.' When, however, +Otto returned with a strong force, he found the city gates +shut, and a party within furious against him. John the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span> +Twelfth was not only Pope, but as the heir of Alberic, +the head of a strong faction among the nobles, and a +sort of temporal prince in the city. But neither he nor +they had courage enough to stand a siege: John fled +into the Campagna to join Adalbert, and Otto entering +convoked a synod in St. Peter's. Himself presiding as +temporal head of the Church, he began by inquiring into +the character and manners of the Pope. At once a +tempest of accusations burst forth from the assembled +clergy. Liudprand, a credible although a hostile witness, +gives us a long list of them:—'Peter, cardinal-priest, rose +and witnessed that he had seen the Pope celebrate mass +and not himself communicate. John, bishop of Narnia, +and John, cardinal-deacon, declared that they had seen +him ordain a deacon in a stable, neglecting the proper +formalities. They said further that he had defiled by +shameless acts of vice the pontifical palace; that he had +openly diverted himself with hunting; had put out the +eyes of his spiritual father Benedict; had set fire to +houses; had girt himself with a sword, and put on a +helmet and hauberk. All present, laymen as well as +priests, cried out that he had drunk to the devil's health; +that in throwing the dice he had invoked the help of +Jupiter, Venus, and other demons; that he had celebrated +matins at uncanonical hours, and had not fortified +himself by making the sign of the cross. After these +things the Emperor, who could not speak Latin, since +the Romans could not understand his native, that is to +say, the Saxon tongue, bade Liudprand bishop of Cremona +interpret for him, and adjured the council to declare +whether the charges they had brought were true, or +sprang only of malice and envy. Then all the clergy +and people cried with a loud voice, 'If John the Pope +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span> +hath not committed all the crimes which Benedict the +deacon hath read over, and even greater crimes than +these, then may the chief of the Apostles, the blessed +Peter, who by his word closes heaven to the unworthy +and opens it to the just, never absolve us from our sins, +but may we be bound by the chain of anathema, and on +the last day may we stand on the left hand along with +those who have said to the Lord God, "Depart from us, +for we will not know Thy ways."'</p> + +<p>The solemnity of this answer seems to have satisfied +Otto and the council: a letter was despatched to John, +couched in respectful terms, recounting the charges +brought against him, and asking him to appear to clear +himself by his own oath and that of a sufficient number +of compurgators. John's reply was short and pithy.</p> + +<p>'John the bishop, the servant of the servants of God, +to all the bishops. We have heard tell that you wish to +set up another Pope: if you do this, by Almighty God +I excommunicate you, so that you may not have power +to perform mass or to ordain no one<a name="FNanchor_153" id="FNanchor_153" href="#Footnote_153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a>.'</p> + +<p>To this Otto and the synod replied by a letter of +humorous expostulation, begging the Pope to reform +both his morals and his Latin. But the messenger who +bore it could not find John: he had repeated what seems +to have been thought his most heinous sin, by going into +the country with his bow and arrows; and after a search +had been made in vain, the synod resolved to take a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span> +decisive step. Otto, who still led their deliberations, +demanded the condemnation of the Pope; the assembly +<span class="sidenote">Deposition +of John +XII.</span> +deposed him by acclamation, 'because of his reprobate +life,' and having obtained the Emperor's consent, proceeded +in an equally hasty manner to raise Leo, +the chief secretary and a layman, to the chair of the +Apostle.</p> + +<p>Otto might seem to have now reached a position +loftier and firmer than that of any of his predecessors. +Within little more than a year from his arrival in Rome, +he had exercised powers greater than those of Charles +himself, ordering the dethronement of one pontiff and the +installation of another, forcing a reluctant people to bend +themselves to his will. The submission involved in his +oath to protect the Holy See was more than compensated +by the oath of allegiance to his crown which the Pope +and the Romans had taken, and by their solemn engagement +not to elect nor ordain any future pontiff without +the Emperor's consent<a name="FNanchor_154" id="FNanchor_154" href="#Footnote_154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a>. But he had yet to learn what +this obedience and these oaths were worth. The Romans +had eagerly joined in the expulsion of John; they soon +began to regret him. They were mortified to see their +streets filled by a foreign soldiery, the habitual licence +of their manners sternly repressed, their most cherished +privilege, the right of choosing the universal bishop, +grasped by the strong hand of a master who used it +for purposes in which they did not sympathize. In a +fickle and turbulent people, disaffection quickly turned to +rebellion. One night, Otto's troops being most of them +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Revolt of +the Romans.</span> +dispersed in their quarters at a distance, the Romans rose +in arms, blocked up the Tiber bridges, and fell furiously +upon the Emperor and his creature the new Pope. Superior +valour and constancy triumphed over numbers, and +the Romans were overthrown with terrible slaughter; yet +this lesson did not prevent them from revolting a second +time, after Otto's departure in pursuit of Adalbert. John +the Twelfth returned to the city, and when his pontifical +career was speedily closed by the sword of an injured +husband<a name="FNanchor_155" id="FNanchor_155" href="#Footnote_155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a>, +the people chose a new Pope in defiance of the +Emperor and his nominee. Otto again subdued and +again forgave them, but when they rebelled for a third +time, in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 966, he resolved to shew them what imperial +supremacy meant. Thirteen leaders, among them the +twelve tribunes, were executed, the consuls were banished, +republican forms entirely suppressed, the government of +the city entrusted to Pope Leo as viceroy. He, too, must +not presume on the sacredness of his person to set up +any claims to independence. Otto regarded the pontiff +as no more than the first of his subjects, the creature of +his own will, the depositary of an authority which must +be exercised according to the discretion of his sovereign. +The citizens yielded to the Emperor an absolute veto on +papal elections in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 963. Otto obtained from his nominee, +Leo VIII, a confirmation of this privilege, which +it was afterwards supposed that Hadrian I had granted to +Charles, in a decree which may yet be read in the collections +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span> +of the canon law<a name="FNanchor_156" id="FNanchor_156" href="#Footnote_156" class="fnanchor">[156]</a>. The vigorous exercise of such +a power might be expected to reform as well as to restrain +the apostolic see; and it was for this purpose, and +in noble honesty, that the Teutonic sovereigns employed +it. But the fortunes of Otto in the city are a type of +those which his successors were destined to experience. +Notwithstanding their clear rights and the momentary +enthusiasm with which they were greeted in Rome, not +all the efforts of Emperor after Emperor could gain any +firm hold on the capital they were so proud of. Visiting +it only once or twice in their reigns, they must be +supported among a fickle populace by a large army +of strangers, which melted away with terrible rapidity +under the sun of Italy amid the deadly hollows of the +Campagna<a name="FNanchor_157" id="FNanchor_157" href="#Footnote_157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a>. Rome soon resumed her turbulent independence.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Otto's rule +in Italy.</p> + +<p>Causes partly the same prevented the Saxon princes +from gaining a firm footing throughout Italy. Since +Charles the Bald had bartered away for the crown all +that made it worth having, no Emperor had exercised +substantial authority there. The <i lang="la">missi dominici</i> had +ceased to traverse the country; the local governors had +thrown off control, a crowd of petty potentates had +established principalities by aggressions on their weaker +neighbours. Only in the dominions of great nobles, like +the marquises of Tuscany and Spoleto, and in some of +the cities where the supremacy of the bishop was paving +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span> +the way for a republican system, could traces of political +order be found, or the arts of peace flourish. Otto, who, +though he came as a conqueror, ruled legitimately as +Italian king, found his feudal vassals less submissive than +in Germany. While actually present he succeeded by +progresses and edicts, and stern justice, in doing something +to still the turmoil; on his departure Italy relapsed +into that disorganization for which her natural features +are not less answerable than the mixture of her races. +Yet it was at this era, when the confusion was wildest, +that there appeared the first rudiments of an Italian +nationality, based partly on geographical position, partly +on the use of a common language and the slow growth +of peculiar customs and modes of thought. But though +already jealous of the Tedescan, national feeling was still +very far from disputing his sway. Pope, princes, and +cities bowed to Otto as king and Emperor; nor did he +bethink himself of crushing while it was weak a sentiment +whose development threatened the existence of his empire. +Holding Italy equally for his own with Germany, +and ruling both on the same principles, he was content to +keep it a separate kingdom, neither changing its institutions +nor sending Saxons, as Charles had sent Franks, +to represent his government<a name="FNanchor_158" id="FNanchor_158" href="#Footnote_158" class="fnanchor">[158]</a>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Otto's +foreign +policy.</p> + +<p>The lofty claims which Otto acquired with the Roman +crown urged him to resume the plans of foreign conquest +which had lain neglected since the days of Charles: the +growing vigour of the Teutonic people, now definitely +separating themselves from surrounding races (this is the +era of the Marks—Brandenburg, Meissen, Schleswig), +placed in his hands a force to execute those plans which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span> +his predecessors had wanted. In this, as in his other +enterprises, the great Emperor was active, wise, successful. +Retaining the extreme south of Italy, and unwilling +to confess the loss of Rome, the Greeks had not +ceased to annoy her German masters by intrigue, and +might now, under the vigorous leadership of Nicephorus +and Tzimiskes, hope again to menace them in arms. +Policy, and the fascination which an ostentatiously +legitimate court exercised over the Saxon stranger, made +<span class="sidenote">Towards +Byzantium.</span> +Otto, as Napoleon wooed Maria Louisa, seek for his heir +the hand of the princess Theophano. Liudprand's account +of his embassy represents in an amusing manner +the rival pretensions of the old and new Empires<a name="FNanchor_159" id="FNanchor_159" href="#Footnote_159" class="fnanchor">[159]</a>. The +Greeks, who fancied that with the name they preserved +the character and rights of Rome, held it almost as +absurd as it was wicked that a Frank should insult their +prerogative by reigning in Italy as Emperor. They refused +him that title altogether; and when the Pope +had, in a letter addressed '<i lang="la">Imperatori Græcorum</i>,' asked +Nicephorus to gratify the wishes of the Emperor of the +Romans, the Eastern was furious. 'You are no Romans,' +said he, 'but wretched Lombards: what means +this insolent Pope? with Constantine all Rome migrated +hither.' The wily bishop appeased him by abusing the +Romans, while he insinuated that Byzantium could lay +no claim to their name, and proceeded to vindicate the +Francia and Saxonia of his master. '"Roman" is the +most contemptuous name we can use—it conveys the +reproach of every vice, cowardice, falsehood, avarice. +But what can be expected from the descendants of the +fratricide Romulus? to his asylum were gathered the +offscourings of the nations: thence came these <span class="greek" title="kosmokratores">κοσμοκράτορες</span>.' +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span> +Nicephorus demanded the 'theme' or province +of Rome as the price of compliance<a name="FNanchor_160" id="FNanchor_160" href="#Footnote_160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a>; +Tzimiskes +was more moderate, and Theophano became the bride of +Otto II.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Towards +the West +Franks.</p> + +<p>Holding the two capitals of Charles the Great, Otto +might vindicate the suzerainty over the West Frankish +kingdom which it had been meant that the imperial title +should carry with it. Arnulf had asserted it by making +Eudes, the first Capetian king, receive the crown as his +feudatory: Henry the Fowler had been less successful. +Otto pursued the same course, intriguing with the discontented +nobles of Louis d'Outremer, and receiving their +fealty as Superior of Roman Gaul. These pretensions, +however, could have been made effective only by arms, +and the feudal militia of the tenth century was no such +instrument of conquest as the hosts of Clovis and Charles +had been. The star of the Carolingian of Laon was +paling before the rising greatness of the Parisian Capets: a +Romano-Keltic nation had formed itself, distinct in tongue +from the Franks, whom it was fast absorbing, and still less +willing to submit to a Saxon stranger. Modern France<a name="FNanchor_161" id="FNanchor_161" href="#Footnote_161" class="fnanchor">[161]</a> + +dates from the accession of Hugh Capet, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 987, and +the claims of the Roman Empire were never afterwards +formally admitted.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Lorraine +and Burgundy.</p> + +<p>Of that France, however, Aquitaine was virtually independent. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span> +Lotharingia and Burgundy belonged to it as +little as did England. The former of these kingdoms had +adhered to the West Frankish king, Charles the Simple, +against the East Frankish Conrad: but now, as mostly +German in blood and speech, threw itself into the +arms of Otto, and was thenceforth an integral part of +the Empire. Burgundy, a separate kingdom, had, by +seeking from Charles the Fat a ratification of Boso's +election, by admitting, in the person of Rudolf the first +Transjurane king, the feudal superiority of Arnulf, acknowledged +itself to be dependent on the German crown. +Otto governed it for thirty years, nominally as the guardian +of the young king Conrad (son of Rudolf II).</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Denmark +and the +Slaves.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">England.</p> + +<p>Otto's conquests to the North and East approved him a +worthy successor of the first Emperor. He penetrated +far into Jutland, annexed Schleswig, made Harold the +Blue-toothed his vassal. The Slavic tribes were obliged +to submit, to follow the German host in war, to allow the +free preaching of the Gospel in their borders. The +Hungarians he forced to forsake their nomad life, and +delivered Europe from the fear of Asiatic invasions by +strengthening the frontier of Austria. Over more distant +lands, Spain and England, it was not possible to recover +the commanding position of Charles. Henry, as head of +the Saxon name, may have wished to unite its branches +on both sides the sea<a name="FNanchor_162" id="FNanchor_162" href="#Footnote_162" class="fnanchor">[162]</a>, +and it was perhaps partly with this +intent that he gained for Otto the hand of Edith, sister +of the English Athelstan. But the claim of supremacy, +if any there was, was repudiated by Edgar, when, exaggerating +the lofty style assumed by some of his predecessors, +he called himself '<span lang="la">Basileus</span> and imperator of Britain<a name="FNanchor_163" id="FNanchor_163" href="#Footnote_163" class="fnanchor">[163]</a> +,' +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span> +thereby seeming to pretend to a sovereignty over all the +nations of the island similar to that which the Roman +Emperor claimed over the states of Christendom.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Extent of +Otto's Empire.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Comparison +between it +and that of +Charles.</p> + +<p>This restored Empire, which professed itself a continuation +of the Carolingian, was in many respects different. +It was less wide, including, if we reckon strictly, only +Germany proper and two-thirds of Italy; or counting in +subject but separate kingdoms, Burgundy, Bohemia, Moravia, +Poland, Denmark, perhaps Hungary. Its character +was less ecclesiastical. Otto exalted indeed the spiritual +potentates of his realm, and was earnest in spreading Christianity +among the heathen: he was master of the Pope and +Defender of the Holy Roman Church. But religion held +a less important place in his mind and his administration: +he made fewer wars for its sake, held no councils, and did +not, like his predecessor, criticize the discourses of bishops. +It was also less Roman. We do not know whether Otto +associated with that name anything more than the right to +universal dominion and a certain oversight of matters +spiritual, nor how far he believed himself to be treading +in the steps of the Cæsars. He could not speak Latin, he +had few learned men around him, he cannot have possessed +the varied cultivation which had been so fruitful in +the mind of Charles. Moreover, the conditions of his +time were different, and did not permit similar attempts at +wide organization. The local potentates would have submitted +to no <i lang="la">missi dominici</i>; separate laws and jurisdictions +would not have yielded to imperial capitularies; the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span> +<i lang="la">placita</i> at which those laws were framed or published would +not have been crowded, as of yore, by armed freemen. But +what Otto could he did, and did it to good purpose. Constantly +traversing his dominions, he introduced a peace +and prosperity before unknown, and left everywhere the +impress of an heroic character. Under him the Germans +became not only a united nation, but were at once raised +on a pinnacle among European peoples as the imperial +race, the possessors of Rome and Rome's authority. +While the political connection with Italy stirred their +spirit, it brought with it a knowledge and culture hitherto +unknown, and gave the newly-kindled energy an object. +Germany became in her turn the instructress of the neighbouring +tribes, who trembled at Otto's sceptre; Poland +and Bohemia received from her their arts and their +learning with their religion. If the revived Romano-Germanic +Empire was less splendid than the Empire of +the West had been under Charles, it was, within narrower +limits, firmer and more lasting, since based on a social +force which the other had wanted. It perpetuated the +name, the language, the literature, such as it then was, of +Rome; it extended her spiritual sway; it strove to represent +that concentration for which men cried, and became +a power to unite and civilize Europe.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Otto II, +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 973-983.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Otto III, +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 983-1002.</p> + +<p>The time of Otto the Great has required a fuller treatment, +as the era of the Holy Empire's foundation: succeeding +rulers may be more quickly dismissed. Yet +Otto III's reign cannot pass unnoticed: short, sad, full of +bright promise never fulfilled. His mother was the Greek +princess Theophano; his preceptor, the illustrious Gerbert: +through the one he felt himself connected with the old +Empire, and had imbibed the absolutism of Byzantium; +by the other he had been reared in the dream of a renovated +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">His ideas. +Fascination +exercised +over him by +the name of +Rome.</span> + +Rome, with her memories turned to realities. To +accomplish that renovation, who so fit as he who with the +vigorous blood of the Teutonic conqueror inherited the +venerable rights of Constantinople? It was his design, +now that the solemn millennial era of the founding of +Christianity had arrived, to renew the majesty of the city +and make her again the capital of a world-embracing +Empire, victorious as Trajan's, despotic as Justinian's, +holy as Constantine's. His young and visionary mind +was too much dazzled by the gorgeous fancies it created +to see the world as it was: Germany rude, Italy unquiet, +Rome corrupt and faithless. In <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 994, at the age of +sixteen, he took from his mother's hands the reins of +government, and entered Italy to receive his crown, and +quell the turbulence of Rome. There he put to death the +rebel Crescentius, in whom modern enthusiasm has seen a +patriotic republican, who, reviving the institutions of Alberic, +had ruled as consul or senator, sometimes entitling +himself Emperor<a name="FNanchor_164" id="FNanchor_164" href="#Footnote_164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a>. The young monarch reclaimed, perhaps +extended, the privilege of Charles and Otto the Great, +by nominating successive pontiffs: first Bruno his cousin +(Gregory V), then Gerbert, whose name of Sylvester II +<span class="sidenote">Pope +Sylvester II, +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1000.</span> +recalled significantly the ally of Constantine: Gerbert, to +his contemporaries a marvel of piety and learning, in later +legend the magician who, at the price of his own soul, +purchased preferment from the Enemy, and by him was +at last carried off in the body. With the substitution of +these men for the profligate priests of Italy, began that +Teutonic reform of the Papacy which raised it from the +abyss of the tenth century to the point where Hildebrand +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span> +found it. The Emperors were working the ruin of their +power by their most disinterested acts.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Schemes of +Otto III: +Changes of +style and +usage.</p> + +<p>With his tutor on Peter's chair to second or direct +him, Otto laboured on his great project in a spirit almost +mystic. He had an intense religious belief in the +Emperor's duties to the world—in his proclamations he +calls himself 'Servant of the Apostles,' 'Servant of Jesus +Christ<a name="FNanchor_165" id="FNanchor_165" href="#Footnote_165" class="fnanchor">[165]</a> +'—together with the ambitious antiquarianism of +a fiery imagination, kindled by the memorials of the glory +and power he represented. Even the wording of his laws +witnesses to the strange mixture of notions that filled his +eager brain. 'We have ordained this,' says an edict, 'in +order that, the church of God being freely and firmly +stablished, our Empire may be advanced and the crown of +our knighthood triumph; that the power of the Roman +people may be extended and the commonwealth be restored; +so may we be found worthy after living righteously +in the tabernacle of this world, to fly away from the prison +of this life and reign most righteously with the Lord.' To +exclude the claims of the Greeks he used the title '<i lang="la">Romanorum +Imperator</i>' instead of the simple '<i>Imperator</i>' of his +predecessors. His seals bear a legend resembling that +used by Charles, '<i lang="la">Renovatio Imperii Romanorum</i>;' even +the 'commonwealth,' despite the results that name had produced +under Alberic and Crescentius, was to be re-established. +He built a palace on the Aventine, then the most +healthy and beautiful quarter of the city; he devised +a regular administrative system of government for his +capital—naming a patrician, a prefect, and a body of +judges, who were commanded to recognize no law but +Justinian's. The formula of their appointment has been +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span> +preserved to us: in it the Emperor delivering to the judge +a copy of the code bids him 'with this code judge Rome +and the Leonine city and the whole world.' He introduced +into the simple German court the ceremonious +magnificence of Byzantium, not without giving offence to +many of his followers<a name="FNanchor_166" id="FNanchor_166" href="#Footnote_166" class="fnanchor">[166]</a>. His father's wish to draw Italy +and Germany more closely together, he followed up by +giving the chancellorship of both countries to the same +churchman, by maintaining a strong force of Germans in +Italy, and by taking his Italian retinue with him through +the Transalpine lands. How far these brilliant and far-reaching +plans were capable of realization, had their +author lived to attempt it, can be but guessed at. It is +reasonable to suppose that whatever power he might have +gained in the South he would have lost in the North. +Dwelling rarely in Germany, and in sympathies more a +Greek than a Teuton, he reined in the fierce barons with +no such tight hand as his grandfather had been wont to +do; he neglected the schemes of northern conquest; he +released the Polish dukes from the obligation of tribute. +But all, save that those plans were his, is now no more +than conjecture, for Otto III, 'the wonder of the world,' +as his own generation called him, died childless on the +threshold of manhood; the victim, if we may trust a story +of the time, of the revenge of Stephania, widow of Crescentius, +who ensnared him by her beauty, and slew him +by a lingering poison. They carried him across the Alps +with laments whose echoes sound faintly yet from the +pages of monkish chroniclers, and buried him in the choir +of the basilica at Aachen some fifty paces from the tomb +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span> +of Charles beneath the central dome. Two years had not +passed since, setting out on his last journey to Rome, he +had opened that tomb, had gazed on the great Emperor, +sitting on a marble throne, robed and crowned, with the +Gospel-book open before him; and there, touching the +dead hand, unclasping from the neck its golden cross, had +taken, as it were, an investiture of Empire from his +Frankish forerunner. Short as was his life and few his +acts, Otto III is in one respect more memorable than any +who went before or came after him. None save he desired +to make the seven-hilled city again the seat of dominion, +reducing Germany and Lombardy and Greece to +their rightful place of subject provinces. No one else so +forgot the present to live in the light of the ancient order; +no other soul was so possessed by that fervid mysticism +and that reverence for the glories of the past, whereon +rested the idea of the mediæval Empire.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Italy independent.</p> + +<p>The direct line of Otto the Great had now ended, and +though the Franks might elect and the Saxons accept +Henry II<a name="FNanchor_167" id="FNanchor_167" href="#Footnote_167" class="fnanchor">[167]</a>, +Italy was nowise affected by their acts. +Neither the Empire nor the Lombard kingdom could +as yet be of right claimed by the German king. Her +princes placed Ardoin, marquis of Ivrea, on the vacant +throne of Pavia, moved partly by the growing aversion +to a Transalpine power, still more by the desire of impunity +under a monarch feebler than any since Berengar. +But the selfishness that had exalted Ardoin soon overthrew +him. Ere long a party among the nobles, seconded +by the Pope, invited Henry<a name="FNanchor_168" id="FNanchor_168" href="#Footnote_168" class="fnanchor">[168]</a>; +his strong army made +opposition hopeless, and at Rome he received the imperial +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Henry II +Emperor.</span> + +crown, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1014. It is, perhaps, more singular +that the Transalpine kings should have clung so pertinaciously +to Italian sovereignty than that the Lombards +should have so frequently attempted to recover their +independence. For the former had often little or no +hereditary claim, they were not secure in their seat at +home, they crossed a huge mountain barrier into a land +of treachery and hatred. But Rome's glittering lure was +irresistible, and the disunion of Italy promised an easy +conquest. Surrounded by martial vassals, these Emperors +were generally for the moment supreme: once their +pennons had disappeared in the gorges of Tyrol, things +reverted to their former condition, and Tuscany was little +more dependent than France. +<span class="sidenote">Southern +Italy.</span> +In Southern Italy the +Greek viceroy ruled from Bari, and Rome was an outpost +instead of the centre of Teutonic power. A curious evidence +of the wavering politics of the time is furnished by the +Annals of Benevento, the Lombard town which on the +confines of the Greek and Roman realms gave steady +obedience to neither. They usually date by and recognize +the princes of Constantinople<a name="FNanchor_169" id="FNanchor_169" href="#Footnote_169" class="fnanchor">[169]</a>, +seldom mentioning +the Franks, till the reign of Conrad II; after him +the Western becomes <i>Imperator</i>, the Greek, appearing +more rarely, is <i lang="la">Imperator Constantinopolitanus</i>. Assailed +by the Saracens, masters already of Sicily, these regions +seemed on the eve of being lost to Christendom, and the +Romans sometimes bethought themselves of returning +under the Byzantine sceptre. As the weakness of the +Greeks in the South favoured the rise of the Norman +kingdom, so did the liberties of the northern cities shoot +up in the absence of the Emperors and the feuds of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span> +princes. Milan, Pavia, Cremona, were only the foremost +among many populous centres of industry, some of them +self-governing, all quickly absorbing or repelling the +rural nobility, and not afraid to display by tumults their +aversion to the Germans.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Conrad II.</p> + +<p>The reign of Conrad II, the first monarch of the +great Franconian line, is remarkable for the accession +to the Empire of Burgundy, or, as it is after this time +more often called, the kingdom of Arles<a name="FNanchor_170" id="FNanchor_170" href="#Footnote_170" class="fnanchor">[170]</a>. Rudolf III, +the last king, had proposed to bequeath it to Henry II, +and the states were at length persuaded to consent to +its reunion to the crown from which it had been +separated, though to some extent dependent, since the +death of Lothar I (son of Lewis the Pious). On Rudolf's +death in 1032, Eudes, count of Champagne, endeavoured +to seize it, and entered the north-western districts, from +which he was dislodged by Conrad with some difficulty. +Unlike Italy, it became an integral member of the Germanic +realm: its prelates and nobles sat in imperial +diets, and retained till recently the style and title of +Princes of the Holy Empire. The central government +was, however, seldom effective in these outlying territories, +exposed always to the intrigues, finally to the aggressions, +of Capetian France.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Henry III.</p> + +<p>Under Conrad's son Henry the Third the Empire +attained the meridian of its power. At home Otto the +Great's prerogative had not stood so high. The duchies, +always the chief source of fear, were allowed to remain +vacant or filled by the relatives of the monarch, who +himself retained, contrary to usual practice, those of +Franconia and (for some years) Swabia. Abbeys and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">His reform +of the Popedom.</span> + +sees lay entirely in his gift. Intestine feuds were repressed +by the proclamation of a public peace. Abroad, +the feudal superiority over Hungary, which Henry II had +gained by conferring the title of King with the hand of +his sister Gisela, was enforced by war, the country made +almost a province, and compelled to pay tribute. In +Rome no German sovereign had ever been so absolute. +A disgraceful contest between three claimants of the +papal chair had shocked even the reckless apathy of +Italy. Henry deposed them all, and appointed their +successor: he became hereditary patrician, and wore +constantly the green mantle and circlet of gold which +were the badges of that office, seeming, one might think, +to find in it some further authority than that which the +imperial name conferred. The synod passed a decree +granting to Henry the right of nominating the supreme +pontiff; and the Roman priesthood, who had forfeited +the respect of the world even more by habitual simony +than by the flagrant corruption of their manners, were +forced to receive German after German as their bishop, +at the bidding of a ruler so powerful, so severe, and +so pious. But Henry's encroachments alarmed his own +nobles no less than the Italians, and the reaction, which +might have been dangerous to himself, was fatal to his +successor. A mere chance, as some might call it, determined +the course of history. The great Emperor died +<span class="sidenote">Henry IV, +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1056-1106.</span> +suddenly in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1056, and a child was left at the helm, +while storms were gathering that might have demanded +the wisest hand. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER X.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">STRUGGLE OF THE EMPIRE AND THE PAPACY.</span></h2> + +<p>Reformed by the Emperors and their Teutonic nominees, +the Papacy had resumed in the middle of the +eleventh century the schemes of polity shadowed forth by +Nicholas I, and which the degradation of the last age had +only suspended. Under the guidance of her greatest +mind, Hildebrand, the archdeacon of Rome, she now +advanced to their completion, and proclaimed that war +of the ecclesiastical power against the civil power in the +person of the Emperor, which became the centre of the +subsequent history of both. While the nature of the +struggle cannot be understood without a glance at their +previous connection, the vastness of the subject warns +one from the attempt to draw even its outlines, and restricts +our view to those relations of Popedom and +Empire which arise directly out of their respective +positions as heads spiritual and temporal of the universal +Christian state.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Growth of +the Papal +power.</p> + +<p>The eagerness of Christianity in the age immediately +following her political establishment to purchase by submission +the support of the civil power, has been already +remarked. The change from independence to supremacy +was gradual. The tale we smile at, how Constantine, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">154</a></span> +healed of his leprosy, granted the West to bishop Sylvester, +and retired to Byzantium that no secular prince +might interfere with the jurisdiction or profane the neighbourhood +of Peter's chair, worked great effects through +the belief it commanded for many centuries. Nay more, +its groundwork was true. It was the removal of the seat +of government from the Tiber to the Bosphorus that +made the Pope the greatest personage in the city, and in +the prostration after Alaric's invasion he was seen to be +so. Henceforth he alone was a permanent and effective, +though still unacknowledged power, as truly superior to +the revived senate and consuls of the phantom republic as +Augustus and Tiberius had been to the faint continuance +of their earlier prototypes. Pope Leo the First asserted +the universal jurisdiction of his see<a name="FNanchor_171" id="FNanchor_171" href="#Footnote_171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a>, +and his persevering +successors slowly enthralled Italy, Illyricum, Gaul, Spain, +Africa, dexterously confounding their undoubted metropolitan +and patriarchal rights with those of œcumenical +bishop, in which they were finally merged. By his +writings and the fame of his personal sanctity, by the +conversion of England and the introduction of an impressive +ritual, Gregory the Great did more than any +other pontiff to advance Rome's ecclesiastical authority. +Yet his tone to Maurice of Constantinople was deferential, +to Phocas adulatory; his successors were not consecrated +till confirmed by the Emperor or the Exarch; +one of them was dragged in chains to the Bosphorus, and +banished thence to Scythia. When the iconoclastic controversy +and the intervention of Pipin broke the allegiance +of the Popes to the East, the Franks, as patricians +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">155</a></span> + +and Emperors, seemed to step into the position which +Byzantium had lost<a name="FNanchor_172" id="FNanchor_172" href="#Footnote_172" class="fnanchor">[172]</a>. At Charles's coronation, says the +Saxon poet,</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="i4"><span lang="la">'Et summus eundem</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Præsul adoravit, sicut mos debitus olim</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Principibus fuit antiquis.'</span></p> +</div></div> + +<p>Their relations +<span class="sidenote">Relations of + the Papacy + and the + Empire.</span> + were, however, no longer the same. If +the Frank vaunted conquest, the priest spoke only of +free gift. What Christendom saw was that Charles was +crowned by the Pope's hands, and undertook as his +principal duty the protection and advancement of the +Holy Roman Church. The circumstances of Otto the +Great's coronation gave an even more favourable opening +to sacerdotal claims, for it was a Pope who summoned +him to Rome and a Pope who received from him an oath +of fidelity and aid. In the conflict of three powers, the +Emperor, the pontiff, and the people—represented by +their senate and consuls, or by the demagogue of the +hour—the most steady, prudent, and far-sighted was sure +eventually to prevail. The Popedom had no minorities, +as yet few disputed successions, few revolts within its own +army—the host of churchmen through Europe. Boniface's +conversion of Germany under its direct sanction, +gave it a hold on the rising hierarchy of the greatest +European state; the extension of the rule of Charles and +Otto diffused in the same measure its emissaries and pretensions. +The first disputes turned on the right of the +prince to confirm the elected pontiff, which was afterwards +supposed to have been granted by Hadrian I to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">156</a></span> +Charles, in the decree quoted as '<i lang="la">Hadrianus Papa</i><a name="FNanchor_173" id="FNanchor_173" href="#Footnote_173" class="fnanchor">[173]</a>.' +This '<i lang="la">ius eligendi et ordinandi summum pontificem</i>,' which +Lewis I appears as yielding by the '<i lang="la">Ego Ludovicus</i><a name="FNanchor_174" id="FNanchor_174" href="#Footnote_174" class="fnanchor">[174]</a> +,' was +claimed by the Carolingians whenever they felt themselves +strong enough, and having fallen into desuetude +in the troublous times of the Italian Emperors, was formally +renewed to Otto the Great by his nominee Leo VIII. +We have seen it used, and used in the purest spirit, by +Otto himself, by his grandson Otto III, last of all, and +most despotically, by Henry III. Along with it there +had grown up a bold counter-assumption of the Papal +chair to be itself the source of the imperial dignity. In +submitting to a fresh coronation, Lewis the Pious admitted +the invalidity of his former self-performed one: +Charles the Bald did not scout the arrogant declaration +of John VIII<a name="FNanchor_175" id="FNanchor_175" href="#Footnote_175" class="fnanchor">[175]</a>, +that to him alone the Emperor owed his +crown; and the council of Pavia<a name="FNanchor_176" id="FNanchor_176" href="#Footnote_176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a>, +when it chose him +king of Italy, repeated the assertion. Subsequent Popes +knew better than to apply to the chiefs of Saxon and +Franconian chivalry language which the feeble Neustrian +had not resented; but the precedent remained, the weapon +was only hid behind the pontifical robe to be flashed +out with effect when the moment should come. There +were also two other great steps which papal power had +taken. By the invention and adoption of the False +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Temporal +power of +the Popes.</span> +Decretals it had provided itself with a legal system suited +to any emergency, and which gave it unlimited authority +through the Christian world in causes spiritual and over +persons ecclesiastical. Canonistical ingenuity found it +easy in one way or another to make this include all +causes and persons whatsoever: for crime is always and +wrong is often sin, nor can aught be anywhere done +which may not affect the clergy. On the gift of Pipin +and Charles, repeated and confirmed by Lewis I, +Charles II, Otto I and III, and now made to rest on the +more venerable authority of the first Christian Emperor, +it could found claims to the sovereignty of Rome, Tuscany, +and all else that had belonged to the exarchate. +Indefinite in their terms, these grants were never meant +by the donors to convey full dominion over the districts—that +belonged to the head of the Empire—but only as +in the case of other church estates, a perpetual usufruct +or <i>dominium utile</i>. They were, in fact, mere endowments. +Nor had the gifts been ever actually reduced into possession: +the Pope had been hitherto the victim, not the lord, +of the neighbouring barons. They were not, however, +denied, and might be made a formidable engine of attack: +appealing to them, the Pope could brand his opponents as +unjust and impious; and could summon nobles and cities +to defend him as their liege lord, just as, with no better +original right, he invoked the help of the Norman conquerors +of Naples and Sicily.</p> + +<p>The attitude of the Roman Church to the imperial +power at Henry the Third's death was externally respectful. +The right of a German king to the crown of the +city was undoubted, and the Pope was his lawful subject. +Hitherto the initiative in reform had come from the civil +magistrate. But the secret of the pontiff's strength lay +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">158</a></span> +in this: he, and he alone, could confer the crown, and +had therefore the right of imposing conditions on its recipient. +Frequent interregna had weakened the claim of +the Transalpine monarch and prevented his power from +taking firm root; his title was never by law hereditary: the +holy Church had before sought and might again seek a +defender elsewhere. And since the need of such defence +had originated this transference of the Empire from +the Greeks to the Franks, since to render it was the +Emperor's chief function, it was surely the Pope's duty as +well as his right to see that the candidate was capable of +fulfilling his task, to degrade him if he rejected or misperformed +it.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Hildebrandine +reforms.</p> + +<p>The first step was to remove a blemish in the constitution +of the Church, by fixing a regular body to choose the +supreme pontiff. This Nicholas II did in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1059, +feebly reserving the rights of Henry IV and his successors. +Then the reforming spirit, kindled by the abuses and depravity +of the last century, advanced apace. It had two +main objects: the enforcement of celibacy, especially on +the secular clergy, who enjoyed in this respect considerable +freedom, and the extinction of simony. In the former, +the Emperors and a large part of the laity were not unwilling +to join: the latter no one dared to defend in +theory. But when Gregory VII declared that it was sin +for the ecclesiastic to receive his benefice under conditions +from a layman, and so condemned the whole system of +feudal investitures to the clergy, he aimed a deadly blow +at all secular authority. Half of the land and wealth of +Germany was in the hands of bishops and abbots, who +would now be freed from the monarch's control to pass +under that of the Pope. In such a state of things government +itself would be impossible. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">159</a></span></p> + +<p class="sidenote">Henry IV +and Gregory +VII.</p> + +<p>Henry and Gregory already mistrusted each other: +after this decree war was inevitable. The Pope cited his +opponent to appear and be judged at Rome for his vices +and misgovernment. The Emperor<a name="FNanchor_177" id="FNanchor_177" href="#Footnote_177" class="fnanchor">[177]</a> + replied by convoking +a synod, which deposed and insulted Gregory. +At once the dauntless monk pronounced Henry excommunicate, +and fixed a day on which, if still unrepentant, +he should cease to reign. Supported by his own princes, +the monarch might have defied a mandate backed by no +external force; but the Saxons, never contented since the +first place had passed from their own dukes to the Franconians, +only waited the signal to burst into a new revolt, +whilst through all Germany the Emperor's tyranny and +irregularities of life had sown the seeds of disaffection. +Shunned, betrayed, threatened, he rushed into what +seemed the only course left, and Canosa saw Europe's +<span class="sidenote"><span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1077.</span> +mightiest prince, titular lord of the world, a suppliant before +the successor of the Apostle. Henry soon found +that his humiliation had not served him; driven back into +opposition, he defied Gregory anew, set up an anti-pope, +overthrew the rival whom his rebellious subjects had +raised, and maintained to the end of his sad and chequered +life a power often depressed but never destroyed. Nevertheless +had all other humiliation been spared, that one +scene in the yard of the Countess Matilda's castle, an +imperial penitent standing barefoot and woollen-frocked +on the snow three days and nights, till the priest who sat +within should admit and absolve him, was enough to mark +a decisive change, and inflict an irretrievable disgrace on +the crown so abased. Its wearer could no more, with the +same lofty confidence, claim to be the highest power on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">160</a></span> +earth, created by and answerable to God alone. Gregory +had extorted the recognition of that absolute superiority of +the spiritual dominion which he was wont to assert so +sternly; proclaiming that to the Pope, as God's vicar, all +mankind are subject, and all rulers responsible: so that +he, the giver of the crown, may also excommunicate and +depose. Writing to William the Conqueror, he says<a name="FNanchor_178" id="FNanchor_178" href="#Footnote_178" class="fnanchor">[178]</a> +: +'For as for the beauty of this world, that it may be at +different seasons perceived by fleshly eyes, God hath disposed +the sun and the moon, lights that outshine all +others; so lest the creature whom His goodness hath +formed after His own image in this world should be drawn +astray into fatal dangers, He hath provided in the apostolic +and royal dignities the means of ruling it through divers +offices.... If I, therefore, am to answer for thee +on the dreadful day of judgment before the just Judge +who cannot lie, the creator of every creature, bethink thee +whether I must not very diligently provide for thy salvation, +and whether, for thine own safety, thou oughtest not +without delay to obey me, that so thou mayest possess the +land of the living.'</p> + +<p>Gregory was not the inventor nor the first propounder +of these doctrines; they had been long before a part of mediæval +Christianity, interwoven with its most vital doctrines. +But he was the first who dared to apply them to the world +as he found it. His was that rarest and grandest of gifts, +an intellectual courage and power of imaginative belief +which, when it has convinced itself of aught, accepts it +fully with all its consequences, and shrinks not from acting +at once upon it. A perilous gift, as the melancholy end +of his own career proved, for men were found less ready +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">161</a></span> +than he had thought them to follow out with unswerving +consistency like his the principles which all acknowledged. +But it was the very suddenness and boldness of his policy +that secured the ultimate triumph of his cause, awing +men's minds and making that seem realized which had +been till then a vague theory. His premises once admitted,—and +no one dreamt of denying them,—the reasonings +by which he established the superiority of spiritual to +temporal jurisdiction were unassailable. With his authority, +in whose hands are the keys of heaven and hell, +whose word can bestow eternal bliss or plunge in everlasting +misery, no other earthly authority can compete or +interfere: if his power extends into the infinite, how much +more must he be supreme over things finite? It was thus +that Gregory and his successors were wont to argue: the +wonder is, not that they were obeyed, but that they were +not obeyed more implicitly. In the second sentence of +excommunication which Gregory passed upon Henry the +Fourth are these words:—</p> + +<p>'Come now, I beseech you, O most holy and blessed +Fathers and Princes, Peter and Paul, that all the world +may understand and know that if ye are able to bind and +to loose in heaven, ye are likewise able on earth, according +to the merits of each man, to give and to take away +empires, kingdoms, princedoms, marquisates, duchies, +countships, and the possessions of all men. For if ye +judge spiritual things, what must we believe to be your +power over worldly things? and if ye judge the angels +who rule over all proud princes, what can ye not do to +their slaves?'</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Results of +the struggle.</p> + +<p>Doctrines such as these do indeed strike equally at all +temporal governments, nor were the Innocents and Bonifaces +of later days slow to apply them so. On the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">162</a></span> +Empire, however, the blow fell first and heaviest. As +when Alaric entered Rome, the spell of ages was broken, +Christendom saw her greatest and most venerable institution +dishonoured and helpless; allegiance was no longer +undivided, for who could presume to fix in each case the +limits of the civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions? The +potentates of Europe beheld in the Papacy a force which, +if dangerous to themselves, could be made to repel the +pretensions and baffle the designs of the strongest and +haughtiest among them. Italy learned how to meet the +Teutonic conqueror by gaining the papal sanction for the +leagues of her cities. The German princes, anxious to +narrow the prerogative of their head, were the natural +allies of his enemy, whose spiritual thunders, more terrible +than their own lances, could enable them to depose an +aspiring monarch, or extort from him any concessions +they desired. Their altered tone is marked by the promise +they required from Rudolf of Swabia, whom they set +up as a rival to Henry, that he would not endeavour to +make the throne hereditary.</p> + +<p>It is not possible here to dwell on the details of the +great struggle of the Investitures, rich as it is in the interest +of adventure and character, momentous as were its +results for the future. A word or two must suffice to +describe the conclusion, not indeed of the whole drama, +which was to extend over centuries, but of what +may be called its first act. Even that act lasted beyond +the lives of the original performers. Gregory the Seventh +passed away at Salerno in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1087, exclaiming with his +last breath 'I have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore +I die in exile.' Nineteen years later, in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1106, +Henry IV died, dethroned by an unnatural son whom the +hatred of a relentless pontiff had raised in rebellion against +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">163</a></span> + +him. But that son, the emperor Henry the Fifth, so far +from conceding the points in dispute, proved an antagonist +more ruthless and not less able than his father. +He claimed for his crown all the rights over ecclesiastics +that his predecessors had ever enjoyed, and when at his +coronation in Rome, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1112, Pope Paschal II refused +to complete the rite until he should have yielded, Henry +seized both Pope and cardinals and compelled them by a +rigorous imprisonment to consent to a treaty which he +dictated. Once set free, the Pope, as was natural, disavowed +his extorted concessions, and the struggle was +protracted for ten years longer, until nearly half a century +had elapsed from the first quarrel between Gregory VII +and Henry IV. +<span class="sidenote">Concordat +of Worms, +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1122.</span> +The Concordat of Worms, concluded in +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1122, was in form a compromise, designed to spare +either party the humiliation of defeat. Yet the Papacy +remained master of the field. The Emperor retained +but one-half of those rights of investiture which had +formerly been his. He could never resume the position +of Henry III; his wishes or intrigues might influence the +proceedings of a chapter, his oath bound him from open +interference. He had entered the strife in the fulness of +dignity; he came out of it with tarnished glory and +shattered power. His wars had been hitherto carried on +with foreign foes, or at worst with a single rebel noble; +now his steadiest ally was turned into his fiercest assailant, +and had enlisted against him half his court, half the magnates +of his realm. At any moment his sceptre might be +shivered in his hand by the bolt of anathema, and a host +of enemies spring up from every convent and cathedral.</p> + +<p>Two other results of this great conflict ought not +to pass unnoticed. The Emperor was alienated from the +Church at the most unfortunate of all moments, the era +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">164</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">The Crusades.</span> +of the Crusades. To conduct a great religious war +against the enemies of the faith, to head the church +militant in her carnal as the Popes were accustomed to +do in her spiritual strife, this was the very purpose for +which an Emperor had been called into being; and it +was indeed in these wars, more particularly in the first +three of them, that the ideal of a Christian commonwealth +which the theory of the mediæval Empire proclaimed, +was once for all and never again realized by the combined +action of the great nations of Europe. Had such an +opportunity fallen to the lot of Henry III, he might have +used it to win back a supremacy hardly inferior to that +which had belonged to the first Carolingians. But Henry +IV's proscription excluded him from all share in an enterprise +which he must otherwise have led—nay, more, +committed it to the guidance of his foes. The religious +feeling which the Crusades evoked—a feeling which +became the origin of the great orders of chivalry, and +somewhat later of the two great orders of mendicant +friars—turned wholly against the opponent of ecclesiastical +claims, and was made to work the will of the Holy +See, which had blessed and organized the project. A +century and a half later the Pope did not scruple to +preach a crusade against the Emperor himself.</p> + +<p>Again: it was now that the first seeds were sown of +that fear and hatred wherewith the German people never +thenceforth ceased to regard the encroaching Romish +court. Branded by the Church and forsaken by the +nobles, Henry IV retained the affections of the faithful +burghers of Worms and Liege. It soon became the test +of Teutonic patriotism to resist Italian priestcraft.</p> + +<p>The changes in the internal constitution of Germany +which the long anarchy of Henry IV's reign had produced +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">165</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Limitations +of imperial +prerogative.</span> +are seen when the nature of the prerogative as it +stood at the accession of Conrad II, the first Franconian +Emperor, is compared with its state at Henry V's death. +All fiefs are now hereditary, and when vacant can be +granted afresh only by consent of the States; the jurisdiction +of the crown is less wide; the idea is beginning to +make progress that the most essential part of the Empire +is not its supreme head but the commonwealth of princes +and barons. The greatest triumph of these feudal magnates +is in the establishment of the elective principle, +which when confirmed by the three free elections of +Lothar II, Conrad III, and Frederick I, passes into an +<span class="sidenote">Lothar II, +1125-1138.</span> +undoubted law. The Prince-Electors are mentioned in +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1156 as a distinct and important body<a name="FNanchor_179" id="FNanchor_179" href="#Footnote_179" class="fnanchor">[179]</a>. The clergy, +too, whom the policy of Otto the Great and Henry II had +raised, are now not less dangerous than the dukes, whose +power it was hoped they would balance; possibly more +so, since protected by their sacred character and their +allegiance to the Pope, while able at the same time to +command the arms of their countless vassals. Nor were +the two succeeding Emperors the men to retrieve those +disasters. The Saxon Lothar the Second is the willing +minion of the Pope; performs at his coronation a menial +service unknown before, and takes a more stringent oath +to defend the Holy See, that he may purchase its support +against the Swabian faction in his own dominions. +<span class="sidenote">Conrad III, +1138-1152.</span> +Conrad the Third, the first Emperor of the great house +of Hohenstaufen<a name="FNanchor_180" id="FNanchor_180" href="#Footnote_180" class="fnanchor">[180]</a>, +represents the anti-papal party; but +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">166</a></span> +domestic troubles and an unfortunate crusade prevented +him from effecting anything in Italy. He never even +entered Rome to receive the crown.</p> + +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">167</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XI.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">THE EMPERORS IN ITALY: FREDERICK BARBAROSSA.</span></h2> + +<p class="sidenote">Frederick +of Hohenstaufen, +1152-1189.</p> + +<p>The reign of Frederick the First, better known under +his Italian surname Barbarossa, is the most brilliant in +the annals of the Empire. Its territory had been wider +under Charles, its strength perhaps greater under Henry +the Third, but it never appeared in such pervading vivid +activity, never shone with such lustre of chivalry, as under +the prince whom his countrymen have taken to be one of +their national heroes, and who is still, as the half-mythic +type of Teutonic character, honoured by picture and +statue, in song and in legend, through the breadth of the +German lands. The reverential fondness of his annalists +and the whole tenour of his life go far to justify this +admiration, and dispose us to believe that nobler motives +were joined with personal ambition in urging him to +assert so haughtily and carry out so harshly those imperial +rights in which he had such unbounded confidence. +Under his guidance the Transalpine power made its +greatest effort to subdue the two antagonists which then +threatened and were fated in the end to destroy it—Italian +nationality and the Papacy.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">His relations +to the +Popedom.</p> + +<p>Even before Gregory VII's time it might have been +predicted that two such potentates as the Emperor and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">168</a></span> +the Pope, closely bound together, yet each with pretensions +wide and undefined, must ere long come into +collision. The boldness of that great pontiff in enforcing, +the unflinching firmness of his successors in maintaining, +the supremacy of clerical authority, inspired their supporters +with a zeal and courage which more than compensated +the advantages of the Emperor in defending +rights he had long enjoyed. On both sides the hatred +was soon very bitter. But even had men's passions +permitted a reconciliation, it would have been found +difficult to bring into harmony adverse principles, each +irresistible, mutually destructive. As the spiritual power, +in itself purer, since exercised over the soul and directed +to the highest of all ends, eternal felicity, was entitled +to the obedience of all, laymen as well as clergy; so +the spiritual person, to whom, according to the view then +universally accepted, there had been imparted by ordination +a mysterious sanctity, could not without sin be subject to +the lay magistrate, be installed by him in office, be judged +in his court, and render to him any compulsory service. +Yet it was no less true that civil government was indispensable +to the peace and advancement of society; and +while it continued to subsist, another jurisdiction could +not be suffered to interfere with its workings, nor one-half +of the people be altogether removed from its control. +Thus the Emperor and the Pope were forced into hostility +as champions of opposite systems, however fully +each might admit the strength of his adversary's position, +however bitterly he might bewail the violence of his own +partisans. There had also arisen other causes of quarrel, +less respectable but not less dangerous. The pontiff +demanded and the monarch refused the lands which the +Countess Matilda of Tuscany had bequeathed to the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">169</a></span> +Holy See; Frederick claiming them as feudal suzerain, +the Pope eager by their means to carry out those +schemes of temporal dominion which Constantine's donation +sanctioned, and Lothar's seeming renunciation of +the sovereignty of Rome had done much to encourage. +As feudal superior of the Norman kings of Naples and +Sicily, as protector of the towns and barons of North +Italy who feared the German yoke, the successor of +Peter wore already the air of an independent potentate.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Contest with +Hadrian IV.</p> + +<p>No man was less likely than Frederick to submit to +these encroachments. He was a sort of imperialist +Hildebrand, strenuously proclaiming the immediate dependence +of his office on God's gift, and holding it every +whit as sacred as his rival's. On his first journey to Rome, +he refused to hold the Pope's stirrup<a name="FNanchor_181" id="FNanchor_181" href="#Footnote_181" class="fnanchor">[181]</a>, +as Lothar had done, +till Pope Hadrian the Fourth's threat that he would withhold +the crown enforced compliance. Complaints arising +not long after on some other ground, the Pope exhorted +Frederick by letter to shew himself worthy of the kindness +of his mother the Roman Church, who had given him +the imperial crown, and would confer on him, if dutiful, +benefits still greater. This word benefits—<i lang="la">beneficia</i>—understood +in its usual legal sense of 'fief,' and taken in +connection with the picture which had been set up at Rome +to commemorate Lothar's homage, provoked angry shouts +from the nobles assembled in diet at Besançon; and when +the legate answered, 'From whom, then, if not from our +Lord the Pope, does your king hold the Empire?' his life +was not safe from their fury. On this occasion Frederick's +vigour and the remonstrances of the Transalpine prelates +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">170</a></span> +obliged Hadrian to explain away the obnoxious word, and +remove the picture. Soon after the quarrel was renewed +by other causes, and came to centre itself round the Pope's +demand that Rome should be left entirely to his government. +Frederick, in reply, appeals to the civil law, and +closes with the words, 'Since by the ordination of God I +both am called and am Emperor of the Romans, in +nothing but name shall I appear to be ruler if the control +of the Roman city be wrested from my hands.' That +such a claim should need assertion marks the change since +Henry III; how much more that it could not be enforced. +Hadrian's tone rises into defiance; he mingles the threat +of excommunication with references to the time when the +Germans had not yet the Empire. 'What were the Franks +till Zacharias welcomed Pipin? What is the Teutonic +king now till consecrated at Rome by holy hands? The +chair of Peter has given, and can withdraw its gifts.'</p> + +<p class="sidenote">With Pope +Alexander +III.</p> + +<p>The schism that followed Hadrian's death produced a +second and more momentous conflict. Frederick, as head +of Christendom, proposed to summon the bishops of +Europe to a general council, over which he should preside, +like Justinian or Heraclius. Quoting the favourite +text of the two swords, 'On earth,' he continues, 'God +has placed no more than two powers: above there is but +one God, so here one Pope and one Emperor. The +Divine Providence has specially appointed the Roman +Empire as a remedy against continued schism<a name="FNanchor_182" id="FNanchor_182" href="#Footnote_182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a>.' The +plan failed; and Frederick adopted the candidate whom +his own faction had chosen, while the rival claimant, +Alexander III, appealed, with a confidence which the +issue justified, to the support of sound churchmen throughout +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">171</a></span> +Europe. The keen and long doubtful strife of twenty +years that followed, while apparently a dispute between +rival Popes, was in substance an effort by the secular +monarch to recover his command of the priesthood; not +less truly so than that contemporaneous conflict of the +English Henry II and St. Thomas of Canterbury, with +which it was constantly involved. Unsupported, not all +Alexander's genius and resolution could have saved him: +by the aid of the Lombard cities, whose league he had +counselled and hallowed, and of the fevers of Rome, by +which the conquering German host was suddenly annihilated, +he won a triumph the more signal, that it was over +a prince so wise and so pious as Frederick. At Venice, +who, inaccessible by her position, maintained a sedulous +neutrality, claiming to be independent of the Empire, yet +seldom led into war by sympathy with the Popes, the two +powers whose strife had roused all Europe were induced +to meet by the mediation of the doge Sebastian Ziani. +Three slabs of red marble in the porch of St. Mark's point +out the spot where Frederick knelt in sudden awe, and +the Pope with tears of joy raised him, and gave the kiss +of peace. A later legend, to which poetry and painting +have given an undeserved currency<a name="FNanchor_183" id="FNanchor_183" href="#Footnote_183" class="fnanchor">[183]</a>, +tells how the pontiff +set his foot on the neck of the prostrate king, with the +words, 'The lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under +feet<a name="FNanchor_184" id="FNanchor_184" href="#Footnote_184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a>.' It needed not this exaggeration to enhance the +significance of that scene, even more full of meaning for +the future than it was solemn and affecting to the Venetian +crowd that thronged the church and the piazza. For it +was the renunciation by the mightiest prince of his time of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">172</a></span> +the project to which his life had been devoted: it was the +abandonment by the secular power of a contest in which +it had twice been vanquished, and which it could not +renew under more favourable conditions.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Revival of +the study of +the civil law.</p> + +<p>Authority maintained so long against the successor of +Peter would be far from indulgent to rebellious subjects. +For it was in this light that the Lombard cities appeared +to a monarch bent on reviving all the rights his predecessors +had enjoyed: nay, all that the law of ancient Rome +gave her absolute ruler. It would be wrong to speak of a +re-discovery of the civil law. That system had never +perished from Gaul and Italy, had been the groundwork +of some codes, and the whole substance, modified only by +the changes in society, of many others. The Church excepted, +no agent did so much to keep alive the memory +of Roman institutions. The twelfth century now beheld +the study cultivated with a surprising increase of knowledge +and ardour, expended chiefly upon the Pandects. First +in Italy and the schools of the South, then in Paris and +Oxford, they were expounded, commented on, extolled as +the perfection of human wisdom, the sole, true, and +eternal law. Vast as has been the labour and thought +expended from that time to this in the elucidation of the +civil law, the most competent authorities declare that in +acuteness, in subtlety, in all those branches of learning +which can subsist without help from historical criticism, +these so-called Glossatores have been seldom equalled +and never surpassed by their successors. The teachers +of the canon law, who had not as yet become the rivals of +the civilian, and were accustomed to recur to his books +where their own were silent, spread through Europe the +fame and influence of the Roman jurisprudence; while its +own professors were led both by their feeling and their interest +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">173</a></span> +to give to all its maxims the greatest weight and the +fullest application. Men just emerging from barbarism, +with minds unaccustomed to create and blindly submissive +to authority, viewed written texts with an awe to us +incomprehensible. All that the most servile jurists of +Rome had ever ascribed to their despotic princes was +directly transferred to the Cæsarean majesty who inherited +their name. He was 'Lord of the world,' absolute master +of the lives and property of all his subjects, that is, of all +men; the sole fountain of legislation, the embodiment of +right and justice. These doctrines, which the great Bolognese +jurists, Bulgarus, Martinus, Hugolinus, and others +who constantly surrounded Frederick, taught and applied, +as matter of course, to a Teutonic, a feudal king, were by +the rest of the world not denied, were accepted in fervent +faith by his German and Italian partisans. 'To the +Emperor belongs the protection of the whole world,' says +bishop Otto of Freysing. 'The Emperor is a living law +upon earth<a name="FNanchor_185" id="FNanchor_185" href="#Footnote_185" class="fnanchor">[185]</a>.' To Frederick, at Roncaglia, the archbishop +of Milan speaks for the assembled magnates of Lombardy: +'Do and ordain whatsoever thou wilt, thy will is +law; as it is written, <span lang="la">"Quicquid principi placuit legis habet +vigorem, cum populus ei et in eum omne suum imperium +et potestatem concesserit<a name="FNanchor_186" id="FNanchor_186" href="#Footnote_186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a>."</span> The Hohenstaufen himself +was not slow to accept these magnificent ascriptions of +dignity, and though modestly professing his wish to govern +according to law rather than override the law, was +doubtless roused by them to a more vehement assertion of +a prerogative so hallowed by age and by what seemed a +divine ordinance.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Frederick in +Italy.</p> + +<p>That assertion was most loudly called for in Italy. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">174</a></span> +The Emperors might appear to consider it a conquered +country without privileges to be respected, for they did +not summon its princes to the German diets, and overawed +its own assemblies at Pavia or Roncaglia by the +Transalpine host that followed them. Its crown, too, was +theirs whenever they crossed the Alps to claim it, while +the elections on the banks of the Rhine might be adorned +but could not be influenced by the presence of barons +from the southern kingdom<a name="FNanchor_187" id="FNanchor_187" href="#Footnote_187" class="fnanchor">[187]</a>. In practice, however, the +imperial power stood lower in Italy than in Germany, for +it had been from the first intermittent, depending on the +personal vigour and present armed support of each invader. +The theoretic sovereignty of the Emperor-king +was nowise disputed: in the cities toll and tax were of +right his: he could issue edicts at the Diet, and require +the tenants in chief to appear with their vassals. But the +revival of a control never exercised since Henry IV's time, +was felt as an intolerable hardship by the great Lombard +cities, proud of riches and population equal to that of the +duchies of Germany or the kingdoms of the North, and +accustomed for more than a century to a turbulent independence. +For republicanism and popular freedom +Frederick had little sympathy. +<span class="sidenote">Rome under +Arnold of +Brescia.</span> +At Rome the fervent +Arnold of Brescia had repeated, but with far different +thoughts and hopes, the part of Crescentius<a name="FNanchor_188" id="FNanchor_188" href="#Footnote_188" class="fnanchor">[188]</a>. The city +had thrown off the yoke of its bishop, and a commonwealth +under consuls and senate professed to emulate the +spirit while it renewed the forms of the primitive republic. +Its leaders had written to Conrad III<a name="FNanchor_189" id="FNanchor_189" href="#Footnote_189" class="fnanchor">[189]</a>, +asking him to help +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">175</a></span> +them to restore the Empire to its position under Constantine +and Justinian; but the German, warned by St. +Bernard, had preferred the friendship of the Pope. Filled +with a vain conceit of their own importance, they repeated +their offers to Frederick when he sought the crown from +Hadrian the Fourth. A deputation, after dwelling in +highflown language on the dignity of the Roman people, +and their kindness in bestowing the sceptre on him, a +Swabian and a stranger, proceeded, in a manner hardly +consistent, to demand a largess ere he should enter the +city. Frederick's anger did not hear them to the end: +'Is this your Roman wisdom? Who are ye that usurp +the name of Roman dignities? Your honours and your +authority are yours no longer; with us are consuls, senate, +soldiers. It was not you who chose us, but Charles and +Otto that rescued you from the Greek and the Lombard, +and conquered by their own might the imperial crown. +That Frankish might is still the same: wrench, if you can, +the club from Hercules. It is not for the people to give +laws to the prince, but to obey his mandate<a name="FNanchor_190" id="FNanchor_190" href="#Footnote_190" class="fnanchor">[190]</a>.' This was +Frederick's version of the 'Translation of the Empire<a name="FNanchor_191" id="FNanchor_191" href="#Footnote_191" class="fnanchor">[191]</a>.'</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The Lombard +Cities.</p> + +<p>He who had been so stern to his own capital was not +likely to deal more gently with the rebels of Milan and +Tortona. In the contest by which Frederick is chiefly +known to history, he is commonly painted as the foreign +tyrant, the forerunner of the Austrian oppressor<a name="FNanchor_192" id="FNanchor_192" href="#Footnote_192" class="fnanchor">[192]</a>, +crushing +under the hoofs of his cavalry the home of freedom +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">176</a></span> +and industry. Such a view is unjust to a great man and +his cause. To the despot liberty is always licence; yet +Frederick was the advocate of admitted claims; the aggressions +of Milan threatened her neighbours; the refusal, +where no actual oppression was alleged, to admit his officers +and allow his regalian rights, seemed a wanton breach of +oaths and engagements, treason against God no less than +himself<a name="FNanchor_193" id="FNanchor_193" href="#Footnote_193" class="fnanchor">[193]</a>. Nevertheless our sympathy must go with the +cities, in whose victory we recognize the triumph of freedom +and civilization. Their resistance was at first probably +a mere aversion to unused control, and to the enforcement +of imposts less offensive in former days than now, +and by long dereliction apparently obsolete<a name="FNanchor_194" id="FNanchor_194" href="#Footnote_194" class="fnanchor">[194]</a>. Republican +principles were not avowed, nor Italian nationality appealed +to. But the progress of the conflict developed new motives +and feelings, and gave them clearer notions of what they +fought for. As the Emperor's antagonist, the Pope was +their natural ally: he blessed their arms, and called on the +barons of Romagna and Tuscany for aid; he made 'The +Church' ere long their watchword, and helped them to +conclude that league of mutual support by means whereof +the party of the Italian Guelfs was formed. Another cry, +too, began to be heard, hardly less inspiriting than the +last, the cry of freedom and municipal self-government—freedom +little understood and terribly abused, self-government +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">177</a></span> +which the cities who claimed it for themselves refused +to their subject allies, yet both of them, through their +divine power of stimulating effort and quickening sympathy, +as much nobler than the harsh and sterile system of a +feudal monarchy as the citizen of republican Athens rose +above the slavish Asiatic or the brutal Macedonian. Nor +was the fact that Italians were resisting a Transalpine invader +without its effect; there was as yet no distinct national +feeling, for half Lombardy, towns as well as rural nobles, +fought under Frederick; but events made the cause of +liberty always more clearly the cause of patriotism, and +increased that fear and hate of the Tedescan for which +Italy has had such bitter justification.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Temporary +success of +Frederick.</p> + +<p>The Emperor was for a time successful: Tortona was +taken, Milan razed to the ground, her name apparently +lost: greater obstacles had been overcome, and a fuller +authority was now exercised than in the days of the Ottos +or the Henrys. The glories of the first Frankish conqueror +were triumphantly recalled, and Frederick was compared +by his admirers to the hero whose canonization he +had procured, and whom he strove in all things to imitate<a name="FNanchor_195" id="FNanchor_195" href="#Footnote_195" class="fnanchor">[195]</a>. +'He was esteemed,' says one, 'second only to Charles in +piety and justice.' 'We ordain this,' says a decree: <span lang="la">'Ut +ad Caroli imitationem ius ecclesiarum statum reipublicæ +et legum integritatem per totum imperium nostrum servaremus<a name="FNanchor_196" id="FNanchor_196" href="#Footnote_196" class="fnanchor">[196]</a>.'</span> +But the hold the name of Charles had on the +minds of the people, and the way in which he had become, +so to speak, an eponym of Empire, has better witnesses +than grave documents. A rhyming poet sings<a name="FNanchor_197" id="FNanchor_197" href="#Footnote_197" class="fnanchor">[197]</a> +:— +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">178</a></span></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1"><span lang="la">'Quanta sit potentia vel laus Friderici</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Cum sit patens omnibus, non est opus dici;</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Qui rebelles lancea fodiens ultrici</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Repræsentat Karolum dextera victrici.'</span></p> +</div></div> + +<p>The diet at Roncaglia was a chorus of gratulations over +the re-establishment of order by the destruction of the +dens of unruly burghers.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Victory of +the Lombard +league.</p> + +<p>This fair sky was soon clouded. From her quenchless +ashes uprose Milan; Cremona, scorning old jealousies, +helped to rebuild what she had destroyed, and the confederates, +committed to an all but hopeless strife, clung +faithfully together till on the field of Legnano the Empire's +banner went down before the carroccio<a name="FNanchor_198" id="FNanchor_198" href="#Footnote_198" class="fnanchor">[198]</a> + of the free city. +Times were changed since Aistulf and Desiderius trembled +at the distant tramp of the Frankish hosts. A new +nation had arisen, slowly reared through suffering into +strength, now at last by heroic deeds conscious of itself. +The power of Charles had overleaped boundaries of +nature and language that were too strong for his successor, +and that grew henceforth ever firmer, till they +made the Empire itself a delusive name. Frederick, +though harsh in war, and now balked of his most cherished +hopes, could honestly accept a state of things it +was beyond his power to change: he signed cheerfully +and kept dutifully the peace of Constance, which left him +little but a titular supremacy over the Lombard towns.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Frederick +as German +king.</p> + +<p>At home no Emperor since Henry III had been so +much respected and so generally prosperous. Uniting in +his person the Saxon and Swabian families, he healed +the long feud of Welf and Waiblingen: his prelates were +faithful to him, even against Rome: no turbulent rebel +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">179</a></span> +disturbed the public peace. Germany was proud of a +hero who maintained her dignity so well abroad, and he +crowned a glorious life with a happy death, leading the +van of Christian chivalry against the Mussulman. Frederick, +the greatest of the Crusaders, is the noblest type +of mediæval character in many of its shadows, in all its +lights.</p> + +<p>Legal in form, in practice sometimes almost absolute, +the government of Germany was, like that of other feudal +kingdoms, restrained chiefly by the difficulty of coercing +refractory vassals. All depended on the monarch's character, +and one so vigorous and popular as Frederick +could generally lead the majority with him and terrify +the rest. A false impression of the real strength of his +prerogative might be formed from the readiness with +which he was obeyed. He repaired the finances of the +kingdom, controlled the dukes, introduced a more splendid +ceremonial, endeavoured to exalt the central power +by multiplying the nobles of the second rank, afterwards +the 'college of princes,' and by trying to substitute the +civil law and Lombard feudal code for the old Teutonic +customs, different in every province. If not successful +in this project, he fared better with another. +<span class="sidenote">The German +cities.</span> +Since Henry +the Fowler's day towns had been growing up through +Southern and Western Germany, especially where rivers +offered facilities for trade. Cologne, Treves, Mentz, +Worms, Speyer, Nürnberg, Ulm, Regensburg, Augsburg, +were already considerable cities, not afraid to beard their +lord or their bishop, and promising before long to counterbalance +the power of the territorial oligarchy. Policy +or instinct led Frederick to attach them to the throne, +enfranchising many, granting, with municipal institutions, +an independent jurisdiction, conferring various exemptions +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">180</a></span> +and privileges; while receiving in turn their good-will +and loyal aid, in money always, in men when need should +come. His immediate successors trode in his steps, and +thus there arose in the state a third order, the firmest +bulwark, had it been rightly used, of imperial authority; +an order whose members, the Free Cities, were through +many ages the centres of German intellect and freedom, +the only haven from the storms of civil war, the surest +hope of future peace and union. In them national congresses +to this day sometimes meet: from them aspiring +spirits strive to diffuse those ideas of Germanic unity and +self-government, which they alone have kept alive. Out +of so many flourishing commonwealths, four<a name="FNanchor_199" id="FNanchor_199" href="#Footnote_199" class="fnanchor">[199]</a> + have been +spared by foreign conquerors and faithless princes. To +the primitive order of German freemen, scarcely existing +out of the towns, except in Swabia and Switzerland, +Frederick further commended himself by allowing them +to be admitted to knighthood, by restraining the licence +of the nobles, imposing a public peace, making justice +in every way more accessible and impartial. To the +south-west of the green plain that girdles in the rock of +Salzburg, the gigantic mass of the Untersberg frowns over +the road which winds up a long defile to the glen and +lake of Berchtesgaden. There, far up among its limestone +crags, in a spot scarcely accessible to human foot, the +peasants of the valley point out to the traveller the black +mouth of a cavern, and tell him that within Barbarossa lies +amid his knights in an enchanted sleep<a name="FNanchor_200" id="FNanchor_200" href="#Footnote_200" class="fnanchor">[200]</a>, +waiting the hour +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">181</a></span> +when the ravens shall cease to hover round the peak, and +the pear-tree blossom in the valley, to descend with his +Crusaders and bring back to Germany the golden age +of peace and strength and unity. Often in the evil days +that followed the fall of Frederick's house, often when +tyranny seemed unendurable and anarchy endless, men +thought on that cavern, and sighed for the day when the +long sleep of the just Emperor should be broken, and his +shield be hung aloft again as of old in the camp's midst, +a sign of help to the poor and the oppressed. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">182</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XII.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">IMPERIAL TITLES AND PRETENSIONS.</span></h2> + +<p>The era of the Hohenstaufen is perhaps the fittest +point at which to turn aside from the narrative history +of the Empire to speak shortly of the legal position which +it professed to hold to the rest of Europe, as well as of +certain duties and observances which throw a light upon +the system it embodied. This is not indeed the era of +its greatest power: that was already past. Nor is it conspicuously +the era when its ideal dignity stood highest: +for that remained scarcely impaired till three centuries +had passed away. But it was under the Hohenstaufen, +owing partly to the splendid abilities of the princes of +that famous line, partly to the suddenly-gained ascendancy +of the Roman law, that the actual power and the theoretical +influence of the Empire most fully coincided. +There can therefore be no better opportunity for noticing +the titles and claims by which it announced itself the +representative of Rome's universal dominion, and for +collecting the various instances in which they were (either +before or after Frederick's time) more or less admitted +by the other states of Europe.</p> + +<p>The territories over which Barbarossa would have declared +his jurisdiction to extend may be classed under +four heads:—</p> + +<p>First, the German lands, in which, and in which alone, +the Emperor was, up till the death of Frederick the +Second, effective sovereign. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">183</a></span></p> + +<p>Second, the non-German districts of the Holy Empire, +where the Emperor was acknowledged as sole monarch, +but in practice little regarded.</p> + +<p>Third, certain outlying countries, owing allegiance to +the Empire, but governed by kings of their own.</p> + +<p>Fourth, the other states of Europe, whose rulers, while +in most cases admitting the superior rank of the Emperor, +were virtually independent of him.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Limits of +the Empire.</p> + +<p>Thus within the actual boundaries of the Holy Empire +were included only districts coming under the first and +second of the above classes, i.e. Germany, the northern +half of Italy, and the kingdom of Burgundy or Arles—that +is to say, Provence, Dauphiné, the Free County of +Burgundy (Franche Comté), and Western Switzerland. +Lorraine, Alsace, and a portion of Flanders were of +course parts of Germany. To the north-east, Bohemia +and the Slavic principalities in Mecklenburg and Pomerania +were as yet not integral parts of its body, but rather +dependent outliers. Beyond the march of Brandenburg, +from the Oder to the Vistula, dwelt pagan Lithuanians +or Prussians<a name="FNanchor_201" id="FNanchor_201" href="#Footnote_201" class="fnanchor">[201]</a>, +free till the establishment among them of +the Teutonic knights.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Hungary.</p> + +<p>Hungary had owed a doubtful allegiance since the days +of Otto I. Gregory VII had claimed it as a fief of the +Holy See; Frederick wished to reduce it completely to +subjection, but could not overcome the reluctance of his +nobles. After Frederick II, by whom it was recovered +from the Mongol hordes, no imperial claims were made +for so many years that at last they became obsolete, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">184</a></span> +were confessed to be so by the Constitution of Augsburg, +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1566<a name="FNanchor_202" id="FNanchor_202" href="#Footnote_202" class="fnanchor">[202]</a>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Poland.</p> + +<p>Under Duke Misico, Poland had submitted to Otto the +Great, and continued, with occasional revolts, to obey +the Empire, till the beginning of the Great Interregnum +(as it is called) in 1254. Its duke was present at the +election of Richard, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1258. Thereafter Primislas +called himself king, in token of emancipation, and the +country became independent, though some of its provinces +were long afterwards reunited to the German state. +Silesia, originally Polish, was attached to Bohemia by +Charles IV, and so became part of the Empire; Posen +and Galicia were seized by Prussia and Austria, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1772. +Down to her partition in that year, the constitution of +Poland remained a copy of that which had existed in the +German kingdom in the twelfth century<a name="FNanchor_203" id="FNanchor_203" href="#Footnote_203" class="fnanchor">[203]</a>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Denmark.</p> + +<p>Lewis the Pious had received the homage of the +Danish king Harold, on his baptism at Mentz, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 826; +Otto the Great's victories over Harold Blue Tooth made +the country regularly subject, and added the march of +Schleswig to the immediate territory of the Empire: but +the boundary soon receded to the Eyder, on whose banks +might be seen the inscription,—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> + +<p><span lang="la">'Eidora Romani terminus imperii.'</span></p> +</div></div> + +<p>King Peter<a name="FNanchor_204" id="FNanchor_204" href="#Footnote_204" class="fnanchor">[204]</a> + attended at Frederick I's coronation, to do +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">185</a></span> +homage, and receive from the Emperor, as suzerain, his +own crown. Since the Interregnum Denmark has been +always free<a name="FNanchor_205" id="FNanchor_205" href="#Footnote_205" class="fnanchor">[205]</a>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">France.</p> + +<p>Otto the Great was the last Emperor whose suzerainty +the French kings had admitted; nor were Henry VI and +Otto IV successful in their attempts to enforce it. Boniface +VIII, in his quarrel with Philip the Fair, offered the +French throne, which he had pronounced vacant, to Albert +I; but the wary Hapsburg declined the dangerous prize. +The precedence, however, which the Germans continued +to assert, irritated Gallic pride, and led to more than one +contest. Blondel denies the Empire any claim to the +Roman name; and in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1648 the French envoys at +Münster refused for some time to admit what no other +European state disputed. Till recent times the title of +the Archbishop of Treves, <span lang="la">'Archicancellarius per Galliam +atque regnum Arelatense,'</span> preserved the memory of an +obsolete supremacy which the constant aggressions of +France might seem to have reversed.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Sweden.</p> + +<p>No reliance can be placed on the author who tells us +that Sweden was granted by Frederick I to Waldemar the +Dane<a name="FNanchor_206" id="FNanchor_206" href="#Footnote_206" class="fnanchor">[206]</a>; +the fact is improbable, and we do not hear that +such pretensions were ever put forth before or after.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Spain.</p> + +<p>Nor does it appear that authority was ever exercised by +any Emperor in Spain. Nevertheless the choice of +Alfonso X by a section of the German electors, in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> +1258, may be construed to imply that the Spanish kings +were members of the Empire. And when, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1053, +Ferdinand the Great of Castile had, in the pride of his +victories over the Moors, assumed the title of <span lang="la">'Hispaniæ +Imperator,'</span> the remonstrance of Henry III declared the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">186</a></span> +rights of Rome over the Western provinces indelible, and +the Spaniard, though protesting his independence, was +forced to resign the usurped dignity<a name="FNanchor_207" id="FNanchor_207" href="#Footnote_207" class="fnanchor">[207]</a>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">England.</p> + +<p>No act of sovereignty is recorded to have been done +by any of the Emperors in England, though as heirs of +Rome they might be thought to have better rights over it +than over Poland or Denmark<a name="FNanchor_208" id="FNanchor_208" href="#Footnote_208" class="fnanchor">[208]</a>. There was, however, a +vague notion that the English, like other kingdoms, must +depend on the Empire: a notion which appears in Conrad +III's letter to John of Constantinople<a name="FNanchor_209" id="FNanchor_209" href="#Footnote_209" class="fnanchor">[209]</a>; +and which +was countenanced by the submissive tone in which Frederick +I was addressed by the Plantagenet Henry II<a name="FNanchor_210" id="FNanchor_210" href="#Footnote_210" class="fnanchor">[210]</a>. +English independence was still more compromised in the +next reign, when Richard I, according to Hoveden, +<span lang="la">'Consilio matris suæ deposuit se de regno Angliæ et +tradidit illud imperatori (Henrico VI<sup>to</sup>) sicut universorum +domino.'</span> But as Richard was at the same time invested +with the kingdom of Arles by Henry VI, his homage +may have been for that fief only; and it was probably +in that capacity that he voted, as a prince of the Empire, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">187</a></span> +at the election of Frederick II. The case finds a parallel +in the claims of England over the Scottish king, doubtful, +to say the least, as regards the domestic realm of the +latter, certain as regards Cumbria, which he had long +held from the Southern crown<a name="FNanchor_211" id="FNanchor_211" href="#Footnote_211" class="fnanchor">[211]</a>. But Germany had no +Edward I. Henry VI is said at his death to have +released Richard from his submission (this too may be +compared with Richard's release to the Scottish William +the Lion), and Edward II declared, <span lang="la">'regnum Angliæ ab +omni subiectione imperiali esse liberrimum<a name="FNanchor_212" id="FNanchor_212" href="#Footnote_212" class="fnanchor">[212]</a>.'</span> Yet the +idea survived: the Emperor Lewis the Bavarian, when +he named Edward III his vicar in the great French war, +demanded, though in vain, that the English monarch +should kiss his feet<a name="FNanchor_213" id="FNanchor_213" href="#Footnote_213" class="fnanchor">[213]</a>. Sigismund<a name="FNanchor_214" id="FNanchor_214" href="#Footnote_214" class="fnanchor">[214]</a>, +visiting Henry V +at London, before the meeting of the council of Constance, +was met by the Duke of Gloucester, who, riding +into the water to the ship where the Emperor sat, required +him, at the sword's point, to declare that he did +not come purposing to infringe on the king's authority in +the realm of England<a name="FNanchor_215" id="FNanchor_215" href="#Footnote_215" class="fnanchor">[215]</a>. One curious pretension of the +imperial crown called forth many protests. It was declared +by civilians and canonists that no public notary +could have any standing, or attach any legality to the +documents he drew, unless he had received his diploma +from the Emperor or the Pope. A strenuous denial of a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">188</a></span> +doctrine so injurious was issued by the parliament of +Scotland under James III<a name="FNanchor_216" id="FNanchor_216" href="#Footnote_216" class="fnanchor">[216]</a>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Naples.</p> + +<p>The kingdom of Naples and Sicily, although of course +claimed as a part of the Empire, was under the Norman +dynasty (<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1060-1189) not merely independent, but +the most dangerous enemy of the German power in +Italy. Henry VI, the son and successor of Barbarossa, +obtained possession of it by marrying Constantia the +last heiress of the Norman kings. But both he and +Frederick II treated it as a separate patrimonial state, +instead of incorporating it with their more northerly dominions. +After the death of Conradin, the last of the +Hohenstaufen, it passed away to an Angevin, then to an +Aragonese dynasty, continuing under both to maintain +itself independent of the Empire, nor ever again, except +under Charles V, united to the Germanic crown.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Venice.</p> + +<p>One spot in Italy there was whose singular felicity +of situation enabled her through long centuries of obscurity +and weakness, slowly ripening into strength, to +maintain her freedom unstained by any submission to the +Frankish and Germanic Emperors. Venice glories in +deducing her origin from the fugitives who escaped from +Aquileia in the days of Attila: it is at least probable that +her population never received an intermixture of Teutonic +settlers, and continued during the ages of Lombard and +Frankish rule in Italy to regard the Byzantine sovereigns +as the representatives of their ancient masters. In the +tenth century, when summoned to submit by Otto, they +had said, 'We wish to be the servants of the Emperors of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">189</a></span> +the Romans' (the Constantinopolitan), and though they +overthrew this very Eastern throne in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1204, the +pretext had served its turn, and had aided them in +defying or evading the demands of obedience made by +the Teutonic princes. Alone of all the Italian republics, +Venice never, down to her extinction by France and +Austria in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1796, recognized within her walls any +secular authority save her own.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The East.</p> + +<p>The kings of Cyprus and Armenia sent to Henry VI +to confess themselves his vassals and ask his help. Over +remote Eastern lands, where Frankish foot had never +trod, Frederick Barbarossa asserted the indestructible +rights of Rome, mistress of the world. A letter to +Saladin, amusing from its absolute identification of his +own Empire with that which had sent Crassus to perish +in Parthia, and had blushed to see Mark Antony <span lang="la">'consulum +nostrum'</span><a name="FNanchor_217" id="FNanchor_217" href="#Footnote_217" class="fnanchor">[217]</a> + at the feet of Cleopatra, is preserved by +Hoveden: it bids the Soldan withdraw at once from the +dominions of Rome, else will she, with her new Teutonic +defenders, of whom a pompous list follows, drive him +from them with all her ancient might.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The +Byzantine +Emperors.</p> + +<p>Unwilling as were the great kingdoms of Western +Europe to admit the territorial supremacy of the Emperor, +the proudest among them never refused, until the +end of the Middle Ages, to recognize his precedence and +address him in a tone of respectful deference. Very +different was the attitude of the Byzantine princes, who +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">190</a></span> +denied his claim to be an Emperor at all. The separate +existence of the Eastern Church and Empire was not only, +as has been said above, a blemish in the title of the Teutonic +sovereigns; it was a continuing and successful +protest against the whole system of an Empire Church +of Christendom, centering in Rome, ruled by the successor +of Peter and the successor of Augustus. Instead +of the one Pope and one Emperor whom mediæval +theory presented as the sole earthly representatives of the +invisible head of the Church, the world saw itself distracted +by the interminable feud of rivals, each of whom +had much to allege on his behalf. It was easy for the +Latins to call the Easterns schismatics and their Emperor +an usurper, but practically it was impossible to dethrone +him or reduce them to obedience: while even in controversy +no one could treat the pretensions of communities +who had been the first to embrace Christianity and retained +so many of its most ancient forms, with the contempt +which would have been felt for any Western sectaries. +Seriously, however, as the hostile position of the +Greeks seems to us to affect the claims of the Teutonic +Empire, calling in question its legitimacy and marring its +pretended universality, those who lived at the time seem +to have troubled themselves little about it, finding themselves +in practice seldom confronted by the difficulties it +raised. The great mass of the people knew of the Greeks +not even by name; of those who did, the most thought +of them only as perverse rebels, Samaritans who refused +to worship at Jerusalem, and were little better than infidels. +The few ecclesiastics of superior knowledge and +insight had their minds preoccupied by the established +theory, and accepted it with too intense a belief to suffer +anything else to come into collision with it: they do not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">191</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Rivalry +of the two +Empires.</span> +seem to have even apprehended all that was involved in +this one defect. Nor, what is still stranger, in all the +attacks made upon the claims of the Teutonic Empire, +whether by its Papal or its French antagonists, do we find +the rival title of the Greek sovereigns adduced in argument +against it. Nevertheless, the Eastern Church was then, as +she is to this day, a thorn in the side of the Papacy; and +the Eastern Emperors, so far from uniting for the good of +Christendom with their Western brethren, felt towards +them a bitter though not unnatural jealousy, lost no opportunity +of intriguing for their evil, and never ceased to +deny their right to the imperial name. The coronation +of Charles was in their eyes an act of unholy rebellion; +his successors were barbarian intruders, ignorant of the +laws and usages of the ancient state, and with no claim +to the Roman name except that which the favour of an +insolent pontiff might confer. The Greeks had themselves +long since ceased to use the Latin tongue, and were +indeed become more than half Orientals in character and +manners. But they still continued to call themselves +Romans, and preserved most of the titles and ceremonies +which had existed in the time of Constantine or Justinian. +They were weak, although by no means so weak as +modern historians have been till lately wont to paint +them, and the weaker they grew the higher rose their +conceit, and the more did they plume themselves upon +the uninterrupted legitimacy of their crown, and the ceremonial +splendour wherewith custom had surrounded its +wearer. It gratified their spite to pervert insultingly the +titles of the Frankish princes. Basil the Macedonian reproached +Lewis II with presuming to use the name of +'Basileus,' to which Lewis retorted that he was as good +an emperor as Basil himself, but that, anyhow, <i>Basileus</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">192</a></span> +was only the Greek for <i>rex</i>, and need not mean 'Emperor' +at all. Nicephorus would not call Otto I anything +but 'King of the Lombards<a name="FNanchor_218" id="FNanchor_218" href="#Footnote_218" class="fnanchor">[218]</a> +,' Conrad III was addressed +by Calo-Johannes as <span lang="la">'amice imperii mei Rex<a name="FNanchor_219" id="FNanchor_219" href="#Footnote_219" class="fnanchor">[219]</a> +;'</span> Isaac +Angelus had the impudence to style Frederick I 'chief +prince of Alemannia<a name="FNanchor_220" id="FNanchor_220" href="#Footnote_220" class="fnanchor">[220]</a>.' The great Emperor, half-resentful, +half-contemptuous, told the envoys that he was +<span lang="la">'Romanorum imperator,'</span> and bade their master call himself +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">193</a></span> +<span lang="la">'Romaniorum'</span> from his Thracian province. Though +these ebullitions were the most conclusive proof of their +weakness, the Byzantine rulers sometimes planned the +recovery of their former capital, and seemed not unlikely +to succeed under the leadership of the conquering Manuel +Comnenus. He invited Alexander III, then in the heat +of his strife with Frederick, to return to the embrace of +his rightful sovereign, but the prudent pontiff and his +synod courteously declined<a name="FNanchor_221" id="FNanchor_221" href="#Footnote_221" class="fnanchor">[221]</a>. The Greeks were, however, +too unstable and too much alienated from Latin +feeling to have held Rome, could they even have seduced +her allegiance. A few years later they were themselves +the victims of the French and Venetian crusaders.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Dignities +and titles.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The four +crowns.</p> + +<p>Though Otto the Great and his successors had dropped +all titles save their highest (the tedious lists of imperial +dignities were happily not yet in being), they did not +therefore endeavour to unite their several kingdoms, but +continued to go through four distinct coronations at the +four capitals of their Empire<a name="FNanchor_222" id="FNanchor_222" href="#Footnote_222" class="fnanchor">[222]</a>. These are concisely given +in the verses of Godfrey of Viterbo, a notary of Frederick's +household<a name="FNanchor_223" id="FNanchor_223" href="#Footnote_223" class="fnanchor">[223]</a> +:—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> + +<p class="o1"><span lang="la">'Primus Aquisgrani locus est, post hæc Arelati,</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Inde Modoetiæ regali sede locari</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Post solet Italiæ summa corona dari:</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Cæsar Romano cum vult diademate fungi</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Debet apostolicis manibus reverenter inungi.'</span></p> +</div></div> + +<p>By the crowning at Aachen, the old Frankish capital, the +monarch became 'king;' formerly 'king of the Franks,' +or, 'king of the Eastern Franks;' now, since Henry II's +time, 'king of the Romans, always Augustus.' At Monza, +(or, more rarely, at Milan) in later times, at Pavia in earlier +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">194</a></span> +times, he became king of Italy, or of the Lombards<a name="FNanchor_224" id="FNanchor_224" href="#Footnote_224" class="fnanchor">[224]</a>; +at +Rome he received the double crown of the Roman Empire, +'double,' says Godfrey, as <span lang="la">'urbis et orbis:'</span>—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> + +<p><span lang="la">'Hoc quicunque tenet, summus in orbe sedet;'</span></p> +</div></div> + +<p>though others hold that, uniting the mitre to the crown, +it typifies spiritual as well as secular authority. The crown +of Burgundy<a name="FNanchor_225" id="FNanchor_225" href="#Footnote_225" class="fnanchor">[225]</a> + or the kingdom of Arles, first gained by +Conrad II, was a much less splendid matter, and carried +with it little effective power. Most Emperors never +assumed it at all, Frederick I not till late in life, when an +interval of leisure left him nothing better to do. These +four crowns<a name="FNanchor_226" id="FNanchor_226" href="#Footnote_226" class="fnanchor">[226]</a> + furnish matter of endless discussion to the +old writers; they tell us that the Roman was golden, the +German silver, the Italian iron, the metal corresponding +to the dignity of each realm<a name="FNanchor_227" id="FNanchor_227" href="#Footnote_227" class="fnanchor">[227]</a>. Others say that that of +Aachen is iron, and the Italian silver, and give elaborate +reasons why it should be so<a name="FNanchor_228" id="FNanchor_228" href="#Footnote_228" class="fnanchor">[228]</a>. There seems to be no +doubt that the allegory created the fact, and that all +three crowns were of gold, though in that of Italy there +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">195</a></span> +was and is inserted a piece of iron, a nail, it was believed, +of the true Cross.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Meaning +of the four +coronations.</p> + +<p>Why, it may well be asked, seeing that the Roman +crown made the Emperor ruler of the whole habitable +globe, was it thought necessary for him to add to it minor +dignities which might be supposed to have been already +included in it? The reason seems to be that the imperial +office was conceived of as something different in kind from +the regal, and as carrying with it not the immediate government +of any particular kingdom, but a general +suzerainty over and right of controlling all. Of this a +pertinent illustration is afforded by an anecdote told of +Frederick Barbarossa. Happening once to inquire of the +famous jurists who surrounded him whether it was really +true that he was 'lord of the world,' one of them simply +assented, another, Bulgarus, answered, 'Not as respects +ownership.' In this dictum, which is evidently conformable +to the philosophical theory of the Empire, we have a +pointed distinction drawn between feudal sovereignty, +which supposes the prince original owner of the soil of +his whole kingdom, and imperial sovereignty, which is +irrespective of place, and exercised not over things but +over men, as God's rational creatures. But the Emperor, +as has been said already, was also the East Frankish king, +uniting in himself, to use the legal phrase, two wholly distinct +'persons,' and hence he might acquire more direct +and practically useful rights over a portion of his dominions +by being crowned king of that portion, just as a +feudal monarch was often duke or count of lordships +whereof he was already feudal superior; or, to take a +better illustration, just as a bishop may hold livings in his +own diocese. That the Emperors, while continuing to be +crowned at Milan and Aachen, did not call themselves +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">196</a></span> +kings of the Lombards and of the Franks, was probably +merely because these titles seemed insignificant compared +to that of Roman Emperor.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">'Emperor' +not assumed +till the +Roman +coronation.</p> + +<p>In this supreme title, as has been said, all lesser honours +were blent and lost, but custom or prejudice forbade the +German king to assume it till actually crowned at Rome +by the Pope<a name="FNanchor_229" id="FNanchor_229" href="#Footnote_229" class="fnanchor">[229]</a>. Matters of phrase and title are never unimportant, +least of all in an age ignorant and superstitiously +antiquarian: and this restriction had the most +important consequences. The first barbarian kings had +been tribe-chiefs; and when they claimed a dominion +which was universal, yet in a sense territorial, they could +not separate their title from the spot which it was their +boast to possess, and by virtue of whose name they ruled. +'Rome,' says the biographer of St. Adalbert, 'seeing that +she both is and is called the head of the world and the +mistress of cities, is alone able to give to kings imperial +power, and since she cherishes in her bosom the body of +the Prince of the Apostles, she ought of right to appoint +the Prince of the whole earth<a name="FNanchor_230" id="FNanchor_230" href="#Footnote_230" class="fnanchor">[230]</a>.' The crown was therefore +too sacred to be conferred by any one but the supreme +Pontiff, or in any city less august than the ancient capital. +<span class="sidenote">Origin and +results of +this practice.</span> +Had it become hereditary in any family, Lothar I's, for +instance, or Otto's, this feeling might have worn off; +as it was, each successive transfer, to Guido, to Otto, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">197</a></span> +to Henry II, to Conrad the Salic, strengthened it. The +force of custom, tradition, precedent, is incalculable when +checked neither by written rules nor free discussion. +What sheer assertion will do is shewn by the success of +a forgery so gross as the Isidorian decretals. No arguments +are needed to discredit the alleged decree of Pope +Benedict VIII<a name="FNanchor_231" id="FNanchor_231" href="#Footnote_231" class="fnanchor">[231]</a>, +which prohibited the German prince +from taking the name or office of Emperor till approved +and consecrated by the pontiff, but a doctrine so favourable +to papal pretensions was sure not to want advocacy; +Hadrian IV proclaims it in the broadest terms, and +through the efforts of the clergy and the spell of reverence +in the Teutonic princes, it passed into an unquestioned +belief. That none ventured to use the title till the +Pope conferred it, made it seem in some manner to +depend on his will, enabled him to exact conditions from +every candidate, and gave a colour to his pretended +suzerainty. Since by feudal theory every honour and +estate is held from some superior, and since the divine +commission has been without doubt issued directly to +the Pope, must not the whole earth be his fief, and he +the lord paramount, to whom even the Emperor is a +vassal? This argument, which derived considerable +plausibility from the rivalry between the Emperor and +other monarchs, as compared with the universal and +undisputed<a name="FNanchor_232" id="FNanchor_232" href="#Footnote_232" class="fnanchor">[232]</a> + authority of the Pope, was a favourite with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">198</a></span> +the high sacerdotal party: first distinctly advanced by +Hadrian IV, when he set up the picture<a name="FNanchor_233" id="FNanchor_233" href="#Footnote_233" class="fnanchor">[233]</a> + representing +Lothar's homage, which had so irritated the followers +of Barbarossa, though it had already been hinted at in +Gregory VII's gift of the crown to Rudolf of Suabia, +with the line,—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> + +<p><span lang="la">'Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rudolfo.'</span></p> +</div></div> + +<p>Nor was it only by putting him at the pontiff's mercy that +this dependence of the imperial name on a coronation +in the city injured the German sovereign<a name="FNanchor_234" id="FNanchor_234" href="#Footnote_234" class="fnanchor">[234]</a>. With strange +inconsistency it was not pretended that the Emperor's +rights were any narrower before he received the rite: he +could summon synods, confirm papal elections, exercise +jurisdiction over the citizens: his claim of the crown +itself could not, at least till the times of the Gregorys and +the Innocents, be positively denied. For no one thought +of contesting the right of the German nation to the +Empire, or the authority of the electoral princes, strangers +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">199</a></span> +though they were, to give Rome and Italy a master. +The republican followers of Arnold of Brescia might +murmur, but they could not dispute the truth of the +proud lines in which the poet who sang the glories of +Barbarossa<a name="FNanchor_235" id="FNanchor_235" href="#Footnote_235" class="fnanchor">[235]</a>, +describes the result of the conquest of +Charles the Great:—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> + +<p class="o1"><span lang="la">'Ex quo Romanum nostra virtute redemptum</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Hostibus expulsis, ad nos iustissimus ordo</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Transtulit imperium, Romani gloria regni</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Nos penes est. Quemcunque sibi Germania regem</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Præficit, hunc dives summisso vertice Roma</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Suscipit, et verso Tiberim regit ordine Rhenus.'</span></p> +</div></div> + +<p>But the real strength of the Teutonic kingdom was +wasted in the pursuit of a glittering toy: once in his +reign each Emperor undertook a long and dangerous +expedition, and dissipated in an inglorious and ever to +be repeated strife the forces that might have achieved +conquest elsewhere, or made him feared and obeyed at +home.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The title +'Holy +Empire.'</p> + +<p>At this epoch appears another title, of which more +must be said. To the accustomed 'Roman Empire' +Frederick Barbarossa adds the epithet of 'Holy.' Of +its earlier origin, under Conrad II (the Salic), which +some have supposed<a name="FNanchor_236" id="FNanchor_236" href="#Footnote_236" class="fnanchor">[236]</a>, +there is no documentary trace, +though there is also no proof to the contrary<a name="FNanchor_237" id="FNanchor_237" href="#Footnote_237" class="fnanchor">[237]</a>. So far +as is known it occurs first in the famous Privilege of +Austria, granted by Frederick in the fourth year of his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">200</a></span> +reign, the second of his empire, <span lang="la">'terram Austriæ quæ +clypeus et cor sacri imperii esse dinoscitur<a name="FNanchor_238" id="FNanchor_238" href="#Footnote_238" class="fnanchor">[238]</a> +:'</span> then afterwards, +in other manifestos of his reign; for example, +in a letter to Isaac Angelus of Byzantium<a name="FNanchor_239" id="FNanchor_239" href="#Footnote_239" class="fnanchor">[239]</a>, +and in the +summons to the princes to help him against Milan: +<span lang="la">'Quia ... urbis et orbis gubernacula tenemus ... +sacro imperio et divæ reipublicæ consulere debemus<a name="FNanchor_240" id="FNanchor_240" href="#Footnote_240" class="fnanchor">[240]</a> +;'</span> +where the second phrase is a synonym explanatory of +the first. Used occasionally by Henry VI and Frederick +II, it is more frequent under their successors, William, +Richard, Rudolf, till after Charles IV's time it becomes +habitual, for the last few centuries indispensable. Regarding +the origin of so singular a title many theories +have been advanced. Some declared it a perpetuation +of the court style of Rome and Byzantium, which attached +sanctity to the person of the monarch: thus David Blondel, +contending for the honour of France, calls it a mere +epithet of the Emperor, applied by confusion to his +government<a name="FNanchor_241" id="FNanchor_241" href="#Footnote_241" class="fnanchor">[241]</a>. Others saw in it a religious meaning, +referring to Daniel's prophecy, or to the fact that the +Empire was contemporary with Christianity, or to Christ's +birth under it<a name="FNanchor_242" id="FNanchor_242" href="#Footnote_242" class="fnanchor">[242]</a>. Strong churchmen derived it from the +dependence of the imperial crown on the Pope. There +were not wanting persons to maintain that it meant +nothing more than great or splendid. We need not, +however, be in any great doubt as to its true meaning +and purport. The ascription of sacredness to the person, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">201</a></span> +the palace, the letters, and so forth, of the sovereign, so +common in the later ages of Rome, had been partly retained +in the German court. Liudprand calls Otto +<span lang="la">'imperator sanctissimus<a name="FNanchor_243" id="FNanchor_243" href="#Footnote_243" class="fnanchor">[243]</a>.'</span> Still this sanctity, which the +Greeks above all others lavished on their princes, is +something personal, is nothing more than the divinity +that always hedges a king. Far more intimate and peculiar +was the relation of the revived Roman Empire to the +church and religion. As has been said already, it was +neither more nor less than the visible Church, seen on its +secular side, the Christian society organized as a state +under a form divinely appointed, and therefore the name +'Holy Roman Empire' was the needful and rightful +counterpart to that of 'Holy Catholic Church.' Such +had long been the belief, and so the title might have had +its origin as far back as the tenth or ninth century, might +even have emanated from Charles himself. Alcuin in +one of his letters uses the phrase <span lang="la">'imperium Christianum.'</span> +But there was a further reason for its introduction at this +particular epoch. Ever since Hildebrand had claimed +for the priesthood exclusive sanctity and supreme jurisdiction, +the papal party had not ceased to speak of the +civil power as being, compared with that of their own +chief, merely secular, earthly, profane. It may be conjectured +that to meet this reproach, no less injurious than +insulting, Frederick or his advisers began to use in public +documents the expression 'Holy Empire;' thereby wishing +to assert the divine institution and religious duties +of the office he held. Previous Emperors had called +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">202</a></span> +themselves <span lang="la">'Catholici,'</span> <span lang="la">'Christiani,'</span> <span lang="la">'ecclesiæ defensores<a name="FNanchor_244" id="FNanchor_244" href="#Footnote_244" class="fnanchor">[244]</a> +;'</span> +now their State itself is consecrated an earthly +theocracy. <span lang="la">'Deus Romanum imperium adversus schisma +ecclesiæ præparavit<a name="FNanchor_245" id="FNanchor_245" href="#Footnote_245" class="fnanchor">[245]</a> +,'</span> writes Frederick to the English +Henry II. The theory was one which the best and +greatest Emperors, Charles, Otto the Great, Henry III, +had most striven to carry out; it continued to be zealously +upheld when it had long ceased to be practicable. +In the proclamations of mediæval kings there is a constant +dwelling on their Divine commission. Power in an +age of violence sought to justify while it enforced its +commands, to make brute force less brutal by appeals +to a higher sanction. This is seen nowhere more than +in the style of the German sovereigns: they delight in +the phrases <span lang="la">'maiestas sacrosancta<a name="FNanchor_246" id="FNanchor_246" href="#Footnote_246" class="fnanchor">[246]</a> +,'</span> <span lang="la">'imperator divina +ordinante providentia,'</span> <span lang="la">'divina pietate,'</span> <span lang="la">'per misericordiam +Dei;'</span> many of which were preserved till, like those +used now by other European kings, like our own 'Defender +of the Faith,' they had become at last more +grotesque than solemn. The Emperor Joseph II, at the +end of the eighteenth century, was 'Advocate of the +Christian Church,' 'Vicar of Christ,' 'Imperial head of +the faithful,' 'Leader of the Christian army,' 'Protector +of Palestine, of general councils, of the Catholic faith<a name="FNanchor_247" id="FNanchor_247" href="#Footnote_247" class="fnanchor">[247]</a>.'</p> + +<p>The title, if it added little to the power, yet certainly +seems to have increased the dignity of the Empire, and by +consequence the jealousy of other states, of France especially. +This did not, however, go so far as to prevent its +recognition by the Pope and the French king<a name="FNanchor_248" id="FNanchor_248" href="#Footnote_248" class="fnanchor">[248]</a>, +and after +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">203</a></span> +the sixteenth century it would have been a breach of +diplomatic courtesy to omit it. Nor have imitators been +wanting<a name="FNanchor_249" id="FNanchor_249" href="#Footnote_249" class="fnanchor">[249]</a>: +witness such titles as 'Most Christian king,' +'Catholic king,' 'Defender of the Faith<a name="FNanchor_250" id="FNanchor_250" href="#Footnote_250" class="fnanchor">[250]</a>.' +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">204</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XIII.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">FALL OF THE HOHENSTAUFEN.</span></h2> + +<p>In the three preceding chapters the Holy Empire has +been described in what is not only the most brilliant but +the most momentous period of its history; the period of +its rivalry with the Popedom for the chief place in Christendom. +For it was mainly through their relations with +the spiritual power, by their friendship and protection at +first, no less than by their subsequent hostility, that the +Teutonic Emperors influenced the development of European +politics. The reform of the Roman Church which +went on during the reigns of Otto I and his successors +down to Henry III, and which was chiefly due to the +efforts of those monarchs, was the true beginning of the +grand period of the Middle Ages, the first of that long +series of movements, changes, and creations in the ecclesiastical +system of Europe which was, so to speak, the +master current of history, secular as well as religious, +during the centuries which followed. The first result of +Henry III's purification of the Papacy was seen in Hildebrand's +attempt to subject all jurisdiction to that of his +own chair, and in the long struggle of the Investitures, +which brought out into clear light the opposing pretensions +of the temporal and spiritual powers. Although +destined in the end to bear far other fruit, the immediate +effect of this struggle was to evoke in all classes an +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">205</a></span> +intense religious feeling; and, in opening up new fields +of ambition to the hierarchy, to stimulate wonderfully +their power of political organization. It was this impulse +that gave birth to the Crusades, and that enabled +the Popes, stepping forth as the rightful leaders of a +religious war, to bend it to serve their own ends: it was +thus too that they struck the alliance—strange as such an +alliance seems now—with the rebellious cities of Lombardy, +and proclaimed themselves the protectors of +municipal freedom. But the third and crowning triumph +of the Holy See was reserved for the thirteenth century. +In the foundation of the two great orders of ecclesiastical +knighthood, the all-powerful all-pervading Dominicans +and Franciscans, the religious fervour of the Middle Ages +culminated: in the overthrow of the only power which +could pretend to vie with her in antiquity, in sanctity, in +universality, the Papacy saw herself exalted to rule alone +over the kings of the earth. Of that overthrow, following +with terrible suddenness on the days of strength and +glory which we have just been witnessing, this chapter +has now to speak.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Henry VI, +1190-1197.</p> + +<p>It happened strangely enough that just while their +ruin was preparing, the house of Swabia gained over +their ecclesiastical foes what seemed likely to prove an +advantage of the first moment. The son and successor +of Barbarossa was Henry VI, a man who had inherited +all his father's harshness with none of his father's generosity. +By his marriage with Constance, the heiress of +the Norman kings, he had become master of Naples and +Sicily. Emboldened by the possession of what had been +hitherto the stronghold of his predecessors' bitterest +enemies, and able to threaten the Pope from south as +well as north, Henry conceived a scheme which might +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">206</a></span> +have wonderfully changed the history of Germany and +Italy. He proposed to the Teutonic magnates to +lighten their burdens by uniting these newly-acquired +countries to the Empire, to turn their feudal lands into +allodial, and to make no further demands for money on +the clergy, on condition that they should pronounce the +crown hereditary in his family. Results of the highest importance +would have followed this change, which Henry +advocated by setting forth the perils of interregna, and +which he doubtless meant to be but part of an entirely +new system of polity. Already so strong in Germany, +and with an absolute command of their new kingdom, +the Hohenstaufen might have dispensed with the renounced +feudal services, and built up a firm centralized +system, like that which was already beginning to develope +itself in France. First, however, the Saxon princes, then +some ecclesiastics headed by Conrad of Mentz, opposed +the scheme; the pontiff retracted his consent, and Henry +had to content himself with getting his infant son +Frederick the Second chosen king of the Romans. On +Henry's untimely death the election was set aside, and +the contest which followed between Otto of Brunswick +and Philip of Hohenstaufen, +<span class="sidenote">Philip, +1198-1208.</span> +<span class="sidenote">Innocent +III and +Otto IV.</span> +brother of Henry the Sixth, +gave the Popedom, now guided by the genius of Innocent +the Third, an opportunity of extending its sway at the +expense of its antagonist. The Pope moved heaven and +earth on behalf of Otto, whose family had been the constant +rivals of the Hohenstaufen, and who was himself +willing to promise all that Innocent required; but Philip's +personal merits and the vast possessions of his house +gave him while he lived the ascendancy in Germany. +His death by the hand of an assassin, while it seemed to +vindicate the Pope's choice, left the Swabian party without +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">207</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Otto IV, +1208 (1198)-1212.</span> +a head, and the Papal nominee was soon recognized +over the whole Empire. But Otto IV became less submissive +as he felt his throne more secure. If he was a +Guelf by birth, his acts in Italy, whither he had gone +to receive the imperial crown, were those of a Ghibeline, +anxious to reclaim the rights he had but just forsworn. +The Roman Church at last deposed and excommunicated +her ungrateful son, and Innocent rejoiced in a second +successful assertion of pontifical supremacy, when Otto +was dethroned by the youthful Frederick the Second, +whom a tragic irony sent into the field of politics as the +champion of the Holy See, whose hatred was to embitter +his life and extinguish his house.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Frederick +the Second, +1212-1250.</p> + +<p>Upon the events of that terrific strife, for which +Emperor and Pope girded themselves up for the last +time, the narrative of Frederick the Second's career, with +its romantic adventures, its sad picture of marvellous +powers lost on an age not ripe for them, blasted as by a +curse in the moment of victory, it is not necessary, were +it even possible, here to enlarge. That conflict did +indeed determine the fortunes of the German kingdom +no less than of the republics of Italy, but it was upon +Italian ground that it was fought out and it is to Italian +history that its details belong. So too of Frederick himself. +Out of the long array of the Germanic successors +of Charles, he is, with Otto III, the only one who comes +before us with a genius and a frame of character that are +not those of a Northern or a Teuton<a name="FNanchor_251" id="FNanchor_251" href="#Footnote_251" class="fnanchor">[251]</a>. There dwelt in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">208</a></span> +him, it is true, all the energy and knightly valour of his +father Henry and his grandfather Barbarossa. But along +with these, and changing their direction, were other gifts, +inherited perhaps from his Italian mother and fostered +by his education among the orange-groves of Palermo—a +love of luxury and beauty, an intellect refined, subtle, +philosophical. Through the mist of calumny and fable +it is but dimly that the truth of the man can be discerned, +and the outlines that appear serve to quicken rather than +appease the curiosity with which we regard one of the +most extraordinary personages in history. A sensualist, +yet also a warrior and a politician; a profound lawgiver +and an impassioned poet; in his youth fired by crusading +fervour, in later life persecuting heretics while himself +accused of blasphemy and unbelief; of winning manners +and ardently beloved by his followers, but with the stain +of more than one cruel deed upon his name, he was the +marvel of his own generation, and succeeding ages +looked back with awe, not unmingled with pity, upon the +inscrutable figure of the last Emperor who had braved +all the terrors of the Church and died beneath her ban, +the last who had ruled from the sands of the ocean to the +shores of the Sicilian sea. But while they pitied they condemned. +The undying hatred of the Papacy threw +round his memory a lurid light; him and him alone of all +the imperial line, Dante, the worshipper of the Empire, +must perforce deliver to the flames of hell<a name="FNanchor_252" id="FNanchor_252" href="#Footnote_252" class="fnanchor">[252]</a>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Struggle of +Frederick +with the +Papacy.</p> + +<p>Placed as the Empire was, it was scarcely possible +for its head not to be involved in war with the constantly +aggressive Popedom—aggressive in her claims of territorial +dominion in Italy as well as of ecclesiastical jurisdiction +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">209</a></span> +throughout the world. But it was Frederick's +peculiar misfortune to have given the Popes a hold over +him which they well knew how to use. In a moment +of youthful enthusiasm he had taken the cross from the +hands of an eloquent monk, and his delay to fulfil the +vow was branded as impious neglect. Excommunicated +by Gregory IX for not going to Palestine, he went, and +was excommunicated for going: having concluded an +advantageous peace, he sailed for Italy, and was a third +time excommunicated for returning. To Pope Gregory he +was at last after a fashion reconciled, but with the accession +of Innocent IV the flame burst out afresh. Upon +the special pretexts which kindled the strife it is not worth +while to descant: the real causes were always the same, +and could only be removed by the submission of one or +other combatant. Chief among them was Frederick's +possession of Sicily. Now were seen the fruits which +Barbarossa had stored up for his house when he gained +for Henry his son the hand of the Norman heiress. +Naples and Sicily had been for some two hundred years +recognized as a fief of the Holy See, and the Pope, who +felt himself in danger while encircled by the powers of +his rival, was determined to use his advantage to the full +and make it the means of extinguishing imperial authority +throughout Italy. But although the struggle was far more +of a territorial and political one than that of the previous +century had been, it reopened every former source of +strife, and passed into a contest between the civil and the +spiritual potentate. The old war-cries of Henry and +Hildebrand, of Barbarossa and Alexander, roused again +the unquenchable hatred of Italian factions: the pontiff +asserted the transference of the Empire as a fief, and +declared that the power of Peter, symbolized by the two +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">210</a></span> +keys, was temporal as well as spiritual: the Emperor +appealed to law, to the indelible rights of Cæsar; and +denounced his foe as the antichrist of the New Testament, +since it was God's second vicar whom he was +resisting. The one scoffed at anathema, upbraided the +avarice of the Church, and treated her soldiery, the friars, +with a severity not seldom ferocious. The other solemnly +deposed a rebellious and heretical prince, offered the +imperial crown to Robert of France, to the heir of Denmark, +to Haco the Norse king; succeeded at last in +raising up rivals in Henry of Thuringia and William of +Holland. Yet throughout it is less the Teutonic Emperor +who is attacked than the Sicilian king, the unbeliever and +friend of Mohammedans, the hereditary enemy of the +Church, the assailant of Lombard independence, whose +success must leave the Papacy defenceless. And as it +was from the Sicilian kingdom that the strife chiefly arose, +so was the possession of the Sicilian kingdom a source +rather of weakness than of strength, for it distracted +Frederick's forces and put him in the false position of +a liegeman resisting his lawful suzerain. Truly, as the +Greek proverb says, the gifts of foes are no gifts, and +bring no profit with them. The Norman kings were +more terrible in their death than in their life: they had +sometimes baffled the Teutonic Emperor; their heritage +destroyed him.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Conrad IV, +1250-1254.</p> + +<p>With Frederick fell the Empire. From the ruin that +overwhelmed the greatest of its houses it emerged, living +indeed, and destined to a long life, but so shattered, +crippled, and degraded, that it could never more be to +Europe and to Germany what it once had been. In the +last act of the tragedy were joined the enemy who had +now blighted its strength and the rival who was destined +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">211</a></span> +to insult its weakness and at last blot out its name. The +murder of Frederick's grandson Conradin—a hero whose +youth and whose chivalry might have moved the pity +of any other foe—was approved, if not suggested, by Pope +Clement; it was done by the minions of Charles of +France.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Italy lost to +the Empire.</p> + +<p>The Lombard league had successfully resisted Frederick's +armies and the more dangerous Ghibeline nobles: their +strong walls and swarming population made defeats in +the open field hardly felt; and now that South Italy too +had passed away from a German line—first to an Angevin, +afterwards to an Aragonese dynasty—it was plain that +the peninsula was irretrievably lost to the Emperors. +Why, however, should they not still be strong beyond +the Alps? was their position worse than that of +England when Normandy and Aquitaine no longer +obeyed a Plantagenet? The force that had enabled them +to rule so widely would be all the greater in a narrower +sphere.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Decline of +imperial +power in +Germany.</p> + +<p>So indeed it might once have been, but now it was +too late. The German kingdom broke down beneath +the weight of the Roman Empire. To be universal +sovereign Germany had sacrificed her own political existence. +The necessity which their projects in Italy and +disputes with the Pope laid the Emperors under of +purchasing by concessions the support of their own +princes, the ease with which in their absence the magnates +could usurp, the difficulty which the monarch +returning found in resuming the privileges of his crown, +the temptation to revolt and set up pretenders to the +throne which the Holy See held out, these were the +causes whose steady action laid the foundation of that +territorial independence which rose into a stable fabric +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">212</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">The Great +Interregnum</span> +at the era of the Great Interregnum<a name="FNanchor_253" id="FNanchor_253" href="#Footnote_253" class="fnanchor">[253]</a>. Frederick II had +by two Pragmatic Sanctions, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1220 and 1232, granted, +or rather confirmed, rights already customary, such as +to give the bishops and nobles legal sovereignty in their +own towns and territories, except when the Emperor +should be present; and thus his direct jurisdiction became +restricted to his narrowed domain, and to the cities immediately +dependent on the crown. With so much less +to do, an Emperor became altogether a less necessary +personage; and hence the seven magnates of the realm, +now by law or custom sole electors, were in no haste +to fill up the place of Conrad IV, whom the supporters +of his father Frederick had acknowledged. William of +Holland was in the field, but rejected by the Swabian +party: on his death a new election was called for, and +at last set on foot. +<span class="sidenote">Double +election, of +Richard of +England +and Alfonso +of Castile.</span> +The archbishop of Cologne advised +his brethren to choose some one rich enough to support +the dignity, not strong enough to be feared by the +electors: both requisites met in the Plantagenet Richard, +earl of Cornwall, brother of the English Henry III. +He received three, eventually four votes, came to Germany, +and was crowned at Aachen. But three of the +electors, finding that his bribe to them was lower than +to the others, seceded in disgust, and chose Alfonso X +of Castile<a name="FNanchor_254" id="FNanchor_254" href="#Footnote_254" class="fnanchor">[254]</a>, +who, shrewder than his competitor, continued +to watch the stars at Toledo, enjoying the splendours +of his title while troubling himself about it no further +than to issue now and then a proclamation. Meantime +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">213</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">State of +Germany +during the +Interregnum.</span> +the condition of Germany was frightful. The new Didius +Julianus, the chosen of princes baser than the prætorians +whom they copied, had neither the character nor the +outward power and resources to make himself respected. +Every floodgate of anarchy was opened: prelates and +barons extended their domains by war: robber-knights +infested the highways and the rivers: the misery of the +weak, the tyranny and violence of the strong, were such +as had not been seen for centuries. Things were even +worse than under the Saxon and Franconian Emperors; +for the petty nobles who had then been in some measure +controlled by their dukes were now, after the extinction +of the great houses, left without any feudal superior. +Only in the cities was shelter or peace to be found. +Those of the Rhine had already leagued themselves for +mutual defence, and maintained a struggle in the interests +of commerce and order against universal brigandage. +At last, when Richard had been some time dead, it was +felt that such things could not go on for ever: with no +public law, and no courts of justice, an Emperor, the +embodiment of legal government, was the only resource. +The Pope himself, having now sufficiently improved the +weakness of his enemy, found the disorganization of +Germany beginning to tell upon his revenues, and threatened +that if the electors did not appoint an Emperor, +he would. Thus urged, they chose, in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1272, Rudolf, +count of Hapsburg, +<span class="sidenote">Rudolf of +Hapsburg, +1272-1292.</span> +founder of the house of +Austria<a name="FNanchor_255" id="FNanchor_255" href="#Footnote_255" class="fnanchor">[255]</a>.</p> + +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">214</a></span></p> + +<p class="sidenote">Change in +the position +of the Empire.</p> + +<p>From this point there begins a new era. We have +seen the Roman Empire revived in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 800, by a prince +whose vast dominions gave ground to his claim of +universal monarchy; again erected, in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 962, on the +narrower but firmer basis of the German kingdom. We +have seen Otto the Great and his successors during the +three following centuries, a line of monarchs of unrivalled +vigour and abilities, strain every nerve to make good the +pretensions of their office against the rebels in Italy and +the ecclesiastical power. Those efforts had now failed +signally and hopelessly. Each successive Emperor had +entered the strife with resources scantier than his predecessors, +each had been more decisively vanquished by +the Pope, the cities, and the princes. The Roman +Empire might, and, so far as its practical utility was concerned, +ought now to have been suffered to expire; nor +could it have ended more gloriously than with the last +of the Hohenstaufen. That it did not so expire, but +lived on six hundred years more, till it became a piece +of antiquarianism hardly more venerable than ridiculous—till, +as Voltaire said, all that could be said about it was +that it was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire—was +owing partly indeed to the belief, still unshaken, that +it was a necessary part of the world's order, yet chiefly +to its connection, which was by this time indissoluble, +with the German kingdom. The Germans had confounded +the two characters of their sovereign so long, +and had grown so fond of the style and pretensions of +a dignity whose possession appeared to exalt them above +the other peoples of Europe, that it was now too late +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">215</a></span> +for them to separate the local from the universal monarch. +If a German king was to be maintained at all, he must +be Roman Emperor; and a German king there must +still be. Deeply, nay, mortally wounded as the event +proved his power to have been by the disasters of the +Empire to which it had been linked, the time was by +no means come for its extinction. In the unsettled state +of society, and the conflict of innumerable petty potentates, +no force save feudalism was able to hold society +together; and its efficacy for that purpose depended, as +the anarchy of the recent interregnum shewed, upon the +presence of the recognized feudal head.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Decline of +the regal +power in +Germany as +compared +with France +and England.</p> + +<p>That head, however, was no longer what he had been. +The relative position of Germany and France was now +exactly the reverse of that which they had occupied two +centuries earlier. Rudolf was as conspicuously a weaker +sovereign than Philip III of France, as the Franconian +Emperor Henry III had been stronger than the Capetian +Philip I. In every other state of Europe the tendency +of events had been to centralize the administration and +increase the power of the monarch, even in England not +to diminish it: in Germany alone had political union +become weaker, and the independence of the princes +more confirmed. The causes of this change are not far +to seek. They all resolve themselves into this one, that +the German king attempted too much at once. The +rulers of France, where manners were less rude than +in the other Transalpine lands, and where the Third +Estate rose into power more quickly, had reduced one +by one the great feudataries by whom the first Capetians +had been scarcely recognized. The English kings had +annexed Wales, Cumbria, and part of Ireland, had +obtained a prerogative great if not uncontrolled, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">216</a></span> +exercised no doubtful sway through every corner of their +country. Both had won their successes by the concentration +on that single object of their whole personal +activity, and by the skilful use of every device whereby +their feudal rights, personal, judicial, and legislative, could +be applied to fetter the vassal. Meantime the German +monarch, whose utmost efforts it would have needed to +tame his fierce barons and maintain order through wide +territories occupied by races unlike in dialect and customs, +had been struggling with the Lombard cities and the +Normans of South Italy, and had been for full two +centuries the object of the unrelenting enmity of the +Roman pontiff. And in this latter contest, by which +more than by any other the fate of the Empire was +decided, he fought under disadvantages far greater than +his brethren in England and France. William the +Conqueror had defied Hildebrand, William Rufus had +resisted Anselm; but the Emperors Henry the Fourth +and Barbarossa had to cope with prelates who were +Hildebrand and Anselm in one; the spiritual heads of +Christendom as well as the primates of their special realm, +the Empire. And thus, while the ecclesiastics of Germany +were a body more formidable from their possessions +than those of any other European country, and enjoying +far larger privileges, the Emperor could not, or could +with far less effect, win them over by invoking against +the Pope that national feeling which made the cry of +Gallican liberties so welcome even to the clergy of +France.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Relations of +the Papacy +and the +Empire.</p> + +<p>After repeated defeats, each more crushing than the +last, the imperial power, so far from being able to look +down on the papal, could not even maintain itself on an +equal footing. Against no pontiff since Gregory VII +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">217</a></span> +had the monarch's right to name or confirm a pope, +undisputed in the days of the Ottos and of Henry III, +been made good. It was the turn of the Emperor to +repel a similar claim of the Holy See to the function of +reviewing his own election, examining into his merits, +and rejecting him if unsound, that is to say, impatient +of priestly tyranny. A letter of Innocent III, who was +the first to make this demand in terms, was inserted by +Gregory IX in his digest of the Canon Law, the inexhaustible +armoury of the churchman, and continued to +be quoted thence by every canonist till the end of the +sixteenth century<a name="FNanchor_256" id="FNanchor_256" href="#Footnote_256" class="fnanchor">[256]</a>. It was not difficult to find grounds +on which to base such a doctrine. Gregory VII deduced +it with characteristic boldness from the power of the +keys, and the superiority over all other dignities which +must needs appertain to the Pope as arbiter of eternal +weal or woe. Others took their stand on the analogy +of clerical ordination, and urged that since the Pope in +consecrating the Emperor gave him a title to the obedience +of all Christian men, he must have himself the right of +approving or rejecting the candidate according to his +merits. Others again, appealing to the Old Testament, +shewed how Samuel discarded Saul and anointed David +in his room, and argued that the Pope now must have +powers at least equal to those of the Hebrew prophets. But +the ascendancy of the doctrine dates from the time of +Pope Innocent III, whose ingenuity discovered for it an +historical basis. It was by the favour of the Pope, he declared, +that the Empire was taken away from the Greeks +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">218</a></span> +and given to the Germans in the person of Charles<a name="FNanchor_257" id="FNanchor_257" href="#Footnote_257" class="fnanchor">[257]</a> +, +and the authority which Leo then exercised as God's +representative must abide thenceforth and for ever in his +successors, who can therefore at any time recall the gift, +and bestow it on a person or a nation more worthy than +its present holders. This is the famous theory of the +Translation of the Empire, which plays so large a part +in controversy down till the seventeenth century<a name="FNanchor_258" id="FNanchor_258" href="#Footnote_258" class="fnanchor">[258]</a>, +a theory +with plausibility enough to make it generally successful, +yet one which to an impartial eye appears far removed +from the truth of the facts<a name="FNanchor_259" id="FNanchor_259" href="#Footnote_259" class="fnanchor">[259]</a>. Leo III did not suppose, +any more than did Charles himself, that it was by his sole +pontifical authority that the crown was given to the +Frank; nor do we find such a notion put forward by any +of his successors down to the twelfth century. Gregory +VII in particular, in a remarkable letter dilating on his +prerogative, appeals to the substitution by papal interference +of Pipin for the last Merovingian king, and even +goes back to cite the case of Theodosius humbling himself +before St. Ambrose, but says never a word about this +<span lang="la">'translatio,'</span> excellently as it would have served his +purpose.</p> + +<p>Sound or unsound, however, these arguments did their +work, for they were urged skilfully and boldly, and none +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">219</a></span> +denied that it was by the Pope alone that the crown could +be lawfully imposed<a name="FNanchor_260" id="FNanchor_260" href="#Footnote_260" class="fnanchor">[260]</a>. In some instances the rights +claimed were actually made good. Thus Innocent III +withstood Philip and overthrew Otto IV; thus another +haughty priest commanded the electors to choose the +Landgrave of Thuringia (<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1246), and was by some +of them obeyed; thus Gregory X compelled the recognition +of Rudolf. The further pretensions of the Popes +to the vicariate of the Empire during interregna the +Germans never admitted<a name="FNanchor_261" id="FNanchor_261" href="#Footnote_261" class="fnanchor">[261]</a>. Still their place was now +generally felt to be higher than that of the monarch, and +their control over the three spiritual electors and the +whole body of the clergy was far more effective than his. +A spark of national feeling was at length kindled by the +exactions and shameless subservience to France of the +papal court at Avignon<a name="FNanchor_262" id="FNanchor_262" href="#Footnote_262" class="fnanchor">[262]</a>; +and the infant democracy of +industry and intelligence represented by the cities and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">220</a></span> +by the English Franciscan Occam, supported Lewis IV +in his conflict with John XXII, till even the princes who +had risen by the help of the Pope were obliged to oppose +him. The same sentiment dictated the reforms of Constance, +but the imperial power which might have floated +onwards and higher on the turning tide of popular opinion +lacked men equal to the occasion: the Hapsburg +Frederick the Third, timid and superstitious, abased himself +before the Romish court, and his house has generally +adhered to the alliance then struck. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">221</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XIV.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">THE GERMANIC CONSTITUTION: THE SEVEN +ELECTORS.</span></h2> + +<p class="sidenote">Territorial +Sovereignty +of the +Princes.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Adolf, +1292-1298.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Albert I, +1298-1308.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Henry VII, +1308-1314.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Lewis IV, +1314-1347.</p> + +<p>The reign of Frederick the Second was not less fatal to +the domestic power of the German king than to the +European supremacy of the Emperor. His two Pragmatic +Sanctions had conferred rights that made the +feudal aristocracy almost independent, and the long +anarchy of the Interregnum had enabled them not only +to use but to extend and fortify their power. Rudolf of +Hapsburg had striven, not wholly in vain, to coerce their +insolence, but the contest between his son Albert and +Adolf of Nassau which followed his death, the short and +troubled reign of Albert himself, the absence of Henry +the Seventh in Italy, the civil war of Lewis of Bavaria +and Frederick duke of Austria, rival claimants of the +imperial throne, the difficulties in which Lewis, the +successful competitor, found himself involved with the +Pope—all these circumstances tended more and more +to narrow the influence of the crown and complete the +emancipation of the turbulent nobles. They now became +virtually supreme in their own domains, enjoying full +jurisdiction, certain appeals excepted, the right of legislation, +privileges of coining money, of levying tolls and +taxes: some were without even a feudal bond to remind +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">222</a></span> +them of their allegiance. The numbers of the immediate +nobility—those who held directly of the crown—had +increased prodigiously by the extinction of the dukedoms +of Saxony, Franconia, and Swabia: along the Rhine the +lord of a single tower was usually a sovereign prince. +The petty tyrants whose boast it was that they owed fealty +only to God and the Emperor, shewed themselves in +practice equally regardless of both powers. Pre-eminent +were the three great houses of Austria, Bavaria, and +Luxemburg, this last having acquired Bohemia, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1309; +next came the electors, already considered collectively +more important than the Emperor, and forming for +themselves the first considerable principalities. Brandenburg +and the Rhenish Palatinate are strong independent +states before the end of this period: Bohemia +and the three archbishoprics almost from its beginning.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Policy +of the +Emperors.</p> + +<p>The chief object of the magnates was to keep the +monarch in his present state of helplessness. Till the +expenses which the crown entailed were found ruinous +to its wearer, their practice was to confer it on some petty +prince, such as were Rudolf and Adolf of Nassau and +Gunther of Schwartzburg, seeking when they could to +keep it from settling in one family. They bound the +newly-elected to respect all their present immunities, +including those which they had just extorted as the price +of their votes; they checked all his attempts to recover +lost lands or rights: they ventured at last to depose their +anointed head, Wenzel of Bohemia. Thus fettered, the +Emperor sought only to make the most of his short +tenure, using his position to aggrandize his family and +raise money by the sale of crown estates and privileges. +His individual action and personal relation to the subject +was replaced by a merely legal and formal one: he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">223</a></span> +represented order and legitimate ownership, and so far +was still necessary to the political system. But progresses +through the country were abandoned: unlike his +predecessors, who had resigned their patrimony when +they assumed the sceptre, he lived mostly in his own +states, often without the Empire's bounds. Frederick III +never entered it for twenty-seven years.</p> + +<p>How thoroughly the national character of the office +was gone is shewn by the repeated attempts to bestow it +on foreign potentates, who could not fill the place of a +German king of the good old vigorous type. Not to +speak of Richard and Alfonso, Charles of Valois was +proposed against Henry VII, Edward III of England +actually elected against Charles IV (his parliament forbade +him to accept), George Podiebrad, king of Bohemia, +against Frederick III. Sigismund was virtually a Hungarian +king. The Emperor's only hope would have been +in the support of the cities. +<span class="sidenote">Power of +the cities.</span> +During the thirteenth and +fourteenth centuries they had increased wonderfully in +population, wealth, and boldness: the Hanseatic confederacy +was the mightiest power of the North, and cowed +the Scandinavian kings: the towns of Swabia and the +Rhine formed great commercial leagues, maintained +regular wars against the counter-associations of the +nobility, and seemed at one time, by an alliance with +the Swiss, on the point of turning West Germany into a +federation of free municipalities. Feudalism, however, +was still too strong; the cavalry of the nobles was +irresistible in the field, and the thoughtless Wenzel let +slip a golden opportunity of repairing the losses of two +centuries. +<span class="sidenote">Financial +distress.</span> +After all, the Empire was perhaps past +redemption, for one fatal ailment paralyzed all its efforts. +The Empire was poor. The crown lands, which had +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">224</a></span> +suffered heavily under Frederick II, were further usurped +during the confusion that followed; till at last, through +the reckless prodigality of sovereigns who sought only +their immediate interest, little was left of the vast and +fertile domains along the Rhine from which the Saxon +and Franconian Emperors had drawn the chief part of +their revenue. Regalian rights, the second fiscal resource, +had fared no better—tolls, customs, mines, rights of +coining, of harbouring Jews, and so forth, were either +seized or granted away: even the advowsons of churches +had been sold or mortgaged; and the imperial treasury +depended mainly on an inglorious traffic in honours and +exemptions. Things were so bad under Rudolf that the +electors refused to make his son Albert king of the +Romans, declaring that, while Rudolf lived, the public +revenue which with difficulty supported one monarch, +could much less maintain two at the same time<a name="FNanchor_263" id="FNanchor_263" href="#Footnote_263" class="fnanchor">[263]</a>. Sigismund +told his Diet, <span lang="la">'Nihil esse imperio spoliatius, nihil +egentius, adeo ut qui sibi ex Germaniæ principibus successurus +esset, qui præter patrimonium nihil aliud +habuerit, apud eum non imperium sed potius servitium +sit futurum<a name="FNanchor_264" id="FNanchor_264" href="#Footnote_264" class="fnanchor">[264]</a>.'</span> Patritius, the secretary of Frederick III, +declared that the revenues of the Empire scarcely covered +the expenses of its ambassadors<a name="FNanchor_265" id="FNanchor_265" href="#Footnote_265" class="fnanchor">[265]</a>. Poverty such as +these expressions point to, a poverty which became +greater after each election, not only involved the failure +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">225</a></span> +of the attempts which were sometimes made to recover +usurped rights<a name="FNanchor_266" id="FNanchor_266" href="#Footnote_266" class="fnanchor">[266]</a>, +but put every project of reform within or +war without at the mercy of a jealous Diet. The three +orders of which that Diet consisted, electors, princes, and +cities, were mutually hostile, and by consequence selfish; +their niggardly grants did no more than keep the Empire +from dying of inanition.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Charles IV +(<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1347-1378), +and +his electoral +constitution.</p> + +<p>The changes thus briefly described were in progress +when Charles the Fourth, king of Bohemia, son of that +blind king John of Bohemia who fell at Cressy, and +grandson of the Emperor Henry VII, was chosen to +ascend the throne. His skilful and consistent policy +aimed at settling what he perhaps despaired of reforming, +and the famous instrument which, under the name of the +Golden Bull, became the corner-stone of the Germanic +constitution, confessed and legalized the independence of +the electors and the powerlessness of the crown. The +most conspicuous defect of the existing system was the +uncertainty of the elections, followed as they usually were +by a civil war. It was this which Charles set himself to +redress.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">German +kingdom not +originally +elective.</p> + +<p>The kingdoms founded on the ruins of the Roman +Empire by the Teutonic invaders presented in their +original form a rude combination of the elective with the +hereditary principle. One family in each tribe had, as +the offspring of the gods, an indefeasible claim to rule, +but from among the members of such a family the warriors +were free to choose the bravest or the most popular +as king<a name="FNanchor_267" id="FNanchor_267" href="#Footnote_267" class="fnanchor">[267]</a>. That the German crown came to be purely +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">226</a></span> +elective, while in France, Castile, Aragon, England, and +most other European states, the principle of strict hereditary +succession established itself, was due to the failure +of heirs male in three successive dynasties; to the restless +ambition of the nobles, who, since they were not, like +the French, strong enough to disregard the royal power, +did their best to weaken it; to the intrigues of the churchmen, +zealous for a method of appointment prescribed by +their own law and observed in capitular elections; to the +wish of the Popes to gain an opening for their own +influence and make effective the veto which they claimed; +above all, to the conception of the imperial office as one +too holy to be, in the same manner as the regal, transmissible +by blood. Had the German, like other feudal +kingdoms, remained merely local, feudal, and national, +it would without doubt have ended by becoming a hereditary +monarchy. Transformed as it was by the Roman +Empire, this could not be. The headship of the human +race being, like the Papacy, the common inheritance of +all mankind, could not be confined to any family, nor +pass like a private estate by the ordinary rules of descent.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Electoral +body in +primitive +times.</p> + +<p>The right to choose the war-chief belonged, in the +earliest ages, to the whole body of freemen. Their suffrage, +which must have been very irregularly exercised, +became by degrees vested in their leaders, but the assent +of the multitude, although ensured already, was needed +to complete the ceremony. It was thus that Henry the +Fowler, and St. Henry, and Conrad the Franconian duke +were chosen<a name="FNanchor_268" id="FNanchor_268" href="#Footnote_268" class="fnanchor">[268]</a>. Though even tradition might have commemorated +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">227</a></span> +what extant records place beyond a doubt, +it was commonly believed, till the end of the sixteenth +century, that the elective constitution had been established, +and the privilege of voting confined to seven persons, by +a decree of Gregory V and Otto III, which a famous +jurist describes as <span lang="la">'lex a pontifice de imperatorum comitiis +lata, ne ius eligendi penes populum Romanum in posterum +esset<a name="FNanchor_269" id="FNanchor_269" href="#Footnote_269" class="fnanchor">[269]</a>.'</span> St. Thomas says, 'Election ceased from +the times of Charles the Great to those of Otto III, when +Pope Gregory V established that of the seven princes, +which will last as long as the holy Roman Church, who +ranks above all other powers, shall have judged expedient +for Christ's faithful people<a name="FNanchor_270" id="FNanchor_270" href="#Footnote_270" class="fnanchor">[270]</a>.' Since it tended to exalt +the papal power, this fiction was accepted, no doubt +honestly accepted, and spread abroad by the clergy. And +indeed, like so many other fictions, it had a sort of +foundation in fact. The death of Otto III, the fourth +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">228</a></span> +of a line of monarchs among whom son had regularly +succeeded to father, threw back the crown into the gift +of the nation, and was no doubt one of the chief causes +why it did not in the end become hereditary<a name="FNanchor_271" id="FNanchor_271" href="#Footnote_271" class="fnanchor">[271]</a>.</p> + +<p>Thus, under the Saxon and Franconian sovereigns, the +throne was theoretically elective, the assent of the chiefs +and their followers being required, though little more +likely to be refused than it was to an English or a French +king; practically hereditary, since both of these dynasties +succeeded in occupying it for four generations, the father +procuring the son's election during his own lifetime. +And so it might well have continued, had the right of +choice been retained by the whole body of the aristocracy. +But at the election of Lothar II, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1125, we find a +certain small number of magnates exercising the so-called +right of prætaxation; that is to say, choosing alone the +<span class="sidenote">Encroachments +of the +great nobles.</span> +future monarch, and then submitting him to the rest for +their approval. A supreme electoral college, once formed, +had both the will and the power to retain the crown in +their own gift, and still further exclude their inferiors +from participation. So before the end of the Hohenstaufen +dynasty, two great changes had passed upon +the ancient constitution. It had become a fundamental +doctrine that the Germanic throne, unlike the thrones +of other countries, was purely elective<a name="FNanchor_272" id="FNanchor_272" href="#Footnote_272" class="fnanchor">[272]</a>: +nor could the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">229</a></span> +influence and the liberal offers of Henry VI prevail on the +princes to abandon what they rightly judged the keystone +of their powers. And at the same time the right of +prætaxation had ripened into an exclusive privilege of +election, vested in a small body<a name="FNanchor_273" id="FNanchor_273" href="#Footnote_273" class="fnanchor">[273]</a>: +the assent of the rest +of the nobility being at first assumed, finally altogether +dispensed with. On the double choice of Richard and +Alfonso, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1264, the only question was as to the +majority of votes in the electoral college: neither then +nor afterwards was there a word of the rights of the other +princes, counts and barons, important as their voices had +been two centuries earlier.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The Seven +Electors.</p> + +<p>The origin of that college is a matter somewhat intricate +and obscure. It is mentioned <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1152, and in +somewhat clearer terms in 1198, as a distinct body; but +without anything to shew who composed it. First in +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1265 does a letter of Pope Urban IV say that by +immemorial custom the right of choosing the Roman +king belonged to seven persons, the seven who had just +divided their votes on Richard of Cornwall and Alfonso +of Castile. Of these seven, three, the archbishops of +Mentz, Treves, and Cologne, pastors of the richest Transalpine +sees, represented the German church: the other +four ought, according to the ancient constitution, to have +been the dukes of the four nations, Franks, Swabians, +Saxons, Bavarians, to whom had also belonged the four +great offices of the imperial household. But of these +dukedoms the two first named were now extinct, and +their place and power in the state, as well as the household +offices they had held, had descended upon two +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">230</a></span> +principalities of more recent origin, those, namely, of the +Palatinate of the Rhine and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. +The Saxon duke, though with greatly narrowed +dominions, retained his vote and office of arch-marshal, +and the claim of his Bavarian compeer would have been +equally indisputable had it not so happened that both he +and the Palsgrave of the Rhine were members of the +great house of Wittelsbach. That one family should hold +two votes out of seven seemed so dangerous to the state +that it was made a ground of objection to the Bavarian +duke, and gave an opening to the pretensions of the +king of Bohemia, who, though not properly a Teutonic +prince<a name="FNanchor_274" id="FNanchor_274" href="#Footnote_274" class="fnanchor">[274]</a>, +might on the score of rank and power assert +himself the equal of any one of the electors. The dispute +between these rival claimants, as well as all the rules and +requisites of the election, were settled by Charles the +Fourth in the Golden Bull, +<span class="sidenote">Golden +Bull of +Charles IV, +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1356.</span> +thenceforward a fundamental +law of the Empire. He decided in favour of Bohemia, of +which he was then king; fixed Frankfort as the place of +election; named the archbishop of Mentz convener of the +electoral college; gave to Bohemia the first, to the Count +Palatine the second place among the secular electors. +A majority of votes was in all cases to be decisive. As +to each electorate there was attached a great office, it +was supposed that this was the title by which the vote +was possessed; though it was in truth rather an effect +than a cause. The three prelates were archchancellors of +Germany, Gaul and Burgundy, and Italy respectively: +Bohemia cupbearer, the Palsgrave seneschal, Saxony +marshal, and Brandenburg chamberlain<a name="FNanchor_275" id="FNanchor_275" href="#Footnote_275" class="fnanchor">[275]</a>.</p> + +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">231</a></span></p> + +<p>These arrangements, under which disputed elections +became far less frequent, remained undisturbed till <span class="s08">A.D.</span> +1618, when on the breaking out of the Thirty Years' War +the Emperor Ferdinand II by an unwarranted stretch of +prerogative deprived the Palsgrave Frederick (king of +Bohemia, and husband of Elizabeth, the daughter of +James I of England) of his electoral vote, and transferred +it to his own partisan, Maximilian of Bavaria. At the +peace of Westphalia the Palsgrave was reinstated as an +eighth elector, Bavaria retaining her place. +<span class="sidenote">Eighth +Electorate.</span> + +The sacred +number having been once broken through, less scruple +was felt in making further changes. In <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1692, the +Emperor Leopold I conferred a ninth electorate +<span class="sidenote">Ninth +Electorate.</span> +on the +house of Brunswick Lüneburg, which was then in possession +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">232</a></span> +of the duchy of Hanover, and succeeded to the +throne of Great Britain in 1714; and in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1708, the +assent of the Diet thereto was obtained. It was in this +way that English kings came to vote at the election of a +Roman Emperor.</p> + +<p>It is not a little curious that the only potentate who still +continues to entitle himself Elector<a name="FNanchor_276" id="FNanchor_276" href="#Footnote_276" class="fnanchor">[276]</a> + should be one who +never did (and of course never can now) join in electing +an Emperor, having been under the arrangements of the +old Empire a simple Landgrave. In <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1803, Napoleon, +among other sweeping changes in the Germanic constitution, +procured the extinction of the electorates of Cologne +and Treves, annexing their territories to France, and gave +the title of Elector, as the highest after that of king, to the +duke of Würtemburg, the Margrave of Baden, the Landgrave +of Hessen-Cassel, and the archbishop of Salzburg. +Three years afterwards the Empire itself ended, and the +title became meaningless.</p> + +<p>As the Germanic Empire is the most conspicuous example +of a monarchy not hereditary that the world has +ever seen, it may not be amiss to consider for a moment +what light its history throws upon the character of elective +monarchy in general, a contrivance which has always had, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">233</a></span> +and will probably always continue to have, seductions for +a certain class of political theorists.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Objects of +an elective +monarchy: +how far +attained in +Germany.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Choice of +the fittest.</p> + +<p>First of all then it deserves to be noticed how difficult, +one might almost say impossible, it was found to maintain +in practice the elective principle. In point of law, the +imperial throne was from the tenth century to the nineteenth +absolutely open to any orthodox Christian candidate. +But as a matter of fact, the competition was +confined to a few very powerful families, and there was +always a strong tendency for the crown to become +hereditary in some one of these. Thus the Franconian +Emperors held it from <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1024 till 1125, the Hohenstaufen, +themselves the heirs of the Franconians, for a +century or more; the house of Luxemburg (kings of +Bohemia) enjoyed it through three successive reigns, and +when in the fifteenth century it fell into the tenacious +grasp of the Hapsburgs, they managed to retain it thenceforth +(with but one trifling interruption) till it vanished out +of nature altogether. Therefore the chief benefit which +the scheme of elective sovereignty seems to promise, that +of putting the fittest man in the highest place, was but +seldom attained, and attained even then rather by good +fortune than design.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Restraint +of the +sovereign.</p> + +<p>No such objection can be brought against the second +ground on which an elective system has sometimes been +advocated, its operation in moderating the power of the +crown, for this was attained in the fullest and most ruinous +measure. We are reminded of the man in the fable, +who opened a sluice to water his garden, and saw his +house swept away by the furious torrent. The power of +the crown was not moderated but destroyed. Each successful +candidate was forced to purchase his title by the +sacrifice of rights which had belonged to his predecessors, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">234</a></span> +and must repeat the same shameful policy later in his +reign to procure the election of his son. Feeling at the +same time that his family could not make sure of keeping +the throne, he treated it as a life-tenant is apt to treat his +estate, seeking only to make out of it the largest present +profit. And the electors, aware of the strength of their +position, presumed upon it and abused it to assert an independence +such as the nobles of other countries could +never have aspired to.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Recognition +of the popular +will.</p> + +<p>Modern political speculation supposes the method of +appointing a ruler by the votes of his subjects, as opposed +to the system of hereditary succession, to be an assertion +by the people of their own will as the ultimate fountain of +authority, an acknowledgment by the prince that he is no +more than their minister and deputy. To the theory of +the Holy Empire nothing could be more repugnant. This +will best appear when the aspect of the system of election +at different epochs in its history is compared with the +corresponding changes in the composition of the electoral +body which have been described as in progress from the +ninth to the fourteenth century. In very early times, the +tribe chose a war chief, who was, even if he belonged to +the most noble family, no more than the first among his +peers, with a power circumscribed by the will of his subjects. +Several ages later, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, +the right of choice had passed into the hands of the +magnates, and the people were only asked to assent. In +the same measure had the relation of prince and subject +taken a new aspect. We must not expect to find, in such +rude times, any very clear apprehension of the technical +quality of the process, and the throne had indeed become +for a season so nearly hereditary that the election was +often a mere matter of form. But it seems to have been +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">235</a></span> +regarded, not as a delegation of authority by the nobles +and people, with a power of resumption implied, but +rather as their subjection of themselves to the monarch +who enjoys, as of his own right, a wide and ill-defined prerogative. +In yet later times, when, as has been shewn above, +the assembly of the chieftains and the applauding shout +of the host had been superseded by the secret conclave of +the seven electoral princes, the strict legal view of election +became fully established, and no one was supposed to +have any title to the crown except what a majority of +votes might confer upon him. Meantime, however, the +conception of the imperial office itself had been thoroughly +penetrated by religious ideas, and the fact that the sovereign +did not, like other princes, reign by hereditary right, +but by the choice of certain persons, was supposed to be +an enhancement and consecration of his dignity. The +<span class="sidenote">Conception +of the +electoral +function.</span> +electors, to draw what may seem a subtle, but is nevertheless +a very real distinction, selected, but did not create. +They only named the person who was to receive what it +was not theirs to give. God, say the mediæval writers, +not deigning to interfere visibly in the affairs of this world, +has willed that these seven princes of Germany should +discharge the function which once belonged to the senate +and people of Rome, that of choosing his earthly viceroy +in matters temporal. But it is immediately from Himself +that the authority of this viceroy comes, and men can have +no relation towards him except that of obedience. It was +in this period, therefore, when the Emperor was in practice +the mere nominee of the electors, that the belief in +this divine right stood highest, to the complete exclusion +of the mutual responsibility of feudalism, and still more of +any notion of a devolution of authority from the sovereign +people. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">236</a></span></p> + +<p class="sidenote">General +results of +Charles +IV's policy.</p> + +<p>Peace and order appeared to be promoted by the +institutions of Charles IV, which removed one fruitful +cause of civil war. But these seven electoral princes +acquired, with their extended privileges, a marked and +dangerous predominance in Germany. They were to +enjoy full regalian rights in their territories<a name="FNanchor_277" id="FNanchor_277" href="#Footnote_277" class="fnanchor">[277]</a>; +causes were +not to be evoked from their courts, save when justice +should have been denied: their consent was necessary to +all public acts of consequence. Their persons were held +to be sacred, and the seven mystic luminaries of the Holy +Empire, typified by the seven lamps of the Apocalypse, +soon gained much of the Emperor's hold on popular +reverence, as well as that actual power which he lacked. +To Charles, who viewed the German Empire much as +Rudolf had viewed the Roman, this result came not +unforeseen. He saw in his office a means of serving +personal ends, and to them, while appearing to exalt by +elaborate ceremonies its ideal dignity, he deliberately +sacrificed what real strength was left. The object which +he sought steadily through life was the prosperity of the +Bohemian kingdom, and the advancement of his own +house. In the Golden Bull, whose seal bears the legend,—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> + +<p><span lang="la">'Roma caput mundi regit orbis frena rotundi<a name="FNanchor_278" id="FNanchor_278" href="#Footnote_278" class="fnanchor">[278]</a>,'</span></p> +</div></div> + +<p>there is not a word of Rome or of Italy. To Germany +he was indirectly a benefactor, by the foundation of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">237</a></span> +University of Prague, the mother of all her schools: +otherwise her bane. He legalized anarchy, and called it +a constitution. The sums expended in obtaining the +ratification of the Golden Bull, in procuring the election +of his son Wenzel, in aggrandizing Bohemia at the expense +of Germany, had been amassed by keeping a +market in which honours and exemptions, with what +lands the crown retained, were put up openly to be bid +for. In Italy the Ghibelines saw, with shame and rage, +their chief hasten to Rome with a scanty retinue, and +return from it as swiftly, at the mandate of an Avignonese +Pope, halting on his route only to traffic away the last +rights of his Empire. The Guelf might cease to hate a +power he could now despise.</p> + +<p>Thus, alike at home and abroad, the German king had +become practically powerless by the loss of his feudal +privileges, and saw the authority that had once been his +parcelled out among a crowd of greedy and tyrannical +nobles. Meantime how had it fared with the rights which +he claimed by virtue of the imperial crown? +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">238</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XV.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">THE EMPIRE AS AN INTERNATIONAL POWER.</span></h2> + +<p class="sidenote">Theory of +the Roman +Empire in +the fourteenth +and +fifteenth +centuries.</p> + +<p>That the Roman Empire survived the seemingly +mortal wound it had received at the era of the Great +Interregnum, and continued to put forth pretensions +which no one was likely to make good where the +Hohenstaufen had failed, has been attributed to its +identification with the German kingdom, in which some +life was still left. But this was far from being the only +cause which saved it from extinction. It had not ceased +to be upheld in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by +the same singular theory which had in the ninth and +tenth been strong enough to re-establish it in the West. +The character of that theory was indeed somewhat +changed, for if not positively less religious, it was less +exclusively so. In the days of Charles and Otto, the +Empire, in so far as it was anything more than a tradition +from times gone by, rested solely upon the belief that +with the visible Church there must be coextensive a single +Christian state under one head and governor. But now +that the Emperor's headship had been repudiated by the +Pope, and his interference in matters of religion denounced +as a repetition of the sin of Uzziah; now that +the memory of mutual injuries had kindled an unquenchable +hatred between the champions of the ecclesiastical +and those of the civil power, it was natural that the latter, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">239</a></span> +while they urged, fervently as ever, the divine sanction +given to the imperial office, should at the same time be +led to seek some further basis whereon to establish its +claims. What that basis was, and how they were guided +to it, will best appear when a word or two has been said +on the nature of the change that had passed on Europe in +the course of the three preceding centuries, and the progress +of the human mind during the same period.</p> + +<p>Such has been the accumulated wealth of literature, +and so rapid the advances of science among us since the +close of the Middle Ages, that it is not now possible by +any effort fully to enter into the feelings with which the +relics of antiquity were regarded by those who saw in +them their only possession. It is indeed true that modern +art and literature and philosophy have been produced by +the working of new minds upon old materials: that in +thought, as in nature, we see no new creation. But with +us the old has been transformed and overlaid by the new +till its origin is forgotten: to them ancient books were +the only standard of taste, the only vehicle of truth, the +only stimulus to reflection. Hence it was that the most +learned man was in those days esteemed the greatest: +hence the creative energy of an age was exactly proportioned +to its knowledge of and its reverence for the +written monuments of those that had gone before. For +until they can look forward, men must look back: till +they should have reached the level of the old civilization, +the nations of mediæval Europe must continue to live +upon its memories. Over them, as over us, the common +dream of all mankind had power; but to them, as to +the ancient world, that golden age which seems now to +glimmer on the horizon of the future was shrouded in +the clouds of the past. It is to the fifteenth and sixteenth +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">240</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Revival of +learning +and literature, +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> +1100-1400.</span> +centuries that we are accustomed to assign that new birth +of the human spirit—if it ought not rather to be called +a renewal of its strength and quickening of its sluggish +life—with which the modern time begins. And the date +is well chosen, for it was then first that the transcendently +powerful influence of Greek literature began to work upon +the world. But it must not be forgotten that for a long +time previous there had been in progress a great revival +of learning, and still more of zeal for learning, which +being caused by and directed towards the literature and +institutions of Rome, might fitly be called the Roman +Renaissance. The twelfth century saw this revival begin +with that passionate study of the legislation of Justinian, +whose influence on the doctrines of imperial prerogative +has been noticed already. The thirteenth witnessed the +rapid spread of the scholastic philosophy, a body of +systems most alien, both in subject and manner, to anything +that had arisen among the ancients, yet one to +whose development Greek metaphysics and the theology +of the Latin fathers had largely contributed, and the spirit +of whose reasonings was far more free than the presumed +orthodoxy of its conclusions suffered to appear. In the +fourteenth century there arose in Italy the first great +masters of painting and song; and the literature of the +new languages, springing into the fulness of life in the +Divina Commedia, adorned not long after by the names +of Petrarch and Chaucer, assumed at once its place as +a great and ever-growing power in the affairs of men.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Growing +freedom of +spirit.</p> + +<p>Now, along with the literary revival, partly caused by, +partly causing it, there had been also a wonderful stirring +and uprising in the mind of Europe. The yoke of +church authority still pressed heavily on the souls of men; +yet some had been found to shake it off, and many more +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">241</a></span> +murmured in secret. The tendency was one which +shewed itself in various and sometimes apparently opposite +directions. The revolt of the Albigenses, the spread +of the Cathari and other so-called heretics, the excitement +created by the writings of Wickliffe and Huss, witnessed +to the fearlessness wherewith it could assail the dominant +theology. It was present, however skilfully disguised, +among those scholastic doctors who busied themselves +with proving by natural reason the dogmas of the Church: +for the power which can forge fetters can also break +them. It took a form more dangerous because of a more +direct application to facts, in the attacks, so often repeated +from Arnold of Brescia downwards, upon the wealth and +corruptions of the clergy, and above all of the papal +court. For the agitation was not merely speculative. +There was beginning to be a direct and rational interest +in life, a power of applying thought to practical ends, +which had not been seen before. +<span class="sidenote">Influence +of thought +upon the +arrangements +of +society.</span> +Man's life among his +fellows was no longer a mere wild beast struggle; man's +soul no more, as it had been, the victim of ungoverned +passion, whether it was awed by supernatural terrors or +captivated by examples of surpassing holiness. Manners +were still rude, and governments unsettled; but society +was learning to organize itself upon fixed principles; to +recognize, however faintly, the value of order, industry, +equality; to adapt means to ends, and conceive of the +common good as the proper end of its own existence. +In a word, Politics had begun to exist, and with them +there had appeared the first of a class of persons whom +friends and enemies may both, though with different +meanings, call ideal politicians; men who, however +various have been the doctrines they have held, however +impracticable many of the plans they have advanced, have +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">242</a></span> +been nevertheless alike in their devotion to the highest +interests of humanity, and have frequently been derided +as theorists in their own age to be honoured as the prophets +and teachers of the next.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Separation +of the peoples +of Europe +into +hostile +kingdoms: +consequent +need of an +international +power.</p> + +<p>Now it was towards the Roman Empire that the hopes +and sympathies of these political speculators as well as of +the jurists and poets of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries +were constantly directed. The cause may be gathered +from the circumstances of the time. The most remarkable +event in the history of the last three hundred years +had been the formation of nationalities, each distinguished +by a peculiar language and character, and by steadily +increasing differences of habits and institutions. And as +upon this national basis there had been in most cases +established strong monarchies, Europe was broken up +into disconnected bodies, and the cherished scheme of +a united Christian state appeared less likely than ever to +be realized. Nor was this all. Sometimes through race-hatred, +more often by the jealousy and ambition of their +sovereigns, these countries were constantly involved in +war with one another, violating on a larger scale and with +more destructive results than in time past the peace of +the religious community; while each of them was at the +same time torn within by frequent insurrections, and +desolated by long and bloody civil wars. The new +nationalities were too fully formed to allow the hope that +by their extinction a remedy might be applied to these +evils. They had grown up in spite of the Empire and +the Church, and were not likely to yield in their strength +what they had won in their weakness. But it still appeared +possible to soften, if not to overcome, their antagonism. +What might not be looked for from the erection of a presiding +power common to all Europe, a power which, while +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">243</a></span> +it should oversee the internal concerns of each country, +not dethroning the king, but treating him as an hereditary +viceroy, should be more especially charged to prevent +strife between kingdoms, and to maintain the public order +of Europe by being not only the fountain of international +law, but also the judge in its causes and the enforcer of +its sentences?</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The Popes +as international +Judges.</p> + +<p>To such a position had the Popes aspired. They were +indeed excellently fitted for it by the respect which the +sacredness of their office commanded; by their control of +the tremendous weapons of excommunication and interdict; +above all, by their exemption from those narrowing influences +of place, or blood, or personal interest, which it +would be their chiefest duty to resist in others. And there +had been pontiffs whose fearlessness and justice were +worthy of their exalted office, and whose interference was +gratefully remembered by those who found no other +helpers. Nevertheless, judging the Papacy by its conduct +as a whole, it had been tried and found wanting. Even +when its throne stood firmest and its purposes were most +pure, one motive had always biassed its decisions—a +partiality to the most submissive. During the greater +part of the fourteenth century it was at Avignon the +willing tool of France: in the pursuit of a temporal principality +it had mingled in and been contaminated by the +unhallowed politics of Italy; its supreme council, the +college of cardinals, was distracted by the intrigues of two +bitterly hostile factions. And while the power of the +Popes had declined steadily, though silently, since the +days of Boniface the Eighth, the insolence of the great +prelates and the vices of the inferior clergy had provoked +throughout Western Christendom a reaction against the +pretensions of all sacerdotal authority. As there is no +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">244</a></span> +theory at first sight more attractive than that which +entrusts all government to a supreme spiritual power, +which, knowing what is best for man, shall lead him to +his true good by appealing to the highest principles of his +nature, so there is no disappointment more bitter than +that of those who find that the holiest office may be +polluted by the lusts and passions of its holder; that craft +and hypocrisy lead while fanaticism follows; that here +too, as in so much else, the corruption of the best is worst. +Some such disappointment there was in Europe now, +and with it a certain disposition to look with favour on +the secular power: a wish to escape from the unhealthy +atmosphere of clerical despotism to the rule of positive +law, harsher, it might be, yet surely less corrupting. +Espousing the cause of the Roman Empire as the chief +opponent of priestly claims, this tendency found it, with +shrunken territory and diminished resources, fitter in some +respects for the office of an international judge and +mediator than it had been as a great national power. +For though far less widely active, it was losing that local +character which was fast gathering round the Papacy. +With feudal rights no longer enforcible, and removed, except +in his patrimonial lands, from direct contact with the +subject, the Emperor was not, as heretofore, conspicuously +a German and a feudal king, and occupied an ideal +position far less marred by the incongruous accidents of +birth and training, of national and dynastic interests.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Duties attributed +to +the Empire +by the +developed +theory.</p> + +<p>To that position three cardinal duties were attached. +He who held it must typify spiritual unity, must preserve +peace, must be a fountain of that by which alone among +imperfect men peace is preserved and restored, law and +justice. The first of these three objects was sought not +only on religious grounds, but also from that longing for +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">245</a></span> +a wider brotherhood of humanity towards which, ever +since the barrier between Jew and Gentile, Greek and +barbarian, was broken down, the aspirations of the higher +minds of the world have been constantly directed. Placed +in the midst of Europe, the Emperor was to bind its tribes +into one body, reminding them of their common faith, +their common blood, their common interest in each other's +welfare. And he was therefore above all things, professing +indeed to be upon earth the representative of the +Prince of Peace, bound to listen to complaints, and to +redress the injuries inflicted by sovereigns or people upon +each other; to punish offenders against the public order +of Christendom; to maintain through the world, looking +down as from a serene height upon the schemes and +quarrels of meaner potentates, that supreme good without +which neither arts nor letters, nor the gentler virtues of +life, can rise and flourish. The mediæval Empire was in +its essence what the modern despotisms that mimic it +profess themselves: the Empire was peace<a name="FNanchor_279" id="FNanchor_279" href="#Footnote_279" class="fnanchor">[279]</a>: +the oldest +and noblest title of its head was <span lang="la">'Imperator pacificus<a name="FNanchor_280" id="FNanchor_280" href="#Footnote_280" class="fnanchor">[280]</a>.'</span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">246</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Divine +right of the +Emperor.</span> +And that he might be the peacemaker, he must be the +expounder of justice and the author of its concrete +embodiment, positive law; chief legislator and supreme +judge of appeal, like his predecessor the compiler of the +<span lang="la">Corpus Iuris</span>, the one and only source of all legitimate +authority. In this sense, as governor and administrator, +not as owner, is he, in the words of the jurists, Lord of +the world; not that its soil belongs to him in the same +sense in which the soil of France or England belongs to +their respective kings: he is the steward of Him who has +received the heathen for his possession and the uttermost +parts of the earth for his inheritance. It is, therefore, by +him alone that the idea of pure right, acquired not by force +but by legitimate devolution from those whom God himself +had set up, is visibly expressed upon earth. To find an +external and positive basis for that idea is a problem +which it has at all times been more easy to evade than to +solve, and one peculiarly distressing to those who could +neither explain the phenomena of society by reducing it to +its original principles, nor inquire historically how its existing +arrangements had grown up. Hence the attempt +to represent human government as an emanation from +divine: a view from which all the similar but far less +logically consistent doctrines of divine right which have +prevailed in later times are borrowed. As has been said +already, there is not a trace of the notion that the Emperor +reigns by an hereditary right of his own or by the will of +the people, for such a theory would have seemed to the +men of the middle ages an absurd and wicked perversion +of the true order. Nor do his powers come to him from +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">247</a></span> +those who choose him, but from God, who uses the electoral +princes as mere instruments of nomination. Having +such an origin, his rights exist irrespective of their actual +exercise, and no voluntary abandonment, not even an +express grant, can impair them. Boniface the Eighth<a name="FNanchor_281" id="FNanchor_281" href="#Footnote_281" class="fnanchor">[281]</a> + +reminds the king of France, and imperialist lawyers till +the seventeenth century repeated the claim, that he, like +other princes, is of right and must ever remain subject to +the Roman Emperor. And the sovereigns of Europe long +continued to address the Emperor in language, and yield +to him a precedence, which admitted the inferiority of +their own position<a name="FNanchor_282" id="FNanchor_282" href="#Footnote_282" class="fnanchor">[282]</a>.</p> + +<p>There was in this theory nothing that was absurd, +though much that was impracticable. The ideas on which +it rested are still unapproached in grandeur and simplicity, +still as far in advance of the average thought of Europe, +and as unlikely to find men or nations fit to apply them, +as when they were promulgated five hundred years ago. +The practical evil which the establishment of such a +universal monarchy was intended to meet, that of wars +and hardly less ruinous preparations for war between the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">248</a></span> +states of Europe, remains what it was then. The remedy +which mediæval theory proposed has been in some +measure applied by the construction and reception of +international law; the greater difficulty of erecting a +tribunal to arbitrate and decide, with the power of enforcing +its decisions, is as far from a solution as ever.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Roman +Empire +why an international +power.</p> + +<p>It is easy to see how it was to the Roman Emperor, +and to him only, that the duties and privileges above +mentioned could be attributed. Being Roman, he was +of no nation, and therefore fittest to judge between contending +states, and appease the animosities of race. His +was the imperial tongue of Rome, not only the vehicle of +religion and law, but also, since no other was understood +everywhere in Europe, the necessary medium of diplomatic +intercourse. As there was no Church but the Holy +Roman Church, and he its temporal head, it was by him +that the communion of the saints in its outward form, its +secular side, was represented, and to his keeping that the +sanctity of peace must be entrusted. As direct heir of +those who from Julius to Justinian had shaped the existing +law of Europe<a name="FNanchor_283" id="FNanchor_283" href="#Footnote_283" class="fnanchor">[283]</a>, +he was, so to speak, legality personified<a name="FNanchor_284" id="FNanchor_284" href="#Footnote_284" class="fnanchor">[284]</a> +; +the only sovereign on earth who, being possessed of +power by an unimpeachable title, could by his grant confer +upon others rights equally valid. And as he claimed +to perpetuate the greatest political system the world had +known, a system which still moves the wonder of those +who see before their eyes empires as much wider than the +Roman as they are less symmetrical, and whose vast and +complex machinery far surpassed anything the fourteenth +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">249</a></span> +century possessed or could hope to establish, it was not +strange that he and his government (assuming them to +be what they were entitled to be) should be taken as the +ideal of a perfect monarch and a perfect state.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Illustrations.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Right of +creating +Kings.</p> + +<p>Of the many applications and illustrations of these doctrines +which mediæval documents furnish, it will suffice to +adduce two or three. No imperial privilege was prized +more highly than the power of creating kings, for there +was none which raised the Emperor so much above them. +In this, as in other international concerns, the Pope soon +began to claim a jurisdiction, at first concurrent, then +separate and independent. But the older and more +reasonable view assigned it, as flowing from the possession +of supreme secular authority, to the Emperor; and +it was from him that the rulers of Burgundy, Bohemia, +Hungary, perhaps Poland and Denmark, received the +regal title<a name="FNanchor_285" id="FNanchor_285" href="#Footnote_285" class="fnanchor">[285]</a>. The prerogative was his in the same manner +in which that of conferring titles is still held to belong to +the sovereign in every modern kingdom. And so when +Charles the Bold, last duke of French Burgundy, proposed +to consolidate his wide dominions into a kingdom, it was +from Frederick III that he sought permission to do so. +The Emperor, however, was greedy and suspicious, the +Duke uncompliant; and when Frederick found that terms +could not be arranged between them, he stole away suddenly, +and left Charles to carry back, with ill-concealed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">250</a></span> +mortification, the crown and sceptre which he had brought +ready-made to the place of interview.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Chivalry.</p> + +<p>In the same manner, as representing what was common +to and valid throughout all Europe, nobility, and more +particularly knighthood, centred in the Empire. The +great Orders of Chivalry were international institutions, +whose members, having consecrated themselves a military +priesthood, had no longer any country of their own, +and could therefore be subject to no one save the +Emperor and the Pope. For knighthood was constructed +on the analogy of priesthood, and knights were conceived +of as being to the world in its secular aspect exactly what +priests, and more especially the monastic orders, were to +it in its religious aspect: to the one body was given the +sword of the flesh, to the other the sword of the spirit; +each was universal, each had its autocratic head<a name="FNanchor_286" id="FNanchor_286" href="#Footnote_286" class="fnanchor">[286]</a>. Singularly, +too, were these notions brought into harmony +with the feudal polity. Cæsar was lord paramount of the +world: its countries great fiefs whose kings were his +tenants in chief, the suitors of his court, owing to him +homage, fealty, and military service against the infidel.</p> + +<p>One illustration more of the way in which the empire +was held to be something of and for all mankind, cannot +be omitted. Although from the practical union of the +imperial with the German throne none but Germans were +chosen to fill it<a name="FNanchor_287" id="FNanchor_287" href="#Footnote_287" class="fnanchor">[287]</a>, +it remained in point of law absolutely +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">251</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Persons +eligible as +Emperors.</span> +free from all restrictions of country or birth. In an age +of the most intense aristocratic exclusiveness, the highest +office in the world was the only secular one open to all +Christians. The old writers, after debating at length the +qualifications that are or may be desirable in an Emperor, +and relating how in pagan times Gauls and Spaniards, +Moors and Pannonians, were thought worthy of the purple, +decide that two things, and no more, are required of the +candidate for Empire: he must be free-born, and he must +be orthodox<a name="FNanchor_288" id="FNanchor_288" href="#Footnote_288" class="fnanchor">[288]</a>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The Empire +and +the new +learning.</p> + +<p>It is not without a certain surprise that we see those +who were engaged in the study of ancient letters, or felt +indirectly their stimulus, embrace so fervently the cause of +the Roman Empire. Still more difficult is it to estimate +the respective influence exerted by each of the three +revivals which it has been attempted to distinguish. The +spirit of the ancient world by which the men who led +these movements fancied themselves animated, was in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">252</a></span> +truth a pagan, or at least a strongly secular spirit, in +many respects inconsistent with the associations which +had now gathered round the imperial office. And this +hostility did not fail to shew itself when at the beginning +of the sixteenth century, in the fulness of the Renaissance, +a direct and for the time irresistible sway was exercised +by the art and literature of Greece, when the mythology +of Euripides and Ovid supplanted that which had fired +the imagination of Dante and peopled the visions of +St. Francis; when men forsook the image of the saint in +the cathedral for the statue of the nymph in the garden; +when the uncouth jargon of scholastic theology was +equally distasteful to the scholars who formed their style +upon Cicero and the philosophers who drew their inspiration +from Plato. That meanwhile the admirers of antiquity +did ally themselves with the defenders of the Empire, +was due partly indeed to the false notions that were +entertained regarding the early Cæsars, yet still more to +the common hostility of both sects to the Papacy. It +was as successor of old Rome, and by virtue of her +traditions, that the Holy See had established so wide +a dominion; yet no sooner did Arnold of Brescia and his +republicans arise, claiming liberty in the name of the +ancient constitution of the republic, than they found in +the Popes their bitterest foes, and turned for help to the +secular monarch against the clergy. With similar aversion +did the Romish court view the revived study of the +ancient jurisprudence, so soon as it became, in the hands +of the school of Bologna and afterwards of the jurists of +France, a power able to assert its independence and resist +ecclesiastical pretensions. In the ninth century, Pope +Nicholas the First had himself judged in the famous case +of Teutberga, wife of Lothar, according to the civil law: +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">253</a></span> +in the thirteenth, his successors<a name="FNanchor_289" id="FNanchor_289" href="#Footnote_289" class="fnanchor">[289]</a> + forbade its study, and +the canonists strove to expel it from Europe<a name="FNanchor_290" id="FNanchor_290" href="#Footnote_290" class="fnanchor">[290]</a>. And as +the current of educated opinion among the laity was +beginning, however imperceptibly at first, to set against +sacerdotal tyranny, it followed that the Empire would find +sympathy in any effort it could make to regain its lost +position. Thus the Emperors became, or might have +become had they seen the greatness of the opportunity +and been strong enough to improve it, the exponents and +guides of the political movement, the pioneers, in part at +least, of the Reformation. But the revival came too late +to arrest, if not to adorn, the decline of their office. The +growth of a national sentiment in the several countries of +Europe, which had already gone too far to be arrested, +and was urged on by forces far stronger than the theories +of Catholic unity which opposed it, imprinted on the +resistance to papal usurpation, and even on the instincts +of political freedom, that form of narrowly local patriotism +which they still retain. +<span class="sidenote">The doctrine +of +the Empire's +rights +and functions +never +carried out +in fact.</span> +It can hardly be said that upon +any occasion, except the gathering of the council of +Constance by Sigismund, did the Emperor appear filling +a truly international place. For the most part he exerted +in the politics of Europe no influence greater than that of +other princes. In actual resources he stood below the +kings of France and England, far below his vassals the +Visconti of Milan<a name="FNanchor_291" id="FNanchor_291" href="#Footnote_291" class="fnanchor">[291]</a>. Yet this helplessness, such was +men's faith or their timidity, and such their unwillingness +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">254</a></span> +to make prejudice bend to facts, did not prevent his +dignity from being extolled in the most sonorous language +by writers whose imaginations were enthralled by the halo +of traditional glory which surrounded it.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Attitude +of the men +of letters.</p> + +<p>We are thus brought back to ask, What was the connection +between imperialism and the literary revival?</p> + +<p>To moderns who think of the Roman Empire as the +heathen persecuting power, it is strange to find it depicted +as the model of a Christian commonwealth. It is stranger +still that the study of antiquity should have made men +advocates of arbitrary power. Democratic Athens, oligarchic +Rome, suggest to us Pericles and Brutus: the +moderns who have striven to catch their spirit have been +men like Algernon Sidney, and Vergniaud, and Shelley. +The explanation is the same in both cases<a name="FNanchor_292" id="FNanchor_292" href="#Footnote_292" class="fnanchor">[292]</a>. The ancient +world was known to the earlier middle ages by tradition, +freshest for what was latest, and by the authors of the +Empire. Both presented to them the picture of a mighty +despotism and a civilization brilliant far beyond their own. +Writings of the fourth and fifth centuries, unfamiliar to us, +were to them authorities as high as Tacitus or Livy; yet +Virgil and Horace too had sung the praises of the first +and wisest of the Emperors. To the enthusiasts of poetry +and law, Rome meant universal monarchy<a name="FNanchor_293" id="FNanchor_293" href="#Footnote_293" class="fnanchor">[293]</a>; +to those of +religion, her name called up the undimmed radiance of +the Church under Sylvester and Constantine. Petrarch, +<span class="sidenote">Petrarch.</span> +the apostle of the dawning Renaissance, is excited by the +least attempt to revive even the shadow of imperial greatness: +as he had hailed Rienzi, he welcomes Charles IV +into Italy, and execrates his departure. The following +passage is taken from his letter to the Roman people +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">255</a></span> +asking them to receive back Rienzi:—'When was there +ever such peace, such tranquillity, such justice, such honour +paid to virtue, such rewards distributed to the good and +punishments to the bad, when was ever the state so wisely +guided, as in the time when the world had obtained one +head, and that head Rome; the very time wherein God +deigned to be born of a virgin and dwell upon earth. To +every single body there has been given a head; the whole +world therefore also, which is called by the poet a great +body, ought to be content with one temporal head. For +every two-headed animal is monstrous; how much more +horrible and hideous a portent must be a creature with +a thousand different heads, biting and fighting against one +another! If, however, it is necessary that there be more +heads than one, it is nevertheless evident that there ought +to be one to restrain all and preside over all, that so the +peace of the whole body may abide unshaken. Assuredly +both in heaven and in earth the sovereignty of one has +always been best.'</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Dante.</p> + +<p>His passion for the heroism of Roman conquest and +the ordered peace to which it brought the world, is the +centre of Dante's political hopes: he is no more an exiled +Ghibeline, but a patriot whose fervid imagination sees +a nation arise regenerate at the touch of its rightful lord. +Italy, the spoil of so many Teutonic conquerors, is the +garden of the Empire which Henry is to redeem: Rome +the mourning widow, whom Albert is denounced for +neglecting<a name="FNanchor_294" id="FNanchor_294" href="#Footnote_294" class="fnanchor">[294]</a>. Passing through purgatory, the poet sees +Rudolf of Hapsburg seated gloomily apart, mourning +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">256</a></span> +his sin in that he left unhealed the wounds of Italy<a name="FNanchor_295" id="FNanchor_295" href="#Footnote_295" class="fnanchor">[295]</a>. In +the deepest pit of hell's ninth circle lies Lucifer, huge, +three-headed; in each mouth a sinner whom he crunches +between his teeth, in one mouth Iscariot the traitor to +Christ, in the others the two traitors to the first Emperor +of Rome, Brutus and Cassius<a name="FNanchor_296" id="FNanchor_296" href="#Footnote_296" class="fnanchor">[296]</a>. To multiply illustrations +from other parts of the poem would be an endless task; +for the idea is ever present in Dante's mind, and displays +itself in a hundred unexpected forms. Virgil himself is +selected to be the guide of the pilgrim through hell and +purgatory, not so much as being the great poet of antiquity, +as because he 'was born under Julius and lived +beneath the good Augustus;' because he was divinely +charged to sing of the Empire's earliest and brightest +glories. Strange, that the shame of one age should be +the glory of another. For Virgil's melancholy panegyrics +upon the destroyer of the republic are no more like +Dante's appeals to the coming saviour of Italy than is +Cæsar Octavianus to Henry count of Luxemburg.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Attitude of +the Jurists.</p> + +<p>The visionary zeal of the man of letters was seconded +by the more sober devotion of the lawyer. Conqueror, +theologian, and jurist, Justinian is a hero greater than +either Julius or Constantine, for his enduring work bears +him witness. Absolutism was the civilian's creed<a name="FNanchor_297" id="FNanchor_297" href="#Footnote_297" class="fnanchor">[297]</a>: +the +phrases <span lang="la">'legibus solutus,'</span> <span lang="la">'lex regia,'</span> whatever else tended +in the same direction, were taken to express the prerogative +of him whose official style of Augustus, as well as +the vernacular name of 'Kaiser,' designated the legitimate +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">257</a></span> +successor of the compiler of the <span lang="la">Corpus Juris</span>. Since it +was upon that legitimacy that his claim to be the fountain +of law rested, no pains were spared to seek out and observe +every custom and precedent by which old Rome +seemed to be connected with her representative.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Imitations of +old Rome.</p> + +<p>Of the many instances that might be collected, it would +be tedious to enumerate more than a few. The offices +of the imperial household, instituted by Constantine the +Great, were attached to the noblest families of Germany. +The Emperor and Empress, before their coronation at +Rome, were lodged in the chambers called those of +Augustus and Livia<a name="FNanchor_298" id="FNanchor_298" href="#Footnote_298" class="fnanchor">[298]</a>; +a bare sword was borne before +them by the prætorian prefect; their processions were +adorned by the standards, eagles, wolves and dragons, +which had figured in the train of Hadrian or Theodosius<a name="FNanchor_299" id="FNanchor_299" href="#Footnote_299" class="fnanchor">[299]</a>. +The constant title of the Emperor himself, according to +the style introduced by Probus, was <span lang="la">'semper Augustus,'</span> +or <span lang="la">'perpetuus Augustus,'</span> which erring etymology translated +'at all times increaser of the Empire<a name="FNanchor_300" id="FNanchor_300" href="#Footnote_300" class="fnanchor">[300]</a>.' Edicts issued by +a Franconian or Swabian sovereign were inserted as +Novels<a name="FNanchor_301" id="FNanchor_301" href="#Footnote_301" class="fnanchor">[301]</a> + in the <span lang="la">Corpus Juris</span>, in the latest editions of +which custom still allows them a place. The <i lang="la">pontificatus +maximus</i> of his pagan predecessors was supposed to be +preserved by the admission of each Emperor as a canon +of St. Peter's at Rome and St. Mary's at Aachen<a name="FNanchor_302" id="FNanchor_302" href="#Footnote_302" class="fnanchor">[302]</a>. Sometimes +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">258</a></span> +we even find him talking of his consulship<a name="FNanchor_303" id="FNanchor_303" href="#Footnote_303" class="fnanchor">[303]</a>. +Annalists invariably number the place of each sovereign +from Augustus downwards<a name="FNanchor_304" id="FNanchor_304" href="#Footnote_304" class="fnanchor">[304]</a>. The notion of an uninterrupted +succession, which moves the stranger's wondering +smile as he sees ranged round the magnificent Golden +Hall of Augsburg the portraits of the Cæsars, laurelled, +helmeted, and periwigged, from Julius the conqueror of +Gaul to Joseph the partitioner of Poland, was to those +generations not an article of faith only because its denial +was inconceivable.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Reverence +for ancient +forms and +phrases in +the Middle +Ages.</p> + +<p>And all this historical antiquarianism, as one might call +it, which gathers round the Empire, is but one instance, +though the most striking, of that eager wish to cling to +the old forms, use the old phrases, and preserve the old +institutions to which the annals of mediæval Europe bear +witness. It appears even in trivial expressions, as when +a monkish chronicler says of evil bishops deposed, <i lang="la">Tribu +moti sunt</i>, or talks of the 'senate and people of the +Franks,' when he means a council of chiefs surrounded +by a crowd of half-naked warriors. So throughout Europe +charters and edicts were drawn up on Roman precedents; +the trade-guilds, though often traceable to a different source, +represented the old <i lang="la">collegia</i>; villenage was the offspring +of the system of <i lang="la">coloni</i> under the later Empire. Even in +remote Britain, the Teutonic invaders used Roman ensigns, +and stamped their coins with Roman devices; called +themselves <span lang="la">'Basileis'</span> and <span lang="la">'Augusti<a name="FNanchor_305" id="FNanchor_305" href="#Footnote_305" class="fnanchor">[305]</a>.'</span> Especially did the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">259</a></span> +cities perpetuate Rome through her most lasting boon +to the conquered, municipal self-government; those of +later origin emulating in their adherence to antique style +others who, like Nismes and Cologne, Zürich and Augsburg, +could trace back their institutions to the <i lang="la">coloniæ</i> and +<i lang="la">municipia</i> of the first centuries. On the walls and gates +of hoary Nürnberg<a name="FNanchor_306" id="FNanchor_306" href="#Footnote_306" class="fnanchor">[306]</a> + the traveller still sees emblazoned the +imperial eagle, with the words <span lang="la">'Senatus populusque +Norimbergensis,'</span> and is borne in thought from the quiet +provincial town of to-day to the stirring republic of the +middle ages: thence to the Forum and the Capitol of her +greater prototype. For, in truth, through all that period +which we call the Dark and Middle Ages, men's minds +were possessed by the belief that all things continued as +they were from the beginning, that no chasm never to be +recrossed lay between them and that ancient world to +which they had not ceased to look back. We who are +centuries removed can see that there had passed a great +and wonderful change upon thought, and art, and literature, +and politics, and society itself: a change whose best +illustration is to be found in the process whereby there +arose out of the primitive basilica the Romanesque +cathedral, and from it in turn the endless varieties of +Gothic. +<span class="sidenote">Absence of +the idea of +change or +progress.</span> +But so gradual was the change that each generation +felt it passing over them no more than a man feels that +perpetual transformation by which his body is renewed +from year to year; while the few who had learning +enough to study antiquity through its contemporary +records, were prevented by the utter want of criticism +and of that which we call historical feeling, from seeing +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">260</a></span> +how prodigious was the contrast between themselves and +those whom they admired. There is nothing more +modern than the critical spirit which dwells upon the +difference between the minds of men in one age and in +another; which endeavours to make each age its own +interpreter, and judge what it did or produced by a relative +standard. Such a spirit was, before the last century +or two, wholly foreign to art as well as to metaphysics. +The converse and the parallel of the fashion of calling +mediæval offices by Roman names, and supposing them +therefore the same, is to be found in those old German +pictures of the siege of Carthage or the battle between +Porus and Alexander, where in the foreground two armies +of knights, mailed and mounted, are charging each other +like Crusaders, lance, in rest, while behind, through the +smoke of cannon, loom out the Gothic spires and towers +of the beleaguered city. And thus, when we remember +that the notion of progress and development, and of +change as the necessary condition thereof, was unwelcome +or unknown in mediæval times, we may better understand, +though we do not cease to wonder, how men, never doubting +that the political system of antiquity had descended +to them, modified indeed, yet in substance the same, +should have believed that the Frank, the Saxon, and the +Swabian ruled all Europe by a right which seems to us +not less fantastic than that fabled charter whereby Alexander +the Great<a name="FNanchor_307" id="FNanchor_307" href="#Footnote_307" class="fnanchor">[307]</a> + bequeathed his empire to the Slavic race +for the love of Roxolana.</p> + +<p>It is a part of that perpetual contradiction of which the +history of the Middle Ages is full, that this belief had +hardly any influence on practical politics. The more +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">261</a></span> +abjectly helpless the Emperor becomes, so much the +more sonorous is the language in which the dignity of +his crown is described. His power, we are told, is +eternal, the provinces having resumed their allegiance +after the barbarian irruptions<a name="FNanchor_308" id="FNanchor_308" href="#Footnote_308" class="fnanchor">[308]</a>; +it is incapable of diminution +or injury: exemptions and grants by him, so far as +they tend to limit his own prerogative, are invalid<a name="FNanchor_309" id="FNanchor_309" href="#Footnote_309" class="fnanchor">[309]</a>: +all +Christendom is still of right subject to him, though it may +contumaciously refuse obedience<a name="FNanchor_310" id="FNanchor_310" href="#Footnote_310" class="fnanchor">[310]</a>. The sovereigns of +Europe are solemnly warned that they are resisting the +power ordained of God<a name="FNanchor_311" id="FNanchor_311" href="#Footnote_311" class="fnanchor">[311]</a>. No laws can bind the Emperor, +though he may choose to live according to them: +no court can judge him, though he may condescend to +be sued in his own: none may presume to arraign the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">262</a></span> +conduct or question the motives of him who is answerable +only to God<a name="FNanchor_312" id="FNanchor_312" href="#Footnote_312" class="fnanchor">[312]</a>. So writes Æneas Sylvius, while Frederick +the Third, chased from his capital by the Hungarians, is +wandering from convent to convent, an imperial beggar; +while the princes, whom his subserviency to the Pope has +driven into rebellion, are offering the imperial crown to +Podiebrad the Bohemian king.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Henry VII, +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1308-1313.</p> + +<p>But the career of Henry the Seventh in Italy is the +most remarkable illustration of the Emperor's position: +and imperialist doctrines are set forth most strikingly in +the treatise which the greatest spirit of the age wrote to +herald the advent of that hero, the <i>De Monarchia</i> of +Dante<a name="FNanchor_313" id="FNanchor_313" href="#Footnote_313" class="fnanchor">[313]</a>. Rudolf, Adolf of Nassau, Albert of Hapsburg, +none of them crossed the Alps or attempted to aid the +Italian Ghibelines who battled away in the name of their +throne. Concerned only to restore order and aggrandize +his house, and thinking apparently that nothing more was +to be made of the imperial crown, Rudolf was content +never to receive it, and purchased the Pope's goodwill +by surrendering his jurisdiction in the capital, and his +claims over the bequest of the Countess Matilda. Henry +the Luxemburger ventured on a bolder course; urged +perhaps only by his lofty and chivalrous spirit, perhaps +in despair at effecting anything with his slender resources +against the princes of Germany. Crossing from his Burgundian +dominions with a scanty following of knights, +and descending from the Cenis upon Turin, he found +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">263</a></span> +his prerogative higher in men's belief after sixty years of +neglect than it had stood under the last Hohenstaufen. +The cities of Lombardy opened their gates; Milan decreed +a vast subsidy; Guelf and Ghibeline exiles alike +were restored, and imperial vicars appointed everywhere: +supported by the Avignonese pontiff, who dreaded the +restless ambition of his French neighbour, king Philip IV, +Henry had the interdict of the Church as well as the ban +of the Empire at his command. But the illusion of success +vanished as soon as men, recovering from their first +impression, began to be again governed by their ordinary +passions and interests, and not by an imaginative reverence +for the glories of the past. Tumults and revolts +broke out in Lombardy; at Rome the king of Naples +held St. Peter's, and the coronation must take place in +St. John Lateran, on the southern bank of the Tiber. +The hostility of the Guelfic league, headed by the Florentines, +Guelfs even against the Pope, obliged Henry to +depart from his impartial and republican policy, and to +purchase the aid of the Ghibeline chiefs by granting them +the government of cities. With few troops, and encompassed +by enemies, the heroic Emperor sustained an +unequal struggle for a year longer, till, in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1313, he +sank beneath the fevers of the deadly Tuscan summer. +<span class="sidenote">Death of +Henry VII.</span> +His German followers believed, nor has history wholly +rejected the tale, that poison was given him by a Dominican +monk, in sacramental wine.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Later Emperors +in +Italy.</p> + +<p>Others after him descended from the Alps, but they +came, like Lewis the Fourth, Rupert, Sigismund, at the +behest of a faction, which found them useful tools for a +time, then flung them away in scorn; or like Charles the +Fourth and Frederick the Third, as the humble minions +of a French or Italian priest. With Henry the Seventh +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">264</a></span> +ends the history of the Empire in Italy, and Dante's book +is an epitaph instead of a prophecy. A sketch of its +argument will convey a notion of the feelings with which +the noblest Ghibelines fought, as well as of the spirit in +which the Middle Age was accustomed to handle such +subjects.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Dante's +feelings and +theories.</p> + +<p>Weary of the endless strife of princes and cities, of the +factions within every city against each other, seeing municipal +freedom, the only mitigation of turbulence, vanish +with the rise of domestic tyrants, Dante raises a passionate +cry for some power to still the tempest, not to quench +liberty or supersede local self-government, but to correct +and moderate them, to restore unity and peace to hapless +Italy. His reasoning is throughout closely syllogistic: he +is alternately the jurist, the theologian, the scholastic +metaphysician: the poet of the Divina Commedia is +betrayed only by the compressed energy of diction, by +his clear vision of the unseen, rarely by a glowing +metaphor.</p> + +<p class="sidenote"> +The 'De Monarchia.'</p> + +<p>Monarchy is first proved to be the true and rightful +form of government. Men's objects are best attained +during universal peace: this is possible only under a +monarch. And as he is the image of the Divine unity, +so man is through him made one, and brought most near +to God. There must, in every system of forces, be a +<span lang="la">'primum mobile;'</span> to be perfect, every organization must +have a centre, into which all is gathered, by which all is +controlled<a name="FNanchor_314" id="FNanchor_314" href="#Footnote_314" class="fnanchor">[314]</a>. Justice is best secured by a supreme arbiter +of disputes, himself unsolicited by ambition, since his +dominion is already bounded only by ocean. Man is best +and happiest when he is most free; to be free is to exist +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">265</a></span> +for one's own sake. To this grandest end does the +monarch and he alone guide us; other forms of government +are perverted<a name="FNanchor_315" id="FNanchor_315" href="#Footnote_315" class="fnanchor">[315]</a>, +and exist for the benefit of some +class; he seeks the good of all alike, being to that very +end appointed<a name="FNanchor_316" id="FNanchor_316" href="#Footnote_316" class="fnanchor">[316]</a>.</p> + +<p>Abstract arguments are then confirmed from history. +Since the world began there has been but one period of +perfect peace, and but one of perfect monarchy, that, +namely, which existed at our Lord's birth, under the sceptre +of Augustus; since then the heathen have raged, and the +kings of the earth have stood up; they have set themselves +against their Lord, and his anointed the Roman prince<a name="FNanchor_317" id="FNanchor_317" href="#Footnote_317" class="fnanchor">[317]</a>. +The universal dominion, the need for which has been thus +established, is then proved to belong to the Romans. +Justice is the will of God, a will to exalt Rome shewn +through her whole history<a name="FNanchor_318" id="FNanchor_318" href="#Footnote_318" class="fnanchor">[318]</a>. Her virtues deserved honour: +Virgil is quoted to prove those of Æneas, who by descent +and marriage was the heir of three continents: of Asia +through Assaracus and Creusa; of Africa by Electra +(mother of Dardanus and daughter of Atlas) and Dido; +of Europe by Dardanus and Lavinia. God's favour was +approved in the fall of the shields to Numa, in the miraculous +deliverance of the capital from the Gauls, in the +hailstorm after Cannæ. Justice is also the advantage of +the state: that advantage was the constant object of the +virtuous Cincinnatus, and the other heroes of the republic. +They conquered the world for its own good, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">266</a></span> +therefore justly, as Cicero attests<a name="FNanchor_319" id="FNanchor_319" href="#Footnote_319" class="fnanchor">[319]</a>; +so that their sway was +not so much <span lang="la">'imperium'</span> as <span lang="la">'patrocinium orbis terrarum.'</span> +Nature herself, the fountain of all right, had, by their +geographical position and by the gift of a genius so +vigorous, marked them out for universal dominion:—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> + +<p class="o1"><span lang="la">'Excudent alii spirantia mollius æra,</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Credo equidem: vivos ducent de marmore vultus;</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Orabunt causas melius, cœlique meatus</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Describent radio, et surgentia sidera dicent:</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento;</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Hæ tibi erunt artes; pacisque imponere morem,</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Parcere subiectis, et debellare superbos.'</span></p> +</div></div> + +<p>Finally, the right of war asserted, Christ's birth, and +death under Pilate, ratified their government. For Christian +doctrine requires that the procurator should have been a +lawful judge<a name="FNanchor_320" id="FNanchor_320" href="#Footnote_320" class="fnanchor">[320]</a>, +which he was not unless Tiberius was a +lawful Emperor.</p> + +<p>The relations of the imperial and papal power are then +examined, and the passages of Scripture (tradition being +rejected), to which the advocates of the Papacy appeal, +are elaborately explained away. The argument from the +sun and moon<a name="FNanchor_321" id="FNanchor_321" href="#Footnote_321" class="fnanchor">[321]</a> + does not hold, since both lights existed +before man's creation, and at a time when, as still sinless, +he needed no controlling powers. Else <i lang="la">accidentia</i> would +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">267</a></span> +have preceded <i lang="la">propria</i> in creation. The moon, too, does +not receive her being nor all her light from the sun, but +so much only as makes her more effective. So there is +no reason why the temporal should not be aided in a corresponding +measure by the spiritual authority. This difficult +text disposed of, others fall more easily; Levi and +Judah, Samuel and Saul, the incense and gold offered by +the Magi<a name="FNanchor_322" id="FNanchor_322" href="#Footnote_322" class="fnanchor">[322]</a>; +the two swords, the power of binding and +loosing given to Peter. Constantine's donation was +illegal: no single Emperor nor Pope can disturb the everlasting +foundations of their respective thrones: the one +had no right to bestow, nor the other to receive, such a +gift. Leo the Third gave the Empire to Charles wrongfully: +'<i lang="la">usurpatio iuris non facit ius</i>.' It is alleged that all +things of one kind are reducible to one individual, and so +all men to the Pope. But Emperor and Pope differ in +kind, and so far as they are men, are reducible only to +God, on whom the Empire immediately depends; for it +existed before Peter's see, and was recognized by Paul +when he appealed to Cæsar. The temporal power of the +Papacy can have been given neither by natural law, nor +divine ordinance, nor universal consent: nay, it is against +its own Form and Essence, the life of Christ, who said, +'My kingdom is not of this world.'</p> + +<p>Man's nature is twofold, corruptible and incorruptible: +he has therefore two ends, active virtue on earth, and the +enjoyment of the sight of God hereafter; the one to +be attained by practice conformed to the precepts of +philosophy, the other by the theological virtues. Hence +two guides are needed, the pontiff and the Emperor, the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">268</a></span> +latter of whom, in order that he may direct mankind in +accordance with the teachings of philosophy to temporal +blessedness, must preserve universal peace in the world. +Thus are the two powers equally ordained of God, and +the Emperor, though supreme in all that pertains to the +secular world, is in some things dependent on the pontiff, +since earthly happiness is subordinate to eternal. 'Let +Cæsar, therefore, shew towards Peter the reverence wherewith +a firstborn son honours his father, that, being illumined +by the light of his paternal favour, he may the +more excellently shine forth upon the whole world, to the +rule of which he has been appointed by Him alone who +is of all things, both spiritual and temporal, the King and +Governor.' So ends the treatise.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The 'De +Monarchia:' +conclusion.</p> + +<p>Dante's arguments are not stranger than his omissions. +No suspicion is breathed against Constantine's donation; +no proof is adduced, for no doubt is felt, that the Empire +of Henry the Seventh is the legitimate continuation of +that which had been swayed by Augustus and Justinian. +Yet Henry was a German, sprung from Rome's barbarian +foes, the elected of those who had neither part nor share +in Italy and her capital. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">269</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XVI.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">THE CITY OF ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES.</span></h2> + +<p>'It is related,' says Sozomen in the ninth book of his +Ecclesiastical History, 'that when Alaric was hastening +against Rome, a holy monk of Italy admonished him to +spare the city, and not to make himself the cause of such +fearful ills. But Alaric answered, "It is not of my own +will that I do this; there is One who forces me on, and +will not let me rest, bidding me spoil Rome<a name="FNanchor_323" id="FNanchor_323" href="#Footnote_323" class="fnanchor">[323]</a>."'</p> + +<p>Towards the close of the tenth century the Bohemian +Woitech, famous in after legend as St. Adalbert, forsook +his bishopric of Prague to journey into Italy, and settled +himself in the Roman monastery of Sant' Alessio. After +some few years passed there in religious solitude, he was +summoned back to resume the duties of his see, and +laboured for awhile among his half-savage countrymen. +Soon, however, the old longing came over him: he resought +his cell upon the brow of the Aventine, and there, +wandering among the ancient shrines, and taking on himself +the menial offices of the convent, he abode happily +for a space. At length the reproaches of his metropolitan, +the archbishop of Mentz, and the express commands of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">270</a></span> +Pope Gregory the Fifth, drove him back over the Alps, +and he set off in the train of Otto the Third, lamenting, +says his biographer, that he should no more enjoy his +beloved quiet in the mother of martyrs, the home of the +Apostles, golden Rome. A few months later he died a +martyr among the pagan Lithuanians of the Baltic<a name="FNanchor_324" id="FNanchor_324" href="#Footnote_324" class="fnanchor">[324]</a>.</p> + +<p>Nearly four hundred years later, and nine hundred after +the time of Alaric, Francis Petrarch writes thus to his +friend John Colonna:—</p> + +<p>'Thinkest thou not that I long to see that city to which +there has never been any like nor ever shall be; which +even an enemy called a city of kings; of whose people +it hath been written, "Great is the valour of the Roman +people, great and terrible their name;" concerning whose +unexampled glory and incomparable empire, which was, +and is, and is to be, divine prophets have sung; where +are the tombs of the apostles and martyrs and the bodies +of so many thousands of the saints of Christ<a name="FNanchor_325" id="FNanchor_325" href="#Footnote_325" class="fnanchor">[325]</a> +?'</p> + +<p>It was the same irresistible impulse that drew the +warrior, the monk, and the scholar towards the mystical +city which was to mediæval Europe more than Delphi had +been to the Greek or Mecca to the Islamite, the Jerusalem +of Christianity, the city which had once ruled the earth, +and now ruled the world of disembodied spirits<a name="FNanchor_326" id="FNanchor_326" href="#Footnote_326" class="fnanchor">[326]</a>. For +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">271</a></span> +there was then, as there is now, something in Rome to +attract men of every class. The devout pilgrim came to +pray at the shrine of the Prince of the Apostles, too +happy if he could carry back to his monastery in the +forests of Saxony or by the bleak Atlantic shore the bone +of some holy martyr; the lover of learning and poetry +dreamed of Virgil and Cicero among the shattered +columns of the Forum; the Germanic kings, in spite of +pestilence, treachery and seditions, came with their hosts +to seek in the ancient capital of the world the fountain of +temporal dominion. Nor has the spell yet wholly lost its +power. To half the Christian nations Rome is the +metropolis of religion, to all the metropolis of art. In her +streets, and hers alone among the cities of the world, +may every form of human speech be heard: she is more +glorious in her decay and desolation than the stateliest +seats of modern power.</p> + +<p>But while men thought thus of Rome, what was Rome +herself?</p> + +<p>The modern traveller, after his first few days in Rome, +when he has looked out upon the Campagna from the +summit of St. Peter's, paced the chilly corridors of the +Vatican, and mused under the echoing dome of the Pantheon, +when he has passed in review the monuments of +regal and republican and papal Rome, begins to seek for +some relics of the twelve hundred years that lie between +Constantine and Pope Julius the Second. 'Where,' he +asks, 'is the Rome of the Middle Ages, the Rome of +Alberic and Hildebrand and Rienzi? the Rome which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">272</a></span> +dug the graves of so many Teutonic hosts; whither the +pilgrims flocked; whence came the commands at which +kings bowed? Where are the memorials of the brightest +age of Christian architecture, the age which reared Cologne +and Rheims and Westminster, which gave to Italy the +cathedrals of Tuscany and the wave-washed palaces of +Venice?'</p> + +<p>To this question there is no answer. Rome, the +mother of the arts, has scarcely a building to commemorate +those times, for to her they were times of turmoil +and misery, times in which the shame of the present was +embittered by recollections of a brighter past. Nevertheless +a minute scrutiny may still discover, hidden in dark +corners or disguised under an unbecoming modern +dress, much that carries us back to the mediæval town, +and helps us to realize its social and political condition. +Therefore a brief notice of the state of Rome during the +Middle Ages, with especial reference to those monuments +which the visitor may still examine for himself, may not +be without its use, and is at any rate no unfitting pendant +to an account of the institution which drew from the city +its name and its magnificent pretensions. Moreover, as +will appear more fully in the sequel, the history of the +Roman people is an instructive illustration of the influence +of those ideas upon which the Empire itself rested, as +well in their weakness as in their strength<a name="FNanchor_327" id="FNanchor_327" href="#Footnote_327" class="fnanchor">[327]</a>.</p> + +<p>It is not from her capture by Alaric, nor even from the +more destructive ravages of the Vandal Genseric, that the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">273</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Causes of +the rapid +decay of +the city.</span> +material and social ruin of Rome must be dated, but +rather from the repeated sieges which she sustained in the +war of Belisarius with the Ostrogoths. This struggle +however, long and exhausting as it was, would not have +proved so fatal had the previous condition of the city +been sound and healthy. Her wealth and population in +the middle of the fifth century were probably little inferior +to what they had been in the most prosperous days of +the imperial government. But this wealth was entirely +gathered into the hands of a small and effeminate aristocracy. +The crowd that filled her streets was composed +partly of poor and idle freemen, unaccustomed to arms +and debarred from political rights; partly of a far more +numerous herd of slaves, gathered from all parts of the +world, and morally even lower than their masters. There +was no middle class, and no system of municipal institutions, +for although the senate and consuls with many of +the lesser magistracies continued to exist, they had for +centuries enjoyed no effective power, and were nowise +fitted to lead and rule the people. Hence it was that +when the Gothic war and the subsequent inroads of the +Lombards had reduced the great families to beggary, the +framework of society dissolved and could not be replaced. +In a state rotten to the core there was no vital force left +for reconstruction. The old forms of political activity +had been too long dead to be recalled to life: the people +wanted the moral force to produce new ones, and all the +authority that could be said to exist in the midst of +anarchy tended to centre itself in the chief of the new +religious society.</p> + +<p>So far Rome's condition was like that of the other +great towns of Italy and Gaul. But in two points her +case differed from theirs, and to these the difference of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">274</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Peculiarities +in the +position +of Rome.</span> +her after fortunes may be traced. Her bishop had no +temporal potentate to overshadow his dignity or check his +ambition, for the vicar of the Eastern court lived far away +at Ravenna, and seldom interfered except to ratify a papal +election or punish a more than commonly outrageous sedition. +Her population received an all but imperceptible +infusion of that Teutonic blood and those Teutonic +customs by whose stern discipline the inhabitants of +northern Italy were in the end renovated. Everywhere +the old institutions had perished of decay: in Rome alone +there was nothing except the ecclesiastical system out of +which new ones could arise. Her condition was therefore +the most pitiable in which a community can find +itself, one of struggle without purpose or progress. The +citizens were divided into three orders: the military class, +including what was left of the ancient aristocracy; the +clergy, a host of priests, monks and nuns, attached to the +countless churches and convents; and the people or +<i>plebs</i>, as they are called, a poverty-stricken rabble without +trade, without industry, without any municipal organization +to bind them together. Of these two latter classes +the Pope was the natural leader, the first was divided into +factions headed by some three or four of the great families, +whose quarrels kept the town in incessant bloodshed. +The internal history of Rome from the sixth to the twelfth +century is an obscure and tedious record of the contest +of these factions with each other, and of the aristocracy as +a whole with the slowly growing power of the Church.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Her condition +in the +ninth and +tenth centuries.</p> + +<p>The revolt of the Romans from the Iconoclastic Emperors +of the East, followed as it was by the reception of +the Franks as patricians and emperors, is an event of +the highest importance in the history of Italy and of the +popedom. In the domestic constitution of Rome it made +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">275</a></span> +little change. With the instinct of a profound genius, +Charles the Great saw that Rome, though it might be +ostensibly the capital, could not be the real centre of his +dominions. He continued to reside in Germany, and did +not even build a palace at Rome. For a time the awe of +his power, the presence of his <i lang="la">missus</i> or lieutenant, and +the occasional visits of his successors Lothar and Lewis II +to the city, repressed her internal disorders. But after +the death of the prince last named, and still more after +the dissolution of the Carolingian Empire itself, Rome +relapsed into a state of profligacy and barbarism to which, +even in that age, Europe supplied no parallel, a barbarism +which had inherited all the vices of civilization without +any of its virtues. The papal office in particular seems +to have lost its religious character, as it had certainly lost +all claim to moral purity. For more than a century the +chief priest of Christendom was no more than a tool of +some ferocious faction among the nobles. Criminal +means had raised him to the throne; violence, sometimes +going the length of mutilation or murder, deprived him of +it. The marvel is, a marvel in which papal historians +have not unnaturally discovered a miracle, that after +sinking so low, the Papacy should ever have risen again. +Its rescue and exaltation to the pinnacle of glory was +accomplished not by the Romans but by the efforts of +the Transalpine Church, aiding and prompting the Saxon +and Franconian Emperors. Yet even the religious reform +did not abate intestine turmoil, and it was not till the +twelfth century that a new spirit began to work in politics, +which ennobled if it could not heal the sufferings of the +Roman people.</p> + +<p>Ever since the time of Alberic their pride had revolted +against the haughty behaviour of the Teutonic emperors. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">276</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Growth of +a republican +feeling: +hostility to +the Popes.</span> +From still earlier times they had been jealous of sacerdotal +authority, and now watched with alarm the rapid +extension of its influence. The events of the twelfth +century gave these feelings a definite direction. It was +the time of the struggle of the Investitures, in which +Hildebrand and his disciples had been striving to draw +all the things of this world as well as of the next into +their grasp. It was the era of the revived study of +Roman law, by which alone the extravagant pretensions +of the decretalists could be resisted. The Lombard and +Tuscan towns had become flourishing municipalities, independent +of their bishops, and at open war with their +Emperor. While all these things were stirring the minds +<span class="sidenote">Arnold of +Brescia.</span> +of the Romans, Arnold of Brescia came preaching reform, +denouncing the corrupt life of the clergy, not perhaps, +like some others of the so-called schismatics of his time, +denying the need of a sacerdotal order, but at any rate +urging its restriction to purely spiritual duties. On the +minds of the Romans such teaching fell like the spark +upon dry grass; they threw off the yoke of the Pope<a name="FNanchor_328" id="FNanchor_328" href="#Footnote_328" class="fnanchor">[328]</a> +, +drove out the imperial prefect, reconstituted the senate +and the equestrian order, appointed consuls, struck their +own coins, and professed to treat the German Emperors +as their nominees and dependants. To have successfully +imitated the republican constitution of the cities of +northern Italy would have been much, but with this they +were not content. Knowing in a vague ignorant way +that there had been a Roman republic before there was +a Roman empire, they fed their vanity with visions of a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">277</a></span> +renewal of all their ancient forms, and saw in fancy their +senate and people sitting again upon the Seven Hills and +ruling over the kings of the earth. Stepping, as it were, +into the arena where Pope and Emperor were contending +for the headship of the world, they rejected the one as a +priest, and declaring the other to be only their creature, +they claimed as theirs the true and lawful inheritance +of the world-dominion which their ancestors had won. +Antiquity was in one sense on their side, and to us now +it seems less strange that the Roman people should aspire +to rule the earth than that a German barbarian should +rule it in their name. But practically the scheme was +absurd, and could not maintain itself against any serious +opposition. As a modern historian aptly expresses it, +'they were setting up ruins:' they might as well have +raised the broken columns that strewed their Forum and +hoped to rear out of them a strong and stately temple. +The reverence which the men of the Middle Ages felt for +Rome was given altogether to the name and to the place, +nowise to the people. +<span class="sidenote">Short-sighted +policy of the +Emperors.</span> +As for power, they had none: +so far from holding Italy in subjection, they could scarcely +maintain themselves against the hostility of Tusculum. +But it would have been well worth the while of the Teutonic +Emperors to have made the Romans their allies, +and bridled by their help the temporal ambition of the +Popes. The offer was actually made to them, first to +Conrad the Third, who seems to have taken no notice of +it; and afterwards, as has been already stated, to Frederick +the First, who repelled in the most contumelious +fashion the envoys of the senate. Hating and fearing +the Pope, he always respected him: towards the Romans +he felt all the contempt of a feudal king for burghers, and +of a German warrior for Italians. At the demand of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">278</a></span> +Pope Hadrian, whose foresight thought no heresy so +dangerous as one which threatened the authority of the +clergy, Arnold of Brescia was seized by the imperial +prefect, put to death, and his ashes cast into the Tiber, +lest the people should treasure them up as relics. But +the martyrdom of their leader did not quench the hopes +of his followers. The republican constitution continued +to exist, and rose from time to time, during the weakness +or the absence of the Popes, into a brief and fitful +activity<a name="FNanchor_329" id="FNanchor_329" href="#Footnote_329" class="fnanchor">[329]</a>. Once awakened, the idea, seductive at once +to the imagination of the scholar and the vanity of the +Roman citizen, could not wholly disappear, and two centuries +after Arnold's time it found a more brilliant if less +disinterested exponent in the tribune Nicholas Rienzi.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Character +and career +of the +tribune +Rienzi.</p> + +<p>The career of this singular personage is misunderstood +by those who suppose him to have been possessed of +profound political insight, a republican on modern principles. +He was indeed, despite his overweening conceit, +and what seems to us his charlatanry, both a patriot and +a man of genius, in temperament a poet, filled with soaring +ideas. But those ideas, although dressed out in +gaudier colours by his lively fancy, were after all only the +old ones, memories of the long-faded glories of the +heathen republic, and a series of scornful contrasts levelled +at her present oppressors, both of them shewing no vista +of future peace except through the revival of those ancient +names to which there were no things to correspond. It +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">279</a></span> +was by declaiming on old texts and displaying old monuments +that the tribune enlisted the support of the Roman +populace, not by any appeal to democratic principles; +and the whole of his acts and plans, though they astonished +men by their boldness, do not seem to have been regarded +as novel or impracticable<a name="FNanchor_330" id="FNanchor_330" href="#Footnote_330" class="fnanchor">[330]</a>. In the breasts of men +like Petrarch, who loved Rome even more than they +hated her people, the enthusiasm of Rienzi found a sympathetic +echo: others scorned and denounced him as an +upstart, a demagogue, and a rebel. Both friends and +enemies seem to have comprehended and regarded as +natural his feelings and designs, which were altogether +those of his age. Being, however, a mere matter of +imagination, not of reason, having no anchor, so to speak, +in realities, no true relation to the world as it then stood, +these schemes of republican revival were as transient and +unstable as they were quick of growth and gay of colour. +As the authority of the Popes became consolidated, and +free municipalities disappeared elsewhere throughout Italy, +the dream of a renovated Rome at length withered up +and fell and died. Its last struggle was made in the conspiracy +of Stephen Porcaro, in the time of Pope Nicholas +the Fifth; and from that time onward there was no question +of the supremacy of the bishop within his holy city. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">280</a></span></p> + +<p class="sidenote">Causes of +the failure +of the +struggle +for independence.</p> + +<p>It is never without a certain regret that we watch the +disappearance of a belief, however illusive, around which +the love and reverence for mankind once clung. But this +illusion need be the less regretted that it had only the +feeblest influence for good on the state of mediæval Rome. +During the three centuries that lie between Arnold of +Brescia and Porcaro, the disorders of Rome were hardly +less violent than they had been in the Dark Ages, and to +all appearance worse than those of any other European +city. There was a want not only of fixed authority, but +of those elements of social stability which the other cities +of Italy possessed. In the greater republics of Lombardy +and Tuscany the bulk of the population were artizans, +hard working orderly people; while above them stood +a prosperous middle class, engaged mostly in commerce, +and having in their system of trade-guilds an organization +both firm and flexible. It was by foreign +trade that Genoa, Venice, and Pisa became great, as +it was the wealth acquired by manufacturing industry +that enabled Milan and Florence to overcome and +incorporate the territorial aristocracies which surrounded +them.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Internal +condition +of the city.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The people.</p> + +<p>Rome possessed neither source of riches. She was +ill-placed for trade; having no market she produced no +goods to be disposed of, and the unhealthiness which +long neglect had brought upon her Campagna made its +fertility unavailable. Already she stood as she stands +now, lonely and isolated, a desert at her very gates. As +there was no industry, so there was nothing that deserved +to be called a citizen class. The people were a mere +rabble, prompt to follow the demagogue who flattered +their vanity, prompter still to desert him in the hour of +danger. Superstition was with them a matter of national +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">281</a></span> +pride, but they lived too near sacred things to feel much +reverence for them: they ill-treated the Pope and fleeced +the pilgrims who crowded to their shrines: they were +probably the only community in Europe who sent no +recruit to the armies of the Cross. Priests, monks, and +all the nondescript hangers on of an ecclesiastical court +formed a large part of the population; while of the rest +many were supported in a state of half mendicancy by +the countless religious foundations, themselves enriched +by the gifts or the plunder of Latin Christendom. The +<span class="sidenote">The nobility.</span> +noble families were numerous, powerful, ferocious; they +were surrounded by bands of unruly retainers, and waged +a constant war against each other from their castles in the +adjoining country or in the streets of the city itself. Had +things been left to take their natural course, one of these +families, the Colonna, for instance, or the Orsini, would +probably have ended by overcoming its rivals, and have +established, as was the case in the republics of Romagna +and Tuscany, a 'signoria' or local tyranny, like those +which had once prevailed in the cities of Greece. But +the presence of the sacerdotal power, as it had hindered +<span class="sidenote">The bishop.</span> +the growth of feudalism, so also it stood in the way of such +a development as this, and in so far aggravated the confusion +of the city. Although the Pope was not as yet +recognized as legitimate sovereign, he was not only the +most considerable person in Rome, but the only one +whose authority had anything of an official character. +But the reign of each pontiff was short; he had no military +force, he was frequently absent from his see. He +was, moreover, very often a member of one of the great +families, and, as such, no better than a faction leader at +home, while venerated by the rest of Europe as the +universal priest. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">282</a></span></p> + +<p class="sidenote">The Emperor.</p> + +<p>It remains only to speak of the person who should +have been to Rome what the national king was to the +cities of France, or England, or Germany, that is to say, +of the Emperor. As has been said already, his power was +a mere chimera, chiefly important as furnishing a pretext +to the Colonna and other Ghibeline chieftains for their +opposition to the papal party. Even his abstract rights +were matter of controversy. The Popes, whose predecessors +had been content to govern as the lieutenants of +Charles and Otto, now maintained that Rome as a spiritual +city could not be subject to any temporal jurisdiction, +and that she was therefore no part of the Roman Empire, +though at the same time its capital. Not only, it was +urged, had Constantine yielded up Rome to Sylvester and +his successors, Lothar the Saxon had at his coronation +formally renounced his sovereignty by doing homage to +the pontiff and receiving the crown as his vassal. The +Popes felt then as they feel now, that their dignity and +influence would suffer if they should even appear to admit +in their place of residence the jurisdiction of a civil +potentate, and although they could not secure their own +authority, they were at least able to exclude any other. +Hence it was that they were so uneasy whenever an +Emperor came to them to be crowned, that they raised up +difficulties in his path, and endeavoured to be rid of him +as soon as possible. +<span class="sidenote">Visits of the +Emperors +to Rome.</span> +And here something must be said of +the programme, as one may call it, of these imperial visits +to Rome, and of the marks of their presence which the +Germans left behind them, remembering always that after +the time of Frederick the Second it was rather the exception +than the rule for an Emperor to be crowned in his +capital at all.</p> + +<p>The traveller who enters Rome now, if he comes, as he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">283</a></span> +most commonly does, by way of Civita Vecchia, slips in +by the railway before he is aware, is huddled into a vehicle +at the terminus, and set down at his hotel in the middle of +the modern town before he has seen anything at all. If +he comes overland from Tuscany along the bleak road +that passes near Veii and crosses the Milvian bridge, he +has indeed from the slopes of the Ciminian range a +splendid prospect of the sea-like Campagna, girdled in by +glittering hills, but of the city he sees no sign, save the +pinnacle of St. Peter's, until he is within the walls. Far +otherwise was it in the Middle Ages. Then travellers of +<span class="sidenote">Their approach.</span> +every grade, from the humble pilgrim to the new-made +archbishop who came in the pomp of a lengthy train to +receive from the Pope the pallium of his office, approached +from the north or north-east side; following a track along +the hilly ground on the Tuscan side of the Tiber until +they halted on the brow of Monte Mario<a name="FNanchor_331" id="FNanchor_331" href="#Footnote_331" class="fnanchor">[331]</a> +—the Mount of +Joy—and saw the city of their solemnities lie spread +before them, from the great pile of the Lateran far away +upon the Cœlian hill, to the basilica of St. Peter's at their +feet. They saw it not, as now, a sea of billowy cupolas, +but a mass of low red-roofed houses, varied by tall brick +towers, and at rarer intervals by masses of ancient ruin, +then larger far than now; while over all rose those two +monuments of the best of the heathen Emperors, monuments +that still look down, serenely changeless, on the +armies of new nations and the festivals of a new religion—the +columns of Marcus Aurelius and Trajan. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">284</a></span></p> + +<p class="sidenote">Their entrance.</p> + +<p>From Monte Mario the Teutonic host descended, when +they had paid their orisons, into the Neronian field, the +piece of flat land that lies outside the gate of St. Angelo. +Here it was the custom for the elders of the Romans to +meet the elected Emperor, present their charters for confirmation, +and receive his oath to preserve their good +customs<a name="FNanchor_332" id="FNanchor_332" href="#Footnote_332" class="fnanchor">[332]</a>. Then a procession was formed: the priests +and monks, who had come out with hymns to greet the +Emperor, led the way; the knights and soldiers of Rome, +such as they were, came next; then the monarch, followed +by a long array of Transalpine chivalry. Passing into +the city they advanced to St. Peter's, where the Pope, +surrounded by his clergy, stood on the great staircase of +the basilica to welcome and bless the Roman king. On +the next day came the coronation, with ceremonies too +elaborate for description<a name="FNanchor_333" id="FNanchor_333" href="#Footnote_333" class="fnanchor">[333]</a>, +ceremonies which, we may well +believe, were seldom duly completed. Far more usual +were other rites, of which the book of ritual makes no +mention, unless they are to be counted among the 'good +customs of the Romans;' the clang of war bells, the battle +<span class="sidenote">Hostility of +Pope and +people to the +Germans.</span> +cry of German and Italian combatants. The Pope, when +he could not keep the Emperor from entering Rome, required +him to leave the bulk of his host without the walls, +and if foiled in this, sought his safety in raising up plots +and seditions against his too powerful friend. The Roman +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">285</a></span> +people, on the other hand, violent as they often were +against the Pope, felt nevertheless a sort of national pride +in him. Very different were their feelings towards the +Teutonic chieftain, who came from a far land to receive +in their city, yet without thanking them for it, the ensign +of a power which the prowess of their forefathers had won. +Despoiled of their ancient right to choose the universal +bishop, they clung all the more desperately to the belief +that it was they who chose the universal prince; and were +mortified afresh when each successive sovereign contemptuously +scouted their claims, and paraded before +their eyes his rude barbarian cavalry. Thus it was that a +Roman sedition was the all but invariable accompaniment +of a Roman coronation. The three revolts against Otto the +Great have been already described. His grandson Otto the +Third, in spite of his passionate fondness for the city, was +met by the same faithlessness and hatred, and departed at +last in despair at the failure of his attempts at conciliation<a name="FNanchor_334" id="FNanchor_334" href="#Footnote_334" class="fnanchor">[334]</a>. +A century afterwards Henry the Fifth's coronation produced +violent tumults, which ended in his seizing the Pope +and cardinals in St. Peter's, and keeping them prisoners +till they submitted to his terms. Remembering this, Pope +Hadrian the Fourth would fain have forced the troops of +Frederick Barbarossa to remain without the walls, but the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">286</a></span> +rapidity of their movements disconcerted his plans and +anticipated the resistance of the Roman populace. Having +established himself in the Leonine city<a name="FNanchor_335" id="FNanchor_335" href="#Footnote_335" class="fnanchor">[335]</a>, +Frederick barricaded +the bridge over the Tiber, and was duly crowned +in St. Peter's. But the rite was scarcely finished when +the Romans, who had assembled in arms on the Capitol, +dashed over the bridge, fell upon the Germans, and were +with difficulty repulsed by the personal efforts of Frederick. +Into the city he did not venture to pursue them, nor was +he at any period of his reign able to make himself master +of the whole of it. Finding themselves similarly baffled, +his successors at last accepted their position, and were +content to take the crown on the Pope's conditions and +depart without further question.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Memorials +of the Germanic +Emperors +in +Rome.</p> + +<p>Coming so seldom and remaining for so short a time, it +is not wonderful that the Teutonic Emperors should, in the +seven centuries from Charles the Great to Charles the +Fifth, have left fewer marks of their presence in Rome +than Titus or Hadrian alone have done; fewer and less +considerable even than those which tradition attributes to +those whom it calls Servius Tullius and the elder Tarquin. +Those monuments which do exist are just sufficient to +make the absence of all others more conspicuous. The +most important dates from the time of Otto the Third, +<span class="sidenote">Of Otto +the Third.</span> +the only Emperor who attempted to make Rome his permanent +residence. Of the palace, probably nothing more +than a tower, which he built on the Aventine, no trace has +been discovered; but the church, founded by him to receive +the ashes of his friend the martyred St. Adalbert, +may still be seen upon the island in the Tiber. Having +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">287</a></span> +received from Benevento relics supposed to be those of +Bartholomew the Apostle<a name="FNanchor_336" id="FNanchor_336" href="#Footnote_336" class="fnanchor">[336]</a>, +it became dedicated to that +saint, and is now the church of San Bartolommeo in Isola, +whose quaintly picturesque bell-tower of red brick, now +grey with extreme age, looks out from among the orange +trees of a convent garden over the swift-eddying yellow +waters of the Tiber.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Of Otto +the Second.</p> + +<p>Otto the Second, son of Otto the Great, died at Rome, +and lies buried in the crypt of St. Peter's, the only Emperor +who has found a resting-place among the graves of +the Popes<a name="FNanchor_337" id="FNanchor_337" href="#Footnote_337" class="fnanchor">[337]</a>. His tomb is not far from that of his nephew +Pope Gregory the Fifth: it is a plain one of roughly +chiselled marble. The lid of the superb porphyry sarcophagus +in which he lay for a time now serves as the +great font of St. Peter's, and may be seen in the baptismal +chapel, on the left of the entrance of the church, not +far from the tombs of the Stuarts. Last of all must be +mentioned a curious relic of the Emperor Frederick the +<span class="sidenote">Of Frederick +the +Second.</span> +Second, the prince whom of all others one would least +expect to see honoured in the city of his foes. It is an +inscription in the palace of the Conservators upon the +Capitoline hill, built into the wall of the great staircase, +and relates the victory of Frederick's army over the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">288</a></span> +Milanese, and the capture of the carroccio<a name="FNanchor_338" id="FNanchor_338" href="#Footnote_338" class="fnanchor">[338]</a> + of the rebel +city, which he sends as a trophy to his faithful Romans. +These are all or nearly all the traces of her Teutonic lords +that Rome has preserved till now. Pictures indeed there +are in abundance, from the mosaic of the Scala Santa at +the Lateran<a name="FNanchor_339" id="FNanchor_339" href="#Footnote_339" class="fnanchor">[339]</a> + and the curious frescoes in the church of +Santi Quattro Incoronati<a name="FNanchor_340" id="FNanchor_340" href="#Footnote_340" class="fnanchor">[340]</a>, +down to the paintings of the +Sistine antechapel and the Stanze of Raphael in the +Vatican, where the triumphs of the Popedom over all its +foes are set forth with matchless art and equally matchless +unveracity. But these are mostly long subsequent to the +events they describe, and these all the world knows.</p> + +<p>Associations of the highest interest would have attached +to the churches in which the imperial coronation was performed—a +ceremony which, whether we regard the dignity +of the performers or the splendour of the adjuncts, +was probably the most imposing that modern Europe has +known. But old St. Peter's disappeared in the end of +the fifteenth century, not long after the last Roman +coronation, that of Frederick the Third, while the basilica +of St. John Lateran, in which Lothar the Saxon and +Henry the Seventh were crowned, has been so wofully +modernized that we can hardly figure it to ourselves as +the same building<a name="FNanchor_341" id="FNanchor_341" href="#Footnote_341" class="fnanchor">[341]</a>. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">289</a></span></p> + +<p class="sidenote">Causes of +the want of +mediæval +monuments +in Rome.</p> + +<p>Bearing in mind what was the social condition of Rome +during the middle ages, it becomes easier to understand the +architectural barrenness which at first excites the visitor's +surprise. Rome had no temporal sovereign, and there +were therefore only two classes who could build at all, +the nobles and the clergy. Of these, the former had seldom +the wealth, and never the taste, which would have enabled +them to construct palaces graceful as the Venetian or +massively grand as the Florentine and Genoese. +<span class="sidenote">Barbarism +of the aristocracy.</span> +Moreover, +the constant practice of domestic war made defence +the first object of a house, beauty and convenience the +second. The nobility, therefore, either adapted ancient +edifices to their purpose or built out of their materials +those huge square towers of brick, a few of which still +frown over the narrow streets in the older parts of +Rome. We may judge of their number from the statement +that the senator Brancaleone destroyed one hundred +and forty of them. With perhaps no more than one +exception, that of the so-called House of Rienzi, these +towers are the only domestic buildings in the city older +than the middle of the fifteenth century. The vast palaces +to which strangers now flock for the sake of the picture +galleries they contain, have been most of them erected in +the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, some even later. +Among the earliest is that Palazzo Cenci<a name="FNanchor_342" id="FNanchor_342" href="#Footnote_342" class="fnanchor">[342]</a>, +whose gloomy +low-browed arch so powerfully affected the imagination of +Shelley.</p> + +<p>It was no want of wealth that hampered the architectural +efforts of the clergy, for vast revenues flowed in +upon them from every corner of Christendom. A good +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">290</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Ambition, +weakness, +and corruption +of +the clergy.</span> +deal was actually spent upon the erection or repairs of +churches and convents, although with a less liberal hand +than that of such great Transalpine prelates as Hugh of +Lincoln or Conrad of Cologne. But the Popes always +needed money for their projects of ambition, and in times +when disorder or corruption were at their height the +work of building stopped altogether. Thus it was that +after the time of the Carolingians scarcely a church was +erected until the beginning of the twelfth century, when +the reforms of Hildebrand had breathed new zeal into the +priesthood. The Babylonish captivity of Avignon, as it +was called, with the great schism of the West that followed +upon it, was the cause of a second similar intermission, +which lasted nearly a century and a half.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Tendency of +the Roman +builders to +adhere to +the ancient +manner.</p> + +<p>At every time, however, even when his work went on +most briskly, the labours of the Roman architect took the +direction of restoring and readorning old churches rather +than of erecting new ones. While the Transalpine countries, +except in a few favoured spots, such as Provence +and part of the Rhineland, remained during several ages +with few and rudely built stone churches, Rome possessed, +as the inheritance of the earlier Christian centuries, a profusion +of houses of worship, some of them still unsurpassed +in splendour, and far more than adequate to the +needs of her diminished population. In repairing these +from time to time, their original form and style of work +were usually as far as possible preserved, while in constructing +new ones, the abundance of models beautiful in +themselves and hallowed as well by antiquity as by religious +feeling, enthralled the invention of the workman, +bound him down to be at best a faithful imitator, and +forbade him to deviate at pleasure from the old established +manner. Thus it befel that while his brethren throughout +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">291</a></span> +the rest of Europe were passing by successive steps from +the old Roman and Byzantine styles to Romanesque, and +from Romanesque to Gothic, the Roman architect scarcely +departed from the plan and arrangements of the primitive +basilica. This is one chief reason why there is so little +<span class="sidenote">Absence of +Gothic in +Rome.</span> +of Gothic work in Rome, so little even of Romanesque +like that of Pisa. What there is appears chiefly in the +pointed window, more rarely in the arch, seldom or never +in spire or tower or column. Only one of the existing +churches of Rome is Gothic throughout, and that, the +Dominican church of S. Maria sopra Minerva, was built +by foreign monks. In some of the other churches, and +especially in the cloisters of the convents, instances may +be observed of the same style: in others slight traces, by +accident or design almost obliterated<a name="FNanchor_343" id="FNanchor_343" href="#Footnote_343" class="fnanchor">[343]</a>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Destruction +and alteration +of the +old buildings:</p> + +<p>The mention of obliteration suggests a third cause of +the comparative want of mediæval buildings in the city—the +constant depredations and changes of which she has +been the subject. Ever since the time of Constantine +Rome has been a city of destruction, and Christians have +vied with pagans, citizens with enemies, in urging on the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">292</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">By invaders.</span> +fatal work. Her siege and capture by Robert Guiscard<a name="FNanchor_344" id="FNanchor_344" href="#Footnote_344" class="fnanchor">[344]</a>, +the ally of Hildebrand against Henry the Fourth, was far +more ruinous than the attacks of the Goths or Vandals: +and itself yields in atrocity to the sack of Rome in +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1526 by the soldiers of the Catholic king and most +pious Emperor Charles the Fifth<a name="FNanchor_345" id="FNanchor_345" href="#Footnote_345" class="fnanchor">[345]</a>. Since the days of the +first barbarian invasions the Romans have gone on building +<span class="sidenote">By the +Romans of +the Middle +Ages.</span> +with materials taken from the ancient temples, theatres, +law-courts, baths and villas, stripping them of their gorgeous +casings of marble, pulling down their walls for the +sake of the blocks of travertine, setting up their own hovels +on the top or in the midst of these majestic piles. Thus +it has been with the memorials of paganism: a somewhat +different cause has contributed to the disappearance of the +mediæval churches. What pillage, or fanaticism, or the +wanton lust of destruction did in the one case, the ostentatious +zeal of modern times has done in the other. +<span class="sidenote">By modern +restorers of +churches.</span> +The +era of the final establishment of the Popes as temporal +sovereigns of the city, is also that of the supremacy of +the Renaissance style in architecture. After the time of +Nicholas the Fifth, the pontiff against whom, it will be +remembered, the spirit of municipal freedom made its last +struggle in the conspiracy of Porcaro, nothing was built in +Gothic, and the prevailing enthusiasm for the antique produced +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">293</a></span> +a corresponding dislike to everything mediæval, a +dislike conspicuous in men like Julius the Second and +Leo the Tenth, from whom the grandeur of modern Rome +may be said to begin. Not long after their time the great +religious movement of the sixteenth century, while triumphing +in the north of Europe, was in the south met +and overcome by a counter-reformation in the bosom of +the old church herself, and the construction or restoration +of ecclesiastical buildings became again the passion of +the devout<a name="FNanchor_346" id="FNanchor_346" href="#Footnote_346" class="fnanchor">[346]</a>. No employment, whether it be called an +amusement or a duty, could have been better suited to +the court and aristocracy of Rome. They were indolent; +wealthy, and fond of displaying their wealth; full of good +taste, and anxious, especially when advancing years had +chased away youth's pleasures, to be full of good works also. +Popes and cardinals and the heads of the great families +vied with one another in building new churches and restoring +or enlarging those they found till little of the old +was left; raising over them huge cupolas, substituting +massive pilasters for the single-shafted columns, adorning +the interior with a profusion of rare marbles, of carving +and gilding, of frescoes and altar-pieces by the best +masters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. None +but a bigoted mediævalist can refuse to acknowledge the +warmth of tone, the repose, the stateliness, of the churches +of modern Rome; but even in the midst of admiration +the sated eye turns away from the wealth of ponderous +ornament, and we long for the clear pure colour, the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">294</a></span> +simple yet grand proportions that give a charm to the +buildings of an earlier age.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Existing +relics of the +Dark and +Middle +Ages.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The Mosaics.</p> + +<p>Few of the ancient churches have escaped untouched; +many have been altogether rebuilt. There are also some, +however, in which the modernizers of the sixteenth and +subsequent centuries have spared two features of the old +structure, its round apse or tribune and its bell-tower. +The apse has its interior usually covered with mosaics, +exceedingly interesting, both from the ideas they express +and as the only monuments of pictorial art that remain +to us from the Dark Ages. To speak of them, however, +as they deserve to be spoken of, would involve a digression +for which there is no space here. +<span class="sidenote">The Bell-towers.</span> +The campanile or +bell-tower is a quaint little square brick tower, of no great +height, usually standing detached from the church, and +having in its topmost, sometimes also in its other upper +stories, several arcade windows, divided by tiny marble +pillars<a name="FNanchor_347" id="FNanchor_347" href="#Footnote_347" class="fnanchor">[347]</a>. What with these campaniles, then far more +numerous than they are now, and with the huge brick +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">295</a></span> +fortresses of the nobles, towers must have held in the +landscape of the mediæval city very much the part which +domes do now. Although less imposing, they were probably +more picturesque, the rather as in the earlier part +of the Middle Ages the houses and churches, which are +now mostly crowded together on the flat of the Campus +Martius, were scattered over the heights and slopes of +the Cœlian, Aventine, and Esquiline hills<a name="FNanchor_348" id="FNanchor_348" href="#Footnote_348" class="fnanchor">[348]</a>. Modern +Rome lies chiefly on the opposite or north-eastern side +of the Capitol, and the change from the old to the new +site of the city, which can hardly be said to have distinctly +begun before the destruction of the south-western part of +the town by Robert Guiscard, was not completed until +the sixteenth century. In <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1536 the Capitol was +rebuilt by Michael Angelo, in anticipation of the entry +of Charles the Fifth, upon foundations that had been +laid by the first Tarquin; and the palace of the Senator, +the greatest municipal edifice of Rome, which had hitherto +looked towards the Forum and the Coliseum, was made +to front in the direction of St. Peter's and the modern +town.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Changed +aspect of +the city of +Rome.</p> + +<p>The Rome of to-day is no more like the city of Rienzi +than she is to the city of Trajan; just as the Roman +church of the nineteenth century differs profoundly, however +she may strive to disguise it, from the church of Hildebrand. +But among all their changes, both church and +city have kept themselves wonderfully free from the intrusion +of foreign, at least of Teutonic, elements, and have +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">296</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Analogy +between her +architecture +and her +civil and +ecclesiastical +constitution.</span> +faithfully preserved at all times something of an old +Roman character. Latin Christianity inherited from the +imperial system of old that firmly knit yet flexible organization, +which was one of the grand secrets of its power: +the great men whom mediæval Rome gave to or trained +up for the Papacy were, like their progenitors, administrators, +legislators, statesmen; seldom enthusiasts themselves, +but perfectly understanding how to use and guide +the enthusiasm of others—of the French and German +crusaders, of men like Francis of Assisi and Dominic +and Ignatius. Between Catholicism in Italy and Catholicism +in Germany or England there was always, as +there is still, a very perceptible difference. So also, if +the analogy be not too fanciful, was it with Rome the +city. Socially she seemed always drifting towards feudalism; +<span class="sidenote">Preservation +of an +antique +character +in both.</span> +yet she never fell into its grasp. Materially, her +architecture was at one time considerably influenced by +Gothic forms, yet Gothic never became, as in the rest of +Europe, the dominant style. It approached Rome late, +and departed from her early, so that we scarcely notice +its presence, and seem to pass almost without a break +from the old Romanesque<a name="FNanchor_349" id="FNanchor_349" href="#Footnote_349" class="fnanchor">[349]</a> + to the Græco-Roman of the +Renaissance. Thus regarded, the history of the city, both +in her political state and in her buildings, is seen to be +intimately connected with that of the Holy Empire itself. +The Empire in its title and its pretensions expressed the +idea of the permanence of the institutions of the ancient +world; Rome the city had, in externals at least, carefully +preserved their traditions: the names of her magistracies, +the character of her buildings, all spoke of antiquity, and +gave it a strange and shadowy life in the midst of new +races and new forms of faith. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">297</a></span></p> + +<p class="sidenote">Relation of +the City +and the +Empire.</p> + +<p>In its essence the Empire rested on the feeling of the +unity of mankind; it was the perpetuation of the Roman +dominion by which the old nationalities had been destroyed, +with the addition of the Christian element which +had created a new nationality that was also universal. By +the extension of her citizenship to all her subjects heathen +Rome had become the common home, and, figuratively, +even the local dwelling-place of the civilized races of man. +By the theology of the time Christian Rome had been +made the mystical type of humanity, the one flock of the +faithful scattered over the whole earth, the holy city whither, +as to the temple on Moriah, all the Israel of God should +come up to worship. She was not merely an image of +the mighty world, she was the mighty world itself in +miniature. The pastor of her local church is also the +universal bishop; the seven suffragans who consecrate +him are the overseers of petty sees in Ostia, Antium, +and the like, towns lying close round Rome: the +cardinal priests and deacons who join these seven in +electing him derive their title to be princes of the Church, +the supreme spiritual council of the Christian world, +from the incumbency of a parochial cure within the precincts +of the city. Similarly, her ruler, the Emperor, is +ruler of mankind; he is chosen by the acclamations of her +people<a name="FNanchor_350" id="FNanchor_350" href="#Footnote_350" class="fnanchor">[350]</a>: +he can be lawfully crowned nowhere but in one +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">298</a></span> +of her basilicas. She is, like Jerusalem of old, the mother +of us all.</p> + +<p>There is yet another way in which the record of the +domestic contests of Rome throws light upon the history +of the Empire. From the eleventh century to the fifteenth +her citizens ceased not to demand in the name of the old +republic their freedom from the tyranny of the nobles and +the Pope, and their right to rule over the world at large. +These efforts—selfish and fantastic we may call them, yet +men like Petrarch did not disdain to them their sympathy—issued +from the same theories and were directed to the +same ends as those which inspired Otto the Third and +Frederick Barbarossa and Dante himself. They witness +to the same incapacity to form any ideal for the future +except a revival of the past; the same belief that one +universal state is both desirable and possible, but possible +only through the means of Rome: the same refusal to +admit that a right which has once existed can ever be +extinguished. +<span class="sidenote">Extinction +of the +Florentine +republic, +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1530.</span> +In the days of the Renaissance these +notions were passing silently away: the succeeding +century brought with it misfortunes that broke the spirit +of the nation. Italy was the battle-field of Europe: her +wealth became the prey of a rapacious soldiery: the last +and greatest of her republics was enslaved by an unfeeling +Emperor, and handed over as the pledge of amity to a +selfish Medicean Pope. When the hope of independence +had been lost, the people turned away from politics to live +for art and literature, and found, before many generations +had passed, how little such exclusive devotion could compensate +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">299</a></span> +for the departure of freedom, and a national spirit, +and the activity of civic life. A century after the golden +days of Ariosto and Raphael, Italian literature had become +frigid and affected, while Italian art was dying of mannerism.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Feelings of +the modern +Italians +towards +Rome.</p> + +<p>At length, after long ages of sloth, the stagnant waters +were troubled. The Romans, who had lived in listless +contentment under the paternal sway of the Popes, received +new ideas from the advent of the revolutionary +armies of France, and have found the Papal system, since +its re-establishment fifty years ago as a modern bureaucratic +despotism, far less tolerable than it was of yore. +Our own days have seen the name of Rome become +again a rallying-cry for the patriots of Italy, but in a sense +most unlike the old one. The contemporaries of Arnold +and Rienzi desired freedom only as a step to universal +domination: their descendants, more wisely, yet not more +from patriotism than from a pardonable civic pride, seek +only to be the capital of the Italian kingdom. Dante prayed +for a monarchy of the world, a reign of peace and Christian +brotherhood: those who invoke his name as the +earliest prophet of their creed strive after an idea that +never crossed his mind—the national union of Italy<a name="FNanchor_351" id="FNanchor_351" href="#Footnote_351" class="fnanchor">[351]</a>.</p> + +<p>Plain common-sense politicians in other countries do +not understand this passion for Rome as a capital, and +think it their duty to lecture the Italians on their flightiness. +The latter do not themselves pretend that the +shores of the Tiber are a suitable site for a capital: Rome +is lonely, unhealthy, and in a bad strategical position; she +has no particular facilities for trade: her people, with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">300</a></span> +some fine qualities, are less orderly and industrious than +the Tuscans or the Piedmontese. Nevertheless all Italy +cries with one voice for Rome, firmly believing that +national life can never thrill with a strong and steady +pulsation till the ancient capital has become the nation's +heart. They feel that it is owing to Rome—Rome pagan +as well as Christian—that they once played so grand a +part in the drama of European history, and that they have +now been able to attain that fervid sentiment of unity +which has brought them at last together under one government. +Whether they are right, whether if right they are +likely to be successful, need not be inquired here. But it +deserves to be noted that this enthusiasm for a famous +name—for it is nothing more—is substantially the same +feeling as that which created and hallowed the Holy +Empire of the Middle Ages. The events of the last few +years on both sides of the Atlantic have proved that men +are not now, any more than they ever were, chiefly +governed by calculations of material profit and loss. +Sentiments, fancies, theories, have not lost their power; +the spirit of poetry has not wholly passed away from +politics. And strange as seems to us the worship paid to +the name of mediæval Rome by those who saw the sins +and the misery of her people, it can hardly have been an +intenser feeling than is the imaginative reverence wherewith +the Italians of to-day look on the city whence, as +from a fountain, all the streams of their national life have +sprung, and in which, as in an ocean, they are all again +to mingle. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">301</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XVII.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">THE RENAISSANCE: CHANGE IN THE CHARACTER +OF THE EMPIRE.</span></h2> + +<p class="sidenote">Wenzel, +1378-1400.</p> +<p class="sidenote">Rupert, +1400-1410.</p> +<p class="sidenote">Sigismund, +1410-1438.</p> +<p class="sidenote">Council of +Constance.</p> + +<p>In Frederick the Third's reign the Empire sank to its +lowest point. It had shot forth a fitful gleam under +Sigismund, who in convoking and presiding over the +council of Constance had revived one of the highest +functions of his predecessors. The precedents of the +first great œcumenical councils, and especially of the +council of Nicæa, had established the principle that it +belonged to the Emperor, even more properly than to the +Pope, to convoke ecclesiastical assemblies from the whole +Christian world<a name="FNanchor_352" id="FNanchor_352" href="#Footnote_352" class="fnanchor">[352]</a>. The tenet commended itself to the +reforming party in the church, headed by Gerson, the +chancellor of Paris, whose aim it was, while making no +changes in matters of faith, to correct the abuses which +had grown up in discipline and government, and limit the +power of the Popes by exalting the authority of general +councils, to whom there was now attributed an immunity +from error superior even to that which resided in the +successor of Peter. And although it was only the sacerdotal +body, not the whole Christian people, who were +thus made the exponents of the universal religious consciousness, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">302</a></span> +the doctrine was nevertheless a foreshadowing +of that fuller freedom which was soon to follow. The +existence of the Holy Empire and the existence of +general councils were, as has been already remarked, +necessary parts of one and the same theory<a name="FNanchor_353" id="FNanchor_353" href="#Footnote_353" class="fnanchor">[353]</a>, +and it was +therefore more than a coincidence that the last occasion +on which the whole of Latin Christendom met to +deliberate and act as a single commonwealth<a name="FNanchor_354" id="FNanchor_354" href="#Footnote_354" class="fnanchor">[354]</a> + was also +the last on which that commonwealth's lawful temporal +head appeared in the exercise of his international functions. +Never afterwards was he, in the eyes of Europe, anything +more than a German monarch.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Weakness +of Germany +as compared +with the +other states +of Europe.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Albert II. +1438-1440. +Frederick +III. 1440-1493.</p> + +<p>It might seem doubtful whether he would long remain +a monarch at all. When in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1493 the calamitous +reign of Frederick the Third ended, it was impossible for +the princes to see with unconcern the condition into which +their selfishness and turbulence had brought the Empire. +The time was indeed critical. Hitherto the Germans had +been protected rather by the weakness of their enemies +than by their own strength. From France there had been +little to fear while the English menaced her on one side +and the Burgundian dukes on the other: from England +still less while she was torn by the strife of York and +Lancaster. But now throughout Western Europe the +power of the feudal oligarchies was broken; and its chief +countries were being, by the establishment of fixed rules +of succession and the absorption of the smaller into the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">303</a></span> +larger principalities, rapidly built up into compact and +aggressive military monarchies. Thus Spain became a +great state by the union of Castile and Aragon, and the +conquest of the Moors of Granada. Thus in England +there arose the popular despotism of the Tudors. Thus +France, enlarged and consolidated under Lewis the +Eleventh and his successors, began to acquire that predominant +influence on the politics of Europe which her +commanding geographical position, the martial spirit of +her people, and, it must be added, the unscrupulous ambition +of her rulers, have secured to her in every succeeding +century. Meantime there had appeared in the far +East a foe still more terrible. The capture of Constantinople +gave Turks a firm hold on Europe, and inspired +them with the hope of effecting in the fifteenth century +what Abderrahman and his Saracens had so nearly +effected in the eighth—of establishing the faith of Islam +through all the provinces that obeyed the Western as well +as the Eastern Cæsars. The navies of the Ottoman +Sultans swept the Mediterranean; their well-appointed +armies pierced Hungary and threatened Vienna.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Loss of imperial +territories.</p> + +<p>Nor was it only that formidable enemies had arisen +without: the frontiers of Germany herself were exposed +by the loss of those adjoining territories which had formerly +owned allegiance to the Emperors. Poland, once +tributary, had shaken off the yoke at the interregnum, and +had recently wrested Prussia and Lusatz from the Teutonic +knights. Bohemia, where German culture had struck +deeper roots, remained a member of the Empire; but +the privileges she had obtained from Charles the Fourth, +and the subsequent acquisition of Silesia and Moravia, +made her virtually independent. The restless Hungarians +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">304</a></span> +avenged their former vassalage to Germany by frequent +inroads on her eastern border.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Italy.</p> + +<p>Imperial power in Italy ended with the life of Henry +the Seventh. Rupert did indeed cross the Alps, but it +was as the hireling of Florence; Frederick the Third +received the Lombard crown, but it no longer conveyed +the slightest power. In the beginning of the fourteenth +century Dante still hopes the renovation of his country +from the action of the Teutonic Emperors. Some fifty +years later Matthew Villani sees clearly that they do not +and cannot reign to any purpose south of the Alps<a name="FNanchor_355" id="FNanchor_355" href="#Footnote_355" class="fnanchor">[355]</a>. +Nevertheless the phantom of imperial authority lingers on +for a time. It is put forward by the Ghibeline tyrants of +the cities to justify their attacks on their Guelfic neighbours: +even resolute republicans like the Florentines do +not yet venture altogether to reject it, however unwilling +to permit its exercise. Before the middle of the fifteenth +century, the names of Guelf and Ghibeline had ceased to +have any sense or meaning; the Pope was no longer the +protector nor the Emperor the assailant of municipal +freedom, for municipal freedom itself had well-nigh disappeared. +But the old war-cries of the Church and the +Empire were still repeated as they had been three centuries +before, and the rival principles that had once enlisted the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">305</a></span> +noblest spirits of Italy on one or other side had now sunk +into a pretext for wars of aggrandizement or of mere +unmeaning hate. That which had been remarked long +before in Greece was seen to be true here; the spirit of +faction outlived the cause of faction, and became itself the +new and prolific source of a useless, endless strife.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Burgundy.</p> + +<p>After Frederick the Third no Emperor was crowned in +Rome, and almost the only trace of that connection between +Germany and Italy to maintain which so much had +been risked and lost, was to be found in the obstinate +belief of the Hapsburg Emperors, that their own claims, +though often purely dynastic and personal, could be +enforced by an appeal to the imperial rights of their predecessors. +Because Barbarossa had overrun Lombardy +with a Transalpine host they fancied themselves entitled +to demand duchies for themselves and their relatives, and +to entangle the Empire in wars wherein no interest but +their own was involved.</p> + +<p>The kingdom of Arles, if it had never added much +strength to the Empire, had been useful as an outwork +against France. And thus its loss—Dauphiné passing +over, partly in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1350, finally in 1457, Provence in +1486—proved a serious calamity, for it brought the +French nearer to Switzerland, and opened to them a +tempting passage into Italy. The Emperors did not for +a time expressly renounce their feudal suzerainty over +these lands, but if it was hard to enforce a feudal claim over +a rebellious landgrave in Germany, how much harder to +control a vassal who was also the mightiest king in +Europe.</p> + +<p>On the north-west frontier, the fall in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1477 of the +great principality which the dukes of French Burgundy +were building up, was seen with pleasure by the Rhinelanders +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">306</a></span> +whom Charles the last duke had incessantly +alarmed. But the only effect of its fall was to leave +France and Germany directly confronting each other, and +it was soon seen that the balance of strength lay on the +side of the less numerous but better organized and more +active nation.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Switzerland.</p> + +<p>Switzerland, too, could no longer be considered a part +of the Germanic realm. The revolt of the Forest Cantons, +in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1313, was against the oppressions practised in the +name of Albert count of Hapsburg, rather than against +the legitimate authority of Albert the Emperor. But +although several subsequent sovereigns, and among them +conspicuously Henry the Seventh and Sigismund, favoured +the Swiss liberties, yet while the antipathy between the +Confederates and the territorial nobility gave a peculiar +direction to their policy, the accession of new cantons to +their body, and their brilliant success against Charles the +Bold in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1477, made them proud of a separate +national existence, and not unwilling to cast themselves +loose from the stranded hulk of the Empire. Maximilian +tried to reconquer them, but after a furious struggle, in +which the valleys of Western Tyrol were repeatedly laid +waste by the peasants of the Engadin, he was forced to +give way, and in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1500 recognized them by treaty as +practically independent. Not, however, till the peace of +Westphalia, in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1648, was the Swiss Confederation in +the eye of public law a sovereign state, and even after +that date some of the towns continued to stamp their +coins with the double eagle of the Empire.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Internal +weakness.</p> + +<p>If those losses of territory were serious, far more +serious was the plight in which Germany herself lay. +The country had now become not so much an empire as +an aggregate of very many small states, governed by sovereigns +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">307</a></span> +who would neither remain at peace with each +other nor combine against a foreign enemy, under the +nominal presidency of an Emperor who had little lawful +authority, and could not exert what he had<a name="FNanchor_356" id="FNanchor_356" href="#Footnote_356" class="fnanchor">[356]</a>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Influence of +the theory +of the Empire +as an +international +power upon +the Germanic +constitution.</p> + +<p>There was another cause, besides those palpable and +obvious ones already enumerated, to which this state of +things must be ascribed. That cause is to be found in +the theory which regarded the Empire as an international +power, supreme among Christian states. From the day +when Otto the Great was crowned at Rome, the characters +of German king and Roman Emperor were united in one +person, and it has been shewn how that union tended +more and more to become a fusion. If the two offices, +in their nature and origin so dissimilar, had been held by +different persons, the Roman Empire would most probably +have soon disappeared, while the German kingdom grew +into a robust national monarchy. Their connection gave +a longer life to the one and a feebler life to the other, +while at the same time it transformed both. So long as +Germany was only one of the many countries that bowed +beneath their sceptre it was possible for the Emperors, +though we need not suppose they troubled themselves +with speculations on the matter, to distinguish their imperial +authority, as international and more than half religious, +from their royal, which was, or was meant to be, +exclusively local and feudal. But when within the narrowed +bounds of Germany these international functions +had ceased to have any meaning, when the rulers of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">308</a></span> +England, Spain, France, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, +Italy, Burgundy, had in succession repudiated their control, +and the Lord of the World found himself obeyed by +none but his own people, he would not sink from being +lord of the world into a simple Teutonic king, but continued +to play in the more contracted theatre the part +which had belonged to him in the wider. Thus did +Germany instead of Europe become the sphere of his +international jurisdiction; and her electors and princes, +originally mere vassals, no greater than a Count of Champagne +in France, or an Earl of Chester in England, +stepped into the place which it had been meant that the +several monarchs of Christendom should fill. If the power +of their head had been what it was in the eleventh century, +the additional dignity so assigned to them might +have signified very little. But coming in to confirm and +justify the liberties already won, this theory of their relation +to the sovereign had a great though at the time +scarcely perceptible influence in changing the German +Empire, as we may now begin to call it, from a state into +a sort of confederation or body of states, united indeed +for some of the purposes of government, but separate and +independent for others more important. Thus, and that +in its ecclesiastical as well as its civil organization, Germany +became a miniature of Christendom<a name="FNanchor_357" id="FNanchor_357" href="#Footnote_357" class="fnanchor">[357]</a>. The Pope, +though he retained the wider sway which his rival had +lost, was in an especial manner the head of the German +clergy, as the Emperor was of the laity: the three Rhenish +prelates sat in the supreme college beside the four temporal +electors: the nobility of prince-bishops and abbots +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">309</a></span> +was as essential a part of the constitution and as influential +in the deliberations of the Diet as were the dukes, counts, +and margraves of the Empire. The world-embracing +Christian state was to have been governed by a hierarchy +of spiritual pastors, whose graduated ranks of authority +should exactly correspond with those of the temporal +magistracy, who were to be like them endowed with +worldly wealth and power, and to enjoy a jurisdiction co-ordinate +although distinct. This system, which it was in +vain attempted to establish in Europe during the eleventh +and twelfth centuries, was in its main features that which +prevailed in the Germanic Empire from the fourteenth +<span class="sidenote">Position of +the Emperor +in Germany, +compared +with that +of his predecessors +in +Europe.</span> +century onwards. And conformably to the analogy which +may be traced between the position of the archdukes of +Austria in Germany and the place which the four Saxon +and the two first Franconian Emperors had held in +Europe, both being recognized as leaders and presidents +in all that concerned the common interest, in the one case +of the Christian, in the other of the whole German people, +while neither of them had any power of direct government +in the territories of local kings and lords; so the plan by +which those who chose Maximilian emperor sought to +strengthen their national monarchy was in substance that +which the Popes had followed when they conferred the +crown of the world on Charles and Otto. The pontiffs +then, like the electors now, finding that they could not +give with the title the power which its functions demanded, +were driven to the expedient of selecting for the office +persons whose private resources enabled them to sustain +it with dignity. The first Frankish and the first Saxon +Emperors were chosen because they were already the +mightiest potentates in Europe; Maximilian because he +was the strongest of the German princes. The parallel +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">310</a></span> +may be carried one step further. Just as under Otto and +his successors the Roman Empire was Teutonized, so +now under the Hapsburg dynasty, from whose hands the +sceptre departed only once thenceforth, the Teutonic +Empire tends more and more to lose itself in an Austrian +monarchy.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Beginning +of the Hapsburg +influence +in +Germany.</p> + +<p>Of that monarchy and of the power of the house of +Hapsburg, Maximilian was, even more than Rudolph his +ancestor, the founder<a name="FNanchor_358" id="FNanchor_358" href="#Footnote_358" class="fnanchor">[358]</a>. Uniting in his person those wide +domains through Germany which had been dispersed +among the collateral branches of his house, and claiming +by his marriage with Mary of Burgundy most of the territories +of Charles the Bold, he was a prince greater than +any who had sat on the Teutonic throne since the death +of Frederick the Second. But it was as archduke of +Austria, count of Tyrol, duke of Styria and Carinthia, +feudal superior of lands, in Swabia, Alsace, and Switzerland, +that he was great, not as Roman Emperor. For +just as from him the Austrian monarchy begins, so with +him the Holy Empire in its old meaning ends. That +strange system of doctrines, half religious half political, +which had supported it for so many ages, was growing obsolete, +and the theory which had wrought such changes +on Germany and Europe, passed ere long so completely +from remembrance that we can now do no more than call +up a faint and wavering image of what it must once have +been.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Character +of the epoch +of Maximilian.</p> + +<p>For it is not only in imperial history that the accession +of Maximilian is a landmark. That time—a time of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">311</a></span> +change and movement in every part of human life, a time +when printing had become common, and books were no +longer confined to the clergy, when drilled troops were +replacing the feudal militia, when the use of gunpowder +was changing the face of war—was especially marked by +one event, to which the history of the world offers no +parallel before or since, the discovery of America. The +<span class="sidenote">The discovery +of +America.</span> +cloud which from the beginning of things had hung thick +and dark round the borders of civilization was suddenly +lifted: the feeling of mysterious awe with which men had +regarded the firm plain of earth and her encircling ocean +ever since the days of Homer, vanished when astronomers +and geographers taught them that she was an insignificant +globe, which, so far from being the centre of the universe, +was itself swept round in the motion of one of the least +of its countless systems. The notions that had hitherto +prevailed regarding the life of man and his relations to +nature and the supernatural, were rudely shaken by the +knowledge that was soon gained of tribes in every stage +of culture and living under every variety of condition, who +had developed apart from all the influences of the Eastern +hemisphere. In <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1453 the capture of Constantinople +and extinction of the Eastern Empire had dealt a fatal +blow to the prestige of tradition and an immemorial name: +in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1492 there was disclosed a world whither the +eagles of all-conquering Rome had never winged their +flight. No one could now have repeated the arguments +of the <i>De Monarchia</i>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The Renaissance.</p> + +<p>Another movement, too, widely different, but even more +momentous, was beginning to spread from Italy beyond +the Alps. Since the barbarian tribes settled in the Roman +provinces, no change had come to pass in Europe at all +comparable to that which followed the diffusion of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">312</a></span> +new learning in the latter half of the fifteenth century. +Enchanted by the beauty of the ancient models of art +and poetry, more particularly those of the Greeks, men +came to regard with aversion and contempt all that had +been done or produced from the days of Trajan to those +of Pope Nicholas the Fifth. The Latin style of the +writers who lived after Tacitus was debased: the architecture +of the Middle Ages was barbarous: the scholastic +philosophy was an odious and unmeaning jargon: Aristotle +himself, Greek though he was, Aristotle who had +been for three centuries more than a prophet or an +apostle, was hurled from his throne, because his name +was associated with the dismal quarrels of Scotists and +Thomists. That spirit, whether we call it analytical or +sceptical, or earthly, or simply secular, for it is more or +less all of these—the spirit which was the exact antithesis +of mediæval mysticism, had swept in and carried men +away, with all the force of a pent-up torrent. People were +content to gratify their tastes and their senses, caring little +for worship, and still less for doctrine: their hopes and +ideas were no longer such as had made their forefathers +crusaders or ascetics: their imagination was possessed +by associations far different from those which had inspired +Dante: they did not revolt against the church, +but they had no enthusiasm for her, and they had +enthusiasm for whatever was fresh and graceful and +intelligible. From all that was old and solemn, or that +seemed to savour of feudalism or monkery, they turned +away, too indifferent to be hostile. And so, in the +midst of the Renaissance, so, under the consciousness +that former things were passing from the earth, and a +new order opening, so, with the other beliefs and memories +of the Middle Age, the shadowy rights of the Roman +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">313</a></span> +Empire melted away in the fuller modern light. Here +and there a jurist muttered that no neglect could destroy +its universal supremacy, or a priest declaimed to listless +hearers on its duty to protect the Holy See; but to +Germany it had become an ancient device for holding +together the discordant members of her body, to its +possessors an engine for extending the power of the +house of Hapsburg.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Empire +henceforth +German.</p> + +<p>Henceforth, therefore, we must look upon the Holy +Roman Empire as lost in the German; and after a +few faint attempts to resuscitate old-fashioned claims, +nothing remains to indicate its origin save a sounding +title and a precedence among the states of Europe. +It was not that the Renaissance exerted any direct +political influence either against the Empire or for it; +men were too busy upon statues and coins and manuscripts +to care what befel Popes or Emperors. It acted +rather by silently withdrawing the whole system of doctrines +upon which the Empire had rested, and thus leaving it, +since it had previously no support but that of opinion, +without any support at all.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Attempts +to reform +the Germanic +Constitution.</p> + +<p>During Maximilian's eventful reign several efforts were +made to construct a new constitution, but it is to German, +rather than to imperial history that they properly belong. +Here, indeed, the history of the Holy Empire might +close, did not the title unchanged beckon us on, and +were it not that the events of these later centuries may +in their causes be traced back to times when the name +of Roman was not wholly a mockery. It may be enough +to remark that while the preservation of peace and the +better administration of justice were in some measure +attained by the Public Peace and Imperial Chamber, +established in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1495, schemes still more important +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">314</a></span> +failed through the bad constitution of the Diet, and the +unconquerable jealousy of the Emperor and the Estates. +Maximilian refused to have his prerogative, indefinite +though weak, restricted by the appointment of an +administrative council<a name="FNanchor_359" id="FNanchor_359" href="#Footnote_359" class="fnanchor">[359]</a>, +and when the Estates extorted it +from him, did his best to ensure its failure. In the Diet, +which consisted of three colleges, electors, princes, and +cities, the lower nobility and knights of the Empire were +unrepresented, and resented every decree that affected +their position, refusing to pay taxes in voting which they +had no voice. The interests of the princes and the +cities were often irreconcilable, while the strength of +the crown would not have been sufficient to make its +adhesion to the latter of any effect. The policy of +conciliating the commons, which Sigismund had tried, +succeeding Emperors seldom cared to repeat, content +to gain their point by raising factions among the territorial +magnates, and so to stave off the unwelcome +demand for reform. After many earnest attempts to +establish a representative system, such as might resist +the tendency to local independence and cure the evils +of separate administration, the hope so often baffled died +<span class="sidenote">Causes of +the failure +of the projects +of reform.</span> +away. Forces were too nearly balanced: the sovereign +could not extend his personal control, nor could the +reforming party limit him by a strong council of government, +for such a measure would have equally trenched on +the independence of the states. So ended the first great +effort for German unity, interesting from its bearing on +the events and aspirations of our own day; interesting, +too, as giving the most convincing proof of the decline of +the imperial office. For the projects of reform did not +propose to effect their objects by restoring to Maximilian +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">315</a></span> +the authority his predecessors had once enjoyed, but by +setting up a body which would resemble far more nearly +the senate of a federal state than the administrative council +which surrounds a monarch. The existing system +developed itself further: relieved from external pressure, +the princes became more despotic in their own territories: +distinct codes were framed, and new systems of +administration introduced: the insurgent peasantry were +crushed down with more confident harshness. Already +had leagues of princes and cities been formed<a name="FNanchor_360" id="FNanchor_360" href="#Footnote_360" class="fnanchor">[360]</a> + (that +of Swabia was one of the strongest forces in Germany, +and often the monarch's firmest support); now alliances +begin to be contracted with foreign powers, and receive a +direction of formidable import from the rivalry which the +pretensions on Naples and Milan of Charles the Eighth +and Lewis the Twelfth of France kindled between their +house and the Austrian. It was no slight gain to have +friends in the heart of the enemy's country, such as +French intrigue found in the Elector Palatine and the +count of Würtemberg.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Germanic +nationality.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless this was also the era of the first conscious +feeling of German nationality, as distinct from imperial. +Driven in on all hands, with Italy and the Slavic lands +and Burgundy hopelessly lost, Teutschland learnt to +separate itself from Welschland<a name="FNanchor_361" id="FNanchor_361" href="#Footnote_361" class="fnanchor">[361]</a>. The Empire became +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">316</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Change of +Titles.</span> +the representative of a narrower but more practicable +national union. It is not a mere coincidence that at this +date there appear several notable changes of style. +<span lang="la">'Nationis Teutonicæ'</span> (Teutscher Nation) is added to the +simple <span lang="la">'sacrum imperium Romanum.'</span> The title of +<span lang="la">'Imperator electus,'</span> which Maximilian obtains leave from +Pope Julius the Second to assume, when the Venetians +prevent him from reaching his capital, marks the severance +of Germany from Rome. No subsequent Emperor +received his crown in the ancient capital (Charles the +Fifth was indeed crowned by the Pope's hands, but the +ceremony took place at Bologna, and was therefore of +at least questionable validity); each assumed after his +German coronation<a name="FNanchor_362" id="FNanchor_362" href="#Footnote_362" class="fnanchor">[362]</a> +<span class="sidenote">The title +<span lang="la">'Imperator +Electus.'</span></span> +the title of Emperor Elect<a name="FNanchor_363" id="FNanchor_363" href="#Footnote_363" class="fnanchor">[363]</a>, +and +employed this in all documents issued in his name. But +the word 'elect' being omitted when he was addressed +by others, partly from motives of courtesy, partly because +the old rules regarding the Roman coronation were forgotten, +or remembered only by antiquaries, he was never +called, even when formality was required, anything but +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">317</a></span> +Emperor. The substantial import of another title now +first introduced is the same. Before Otto the First, the +Teutonic king had called himself either 'rex' alone, or +<span lang="la">'Francorum orientalium rex,'</span> or <span lang="la">'Francorum atque Saxonum +rex:'</span> after <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 962, all lesser dignities had been +merged in the <span lang="la">'Romanorum Imperator<a name="FNanchor_364" id="FNanchor_364" href="#Footnote_364" class="fnanchor">[364]</a>.</span>' To this +Maximilian appended <span lang="la">'Germaniæ rex,'</span> or, adding Frederick +the Second's bequest<a name="FNanchor_365" id="FNanchor_365" href="#Footnote_365" class="fnanchor">[365]</a>, +<span lang="de">'König in Germanien und +Jerusalem.'</span> It has been thought that from a mixture of +the title King of Germany, and that of Emperor, has been +formed the phrase 'German Emperor,' or less correctly, +'Emperor of Germany<a name="FNanchor_366" id="FNanchor_366" href="#Footnote_366" class="fnanchor">[366]</a>.' But more probably the terms +'German Emperor' and 'Emperor of Germany' are nothing +but convenient corruptions of the technical description +of the Germanic sovereign<a name="FNanchor_367" id="FNanchor_367" href="#Footnote_367" class="fnanchor">[367]</a>.</p> + +<p>That the Empire was thus sinking into a merely +German power cannot be doubted. But it was only +natural that those who lived at the time should not discern +the tendency of events. Again and again did the +restless and sanguine Maximilian propose the recovery +of Burgundy and Italy,—his last scheme was to adjust +the relations of Papacy and Empire by becoming Pope +himself: nor were successive Diets less zealous to check +private war, still the scandal of Germany, to set right +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">318</a></span> +the gear of the imperial chamber, to make the imperial +officials permanent, and their administration uniform +throughout the country. But while they talked the +heavens darkened, and the flood came and destroyed +them all. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">319</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">THE REFORMATION AND ITS EFFECTS UPON +THE EMPIRE.</span></h2> + +<p>The Reformation falls to be mentioned here, of course +not as a religious movement, but as the cause of political +changes, which still further rent the Empire, and struck +at the root of the theory by which it had been created +and upheld. Luther completed the work of Hildebrand. +Hitherto it had seemed not impossible to strengthen the +German state into a monarchy, compact if not despotic; +the very Diet of Worms, where the monk of Wittenberg +proclaimed to an astonished church and Emperor that +the day of spiritual tyranny was past, had framed and +presented a fresh scheme for the construction of a central +council of government. The great religious schism put +an end to all such hopes, for it became a source of political +disunion far more serious and permanent than any +that had existed before, and it taught the two factions +into which Germany was henceforth divided to regard +each other with feelings more bitter than those of hostile +nations.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Accession +of Charles +V (1519-1558).</p> + +<p>The breach came at the most unfortunate time possible. +After an election, more memorable than any preceding, +an election in which Francis the First of France and +Henry the Eighth of England had been his competitors, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">320</a></span> +a prince had just ascended the imperial throne who united +dominions vaster than any Europe had seen since the +days of his great namesake. Spain and Naples, Flanders, +and other parts of the Burgundian lands, as well as large +regions in Eastern Germany, obeyed Charles: he drew +inexhaustible revenues from a new empire beyond the +Atlantic. Such a power, directed by a mind more resolute +and profound than that of Maximilian his grandfather, +might have well been able, despite the stringency of his +coronation engagements<a name="FNanchor_368" id="FNanchor_368" href="#Footnote_368" class="fnanchor">[368]</a>, +and the watchfulness of the +electors<a name="FNanchor_369" id="FNanchor_369" href="#Footnote_369" class="fnanchor">[369]</a>, +to override their usurped privileges, and make +himself practically as well as officially the head of the +nation. Charles the Fifth, though from the coldness of +his manner<a name="FNanchor_370" id="FNanchor_370" href="#Footnote_370" class="fnanchor">[370]</a> + and his Flemish speech never a favourite +among the Germans, was in point of fact far stronger +than Maximilian or any other Emperor who had reigned +for three centuries. In Italy he succeeded, after long +struggles with the Pope and the French, in rendering +himself supreme: England he knew how to lead, by +flattering Henry and cajoling Wolsey: from no state but +France had he serious opposition to fear. To this +strength his imperial dignity was indeed a mere accident: +its sources were the infantry of Spain, the looms of +Flanders, the sierras of Peru. But the conquest once +achieved, might could lose itself in right; and as an +earlier Charles had veiled the terror of the Frankish +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">321</a></span> +sword under the mask of Roman election, so might his +successor sway a hundred provinces with the sole name +of Roman Emperor, and transmit to his race a dominion +as wide and more enduring.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Attitude of +Charles towards +the +religious +movement.</p> + +<p>One is tempted to speculate as to what might have +happened had Charles espoused the reforming cause. +His reverence for the Pope's person is sufficiently seen +in the sack of Rome and the captivity of Clement; the +traditions of his office might have led him to tread in the +steps of the Henrys and the Fredericks, into which even +the timid Lewis the Fourth and the unstable Sigismund +had sometimes ventured; the awakening zeal of the +German people, exasperated by the exactions of the +Romish court, would have strengthened his hands, and +enabled him, while moderating the excesses of change, to +fix his throne on the deep foundations of national love. +It may well be doubted—Englishmen at least have reason +for the doubt—whether the Reformation would not have +lost as much as it could have gained by being entangled +in the meshes of royal patronage. But, setting aside +Charles's personal leaning to the old faith, and forgetting +that he was king of the most bigoted race of Europe, his +position as Emperor made him almost perforce the +Pope's ally. The Empire had been called into being +by Rome, had vaunted the protection of the Apostolic +See as its highest earthly privilege, had latterly been +wont, especially in Hapsburg hands, to lean on the +papacy for support. Itself founded entirely on prescription +and the traditions of immemorial reverence, how +could it abandon the cause which the longest prescription +and the most solemn authority had combined to consecrate? +With the German clergy, despite occasional +quarrels, it had been on better terms than with the lay +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">322</a></span> +aristocracy; their heads had been the chief ministers of +the crown; the advocacies of their abbeys were the last +source of imperial revenue to disappear. To turn against +them now, when furiously assailed by heretics; to abrogate +claims hallowed by antiquity and a hundred laws, +would be to pronounce its own sentence, and the fall of +the eternal city's spiritual dominion must involve the fall +of what still professed to be her temporal. Charles would +have been glad to see some abuses corrected; but a +broad line of policy was called for, and he cast in his lot +with the Catholics<a name="FNanchor_371" id="FNanchor_371" href="#Footnote_371" class="fnanchor">[371]</a>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Ultimate +failure of +the repressive +policy +of Charles.</p> + +<p>Of many momentous results only a few need be noticed +here. The reconstruction of the old imperial system, +upon the basis of Hapsburg power, proved in the end +impossible. Yet for some years it had seemed actually +accomplished. When the Smalkaldic league had been +dissolved and its leaders captured, the whole country lay +prostrate before Charles. He overawed the Diet at Augsburg +by the Spanish soldiery: he forced formularies of +doctrine upon the vanquished Protestants: he set up and +pulled down whom he would throughout Germany, amid +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">323</a></span> +the muttered discontent of his own partisans. Then, as +in the beginning of the year 1552, he lay at Innsbruck, +fondly dreaming that his work was done, waiting the +spring weather to cross to Trent, where the Catholic +fathers had again met to settle the world's faith for it, +news was suddenly brought that North Germany was in +arms, and that the revolted Maurice of Saxony had seized +Donauwerth, and was hurrying through the Bavarian +Alps to surprise his sovereign. Charles rose and fled +southwards over the snows of the Brenner, then eastwards, +under the blood-red cliffs of dolomite that wall in the +Pusterthal, far away into the valleys of Carinthia: the +council of Trent broke up in consternation: Europe saw +and the Emperor acknowledged that in his fancied triumph +over the spirit of revolution he had done no more than +block up for the moment an irresistible torrent. When +this last effort to produce religious uniformity by violence +had failed as hopelessly as the previous devices of holding +discussions of doctrine and calling a general council, +a sort of armistice was agreed to in 1554, which lasted +in mutual fear and suspicion for more than sixty years. +Four years after this disappointment of the hopes and +projects which had occupied his busy life, Charles, weighed +down by cares and with the shadow of coming death +already upon him, resigned the sovereignty of Spain and +the Indies, of Flanders and Naples, into the hands of his +son Philip the Second; while the imperial sceptre passed +to his brother Ferdinand, who had been some time before +chosen King of the Romans. Ferdinand was content to +<span class="sidenote">Ferdinand +I, +1558-1564.</span> +<span class="sidenote">Maximilian +II, +1564-1576.</span> +leave things much as he found them, and the amiable +Maximilian II, who succeeded him, though personally +well inclined to the Protestants, found himself fettered by +his position and his allies, and could do little or nothing +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">324</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Destruction +of the +Germanic +state-system.</span> +to quench the flame of religious and political hatred. +Germany remained divided into two omnipresent factions, +and so further than ever from harmonious action, or +a tightening of the long-loosened bond of feudal allegiance. +The states of either creed being gathered into +a league, there could no longer be a recognized centre of +authority for judicial or administrative purposes. Least +of all could a centre be sought in the Emperor, the leader +of the papal party, the suspected foe of every Protestant. +Too closely watched to do anything of his own authority, +too much committed to one party to be accepted as +a mediator by the other, he was driven to attain his own +objects by falling in with the schemes and furthering the +selfish ends of his adherents, by becoming the accomplice +or the tool of the Jesuits. The Lutheran princes addressed +themselves to reduce a power of which they had +still an over-sensitive dread, and found when they exacted +from each successive sovereign engagements more stringent +than his predecessor's, that in this, and this alone, +their Catholic brethren were not unwilling to join them. +Thus obliged to strip himself one by one of the ancient +privileges of his crown, the Emperor came to have little +influence on the government except that which his intrigues +might exercise. Nay, it became almost impossible +to maintain a government at all. For when the Reformers +found themselves outvoted at the Diet, they +declared that in matters of religion a majority ought not +to bind a minority. As the measures were few which +did not admit of being reduced to this category, for whatever +benefited the Emperor or any other Catholic prince +injured the Protestants, nothing could be done save by +the assent of two bitterly hostile factions. Thus scarce +anything was done; and even the courts of justice were +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">325</a></span> +stopped by the disputes that attended the appointment of +every judge or assessor.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Alliance +of the Protestants +with +France.</p> + +<p>In the foreign politics of Germany another result +followed. Inferior in military force and organization, +the Protestant princes at first provided for their safety +by forming leagues among themselves. The device +was an old one, and had been employed by the monarch +himself before now, in despair at the effete and cumbrous +forms of the imperial system. Soon they began to look +beyond the Vosges, and found that France, burning heretics +at home, was only too happy to smile on free opinions +elsewhere. The alliance was easily struck; Henry the +Second assumed in 1552 the title of 'Protector of the +Germanic liberties,' and a pretext for interference was +never wanting in future.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The Reformation +spirit, and +its influence +upon the +Empire.</p> + +<p>These were some of the visible political consequences +of the great religious schism of the sixteenth century. +But beyond and above them there was a change far more +momentous than any of its immediate results. There is +perhaps no event in history which has been represented +in so great a variety of lights as the Reformation. It has +been called a revolt of the laity against the clergy, or of +the Teutonic races against the Italians, or of the kingdoms +of Europe against the universal monarchy of the +Popes. Some have seen in it only a burst of long-repressed +anger at the luxury of the prelates and the +manifold abuses of the ecclesiastical system; others a +renewal of the youth of the church by a return to primitive +forms of doctrine. All these indeed to some extent +it was; but it was also something more profound, and +fraught with mightier consequences than any of them. It +was in its essence the assertion of the principle of individuality—that +is to say, of true spiritual freedom. Hitherto +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">326</a></span> +the personal consciousness had been a faint and broken +reflection of the universal; obedience had been held the +first of religious duties; truth had been conceived as a +something external and positive, which the priesthood who +were its stewards were to communicate to the passive +layman, and whose saving virtue lay not in its being felt +and known by him to be truth, but in a purely formal and +unreasoning acceptance. The great principles which +mediæval Christianity still cherished were obscured by the +limited, rigid, almost sensuous forms which had been +forced on them in times of ignorance and barbarism. +That which was in its nature abstract, had been able to +survive only by taking a concrete expression. The universal +consciousness became the Visible Church: the Visible +Church hardened into a government and degenerated into +a hierarchy. Holiness of heart and life was sought by outward +works, by penances and pilgrimages, by gifts to the +poor and to the clergy, wherein there dwelt often little +enough of a charitable mind. The presence of divine truth +among men was symbolized under one aspect by the existence +on earth of an infallible Vicar of God, the Pope; +under another, by the reception of the present Deity in the +sacrifice of the mass; in a third, by the doctrine that the +priest's power to remit sins and administer the sacraments +depended upon a transmission of miraculous gifts which +can hardly be called other than physical. All this system +of doctrine, which might, but for the position of the +church as a worldly and therefore obstructive power, have +expanded, renewed, and purified itself during the four +centuries that had elapsed since its completion<a name="FNanchor_372" id="FNanchor_372" href="#Footnote_372" class="fnanchor">[372]</a>, +and +thus remained in harmony with the growing intelligence +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">327</a></span> +of mankind, was suddenly rent in pieces by the convulsion +of the Reformation, and flung away by the more +religious and more progressive peoples of Europe. That +which was external and concrete, was in all things to be +superseded by that which was inward and spiritual. It +was proclaimed that the individual spirit, while it continued +to mirror itself in the world-spirit, had nevertheless +an independent existence as a centre of self-issuing force, +and was to be in all things active rather than passive. +Truth was no longer to be truth to the soul until it should +have been by the soul recognized, and in some measure +even created; but when so recognized and felt, it is able +under the form of faith to transcend outward works and +to transform the dogmas of the understanding; it becomes +the living principle within each man's breast, infinite +itself, and expressing itself infinitely through his thoughts +and acts. He who as a spiritual being was delivered +from the priest, and brought into direct relation with the +Divinity, needed not, as heretofore, to be enrolled a +member of a visible congregation of his fellows, that he +might live a pure and useful life among them. Thus by +the Reformation the Visible Church as well as the priesthood +<span class="sidenote">Effect of +the Reformation +on +the doctrines +regarding +the Visible +Church.</span> +lost that paramount importance which had hitherto +belonged to it, and sank from being the depositary of all +religious tradition, the source and centre of religious life, +the arbiter of eternal happiness or misery, into a mere +association of Christian men, for the expression of mutual +sympathy and the better attainment of certain common +ends. Like those other doctrines which were now assailed +by the Reformation, this mediæval view of the nature of +the Visible Church had been naturally, and so, it may be +said, necessarily developed between the third and the twelfth +century, and must therefore have represented the thoughts +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">328</a></span> +and satisfied the wants of those times. By the Visible +Church the flickering lamp of knowledge and literary +culture, as well as of religion, had been fed and tended +through the long night of the Dark Ages. But, like the +whole theological fabric of which it formed a part, it was +now hard and unfruitful, identified with its own worst +abuses, capable apparently of no further development, +and unable to satisfy minds which in growing stronger +had grown more conscious of their strength. Before the +awakened zeal of the northern nations it stood a cold and +lifeless system, whose organization as a hierarchy checked +the free activity of thought, whose bestowal of worldly +power and wealth on spiritual pastors drew them away +from their proper duties, and which by maintaining alongside +of the civil magistracy a co-ordinate and rival government, +maintained also that separation of the spiritual element +in man from the secular, which had been so complete +and so pernicious during the Middle Ages, which +debases life, and severs religion from morality.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Consequent +effect upon +the Empire.</p> + +<p>The Reformation, it may be said, was a religious movement: +and it is the Empire, not the Church, that we have +here to consider. The distinction is only apparent. The +Holy Empire is but another name for the Visible Church. +It has been shewn already how mediæval theory constructed +the State on the model of the Church; how the Roman +Empire was the shadow of the Popedom—designed to rule +men's bodies as the pontiff ruled their souls. Both alike +claimed obedience on the ground that Truth is One, and +that where there is One faith there must be One government<a name="FNanchor_373" id="FNanchor_373" href="#Footnote_373" class="fnanchor">[373]</a>. +And, therefore, since it was this very principle of +Formal Unity that the Reformation overthrew, it became +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">329</a></span> +a revolt against despotism of every kind; it erected the +standard of civil as well as of religious liberty, since both +of them are needed, though needed in a different measure, +for the worthy development of the individual spirit. The +Empire had never been conspicuously the antagonist of +popular freedom, and was, even under Charles the Fifth, +far less formidable to the commonalty than were the petty +princes of Germany. But submission, and submission on +the ground of indefeasible transmitted right, upon the +ground of Catholic traditions and the duty of the Christian +magistrate to suffer heresy and schism as little as the +parallel sins of treason and rebellion, had been its constant +claim and watchword. Since the days of Julius +Cæsar it had passed through many phases, but in none of +them had it ever been a constitutional monarchy, pledged +to the recognition of popular rights. And hence the +indirect tendency of the Reformation to narrow the province +of government and exalt the privileges of the subject +was as plainly adverse to the Empire as the Protestant +claim of the right of private judgment was to the pretensions +of the Papacy and the priesthood.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Immediate +influence of +the Reformation +on political +and religious +liberty.</p> + +<p>The remark must not be omitted in passing, how much +less than might have been expected the religious movement +did at first actually effect in the way of promoting +either political progress or freedom of conscience. The +habits of centuries were not to be unlearnt in a few years, +and it was natural that ideas struggling into existence +and activity should work erringly and imperfectly for a +time. By a few inflammable minds liberty was carried +into antinomianism, and produced the wildest excesses of +life and doctrine. Several fantastic sects arose, refusing +to conform to the ordinary rules without which human +society could not subsist. But these commotions neither +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">330</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Conduct of +the Protestant +States.</span> +spread widely nor lasted long. Far more pervading and +more remarkable was the other error, if that can be called +an error which was the almost unavoidable result of the +circumstances of the time. The principles which had led +the Protestants to sever themselves from the Roman +Church, should have taught them to bear with the +opinions of others, and warned them from the attempt to +connect agreement in doctrine or manner of worship with +the necessary forms of civil government. Still less ought +they to have enforced that agreement by civil penalties; +for faith, upon their own shewing, had no value save when +it was freely given. A church which does not claim to be +infallible is bound to allow that some part of the truth +may possibly be with its adversaries: a church which +permits or encourages human reason to apply itself to +revelation has no right first to argue with people and then +to punish them if they are not convinced. But whether +it was that men only half saw what they had done, or that +finding it hard enough to unrivet priestly fetters, they +welcomed all the aid a temporal prince could give, the +result was that religion, or rather religious creeds, began +to be involved with politics more closely than had ever +been the case before. Through the greater part of Christendom +wars of religion raged for a century or more, and +down to our own days feelings of theological antipathy +continue to affect the relations of the powers of Europe. +In almost every country the form of doctrine which +triumphed associated itself with the state, and maintained +the despotic system of the Middle Ages, while it forsook +the grounds on which that system had been based. It +was thus that there arose National Churches, which were +to be to the several countries of Europe that which the +Church Catholic had been to the world at large; churches, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">331</a></span> +that is to say, each of which was to be co-extensive with +its respective state, was to enjoy landed wealth and exclusive +political privilege, and was to be armed with coercive +powers against recusants. It was not altogether easy to +find a set of theoretical principles on which such churches +might be made to rest, for they could not, like the old +church, point to the historical transmission of their doctrines; +they could not claim to have in any one man or +body of men an infallible organ of divine truth; they could +not even fall back upon general councils, or the argument, +whatever it may be worth, '<i lang="la">Securus iudicat orbis terrarum</i>.' +But in practice these difficulties were soon got over, for the +dominant party in each state, if it was not infallible, was +at any rate quite sure that it was right, and could attribute +the resistance of other sects to nothing but moral obliquity. +The will of the sovereign, as in England, or the will of +the majority, as in Holland, Scandinavia, and Scotland, +imposed upon each country a peculiar form of worship, +and kept up the practices of mediæval intolerance without +their justification. Persecution, which might be at least +excused in an infallible Catholic and Apostolic Church, +was peculiarly odious when practised by those who were +not catholic, who were no more apostolic than their +neighbours, and who had just revolted from the most +ancient and venerable authority in the name of rights +which they now denied to others. If union with the +visible church by participation in a material sacrament be +necessary to eternal life, persecution may be held a duty, +a kindness to perishing souls. But if the kingdom of +heaven be in every sense a kingdom of the spirit, if saving +faith be possible out of one visible body and under a +diversity of external forms, persecution becomes at once +a crime and a folly. Therefore the intolerance of Protestants, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">332</a></span> +if the forms it took were less cruel than those practised +by the Roman Catholics, was also far less defensible; +for it had seldom anything better to allege on its behalf +than motives of political expediency, or, more often, the +mere headstrong passion of a ruler or a faction to silence +the expressions of any opinions but their own. To enlarge +upon this theme, did space permit it, would not be to +digress from the proper subject of this narrative. For the +Empire, as has been said more than once already, was far +less an institution than a theory or doctrine. And hence it is +not too much to say, that the ideas which have but recently +ceased to prevail regarding the duty of the magistrate to +compel uniformity in doctrine and worship by the civil +arm, may all be traced to the relation which that doctrine +established between the Roman Church and the Roman +Empire; to the conception, in fact, of an Empire Church +itself.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Influence +of the Reformation +on the name +and associations +of +the Empire.</p> + +<p>Two of the ways in which the Reformation affected the +Empire have been now described: its immediate political +results, and its far more profound doctrinal importance, +as implanting new ideas regarding the nature of freedom +and the province of government. A third, though apparently +almost superficial, cannot be omitted. Its name +and its traditions, little as they retained of their former +magic power, were still such as to excite the antipathy of +the German reformers. The form which the doctrine of +the supreme importance of one faith and one body of the +faithful had taken was the dominion of the ancient +capital of the world through her spiritual head, the +Roman bishop, and her temporal head, the Emperor. +As the names of Roman and Christian had been once +convertible, so long afterwards were those of Roman and +Catholic. The Reformation, separating into its parts +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">333</a></span> +what had hitherto been one conception, attacked Romanism +but not Catholicity, and formed religious communities +which, while continuing to call themselves Christian, repudiated +the form with which Christianity had been so +long identified in the West. As the Empire was founded +upon the assumption that the limits of Church and State +are exactly co-extensive, a change which withdrew half +of its subjects from the one body while they remained +members of the other, transformed it utterly, destroyed +the meaning and value of its old arrangements, and forced +the Emperor into a strange and incongruous position. +To his Protestant subjects he was merely the head of the +administration, to the Catholics he was also the Defender +and Advocate of their church. Thus from being chief of +the whole state he became the chief of a party within it, +the <span lang="la">Corpus Catholicorum</span>, as opposed to the <span lang="la">Corpus +Evangelicorum</span>; he lost what had been hitherto his most +holy claim to the obedience of the subject; the awakened +feeling of German nationality was driven into hostility to +an institution whose title and history bound it to the +centre of foreign tyranny. After exulting for seven centuries +in the heritage of Roman rule, the Teutonic nations +cherished again the feelings with which their ancestors +had resisted Julius Cæsar and Germanicus. Two mutually +repugnant systems could not exist side by side without +striving to destroy one another. The instincts of theological +sympathy overcame the duties of political allegiance, +and men who were subjects both of the Empire +and of their local prince, gave all their loyalty to him who +espoused their doctrines and protected their worship. +For in North Germany, princes as well as people were +mostly Lutheran: in the southern and especially the +south-eastern lands, where the magnates held to the old +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">334</a></span> +faith, Protestants were scarcely to be found except in the +free cities. The same causes which injured the Emperor's +position in Germany swept away the last semblance of +his authority through other countries. In the great +struggle which followed, the Protestants of England and +France, of Holland and Sweden, thought of him only as +the ally of Spain, of the Vatican, of the Jesuits; and he +of whom it had been believed a century before that by +nothing but his existence was the coming of Antichrist on +earth delayed, was in the eyes of the northern divines +either Antichrist himself or Antichrist's foremost champion. +The earthquake that opened a chasm in Germany +was felt through Europe; its states and peoples marshalled +themselves under two hostile banners, and with the Empire's +expiring power vanished that united Christendom +it had been created to lead<a name="FNanchor_374" id="FNanchor_374" href="#Footnote_374" class="fnanchor">[374]</a>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Troubles of +Germany.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Rudolf II, +1576-1612.</p> + +<p>Some of the effects thus sketched began to shew +themselves as early as that famous Diet of Worms, from +Luther's appearance at which, in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1521, we may +date the beginning of the Reformation. But just as +the end of the religious conflict in England can hardly be +placed earlier than the Revolution of 1688, nor in France +than the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, +so it was not till after more than a century of doubtful +strife that the new order of things was fully and finally +established in Germany. The arrangements of Augsburg, +like most treaties on the basis of <i lang="la">uti possidetis</i>, were no +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">335</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Matthias, +1612-1619.</span> +better than a hollow truce, satisfying no one, and consciously +made to be broken. The church lands which +Protestants had seized, and Jesuit confessors urged the +Catholic princes to reclaim, furnished an unceasing +ground of quarrel: neither party yet knew the strength of +its antagonists sufficiently to abstain from insulting or +persecuting their modes of worship, and the smouldering +hate of half a century was kindled by the troubles +of Bohemia into the Thirty Years' War.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Thirty +Years' +War, +1618-1648.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Ferdinand +II, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> +1619-37.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Plans of +Ferdinand +II.</p> + +<p>The imperial sceptre had now passed from the indolent +and vacillating Rudolf II (1576-1612), the corrupt +and reckless policy of whose ministers had done much to +exasperate the already suspicious minds of the Protestants, +into the firmer grasp of Ferdinand the Second<a name="FNanchor_375" id="FNanchor_375" href="#Footnote_375" class="fnanchor">[375]</a>. Jealous, +bigoted, implacable, skilful in forming and concealing +his plans, resolute to obstinacy in carrying them out in +action, the house of Hapsburg could have had no abler +and no more unpopular leader in their second attempt to +turn the German Empire into an Austrian military +monarchy. They seemed for a time as near to the +accomplishment of the project as Charles the Fifth had +been. Leagued with Spain, backed by the Catholics of +Germany, served by such a leader as Wallenstein, Ferdinand +proposed nothing less than the extension of the +Empire to its old limits, and the recovery of his crown's +full prerogative over all its vassals. Denmark and Holland +were to be attacked by sea and land: Italy to be +reconquered with the help of Spain: Maximilian of +Bavaria and Wallenstein to be rewarded with principalities +in Pomerania and Mecklenburg. The latter general was +all but master of Northern Germany when the successful +resistance of Stralsund turned the wavering balance of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">336</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Gustavus +Adolphus.</span> +the war. Soon after (<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1630), Gustavus Adolphus +crossed the Baltic, and saved Europe from an impending +reign of the Jesuits. Ferdinand's high-handed proceedings +had already alarmed even the Catholic princes. +Of his own authority he had put the Elector Palatine +and other magnates to the ban of the Empire: he had +transferred an electoral vote to Bavaria; had treated +the districts overrun by his generals as spoil of war, +to be portioned out at his pleasure; had unsettled all +possession by requiring the restitution of church property +occupied since <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1555. The Protestants were +helpless; the Catholics, though they complained of the +flagrant illegality of such conduct, did not dare to oppose +it: the rescue of Germany was the work of the Swedish +king. In four campaigns he destroyed the armies and +the prestige of the Emperor; devastated his lands, emptied +his treasury, and left him at last so enfeebled that no +subsequent successes could make him again formidable. +Such, nevertheless, was the selfishness and apathy of the +Protestant princes, divided by the mutual jealousy of the +Lutheran and the Calvinist party—some, like the Saxon +elector, most inglorious of his inglorious house, bribed by +the cunning Austrian; others afraid to stir lest a reverse +<span class="sidenote">Ferdinand +III, +1637-1658.</span> +<span class="sidenote">The peace of +Westphalia.</span> +should expose them unprotected to his vengeance—that +the issue of the long protracted contest would have +gone against them but for the interference of France. +It was the leading principle of Richelieu's policy to depress +the house of Hapsburg and keep Germany disunited: +hence he fostered Protestantism abroad while trampling +it down at home. The triumph he did not live to see was +sealed in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1648, on the utter exhaustion of all the +combatants, and the treaties of Münster and Osnabrück +were thenceforward the basis of the Germanic constitution. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">337</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XIX.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA: LAST STAGE IN +THE DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE.</span></h2> + +<p>The Peace of Westphalia is the first, and, with the +exception perhaps of the Treaties of Vienna in 1815, +the most important of those attempts to reconstruct by +diplomacy the European states-system which have played +so large a part in modern history. It is important, +however, not as marking the introduction of new principles, +but as winding up the struggle which had convulsed +Germany since the revolt of Luther, sealing its results, +and closing definitively the period of the Reformation. +Although the causes of disunion which the religious +movement called into being had now been at work for +more than a hundred years, their effects were not fully +seen till it became necessary to establish a system which +should represent the altered relations of the German +states. It may thus be said of this famous peace, as of +the other so-called 'fundamental law of the Empire,' the +Golden Bull, that it did no more than legalize a condition +of things already in existence, but which by being legalized +acquired new importance. To all parties alike the result +of the Thirty Years' War was thoroughly unsatisfactory: +to the Protestants, who had lost Bohemia, and still were +obliged to hold an inferior place in the electoral college +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">338</a></span> +and in the Diet: to the Catholics, who were forced to +permit the exercise of heretical worship, and leave the +church lands in the grasp of sacrilegious spoilers: to the +princes, who could not throw off the burden of imperial +supremacy: to the Emperor, who could turn that supremacy +to no practical account. No other conclusion +was possible to a contest in which every one had been +vanquished and no one victorious; which had ceased +because while the reasons for war continued the means of +war had failed. Nevertheless, the substantial advantage +remained with the German princes, for they gained the +formal recognition of that territorial independence whose +origin may be placed as far back as the days of Frederick +the Second, and the maturity of which had been hastened +by the events of the last preceding century. It was, +indeed, not only recognized but justified as rightful and +necessary. For while the political situation, to use a +current phrase, had changed within the last two hundred +years, the eyes with which men regarded it had changed +still more. Never by their fiercest enemies in earlier +times, not once by the Popes or Lombard republicans in +the heat of their strife with the Franconian and Swabian +Cæsars, had the Emperors been reproached as mere +German kings, or their claim to be the lawful heirs of +Rome denied. The Protestant jurists of the sixteenth or +rather of the seventeenth century were the first persons who +ventured to scoff at the pretended lordship of the world, +and declare their Empire to be nothing more than a +German monarchy, in dealing with which no superstitious +reverence need prevent its subjects from making the best +terms they could for themselves, and controlling a sovereign +whose religious predilections made him the friend of +their enemies. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">339</a></span></p> + +<p class="sidenote">The treatise +of Hippolytus +a +Lapide.</p> + +<p>It is very instructive to turn suddenly from Dante or +Peter de Andlo to a book published shortly before <span class="s08">A.D.</span> +1648, under the name of Hippolytus a Lapide<a name="FNanchor_376" id="FNanchor_376" href="#Footnote_376" class="fnanchor">[376]</a>, +and +notice the matter-of-fact way, the almost contemptuous +spirit in which, disregarding the traditional glories of the +Empire, he comments on its actual condition and prospects. +Hippolytus, the pseudonym which the jurist +Chemnitz assumed, urges with violence almost superfluous, +that the Germanic constitution must be treated +entirely as a native growth: that the <span lang="la">'lex regia'</span> (so much +discussed and so often misunderstood) and the whole +system of Justinianean absolutism which the Emperor +had used so dexterously, were in their applications to +Germany not merely incongruous but positively absurd. +With eminent learning, Chemnitz examines the early +history of the Empire, draws from the unceasing contests +of the monarch with the nobility the unexpected moral +that the power of the former has been always dangerous, +and is now more dangerous than ever, and then launches +out into a long invective against the policy of the Hapsburgs, +an invective which the ambition and harshness of +the late Emperor made only too plausible. The one real +remedy for the evils that menace Germany he states concisely—<span lang="la">'domus +Austriacæ extirpatio:'</span> but, failing this, +he would have the Emperor's prerogative restricted in +every way, and provide means for resisting or dethroning +him. It was by these views, which seem to have made a +profound impression in Germany, that the states, or +rather France and Sweden acting on their behalf, were +guided in the negotiations of Osnabrück and Münster. +By extorting a full recognition of the sovereignty of all +the princes, Catholics and Protestants alike, in their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">340</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Rights of +the Emperor +and +the Diet, as +settled in +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1648.</span> +respective territories, they bound the Emperor from any +direct interference with the administration, either in particular +districts or throughout the Empire. All affairs of +public importance, including the rights of making war or +peace, of levying contributions, raising troops, building +fortresses, passing or interpreting laws, were henceforth +to be left entirely in the hands of the Diet. The Aulic +Council, which had been sometimes the engine of imperial +oppression, and always of imperial intrigue, was so +restricted as to be harmless for the future. The <span lang="la">'reservata'</span> +of the Emperor were confined to the rights of granting +titles and confirming tolls. In matters of religion, an +exact though not perfectly reciprocal equality was established +between the two chief ecclesiastical bodies, and +the right of <span lang="la">'Itio in partes,'</span> that is to say, of deciding +questions in which religion was involved by amicable +negotiations between the Protestant and Catholic states, +instead of by a majority of votes in the Diet, was definitely +conceded. Both Lutherans and Calvinists were +declared free from all jurisdiction of the Pope or any +Catholic prelate. Thus the last link which bound Germany +to Rome was snapped, the last of the principles by +virtue of which the Empire had existed was abandoned. +For the Empire now contained and recognized as its +members persons who formed a visible body at open war +with the Holy Roman Church; and its constitution admitted +schismatics to a full share in all those civil rights +which, according to the doctrines of the early Middle +Age, could be enjoyed by no one who was out of the +communion of the Catholic Church. The Peace of +Westphalia was therefore an abrogation of the sovereignty +of Rome, and of the theory of Church and State +with which the name of Rome was associated. And in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">341</a></span> +this light was it regarded by Pope Innocent the Tenth, +who commanded his legate to protest against it, and +subsequently declared it void by the bull <span lang="la">'Zelo domus +Dei<a name="FNanchor_377" id="FNanchor_377" href="#Footnote_377" class="fnanchor">[377]</a>.'</span></p> + +<p class="sidenote">Loss of +imperial +territories.</p> + +<p>The transference of power within the Empire, from its +head to its members, was a small matter compared with +the losses which the Empire suffered as a whole. The +real gainers by the treaties of Westphalia were those who +had borne the brunt of the battle against Ferdinand the +Second and his son. To France were ceded Brisac, +the Austrian part of Alsace, and the lands of the three +bishoprics in Lorraine—Metz, Toul, and Verdun, which +her armies had seized in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1552: to Sweden, northern +Pomerania, Bremen, and Verden. There was, however, +this difference between the position of the two, that +whereas Sweden became a member of the German Diet +for what she received (as the king of Holland was, until +1866-7, a member for Dutch Luxemburg, and as the +kings of Denmark, up till the accession of the present sovereign, +were for Holstein), the acquisitions of France were +delivered over to her in full sovereignty, and for ever +severed from the Germanic body. And as it was by their +aid that the liberties of the Protestants had been won, +these two states obtained at the same time what was more +valuable than territorial accessions—the right of interfering +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">342</a></span> +at imperial elections, and generally whenever the +provisions of the treaties of Osnabrück and Münster, +which they had guaranteed, might be supposed to be +endangered. The bounds of the Empire were further +narrowed by the final separation of two countries, once +integral parts of Germany, and up to this time legally +members of her body. Holland and Switzerland were, in +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1648, declared independent.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Germany +after the +Peace.</p> + +<p>The Peace of Westphalia is an era in imperial history +not less clearly marked than the coronation of Otto the +Great, or the death of Frederick the Second. As from +the days of Maximilian it had borne a mixed or transitional +character, well expressed by the name Romano-Germanic, +so henceforth it is in everything but title purely +and solely a German Empire. Properly, indeed, it was no +longer an Empire at all, but a Confederation, and that of +the loosest sort. For it had no common treasury, no +efficient common tribunals<a name="FNanchor_378" id="FNanchor_378" href="#Footnote_378" class="fnanchor">[378]</a>, +no means of coercing a refractory +member<a name="FNanchor_379" id="FNanchor_379" href="#Footnote_379" class="fnanchor">[379]</a>; +its states were of different religions, +were governed according to different forms, were administered +judicially and financially without any regard to +each other. The traveller in Central Germany now is +amused to find, every hour or two, by the change in the +soldiers' uniforms, and the colour of the stripes on the +railway fences, that he has passed out of one and into +another of its miniature kingdoms. Much more surprised +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">343</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Number of +petty independent +states: effects +of such +a system on +Germany.</span> +and embarrassed would he have been a century ago, when, +instead of the present thirty-two there were three hundred +petty principalities between the Alps and the Baltic, each +with its own laws, its own courts (in which the ceremonious +pomp of Versailles was faintly reproduced), its little +armies, its separate coinage, its tolls and custom-houses +on the frontier, its crowd of meddlesome and pedantic +officials, presided over by a prime minister who was +generally the unworthy favourite of his prince and the +pensioner of some foreign court. This vicious system, +which paralyzed the trade, the literature, and the political +thought of Germany, had been forming itself for some +time, but did not become fully established until the Peace +of Westphalia, by emancipating the princes from imperial +control, had made them despots in their own territories. +The impoverishment of the inferior nobility and the decline +of the commercial cities caused by a war that had lasted +a whole generation, removed every counterpoise to the +power of the electors and princes, and made absolutism +supreme just where absolutism wants all its justification, +in states too small to have any public opinion, states in +which everything depends on the monarch, and the +monarch depends on his favourites. After <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1648 the +provincial estates or parliaments became obsolete in most +of these principalities, and powerless in the rest. Germany +was forced to drink to its very dregs the cup of feudalism, +feudalism from which all the feelings that once ennobled it +had departed.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Feudalism +in France, +England, +Germany.</p> + +<p>It is instructive to compare the results of the system of +feudality in the three chief countries of modern Europe. +In France, the feudal head absorbed all the powers +of the state, and left to the aristocracy only a few privileges, +odious indeed, but politically worthless. In England, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">344</a></span> +the mediæval system expanded into a constitutional +monarchy, where the oligarchy was still strong, but the +commons had won the full recognition of equal civil +rights. In Germany, everything was taken from the +sovereign, and nothing given to the people; the representatives +of those who had been fief-holders of the first +and second rank before the Great Interregnum were now +independent potentates; and what had been once a +monarchy was now an aristocratic federation. The Diet, +originally an assembly of magnates meeting from time to +time like our early English Parliaments, became in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1654 +a permanent body, at which the electors, princes, and cities +were represented by their envoys. In other words, it was +now not a national council, but an international congress +of diplomatists.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Causes of +the continuance +of +the Empire.</p> + +<p>Where the sacrifice of imperial, or rather federal, rights +to state rights was so complete, we may wonder that the +farce of an Empire should have been retained at all. A +mere German Empire would probably have perished; but +the Teutonic people could not bring itself to abandon the +venerable heritage of Rome. Moreover, the Germans were +of all European peoples the most slow-moving and long-suffering; +and as, if the Empire had fallen, something +must have been erected in its place, they preferred to +work on with the clumsy machine so long as it would +work at all. Properly speaking, it has no history after +this; and the history of the particular states of Germany +which takes its place is one of the dreariest chapters in the +annals of mankind. It would be hard to find, from the +Peace of Westphalia to the French Revolution, a single +grand character or a single noble enterprise; a single +sacrifice made to great public interests, a single instance +in which the welfare of nations was preferred to the selfish +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">345</a></span> +passions of their princes. The military history of those +times will always be read with interest; but free and progressive +countries have a history of peace not less rich +and varied than that of war; and when we ask for an +account of the political life of Germany in the eighteenth +century, we hear nothing but the scandals of buzzing +courts, and the wrangling of diplomatists at never-ending +congresses.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The Empire +and the +Balance of +power.</p> + +<p>Useless and helpless as the Empire had become, it was +not without its importance to the neighbouring countries, +with whose fortunes it had been linked by the Peace of +Westphalia. It was the pivot on which the political +system of Europe was to revolve: the scales, so to speak, +which marked the equipoise of power that had become +the grand object of the policy of all states. This modern +caricature of the plan by which the theorists of the fourteenth +century had proposed to keep the world at peace, +used means less noble and attained its end no better than +theirs had done. No one will deny that it was and is +desirable to prevent a universal monarchy in Europe. +But it may be asked whether a system can be considered +successful which allowed Frederick of Prussia to seize +Silesia, which did not check the aggressions of Russia +and France upon their neighbours, which was for ever +bartering and exchanging lands in every part of Europe +without thought of the inhabitants, which permitted and +has never been able to redress that greatest of public misfortunes, +the partitionment of Poland. And if it be said +that bad as things have been under this system, they +would have been worse without it, it is hard to refrain +from asking whether any evils could have been greater +than those which the people of Europe have suffered +through constant wars with each other, and through the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">346</a></span> +withdrawal, even in time of peace, of so large a part of +their population from useful labour to be wasted in maintaining +a standing army.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Position of +the Empire +in Europe.</p> + +<p>The result of the extended relations in which Germany +now found herself to Europe, with two foreign kings +never wanting an occasion, one of them never the wish, +to interfere, was that a spark from her set the Continent +ablaze, while flames kindled elsewhere were sure to spread +hither. Matters grew worse as her princes inherited or +created so many thrones abroad. The Duke of Holstein +acquired Denmark, the Count Palatine Sweden, the Elector +of Saxony Poland, the Elector of Hanover England, the +Archduke of Austria Hungary and Bohemia, while the +Elector (originally Margrave) of Brandenburg obtained, +on the strength of non-imperial territories to the north-eastward +which had come into his hands, the style and +title of King of Prussia. Thus the Empire seemed again +about to embrace Europe; but in a sense far different +from that which those words would have expressed under +Charles and Otto. Its history for a century and a half +is a dismal list of losses and disgraces. The chief external +danger was from French influence, for a time +supreme, always menacing. For though Lewis the Fourteenth, +on whom, in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1658, half the electoral college +wished to confer the imperial crown, was before the end +of his life an object of intense hatred, officially entitled +'Hereditary enemy of the Holy Empire<a name="FNanchor_380" id="FNanchor_380" href="#Footnote_380" class="fnanchor">[380]</a> +,' France had +nevertheless a strong party among the princes always at +her beck. The Rhenish and Bavarian electors were her +favourite tools. The '<span lang="fr"><i>réunions</i></span>' begun in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1680, +a pleasant euphemism for robbery in time of peace, added +Strasburg and other places in Alsace, Lorraine, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">347</a></span> +Franche Comté to the monarchy of Lewis, and brought +him nearer the heart of the Empire; his ambition and +cruelty were witnessed to by repeated wars, and by the +devastation of the Rhine countries; the ultimate though +short-lived triumph of his policy was attained when +Marshal Belleisle dictated the election of Charles VII in +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1742. In the Turkish wars, when the princes left +<span class="sidenote">Weakness +and stagnation +of +Germany.</span> +Vienna to be saved by the Polish Sobieski, the Empire's +weakness appeared in a still more pitiable light. There +was, indeed, a complete loss of hope and interest in the +old system. The princes had been so long accustomed +to consider themselves the natural foes of a central government, +that a request made by it was sure to be disregarded; +they aped in their petty courts the pomp and +etiquette of Vienna or Paris, grumbling that they should +be required to garrison the great frontier fortresses which +alone protected them from an encroaching neighbour. +The Free Cities had never recovered the famines and +sieges of the Thirty Years' War: Hanseatic greatness +had waned, and the southern towns had sunk into languid +oligarchies. All the vigour of the people in a somewhat +stagnant age either found its sphere in rising states like +the Prussia of Frederick the Great, or turned away from +politics altogether into other channels. The Diet had +become contemptible from the slowness with which it +moved, and its tedious squabbles on matters the most +frivolous. Many sittings were consumed in the discussion +of a question regarding the time of keeping Easter, more +ridiculous than that which had distracted the Western +churches in the seventh century, the Protestants refusing +to reckon by the reformed calendar because it was the +work of a Pope. Collective action through the old organs +was confessed impossible, when the common object of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">348</a></span> +defence against France was sought by forming a league +under the Emperor's presidency, and when at European +congresses the Empire was not represented at all<a name="FNanchor_381" id="FNanchor_381" href="#Footnote_381" class="fnanchor">[381]</a>. No +change could come from the Emperor, whom the capitulation +of <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1658 deposed <i>ipso facto</i> if he violated its +provisions. As Dohm<a name="FNanchor_382" id="FNanchor_382" href="#Footnote_382" class="fnanchor">[382]</a> + said, to keep him from doing +harm, he was kept from doing anything.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Leopold I, +1658-1705.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Joseph I, +1705-1711.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Charles VI, +1711-1742.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The Hapsburg +Emperors +and +their policy.</p> + +<p>Yet little was lost by his inactivity, for what could have +been hoped from his action? From the election of +Albert the Second, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1437, to the death of Charles the +Sixth, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1742, the sceptre had remained in the hands +of one family. So far from being fit subjects for undistinguishing +invective, the Hapsburg Emperors may be +contrasted favourably with the contemporary dynasties of +France, Spain, or England. Their policy, viewed as +a whole from the days of Rudolf downwards, had been +neither conspicuously tyrannical, nor faltering, nor dishonest. +But it had been always selfish. Entrusted with +an office which might, if there be any power in those +memories of the past to which the champions of hereditary +monarchy so constantly appeal, have stirred their sluggish +souls with some enthusiasm for the heroes on whose +throne they sat, some wish to advance the glory and the +happiness of Germany, they had cared for nothing, sought +nothing, used the Empire as an instrument for nothing +but the attainment of their own personal or dynastic ends. +Placed on the eastern verge of Germany, the Hapsburgs +had added to their ancient lands in Austria proper and +Tyrol, non-German territories far more extensive, and +had thus become the chiefs of a separate and independent +state. They endeavoured to reconcile its interests with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">349</a></span> +the interests of the Empire, so long as it seemed possible +to recover part of the old imperial prerogative. But when +such hopes were dashed by the defeats of the Thirty +Years' War, they hesitated no longer between an elective +crown and the rule of their hereditary states, and comported +themselves thenceforth in European politics not as +the representatives of Germany, but as heads of the great +Austrian monarchy. There would have been nothing +culpable in this had they not at the same time continued +to entangle Germany in wars with which she had no +concern: to waste her strength in tedious combats with +the Turks, or plunge her into a new struggle with France, +not to defend her frontiers or recover the lands she had +lost, but that some scion of the house of Hapsburg might +reign in Spain or Italy. Watching the whole course of +their foreign policy, marking how in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1736 they had +bartered away Lorraine for Tuscany, a German for a non-German +territory, and seeing how at home they opposed +every scheme of reform which could in the least degree +trench upon their own prerogative, how they strove to +obstruct the imperial chamber lest it should interfere with +their own Aulic council, men were driven to separate the +body of the Empire from the imperial office and its possessors<a name="FNanchor_383" id="FNanchor_383" href="#Footnote_383" class="fnanchor">[383]</a>, +and when plans for reinvigorating the one +failed, to leave the others to their fate. Still the old line +<span class="sidenote">Causes of +the long +retention of +the throne +by Austria.</span> +clung to the crown with that Hapsburg gripe which has +almost passed into a proverb. Odious as Austria was, +no one could despise her, or fancy it easy to shake her +commanding position in Europe. Her alliances were +fortunate: her designs were steadily pursued: her dismembered +territories always returned to her. Though +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">350</a></span> +the throne continued strictly elective, it was impossible +not to be influenced by long prescription. Projects were +repeatedly formed to set the Hapsburgs aside by electing +a prince of some other line<a name="FNanchor_384" id="FNanchor_384" href="#Footnote_384" class="fnanchor">[384]</a>, +or by passing a law that +there should never be more than two, or four, successive +Emperors of the same house. France<a name="FNanchor_385" id="FNanchor_385" href="#Footnote_385" class="fnanchor">[385]</a> + ever and anon +renewed her warnings to the electors, that their freedom +was passing from them, and the sceptre becoming hereditary +in one haughty family. But it was felt that a +change would be difficult and disagreeable, and that the +heavy expense and scanty revenues of the Empire required +to be supported by larger patrimonial domains than most +German princes possessed. The heads of states like +Prussia and Hanover, states whose size and wealth would +have made them suitable candidates, were Protestants, +and so excluded both by the connexion of the imperial +office with the Church, and by the majority of Roman +Catholics in the electoral college<a name="FNanchor_386" id="FNanchor_386" href="#Footnote_386" class="fnanchor">[386]</a>, +who, however jealous +they might be of Austria, were led both by habit and +sympathy to rally round her in moments of peril. The +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">351</a></span> +one occasion on which these considerations were disregarded +shewed their force. On the extinction of the +male line of Hapsburg in the person of Charles the +Sixth, the intrigues of the French envoy, Marshal Belleisle, +procured the election of Charles Albert of Bavaria, +<span class="sidenote">Charles +VII, 1742-1745.</span> +who stood first among the Catholic princes. His reign +was a succession of misfortunes and ignominies. Driven +from Munich by the Austrians, the head of the Holy +Empire lived in Frankfort on the bounty of France, +cursed by the country on which his ambition had brought +the miseries of a protracted war<a name="FNanchor_387" id="FNanchor_387" href="#Footnote_387" class="fnanchor">[387]</a>. The choice in 1745 +<span class="sidenote">Francis I, +1745-1765.</span> +of Duke Francis of Lorraine, husband of the archduchess +of Austria and queen of Hungary, Maria Theresa, was +meant to restore the crown to the only power capable +of wearing it with dignity: in Joseph the Second, her +son, it again rested on the brow of a Hapsburg<a name="FNanchor_388" id="FNanchor_388" href="#Footnote_388" class="fnanchor">[388]</a>. In +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">352</a></span> +the war of the Austrian succession, which followed +on the death of Charles the Sixth, the Empire as a +body took no part; in the Seven Years' War its whole +<span class="sidenote">Seven +Years' War.</span> +might broke in vain against one resolute member. +Under Frederick the Great Prussia approved herself at +least a match for France and Austria leagued against her, +and the semblance of unity which the predominance of a +single power had hitherto given to the Empire was replaced +by the avowed rivalry of two military monarchies. The +Emperor Joseph the Second, a sort of philosopher-king, +<span class="sidenote">Joseph II, +1765-1790.</span> +than whom few have more narrowly missed greatness, +made a desperate effort to set things right, striving to +restore the disordered finances, to purge and vivify the +Imperial Chamber. Nay, he renounced the intolerant +policy of his ancestors, quarrelled with the Pope<a name="FNanchor_389" id="FNanchor_389" href="#Footnote_389" class="fnanchor">[389]</a>, +and +presumed to visit Rome, whose streets heard once more +the shout that had been silent for three centuries, +<span lang="it">'Evviva il nostro imperatore! Siete a casa vostra: siete +il padrone<a name="FNanchor_390" id="FNanchor_390" href="#Footnote_390" class="fnanchor">[390]</a>.'</span> But his indiscreet haste was met by a +sullen resistance, and he died disappointed in plans for +which the time was not yet ripe, leaving no result save the +league of princes which Frederick the Great had formed +to oppose his designs on Bavaria. His successor, Leopold +<span class="sidenote">Leopold II, +1790-1792. +Last phase +of the Empire.</span> +the Second, abandoned the projected reforms, and a calm, +the calm before the hurricane, settled down again upon +Germany. The existence of the Empire was almost forgotten +by its subjects: there was nothing to remind them +of it but a feudal investiture now and then at Vienna (real +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">353</a></span> +feudal rights were obsolete<a name="FNanchor_391" id="FNanchor_391" href="#Footnote_391" class="fnanchor">[391]</a>); a concourse of solemn old +lawyers at Wetzlar puzzling over interminable suits<a name="FNanchor_392" id="FNanchor_392" href="#Footnote_392" class="fnanchor">[392]</a>; +and +some thirty diplomatists at Regensburg<a name="FNanchor_393" id="FNanchor_393" href="#Footnote_393" class="fnanchor">[393]</a>, +the relics of that +<span class="sidenote">The Diet.</span> +Imperial Diet where once a hero-king, a Frederick or a +Henry, enthroned amid mitred prelates and steel-clad +barons, had issued laws for every tribe from the Mediterranean +to the Baltic<a name="FNanchor_394" id="FNanchor_394" href="#Footnote_394" class="fnanchor">[394]</a>. The solemn triflings of this so-called +'Diet of Deputation' have probably never been +equalled elsewhere<a name="FNanchor_395" id="FNanchor_395" href="#Footnote_395" class="fnanchor">[395]</a>. Questions of precedence and title, +questions whether the envoys of princes should have +chairs of red cloth like those of the electors, or only of +the less honourable green, whether they should be served +on gold or on silver, how many hawthorn boughs should +be hung up before the door of each on May-day; these, +and such as these, it was their chief employment not to +settle but to discuss. The pedantic formalism of old +Germany passed that of Spaniards or Turks; it had now +crushed under a mountain of rubbish whatever meaning +or force its old institutions had contained. It is the +penalty of greatness that its form should outlive its substance: +that gilding and trappings should remain when +that which they were meant to deck and clothe has departed. +So our sloth or our timidity, not seeing that +whatever is false must be also bad, maintains in being +what once was good long after it has become helpless and +hopeless: so now at the close of the eighteenth century, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">354</a></span> +strings of sounding titles were all that was left of the +Empire which Charles had founded, and Frederick +adorned, and Dante sung.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Feelings +of the +German +people.</p> + +<p>The German mind, just beginning to put forth the +blossoms of its wondrous literature, turned away in disgust +from the spectacle of ceremonious imbecility more than +Byzantine. National feeling seemed gone from princes +and people alike. Lessing, who did more than any one +else to create the German literary spirit, says, 'Of the love +of country I have no conception: it appears to me at best +a heroic weakness which I am right glad to be without<a name="FNanchor_396" id="FNanchor_396" href="#Footnote_396" class="fnanchor">[396]</a>.' +The Emperor Joseph II writes to his brother of France: +'You must know that the annihilation of German nationality +is a necessary leading principle of my policy<a name="FNanchor_397" id="FNanchor_397" href="#Footnote_397" class="fnanchor">[397]</a>.' +There were nevertheless persons who saw how fatal such +a system was, lying like a nightmare on the people's soul. +Speaking of the union of princes formed by Frederick of +Prussia to preserve the existing condition of things, +Johannes von Müller writes<a name="FNanchor_398" id="FNanchor_398" href="#Footnote_398" class="fnanchor">[398]</a>: +'If the German Union +serves for nothing better than to maintain the <i>status quo</i>, +it is against the eternal order of God, by which neither the +physical nor the moral world remains for a moment in +the <i>status quo</i>, but all is life and motion and progress. To +exist without law or justice, without security from arbitrary +imposts, doubtful whether we can preserve from day +to day our honours, our liberties, our rights, our lives, +helpless before superior force, without a beneficial connexion +between our states, without a national spirit at all, +this is the <i>status quo</i> of our nation. And it was this that +the Union was meant to confirm. If it be this and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">355</a></span> +nothing more, then bethink you how when Israel saw that +Rehoboam would not hearken, the people gave answer to +the king and spake, "What portion have we in David, or +what inheritance in the son of Jesse? to your tents, O +Israel: David, see to thine own house." See then to your +own houses, ye princes.'</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, though the Empire stood like a corpse +brought forth from some Egyptian sepulchre, ready to +crumble at a touch, there seemed no reason why it should +not stand so for centuries more. Fate was kind, and slew +it in the light. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">356</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XX.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">FALL OF THE EMPIRE.</span></h2> + +<p class="sidenote">Francis II, +1792-1806.</p> + +<p>Goethe has described the uneasiness with which, in +the days of his childhood, the burghers of his native +Frankfort saw the walls of the Roman Hall covered with +the portraits of Emperor after Emperor, till space was left +for few, at last for one<a name="FNanchor_399" id="FNanchor_399" href="#Footnote_399" class="fnanchor">[399]</a>. In <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1792 Francis the Second +mounted the throne of Augustus, and the last place was +filled. Three years before there had arisen on the western +horizon a little cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, and +now the heaven was black with storms of ruin. There +was a prophecy<a name="FNanchor_400" id="FNanchor_400" href="#Footnote_400" class="fnanchor">[400]</a>, +dating from the first days of the Empire's +decline, that when all things were falling to ruin, and +wickedness rife in the world, a second Frankish Charles +should rise as Emperor to purge and heal, to bring back +peace and purify religion. If this was not exactly the +mission of the new ruler of the West Franks, he was at +least anxious to tread in the steps and revive the glories +of the hero whose crown he professed to have inherited. +It were a task superfluously easy to shew how delusive is +that minute historical parallel of which every Parisian was +full in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1804, the parallel between the heir of a long +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">357</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Napoleon, +Emperor of +the West.</span> +line of fierce Teutonic chieftains, whose vigorous genius +had seized what it could of the monkish learning of the +eighth century, and the son of the Corsican lawyer, with all +the brilliance of a Frenchman and all the resolute profundity +of an Italian, reared in, yet only half believing, the +ideas of the Encyclopædists, swept up into the seat of +absolute power by the whirlwind of a revolution. Alcuin +and Talleyrand are not more unlike than are their masters. +But though in the characters and temper of the men there +is little resemblance, though their Empires agree in this +only, and hardly even in this, that both were founded on +conquest, there is nevertheless a sort of grand historical +similarity between their positions. Both were the leaders +of fiery and warlike nations, the one still untamed as the +creatures of their native woods, the other drunk with revolutionary +fury. Both aspired to found, and seemed for a +time to have succeeded in founding, universal monarchies. +Both were gifted with a strong and susceptible imagination, +which if it sometimes overbore their judgment, was +yet one of the truest and highest elements of their greatness. +As the one looked back to the kings under the +Jewish theocracy and the Emperors of Christian Rome, +so the other thought to model himself after Cæsar and +Charlemagne. For, useful as was the fancied precedent +of the title and career of the great Carolingian to a chief +determined to be king, yet unable to be king after the +fashion of the Bourbons, and seductive as was such a connexion +to the imaginative vanity of the French people, it +was no studied purpose or simulating art that led Napoleon +<span class="sidenote">Belief of +Napoleon +that he was +the successor +of Charlemagne.</span> +to remind his subjects so frequently of the hero he +claimed to represent. No one who reads the records of +his life can doubt that he believed, as fully as he believed +anything, that the same destiny which had made France +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">358</a></span> +the centre of the modern world had also appointed him +to sit on the throne and carry out the projects of Charles +the Frank, to rule all Europe from Paris, as the Cæsars +had ruled it from Rome<a name="FNanchor_401" id="FNanchor_401" href="#Footnote_401" class="fnanchor">[401]</a>. It was in this belief that he +went to the ancient capital of the Frankish Emperors to +receive there the Austrian recognition of his imperial title: +that he talked of 'revendicating' Catalonia and Aragon, +because they had formed a part of the Carolingian realm, +though they had never obeyed the descendants of Hugh +Capet: that he undertook a journey to Nimeguen, where +he had ordered the ancient palace to be restored, and inscribed +on its walls his name below that of Charles: that +he summoned the Pope to attend his coronation as +Stephen had come ten centuries before to instal Pipin in +the throne of the last Merovingian<a name="FNanchor_402" id="FNanchor_402" href="#Footnote_402" class="fnanchor">[402]</a>. The same desire +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">359</a></span> +to be regarded as lawful Emperor of the West shewed +itself in his assumption of the Lombard crown at Milan; +in the words of the decree by which he annexed Rome to +the Empire, revoking 'the donations which my predecessors, +the French Emperors, have made<a name="FNanchor_403" id="FNanchor_403" href="#Footnote_403" class="fnanchor">[403]</a> +;' in the title +'King of Rome,' which he bestowed on his ill-fated son, +in imitation of the German 'King of the Romans<a name="FNanchor_404" id="FNanchor_404" href="#Footnote_404" class="fnanchor">[404]</a>.' We +are even told that it was at one time his intention to eject +the Hapsburgs, and be chosen Roman Emperor in their +stead. Had this been done, the analogy would have been +complete between the position which the French ruler +held to Austria now, and that in which Charles and Otto +had stood to the feeble Cæsars of Byzantium. It was +<span class="sidenote">Attitude of +the Papacy +towards +Napoleon.</span> +curious to see the head of the Roman church turning +away from his ancient ally to the reviving power of France—France, +where the Goddess of Reason had been worshipped +eight years before—just as he had sought the help +of the first Carolingians against his Lombard enemies<a name="FNanchor_405" id="FNanchor_405" href="#Footnote_405" class="fnanchor">[405]</a>. +The difference was indeed great between the feelings +wherewith Pius the Seventh addressed his 'very dear +son in Christ,' and those that had pervaded the intercourse +of Pope Hadrian the First with the son of Pipin; +just as the contrast is strange between the principles that +shaped Napoleon's policy and the vision of a theocracy +that had floated before the mind of Charles. Neither +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">360</a></span> +comparison is much to the advantage of the modern; but +Pius might be pardoned for catching at any help in his +distress, and Napoleon found that the protectorship of the +church strengthened his position in France, and gave him +dignity in the eyes of Christendom<a name="FNanchor_406" id="FNanchor_406" href="#Footnote_406" class="fnanchor">[406]</a>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">The French +Empire.</p> + +<p>A swift succession of triumphs had left only one thing +still preventing the full recognition of the Corsican warrior +as sovereign of Western Europe, and that one was the +existence of the old Romano-Germanic Empire. Napoleon +had not long assumed his new title when he began to +mark a distinction between <span lang="fr">'la France'</span> and <span lang="fr">'l'Empire +Française.'</span> France had, since <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1792, advanced to +the Rhine, and, by the annexation of Piedmont, had overstepped +the Alps; the French Empire included, besides +the kingdom of Italy, a mass of dependent states, Naples, +Holland, Switzerland, and many German principalities, +the allies of France in the same sense in which the <span lang="la">'socii +populi Romani'</span> were allies of Rome<a name="FNanchor_407" id="FNanchor_407" href="#Footnote_407" class="fnanchor">[407]</a>. When the last of +Pitt's coalitions had been destroyed at Austerlitz, and +Austria had made her submission by the peace of Presburg, +the conqueror felt that his hour was come. He had +now overcome two Emperors, those of Austria and +Russia, claiming to represent the old and the new Rome +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">361</a></span> +respectively, and had in eighteen months created more +kings than the occupants of the Germanic throne in as +many centuries. It was time, he thought, to sweep away +obsolete pretensions, and claim the sole inheritance of that +Western Empire, of which the titles and ceremonies of +his court presented a grotesque imitation<a name="FNanchor_408" id="FNanchor_408" href="#Footnote_408" class="fnanchor">[408]</a>. The task was +an easy one after what had been already accomplished. +Previous wars and treaties had so redistributed the territories +and changed the constitution of the Germanic Empire +<span class="sidenote">Napoleon in +Germany.</span> +that it could hardly be said to exist in anything but name. +In French history Napoleon appears as the restorer of +peace, the rebuilder of the shattered edifice of social order: +the author of a code and an administrative system which +the Bourbons who dethroned him were glad to preserve. +Abroad he was the true child of the Revolution, and conquered +only to destroy. It was his mission—a mission +more beneficent in its result than in its means<a name="FNanchor_409" id="FNanchor_409" href="#Footnote_409" class="fnanchor">[409]</a> +—to break +up in Germany and Italy the abominable system of petty +states, to reawaken the spirit of the people, to sweep +away the relics of an effete feudalism, and leave the ground +clear for the growth of newer and better forms of political +life. Since <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1797, when Austria at Campo Formio +perfidiously exchanged the Netherlands for Venetia, the +work of destruction had gone on apace. All the German +sovereigns west of the Rhine had been dispossessed, and +their territories incorporated with France, while the rest +of the country had been revolutionized by the arrangements +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">362</a></span> +of the peace of Luneville and the 'Indemnities,' +dictated by the French to the Diet in February 1803. +New kingdoms were erected, electorates created and +extinguished, the lesser princes mediatized, the free cities +occupied by troops and bestowed on some neighbouring +potentate. More than any other change, the secularization +of the dominions of the prince-bishops and abbots +proclaimed the fall of the old constitution, whose principles +had required the existence of a spiritual alongside +of the temporal aristocracy. The Emperor Francis, +partly foreboding the events that were at hand, partly +in order to meet Napoleon's assumption of the imperial +name by depriving that name of its peculiar meaning, +began in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1805 to style himself 'Hereditary Emperor +of Austria,' while retaining at the same time his former +title<a name="FNanchor_410" id="FNanchor_410" href="#Footnote_410" class="fnanchor">[410]</a>. The next act of the drama was one in which we +may more readily pardon the ambition of a foreign conqueror +than the traitorous selfishness of the German +princes, who broke every tie of ancient friendship and +duty to grovel at his throne. By the Act of the Confederation<a name="FNanchor_411" id="FNanchor_411" href="#Footnote_411" class="fnanchor">[411]</a> +<span class="sidenote">The Confederation +of +the Rhine.</span> +of the Rhine, signed at Paris, July 12th, 1806, +Bavaria, Würtemberg, Baden, and several other states, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">363</a></span> +sixteen in all, withdrew from the body and repudiated the +laws of the Empire, while on August 1st the French +envoy at Regensburg announced to the Diet that his +master, who had consented to become Protector of the +Confederate princes, no longer recognized the existence +of the Empire. Francis the Second resolved at once +<span class="sidenote">Abdication +of the +Emperor +Francis II.</span> +to anticipate this new Odoacer, and by a declaration, +dated August 6th, 1806, resigned the imperial dignity. +His deed states that finding it impossible, in the altered +state of things, to fulfil the obligations imposed by his +capitulation, he considers as dissolved the bonds which +attached him to the Germanic body, releases from their +allegiance the states who formed it, and retires to the +government of his hereditary dominions under the title of +'Emperor of Austria<a name="FNanchor_412" id="FNanchor_412" href="#Footnote_412" class="fnanchor">[412]</a>.' Throughout, the term 'German +Empire' (<span lang="de"><i>Deutsches Reich</i></span>) is employed. But it was the +crown of Augustus, of Constantine, of Charles, of Maximilian, +that Francis of Hapsburg laid down, and a new +era in the world's history was marked by the fall of its +most venerable institution. One thousand and six years +<span class="sidenote">End of the +Empire.</span> +after Leo the Pope had crowned the Frankish king, +eighteen hundred and fifty-eight years after Cæsar had +conquered at Pharsalia, the Holy Roman Empire came +to its end.</p> + +<p>There was a time when this event would have been +thought a sign that the last days of the world were at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">364</a></span> +hand. But in the whirl of change that had bewildered +men since <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1789, it passed almost unnoticed. No +one could yet fancy how things would end, or what sort +of a new order would at last shape itself out of chaos. +When Napoleon's universal monarchy had dissolved, and +old landmarks shewed themselves again above the receding +waters, it was commonly supposed that the Empire +would be re-established on its former footing<a name="FNanchor_413" id="FNanchor_413" href="#Footnote_413" class="fnanchor">[413]</a>. Such +was indeed the wish of many states, and among them of +Hanover, representing Great Britain<a name="FNanchor_414" id="FNanchor_414" href="#Footnote_414" class="fnanchor">[414]</a>. Though a simple +revival of the old Romano-Germanic Empire was plainly +out of the question, it still appeared to them that Germany +would be best off under the presidency of a single head, +entrusted with the ancient office of maintaining peace +among the members of the confederation. But the new +kingdoms, Bavaria especially, were unwilling to admit a +superior; Prussia, elated at the glory she had won in +the war of independence, would have disputed the crown +with Austria; Austria herself cared little to resume an +office shorn of much of its dignity, with duties to perform +and no resources to enable her to discharge them. Use +was therefore made of an expression in the Peace of +Paris which spoke of uniting Germany by a federative +bond<a name="FNanchor_415" id="FNanchor_415" href="#Footnote_415" class="fnanchor">[415]</a>, +<span class="sidenote">Congress of +Vienna.</span> +and the Congress of Vienna was decided by the +wishes of Austria to establish a Confederation. Thus +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">365</a></span> +was brought about the present German federal constitution, +which is itself confessed, by the attempts so often +made to reform it, to be a mere temporary expedient, +oppressive in the hands of the strong, and useless for +the protection of the weak. Of late years, one school +of liberal politicians, justly indignant at their betrayal by +the princes after the enthusiastic uprising of <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1814, +has aspired to the restoration of the Empire, either as an +hereditary kingdom in the Prussian or some other family, +or in a more republican fashion under a head elected by +the people<a name="FNanchor_416" id="FNanchor_416" href="#Footnote_416" class="fnanchor">[416]</a>. The obstacles in the way of such plans +are evidently very great; but even were the horizon more +clear than it is, this would not be the place from which +to scan it<a name="FNanchor_417" id="FNanchor_417" href="#Footnote_417" class="fnanchor">[417]</a>. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">366</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXI.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08">CONCLUSION.</span></h2> + +<p class="sidenote">General +summary.</p> + +<p>After the attempts already made to examine separately +each of the phases of the Empire, little need be said, +in conclusion, upon its nature and results in general. +A general character can hardly help being either vague +or false. For the aspects which the Empire took are +as many and as various as the ages and conditions of +society during which it continued to exist. Among the +exhausted peoples around the Mediterranean, whose national +feeling had died out, whose faith was extinct or +turned to superstition, whose thought and art was a faint +imitation of the Greek, there arises a huge despotism, +first of a city, then of an administrative system, which +presses with equal weight on all its subjects, and becomes +to them a religion as well as a government. Just when +the mass is at length dissolving, the tribes of the North +come down, too rude to maintain the institutions they +found subsisting, too few to introduce their own, and a +weltering confusion follows, till the strong hand of the +first Frankish Emperor raises the fallen image and bids +the nations bow down to it once more. Under him it +is for some brief space a theocracy; under his German +successors the first of feudal kingdoms, the centre of +European chivalry. As feudalism wanes, it is again transformed, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">367</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Perpetuation +of the +name of +Rome.</span> +and after promising for a time to become an +hereditary Hapsburg monarchy, sinks at last into the +presidency, not more dignified than powerless, of an international +league. To us moderns, a perpetuation under +conditions so diverse of the same name and the same +pretensions, appears at first sight absurd, a phantom too +vain to impress the most superstitious mind. Closer +examination will correct such a notion. No power was +ever based on foundations so sure and deep as those +which Rome laid during three centuries of conquest and +four of undisturbed dominion. If her empire had been +an hereditary or local kingdom, it might have fallen with +the extinction of the royal line, the conquest of the tribe, +the destruction of the city to which it was attached. +But it was not so limited. It was imperishable because +it was universal; and when its power had ceased, it was +remembered with awe and love by the races whose separate +existence it had destroyed, because it had spared the +weak while it smote down the strong; because it had +granted equal rights to all, and closed against none of +its subjects the path of honourable ambition. When the +military power of the conquering city had departed, her +sway over the world of thought began: by her the theories +of the Greeks had been reduced to practice; by her the +new religion had been embraced and organized; her +language, her theology, her laws, her architecture made +their way where the eagles of war had never flown, and +with the spread of civilization have found new homes +on the Ganges and the Mississippi.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Parallel +instances.</p> + +<p>Nor is such a claim of government prolonged under +changed conditions by any means a singular phenomenon. +Titles sum up the political history of nations, and are as +often causes as effects: if not insignificant now, how +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">368</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Claims to +represent +the Roman +Empire.</span> +<span class="sidenote">Austria.</span> +much less so in ages of ignorance and unreason. It +would be an instructive, if it were not a tedious task, to +examine the many pretensions that are still put forward +to represent the Empire of Rome, all of them baseless, +none of them effectless. Austria clings to a name which +seems to give her a sort of precedence in Europe, and +was wont, while she held Lombardy, to justify her position +there by invoking the feudal rights of the Hohenstaufen. +With no more legal right than the prince of Reuss or the +landgrave of Homburg might pretend to, she has assumed +the arms and devices of the old Empire, and being almost +the youngest of European monarchies, is respected as the +<span class="sidenote">France.</span> +oldest and most conservative. Bonapartean France, as +the self-appointed heir of the Carolingians, grasped for a +time the sceptre of the West, and still aspires to hold the +balance of European politics, and be recognized as the +leader and patron of the so-called Latin races on both +sides of the Atlantic<a name="FNanchor_418" id="FNanchor_418" href="#Footnote_418" class="fnanchor">[418]</a>. Professing the creed of Byzantium, +<span class="sidenote">Russia.</span> +Russia claims the crown of the Byzantine Cæsars, +and trusts that the capital which prophecy has promised +for a thousand years will not be long withheld. The +doctrine of Panslavism, under an imperial head of the +whole Eastern church, has become a formidable engine +of aggression in the hands of a crafty and warlike despotism. +Another testimony to the enduring influence of +old political combinations is supplied by the eagerness +with which modern Hellas has embraced the notion of +<span class="sidenote">Greece.</span> +gathering all the Greek races into a revived Empire of +the East, with its capital on the Bosphorus. Nay, the +intruding Ottoman himself, different in faith as well as in +blood, has more than once declared himself the representative +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">369</a></span> +of the Eastern Cæsars, whose dominion he +<span class="sidenote">The Turks.</span> +extinguished. Solyman the Magnificent assumed the +name of Emperor, and refused it to Charles the Fifth: +his successors were long preceded through the streets of +Constantinople by twelve officers, bearing straws aloft, a +faint semblance of the consular fasces that had escorted +a Quinctius or a Fabius through the Roman forum. Yet +in no one of these cases has there been that apparent +legality of title which the shouts of the people and the +benediction of the pontiff conveyed to Charles and Otto<a name="FNanchor_419" id="FNanchor_419" href="#Footnote_419" class="fnanchor">[419]</a>.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Parallel of +the Papacy.</p> + +<p>These examples, however, are minor parallels: the +complement and illustration of the history of the Empire +is to be found in that of the Holy See. The Papacy, +whose spiritual power was itself the offspring of Rome's +temporal dominion, evoked the phantom of her parent, +used it, obeyed it, rebelled and overthrew it, in its old age +once more embraced it, till in its downfall she has heard +the knell of her own approaching doom<a name="FNanchor_420" id="FNanchor_420" href="#Footnote_420" class="fnanchor">[420]</a>.</p> + +<p>Both Papacy and Empire rose in an age when the +human spirit was utterly prostrated before authority and +tradition, when the exercise of private judgment was +impossible to most and sinful to all. Those who believed +the miracles recorded in the <i lang="la">Acta Sanctorum</i>, and did not +question the Isidorian decretals, might well recognize as +ordained of God the twofold authority of Rome, founded, +as it seemed to be, on so many texts of Scripture, and +confirmed by five centuries of undisputed possession.</p> + +<p>Both sanctioned and satisfied the passion of the Middle +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">370</a></span> +Ages for unity. Ferocity, violence, disorder, were the conspicuous +evils of that time: hence all the aspirations of +the good were for something which, breaking the force +of passion and increasing the force of sympathy, should +teach the stubborn wills to sacrifice themselves in the +view of a common purpose. To those men, moreover, +unable to rise above the sensuous, not seeing the true +connexion or the true difference of the spiritual and the +secular, the idea of the Visible Church was full of awful +meaning. Solitary thought was helpless, and strove to +lose itself in the aggregate, since it could not create for +itself that which was universal. The schism that severed +a man from the congregation of the faithful on earth was +hardly less dreadful than the heresy which excluded him +from the company of the blessed in heaven. He who +kept not his appointed place in the ranks of the church +militant had no right to swell the rejoicing anthems of the +church triumphant. Here, as in so many other cases, +the continued use of traditional language seems to have +prevented us from seeing how great is the difference +between our own times and those in which the phrases +we repeat were first used, and used in full sincerity. +Whether the world is better or worse for the change +which has passed upon its feelings in these matters is +another question: all that it is necessary to note here +is that the change is a profound and pervading one. +Obedience, almost the first of mediæval virtues, is now +often spoken of as if it were fit only for slaves or fools. +Instead of praising, men are wont to condemn the submission +of the individual will, the surrender of the +individual belief, to the will or the belief of the community. +Some persons declare variety of opinion to be +a positive good. The great mass have certainly no +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">371</a></span> +longing for an abstract unity of faith. They have no +horror of schism. They do not, cannot, understand the +intense fascination which the idea of one all-pervading +church exercised upon their mediæval forefathers. A life +in the church, for the church, through the church; a life +which she blessed in mass at morning and sent to peaceful +rest by the vesper hymn; a life which she supported +by the constantly recurring stimulus of the sacraments, +relieving it by confession, purifying it by penance, admonishing +it by the presentation of visible objects for contemplation +and worship,—this was the life which they of +the Middle Ages conceived of as the rightful life for man; +it was the actual life of many, the ideal of all. The unseen +world was so unceasingly pointed to, and its dependence +on the seen so intensely felt, that the barrier +between the two seemed to disappear. The church was +not merely the portal to heaven; it was heaven anticipated; +it was already self-gathered and complete. In +one sentence from a famous mediæval document may be +found a key to much which seems strangest to us in the +feelings of the Middle Ages: 'The church is dearer to +God than heaven. For the church does not exist for the +sake of heaven, but conversely, heaven for the sake of the +church<a name="FNanchor_421" id="FNanchor_421" href="#Footnote_421" class="fnanchor">[421]</a>.'</p> + +<p>Again, both Empire and Papacy rested on opinion +rather than on physical force, and when the struggle of +the eleventh century came, the Empire fell, because its +rival's hold over the souls of men was firmer, more direct, +enforced by penalties more terrible than the death of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">372</a></span> +body. The ecclesiastical body under Alexander and Innocent +was animated by a loftier spirit and more wholly +devoted to a single aim than the knights and nobles who +followed the banner of the Swabian Cæsars. Its allegiance +was undivided; it comprehended the principles for which +it fought: they trembled at even while they resisted the +spiritual power.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Papacy +and Empire +compared +as +perpetuations +of a +name.</p> + +<p>Both sprang from what might be called the accident of +name. The power of the great Latin patriarchate was a +Form: the ghost, it has been said, of the older Empire, +favoured in its growth by circumstances, but really vital +because capable of wonderful adaptation to the character +and wants of the time. So too, though far less perfectly, +was the Empire. Its Form was the tradition of the universal +rule of Rome; it met the needs of successive +centuries by civilizing barbarous peoples, by maintaining +unity in confusion and disorganization, by controlling +brute violence through the sanctions of a higher power, +by being made the keystone of a gigantic feudal arch, by +assuming in its old age the presidency of a European +confederation. And the history of both, as it shews the +power of ancient names and forms, shews also within +what limits such a perpetuation is possible, and how it +sometimes deceives men, by preserving the shadow while +it loses the substance. This perpetuation itself, what is +it but the expression of the belief of mankind, a belief +incessantly corrected yet never weakened, that their old +institutions do and may continue to subsist unchanged, +that what has served their fathers will do well enough for +them, that it is possible to make a system perfect and +abide in it for ever? Of all political instincts this is +perhaps the strongest; often useful, often grossly abused, +but never so natural and so fitting as when it leads men +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">373</a></span> +who feel themselves inferior to their predecessors, to save +what they can from the wreck of a civilization higher than +their own. It was thus that both Papacy and Empire +were maintained by the generations who had no type of +greatness and wisdom save that which they associated +with the name of Rome. And therefore it is that no +examples shew so convincingly how hopeless are all such +attempts to preserve in life a system which arose out +of ideas and under conditions that have passed away. +Though it never could have existed save as a prolongation, +though it was and remained through the Middle +Ages an anachronism, the Empire of the tenth century +had little in common with the Empire of the second. +Much more was the Papacy, though it too hankered after +the forms and titles of antiquity, in reality a new creation. +And in the same proportion as it was new, and represented +the spirit not of a past age but of its own, was it +a power stronger and more enduring than the Empire. +More enduring, because younger, and so in fuller harmony +with the feelings of its contemporaries: stronger, +because at the head of the great ecclesiastical body, in +and through which, rather than through secular life, all +the intelligence and political activity of the Middle Ages +sought its expression. The famous simile of Gregory the +Seventh is that which best describes the Empire and the +Popedom. They were indeed the 'two lights in the +firmament of the militant church,' the lights which illumined +and ruled the world all through the Middle Ages. +And as moonlight is to sunlight, so was the Empire to +the Papacy. The rays of the one were borrowed, feeble, +often interrupted: the other shone with an unquenchable +brilliance that was all her own.</p> + +<p>The Empire, it has just been said, was never truly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">374</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">In what +sense was +the Empire +Roman?</span> +mediæval. Was it then Roman in anything but name? +and was that name anything better than a piece of fantastic +antiquarianism? It is easy to draw a comparison +between the Antonines and the Ottos which should shew +nothing but unlikeness. What the Empire was in the +second century every one knows. In the tenth it was +a feudal monarchy, resting on a strong territorial oligarchy. +Its chiefs were barbarians, the sons of those +who had destroyed Varus and baffled Germanicus, sometimes +unable even to use the tongue of Rome. Its powers +were limited. It could scarcely be said to have a regular +organization at all, whether judicial or administrative. It +was consecrated to the defence, nay, it existed by virtue +of the religion which Trajan and Marcus had persecuted. +Nevertheless, when the contrast has been stated in the +strongest terms, there will remain points of resemblance. +The thoroughly Roman idea of universal denationalization +survived, and drew with it that of a certain equality among +all free subjects. It has been remarked already, that the +world's highest dignity was for many centuries the only +civil office to which any free-born Christian was legally +eligible. And there was also, during the earlier ages, +that indomitable vigour which might have made Trajan +or Severus seek their true successors among the woods +of Germany rather than in the palaces of Byzantium, +where every office and name and custom had floated +down from the court of Constantine in a stream of unbroken +legitimacy. The ceremonies of Henry the Seventh's +coronation would have been strange indeed to Caius +Julius Cæsar Octavianus Augustus; but how much nobler, +how much more Roman in force and truth than the +childish and unmeaning forms with which a Palæologus +was installed! It was not in purple buskins that the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">375</a></span> +dignity of the Luxemburger lay<a name="FNanchor_422" id="FNanchor_422" href="#Footnote_422" class="fnanchor">[422]</a>. To such a boast the +Germanic Empire had long ere its death lost right: it had +lived on, when honour and nature bade it die: it had +become what the Empire of the Moguls was, and that of +the Ottomans is now, a curious relic of antiquity, over +which the imaginative might muse, but which the mass of +men would push aside with impatient contempt. But +institutions, like men, should be judged by their prime.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">'Imperialism:' +Roman, +French, and +mediæval.</p> + +<p>The comparison of the old Roman Empire with its +Germanic representative raises a question which has been +a good deal canvassed of late years. That wonderful +system which Julius Cæsar and his subtle nephew erected +upon the ruins of the republican constitution of Rome +has been made the type of a certain form of government +and of a certain set of social as well as political arrangements, +to which, or rather to the theory whereof they are +a part, there has been given the name of Imperialism. +The sacrifice of the individual to the mass, the concentration +of all legislative and judicial powers in the person of +the sovereign, the centralization of the administrative +system, the maintenance of order by a large military force, +the substitution of the influence of public opinion for the +control of representative assemblies, are commonly taken, +whether rightly or wrongly, to characterize that theory. +Its enemies cannot deny that it has before now given +and may again give to nations a sudden and violent +access of aggressive energy; that it has often achieved the +glory (whatever that may be) of war and conquest; that +it has a better title to respect in the ease with which it +may be made, as it was by the Flavian and Antonine +Cæsars of old, and at the beginning of this century by +Napoleon in France, the instrument of comprehensive +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">376</a></span> +reforms in law and government. The parallel between +the Roman world under the Cæsars and the French +people now is indeed less perfect than those who dilate +upon it fancy. That equalizing despotism which was +a good to a medley of tribes, the force of whose national +life had spent itself and left them languid, yet restless, +with all the evils of isolation and none of its advantages, +is not necessarily a good to a country already the strongest +and most united in Europe, a country where the administration +is only too perfect, and the pressure of social +uniformity only too strong. But whether it be a good or +an evil, no one can doubt that France represents, and +has always represented, the imperialist spirit of Rome far +more truly than those whom the Middle Ages recognized +as the legitimate heirs of her name and dominion. In +the political character of the French people, whether it be +the result of the five centuries of Roman rule in Gaul, or +rather due to the original instincts of the Gallic race, is to +be found their claim, a claim better founded than any +which Napoleon put forward, to be the Romans<a name="FNanchor_423" id="FNanchor_423" href="#Footnote_423" class="fnanchor">[423]</a> +of the +<span class="sidenote">Political + character + of the Teutonic + and + Gallic + races.</span> +modern world. The tendency of the Teuton was and is +to the independence of the individual life, to the mutual +repulsion, if the phrase may be permitted, of the social +atoms, as contrasted with Keltic and so-called Romanic +peoples, among which the unit is more completely absorbed +in the mass, who live possessed by a common idea +which they are driven to realize in the concrete. Teutonic +states have been little more successful than their neighbours +in the establishment of free constitutions. Their +assemblies meet, and vote, and are dissolved, and nothing +comes of it: their citizens endure without greatly resenting +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">377</a></span> +outrages that would raise the more excitable French +or Italians in revolt. But, whatever may have been the +form of government, the body of the people have in +Germany always enjoyed a freedom of thought which has +made them comparatively careless of politics; and the +absolutism of the Elbe is at this day no more like that of +the Seine than a revolution at Dresden is to a revolution +at Paris. The rule of the Hohenstaufen had nothing +either of the good or the evil of the imperialism which +Tacitus painted, or of that which the panegyrists of the +present system in France paint in colours somewhat different +from his.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Essential +principles +of the +mediæval +Empire.</p> + +<p>There was, nevertheless, such a thing as mediæval +imperialism, a theory of the nature of the state and the +best form of government, which has been described once +already, and need not be described again. It is enough +to say, that from three leading principles all its properties +may be derived. The first and the least essential was the +existence of the state as a monarchy. The second was +the exact coincidence of the state's limits, and the perfect +harmony of its workings with the limits and the workings +of the church. The third was its universality. These +three were vital. Forms of political organization, the +presence or absence of constitutional checks, the degree +of liberty enjoyed by the subject, the rights conceded to +local authorities, all these were matters of secondary +importance. But although there brooded over all the +shadow of a despotism, it was a despotism not of the +sword but of law; a despotism not chilling and blighting, +but one which, in Germany at least, looked with favour +on municipal freedom, and everywhere did its best for +learning, for religion, for intelligence; a despotism not +hereditary, but one which constantly maintained in theory +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">378</a></span> +the principle that he should rule who was found the +fittest. To praise or to decry the Empire as a despotic +power is to misunderstand it altogether. We need not, +because an unbounded prerogative was useful in ages of +turbulence, advocate it now; nor need we, with Sismondi, +blame the Frankish conqueror because he granted no +'constitutional charter' to all the nations that obeyed +him. Like the Papacy, the Empire expressed the political +ideas of a time, and not of all time: like the Papacy, +it decayed when those ideas changed; when men became +more capable of rational liberty; when thought grew +stronger, and the spiritual nature shook itself more free +from the bonds of sense.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Influence +of the Holy +Empire on +Germany.</p> + +<p>The influence of the Empire upon Germany is a subject +too wide to be more than glanced at here. There is +much to make it appear altogether unfortunate. For +many generations the flower of Teutonic chivalry crossed +the Alps to perish by the sword of the Lombards, or the +deadlier fevers of Rome. Italy terribly avenged the +wrongs she suffered. Those who destroyed the national +existence of another people forfeited their own: the German +kingdom, crushed beneath the weight of the Roman +Empire, could never recover strength enough to form a +compact and united monarchy, such as arose elsewhere in +Europe: the race whom their neighbours had feared and +obeyed till the fourteenth century saw themselves, down +even to our own day, the prey of intestine feuds and their +country the battlefield of Europe. Spoiled and insulted +by a neighbour restlessly aggressive and superior in all +the arts of success, they came to regard France as the +persecuted Slave regards them. The want of national +union and political liberty from which Germany has suffered, +and to some extent suffers still, cannot be attributed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">379</a></span> +to the differences of her races; for, conspicuous as that +difference was in the days of Otto the Great, it was no +greater than in France, where intruding Franks, Goths, +Burgundians, and Northmen were mingled with primitive +Kelts and Basques; not so great as in Spain, or Italy, or +Britain. Rather is it due to the decline of the central +government, which was induced by its strife with the +Popedom, its endless Italian wars, and the passion for +universal dominion which made it the assailant of all the +neighbouring countries. The absence or the weakness +of the monarch enabled his feudal vassals to establish +petty despotisms, debarring the nation from united political +action, and greatly retarding the emancipation of +the commons. Thus, while the princes became shamelessly +selfish, justifying their resistance to the throne +as the defence of their own liberty—liberty to oppress +the subject—and ready on the least occasion to throw +themselves into the arms of France, the body of the +people were deprived of all political training, and have +found the lack of such experience impede their efforts +to this day.</p> + +<p>For these misfortunes, however, there has not been +wanting some compensation. The inheritance of the +Roman Empire made the Germans the ruling race of +Europe, and the brilliance of that glorious dawn can +never fade entirely from their name. A peaceful people +now, peaceful in sentiment even now when they have +become a great military power, submissive to paternal +government, and given to the quiet enjoyments of art, +music, and meditation, they delight themselves with +memories of the time when their conquering chivalry +was the terror of the Gaul and the Slave, the Lombard +and the Saracen. The national life received a keen +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">380</a></span> +stimulus from the sense of exaltation which victory brought, +and from the intercourse with countries where the old +civilization had not wholly perished. It was this connexion +with Italy that raised the German lands out of +barbarism, and did for them the work which Roman conquest +had performed in Gaul, Spain, and Britain. From +the Empire flowed all the richness of their mediæval life +and literature: it first awoke in them a consciousness of +national existence; its history has inspired and served as +material to their poetry; to many ardent politicians the +splendours of the past have become the beacon of the +future<a name="FNanchor_424" id="FNanchor_424" href="#Footnote_424" class="fnanchor">[424]</a>. There is a bright side even to their political +disunion. When they complain that they are not a nation, +and sigh for the harmony of feeling and singleness +of aim which their great rival displays, the example of the +Greeks may comfort them. To the variety which so +many small governments have produced may be partly +attributed the breadth of development in German thought +and literature, by virtue of which it transcends the French +hardly less than the Greek surpassed the Roman. Paris +no doubt is great, but a country may lose as well as gain +by the predominance of a single city; and Germany need +not mourn that she alone among modern states has not +and never has had a capital.</p> + +<p>The merits of the old Empire were not long since the +subject of a brisk controversy among several German +professors of history<a name="FNanchor_425" id="FNanchor_425" href="#Footnote_425" class="fnanchor">[425]</a>. The spokesmen of the Austrian +or Roman Catholic party, a party which ten years ago +was not less powerful in some of the minor South German +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">381</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Austria +as heir of +the Holy +Empire.</span> +States than in Vienna, claimed for the Hapsburg +monarchy the honour of being the legitimate representative +of the mediæval Empire, and declared that only by again +accepting Hapsburg leadership could Germany win back +the glory and the strength that once were hers. The +North German liberals ironically applauded the comparison. +'Yes,' they replied, 'your Austrian Empire, as +it calls itself, is the true daughter of the old despotism: +not less tyrannical, not less aggressive, not less retrograde; +like its progenitor, the friend of priests, the enemy of free +thought, the trampler upon the national feeling of the +peoples that obey it. It is you whose selfish and anti-national +policy blasts the hope of German unity now, as +Otto and Frederick blasted it long ago by their schemes +of foreign conquest. The dream of Empire has been our +bane from first to last.' It is possible, one may hope, to +escape the alternative of admiring the Austrian Empire or +denouncing the Holy Roman. Austria has indeed, in +some things, but too faithfully reproduced the policy of +the Saxon and Swabian Cæsars. Like her, they oppressed +and insulted the Italian people: but it was in the defence +of rights which the Italians themselves admitted. Like +her, they lusted after a dominion over the races on their +borders, but that dominion was to them a means of +spreading civilization and religion in savage countries, +not of pampering upon their revenues a hated court and +aristocracy. Like her, they strove to maintain a strong +government at home, but they did it when a strong +government was the first of political blessings. Like her, +they gathered and maintained vast armies; but those +armies were composed of knights and barons who lived +for war alone, not of peasants torn away from useful +labour and condemned to the cruel task of perpetuating +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">382</a></span> +their own bondage by crushing the aspirations of another +nationality. They sinned grievously, no doubt, but they +sinned in the dim twilight of a half-barbarous age, not +in the noonday blaze of modern civilization. The enthusiasm +for mediæval faith and simplicity which was so +fervid some years ago has run its course, and is not likely +soon to revive. He who reads the history of the Middle +Ages will not deny that its heroes, even the best of them, +were in some respects little better than savages. But +when he approaches more recent times, and sees how, +during the last three hundred years, kings have dealt with +their subjects and with each other, he will forget the +ferocity of the Middle Ages, in horror at the heartlessness, +the treachery, the injustice all the more odious because it +sometimes wears the mask of legality, which disgraces the +annals of the military monarchies of Europe. With regard, +however, to the pretensions of modern Austria, the +truth is that this dispute about the worth of the old system +has no bearing upon them at all. The day of imperial +greatness was already past when Rudolf the first Hapsburg +reached the throne; while during what may be +called the Austrian period, from Maximilian to Francis II, +the Holy Empire was to Germany a mere clog and incumbrance, +which the unhappy nation bore because she +knew not how to rid herself of it. The Germans are +welcome to appeal to the old Empire to prove that they +were once a united people. Nor is there any harm in +their comparing the politics of the twelfth century with +those of the nineteenth, although to argue from the one +to the other seems to betray a want of historical judgment. +But the one thing which is wholly absurd is to make +Francis Joseph of Austria the successor of Frederick of +Hohenstaufen, and justify the most sordid and ungenial +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">383</a></span> +of modern despotisms by the example of the mirror of +mediæval chivalry, the noblest creation of mediæval +thought.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Bearing +of the +Empire +upon the +progress of +European +civilization.</p> + +<p>We are not yet far enough from the Empire to comprehend +or state rightly its bearing on European progress. +The mountain lies behind us, but miles must be traversed +before we can take in at a glance its peaks and slopes and +buttresses, picture its form, and conjecture its height. +Of the perpetuation among the peoples of the West of +the arts and literature of Rome it was both an effect and +a cause, a cause only less powerful than the church. It +would be endless to shew in how many ways it affected +the political institutions of the Middle Ages, and through +them of the whole civilized world. Most of the attributes +of modern royalty, to take the most obvious instance, +belonged originally and properly to the Emperor, and +were borrowed from him by other monarchs. The once +famous doctrine of divine right had the same origin. To +the existence of the Empire is chiefly to be ascribed the +prevalence of Roman law through Europe, and its practical +importance in our own days. For while in Southern +<span class="sidenote">Influence +upon +modern +jurisprudence.</span> +France and Central Italy, where the subject population +greatly outnumbered their conquerors, the old system +would have in any case survived, it cannot be doubted +that in Germany, as in England, a body of customary +Teutonic law would have grown up, had it not been for +the notion that since the German monarch was the legitimate +successor of Justinian, the <span lang="la">Corpus Juris</span> must be +binding on all his subjects. This strange idea was received +with a faith so unhesitating that even the aristocracy, +who naturally disliked a system which the Emperors +and the cities favoured, could not but admit its validity, +and before the end of the Middle Ages Roman law prevailed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">384</a></span> +through all Germany<a name="FNanchor_426" id="FNanchor_426" href="#Footnote_426" class="fnanchor">[426]</a>. When it is considered how +great are the services which German writers have rendered +and continue to render to the study of scientific jurisprudence, +this result will appear far from insignificant. +But another of still wider import followed. When by the +Peace of Westphalia a crowd of petty principalities were +recognized as practically independent states, the need of +a code to regulate their intercourse became pressing. +That code Grotius and his successors formed out of +what was then the private law of Germany, which thus +became the foundation whereon the system of international +jurisprudence has been built up during the last +two centuries. That system is, indeed, entirely a German +creation, and could have arisen in no country where the +law of Rome had not been the fountain of legal ideas and +the groundwork of positive codes. In Germany, too, was +it first carried out in practice, and that with a success +which is the best, some might say the only, title of the +later Empire to the grateful remembrance of mankind. +Under its protecting shade small princedoms and free +cities lived unmolested beside states like Saxony and +Bavaria; each member of the Germanic body feeling +that the rights of the weakest of his brethren were also +his own.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Influence of +the Empire +upon the +history of +the Church.</p> + +<p>The most important chapter in the history of the +Empire is that which describes its relation to the Church +and the Papacy. Of the ecclesiastical power it was +alternately the champion and the enemy. In the ninth +and tenth centuries the Emperors extended the dominion +of Peter's chair: in the tenth and eleventh they rescued it +from an abyss of guilt and shame to be the instrument of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">385</a></span> +their own downfall. The struggle which Gregory the +Seventh began, although it was political rather than +religious, awoke in the Teutonic nations a hostility to +the pretensions of the Romish court. That struggle +ended, with the death of the last Hohenstaufen, in the +victory of the priesthood, a victory whose abuse by the +insolent and greedy pontiffs of the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries made it more ruinous than a defeat. The anger +which had long smouldered in the breasts of the northern +nations of Europe burst out in the sixteenth with a +violence which alarmed those whom it had hitherto defended, +and made the Emperors once more the allies of +the Popedom, and the partners of its declining fortunes. +But the nature of that alliance and of the hostility which +<span class="sidenote">Nature +of the +question +at issue +between the +Emperors +and the +Popes.</span> +had preceded it must not be misunderstood. It is a +natural, but not the less a serious error to suppose, as +modern writers often seem to do, that the pretensions of +the Empire and the Popedom were mutually exclusive; +that each claimed all the rights, spiritual and secular, +of a universal monarch. So far was this from being the +case, that we find mediæval writers and statesmen, even +Emperors and Popes themselves, expressly recognizing a +divinely appointed duality of government—two potentates, +each supreme in the sphere of his own activity, Peter in +things eternal, Cæsar in things temporal. The relative +position of the two does indeed in course of time undergo +a signal alteration. In the days of Charles, the barbarous +age of modern Europe, when men were and could not but +be governed chiefly by physical force, the Emperor was +practically, if not theoretically, the grander figure. Four +centuries later, in the era of Pope Innocent the Third, +when the power of ideas had grown stronger in the world, +and was able to resist or to bend to its service the arms +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">386</a></span> +and the wealth of men, we see the balance inclined the +other way. Spiritual authority is conceived of as being +of a nature so high and holy that it must inspire and +guide the civil administration. But it is not proposed to +supplant that administration nor to degrade its head: the +great struggle of the eleventh and two following centuries +does not aim at the annihilation of one or other power, +but turns solely upon the character of their connexion. +Hildebrand, the typical representative of the Popedom, +requires the obedience of the Emperor on the ground of +his own personal responsibility for the souls of their +common subjects: he demands, not that the functions of +temporal government shall be directly committed to himself, +but that they shall be exercised in conformity with +the will of God, whereof he is the exponent. The imperialist +party had no means of meeting this argument, +for they could not deny the spiritual supremacy of the +Pope, nor the transcendant importance of eternal salvation. +They could therefore only protest that the Emperor, being +also divinely appointed, was directly answerable to God, and +remind the Pope that his kingdom was not of this world. +There was in truth no way out of the difficulty, for it was +caused by the attempt to sever things that admit of no +severance, life in the soul and life in the world, life for +the future and life in the present. What it is most +pertinent to remark is that neither combatant pushed his +theory to extremities, since he felt that his adversary's +title rested on the same foundations as his own. The +strife was keenest at the time when the whole world +believed fervently in both powers; the alliance came +when faith had forsaken the one and grown cold towards +the other; from the Reformation onwards Empire and +Popedom fought no longer for supremacy, but for +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">387</a></span> +existence. One is fallen already, the other shakes with +every blast.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">Ennobling +influence +of the conception +of +the World +Empire.</p> + +<p>Nor was that which may be called the inner life of the +Empire less momentous in its influence upon the minds +of men than were its outward dealings with the Roman +church upon her greatness and decline. In the Middle +Ages, men conceived of the communion of the saints as +the formal unity of an organized body of worshippers, +and found the concrete realization of that conception in +their universal religious state, which was in one aspect, +the Church; in another, the Empire. Into the meaning +and worth of the conception, into the nature of the connexion +which subsists or ought to subsist between the +Church and the State, this is not the place to inquire. +That the form which it took in the Middle Ages was +always imperfect and became eventually rigid and unprogressive +was sufficiently proved by the event. But by +it the European peoples were saved from the isolation, +and narrowness, and jealous exclusiveness which had +checked the growth of the earlier civilizations of the +world, and which we see now lying like a weight upon +the kingdoms of the East: by it they were brought into +that mutual knowledge and co-operation which is the +condition if it be not the source of all true culture and +progress. For as by the Roman Empire of old the +nations were first forced to own a common sway, so by +the Empire of the Middle Ages was preserved the feeling +of a brotherhood of mankind, a commonwealth of the +whole world, whose sublime unity transcended every minor +distinction.</p> + +<p>As despotic monarchs claiming the world for their +realm, the Teutonic Emperors strove from the first against +three principles, over all of which their forerunners of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">388</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Principles +adverse to +the Empire.</span> +the elder Rome had triumphed,—those of Nationality, +Aristocracy, and Popular Freedom. Their early struggles +were against the first of these, and ended with its victory +in the emancipation, one after another, of England, France, +Poland, Hungary, Denmark, Burgundy, and Italy. The +second, in the form of feudalism, menaced even when seeming +to embrace and obey them, and succeeded, after the +Great Interregnum, in destroying their effective strength +in Germany. Aggression and inheritance turned the +numerous independent principalities thus formed out of +the greater fiefs, into a few military monarchies, resting +neither on a rude loyalty, like feudal kingdoms, nor on +religious duty and tradition, like the Empire, but on +physical force, more or less disguised by legal forms. +That the hostility to the Empire of the third was accidental +rather than necessary is seen by this, that the +very same monarchs who strove to crush the Lombard +and Tuscan cities favoured the growth of the free towns +of Germany. Asserting the rights of the individual in +the sphere of religion, the Reformation weakened the +Empire by denying the necessity of external unity in +matters spiritual: the extension of the same principle to +the secular world, whose fulness is still withheld from +the Germans, would have struck at the doctrine of imperial +absolutism had it not found a nearer and deadlier +foe in the actual tyranny of the princes. It is more +than a coincidence, that as the proclamation of the liberty +of thought had shaken it, so that of the liberty of action +made by the revolutionary movement, whose beginning +the world saw and understood not in 1789, whose end +we see not yet, should have indirectly become the cause +which overthrew the Empire.</p> + +<p>Its fall in the midst of the great convulsion that changed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">389</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Change +marked by +its fall.</span> +the face of Europe marks an era in history, an era whose +character the events of every year are further unfolding: +an era of the destruction of old forms and systems and +the building up of new. The last instance is the most +memorable. Under our eyes, the work which Theodoric +and Lewis the Second, Guido and Ardoin and the second +Frederick essayed in vain, has been achieved by the +steadfast will of the Italian people. The fairest province +of the Empire, for which Franconian and Swabian battled +so long, is now a single monarchy under the Burgundian +count, whom Sigismund created imperial vicar in Italy, +and who wants only the possession of the capital to be +able to call himself 'king of the Romans' more truly +than Greek or Frank or Austrian has done since Constantine +forsook the Tiber for the Bosphorus. No longer +the prey of the stranger, Italy may forget the past, and +sympathize, as she has now indeed, since the fortunate +alliance of 1866, begun to sympathize, with the efforts +after national unity of her ancient enemy—efforts confronted +by so many obstacles that a few years ago they +seemed all but hopeless. On the new shapes that may +emerge in this general reconstruction it would be idle +to speculate. Yet one prediction may be ventured. No +universal monarchy is likely to arise. More frequent intercourse, +and the progress of thought, have done much +to change the character of national distinctions, substituting +for ignorant prejudice and hatred a genial sympathy +and the sense of a common interest. They have +not lessened their force. No one who reads the history +of the last three hundred years, no one, above all, who +studies attentively the career of Napoleon, can believe +it possible for any state, however great her energy and +material resources, to repeat in modern Europe the part +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">390</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Relations of +the Empire +to the nationalities +of Europe.</span> +of ancient Rome: to gather into one vast political body +races whose national individuality has grown more and +more marked in each successive age. Nevertheless, it +is in great measure due to Rome and to the Roman +Empire of the Middle Ages that the bonds of national +union are on the whole both stronger and nobler than +they were ever before. The latest historian of Rome, +after summing up the results to the world of his hero's +career, closes his treatise with these words: 'There was +in the world as Cæsar found it the rich and noble heritage +of past centuries, and an endless abundance of splendour +and glory, but little soul, still less taste, and, least of all, +joy in and through life. Truly it was an old world, +and even Cæsar's genial patriotism could not make it +young again. The blush of dawn returns not until the +night has fully descended. Yet with him there came +to the much-tormented races of the Mediterranean a +tranquil evening after a sultry day; and when, after long +historical night, the new day broke once more upon the +peoples, and fresh nations in free self-guided movement +began their course towards new and higher aims, many +were found among them in whom the seed of Cæsar +had sprung up, many who owed him, and who owe him +still, their national individuality<a name="FNanchor_427" id="FNanchor_427" href="#Footnote_427" class="fnanchor">[427]</a>.' If this be the glory +of Julius, the first great founder of the Empire, so is it +also the glory of Charles, the second founder, and of +more than one amongst his Teutonic successors. The +work of the mediæval Empire was self-destructive; and +it fostered, while seeming to oppose, the nationalities that +were destined to replace it. It tamed the barbarous +races of the North, and forced them within the pale of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">391</a></span> +civilization. It preserved the arts and literature of antiquity. +In times of violence and oppression, it set before +its subjects the duty of rational obedience to an authority +whose watchwords were peace and religion. It kept alive, +when national hatreds were most bitter, the notion of a +great European Commonwealth. And by doing all this, +it was in effect abolishing the need for a centralizing +and despotic power like itself: it was making men capable +of using national independence aright: it was teaching +them to rise to that conception of spontaneous activity, +and a freedom which is above law but not against it, +to which national independence itself, if it is to be a +blessing at all, must be only a means. Those who mark +what has been the tendency of events since <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1789, +and who remember how many of the crimes and calamities +of the past are still but half redressed, need not +be surprised to see the so-called principle of nationalities +advocated with honest devotion as the final and perfect +form of political development. But such undistinguishing +advocacy is after all only the old error in a new shape. +If all other history did not bid us beware the habit of +taking the problems and the conditions of our own age +for those of all time, the warning which the Empire gives +might alone be warning enough. From the days of +Augustus down to those of Charles the Fifth the whole +civilized world believed in its existence as a part of the +eternal fitness of things, and Christian theologians were +not behind heathen poets in declaring that when it +perished the world would perish with it. Yet the Empire +is gone, and the world remains, and hardly notes the +change.</p> + +<p>This is but a small part of what might be said upon an +almost inexhaustible theme: inexhaustible not from its +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">392</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Difficulties +arising +from the +nature of +the subject.</span> +extent but from its profundity: not because there is so +much to say, but because, pursue we it never so far, more +will remain unexpressed, since incapable of expression. +For that which it is at once most necessary and least possible +to do, is to look at the Empire as a whole: a single +institution, in which centres the history of eighteen centuries—whose +outer form is the same, while its essence +and spirit are constantly changing. It is when we come +to consider it in this light that the difficulties of so vast a +subject are felt in all their force. Try to explain in words +the theory and inner meaning of the Holy Empire, as it +appeared to the saints and poets of the Middle Ages, and +that which we cannot but conceive as noble and fertile in +its life, sinks into a heap of barren and scarcely intelligible +formulas. Who has been able to describe the Papacy in +the power it once wielded over the hearts and imaginations +of men? Those persons, if such there still be, who +see in it nothing but a gigantic upas-tree of fraud and +superstition, planted and reared by the enemy of mankind, +are hardly further from entering into the mystery of its +being than the complacent political philosopher, who explains +in neat phrases the process of its growth, analyses +it as a clever piece of mechanism, enumerates and measures +the interests it appealed to, and gives, in conclusion, +a sort of tabular view of its results for good and for evil. +So, too, is the Holy Empire above all description or explanation; +not that it is impossible to discover the beliefs +which created and sustained it, but that the power of +those beliefs cannot be adequately apprehended by men +whose minds have been differently trained, and whose +imaginations are fired by different ideals. Something, +yet still how little, we should know of it if we knew what +were the thoughts of Julius Cæsar when he laid the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">393</a></span> +foundations on which Augustus built: of Charles, when +he reared anew the stately pile: of Barbarossa and his +grandson, when they strove to avert the surely coming +ruin. Something more succeeding generations will know, +who will judge the Middle Ages more fairly than we, still +living in the midst of a reaction against all that is mediæval, +can hope to do, and to whom it will be given to +see and understand new forms of political life, whose +nature we cannot so much as conjecture. Seeing more +than we do, they will also see some things less distinctly. +The Empire which to us still looms largely on the +horizon of the past, will to them sink lower and lower as +they journey onwards into the future. But its importance +in universal history it can never lose. For into it all the +life of the ancient world was gathered: out of it all the +life of the modern world arose.</p> + +<p class="center p2">THE END.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394"></a></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">395</a></span></p> + +<h2>APPENDIX.</h2> + +<h3>NOTE A.<a href="#noteA" id="noteA"></a><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap s08">On the Burgundies.</span></h3> + +<p>It would be hard to mention any geographical name +which, by its application at different times to different +districts, has caused, and continues to cause, more confusion +than this name Burgundy. There may, therefore, +be some use in a brief statement of the more important +of those applications. Without going into the minutiæ of +the subject, the following may be given as the ten senses +in which the name is most frequently to be met with:—</p> + +<p>I. The kingdom of the Burgundians (<i lang="la">regnum Burgundionum</i>), +founded <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 406, occupying the whole valley of +the Saone and lower Rhone, from Dijon to the Mediterranean, +and including also the western half of Switzerland. +It was destroyed by the sons of Clovis in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 534.</p> + +<p>II. The kingdom of Burgundy (<i lang="la">regnum Burgundiæ</i>), +mentioned occasionally under the Merovingian kings as a +separate principality, confined within boundaries apparently +somewhat narrower than those of the older kingdom +last named.</p> + +<p>III. The kingdom of Provence or Burgundy (<i lang="la">regnum +Provinciæ seu Burgundiæ</i>)—also, though less accurately, +called the kingdom of Cis-Jurane Burgundy—was founded +by Boso in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 877, and included Provence, Dauphiné, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">396</a></span> +the southern part of Savoy, and the country between the +Saone and the Jura.</p> + +<p>IV. The kingdom of Trans-Jurane Burgundy (<i lang="la">regnum +Iurense</i>, <i lang="la">Burgundia Transiurensis</i>), founded by Rudolf in +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 888, recognized in the same year by the Emperor +Arnulf, included the northern part of Savoy, and all +Switzerland between the Reuss and the Jura.</p> + +<p>V. The kingdom of Burgundy or Arles (<i lang="la">regnum Burgundiæ</i>, +<i lang="la">regnum Arelatense</i>), formed by the union, under +Conrad the Pacific, in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 937, of the kingdoms described +above as III and IV. On the death, in 1032, of the last +independent king, Rudolf III, it came partly by bequest, +partly by conquest, into the hands of the Emperor Conrad +II (the Salic), and thenceforward formed a part of the +Empire. In the thirteenth century, France began to absorb +it, bit by bit, and has now (since the annexation of +Savoy in 1861) acquired all except the Swiss portion +of it.</p> + +<p>VI. The Lesser Duchy (<i lang="la">Burgundia Minor</i>), (Klein +Burgund), corresponded very nearly with what is now +Switzerland west of the Reuss, including the Valais. It +was Trans-Jurane Burgundy (IV) <i>minus</i> the parts of +Savoy which had belonged to that kingdom. It disappears +from history after the extinction of the house of +Zahringen in the thirteenth century. Legally it was part +of the Empire till <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1648, though practically independent +long before that date.</p> + +<p>VII. The Free County or Palatinate of Burgundy +(Franche Comté), (Freigrafschaft), (called also Upper +Burgundy), to which the name of Cis-Jurane Burgundy +originally and properly belonged, lay between the Saone +and the Jura. It formed a part of III and V, and was +therefore a fief of the Empire. The French dukes of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">397</a></span> +Burgundy were invested with it in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1384, and in 1678 +it was annexed to the crown of France.</p> + +<p>VIII. The Landgraviate of Burgundy (Landgrafschaft) +was in Western Switzerland, on both sides of the Aar, between +Thun and Solothurn. It was a part of the Lesser +Duchy (VI), and, like it, is hardly mentioned after the +thirteenth century.</p> + +<p>IX. The Circle of Burgundy (Kreis Burgund), an administrative +division of the Empire, was established by +Charles V in 1548; and included the Free County of +Burgundy (VII) and the seventeen provinces of the +Netherlands, which Charles inherited from his grandmother +Mary, daughter of Charles the Bold.</p> + +<p>X. The Duchy of Burgundy (Lower Burgundy), (Bourgogne), +the most northerly part of the old kingdom of the +Burgundians, was always a fief of the crown of France, +and a province of France till the Revolution. It was of +this Burgundy that Philip the Good and Charles the Bold +were Dukes. They were also Counts of the Free +County (VII).</p> + +<p class="p2">The most copious and accurate information regarding +the obscure history of the Burgundian kingdoms (III, IV, +and V) is to be found in the contributions of Baron +Frederic de Gingins la Sarraz, a Vaudois historian, to the +<span lang="de"><i>Archiv für Schweizer Geschichte</i></span>. See also an admirable +article in the <i>National Review</i> for October 1860, entitled +'The Franks and the Gauls.' +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">398</a></span></p> + +<h3>NOTE B.<a href="#noteB" id="noteB"></a><br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08"><span class="smcap">On the Relations to the Empire of the Kingdom +of Denmark, and the Duchies of Schleswig and +Holstein.</span></span></h3> + +<p>The history of the relations of Denmark and the +Duchies to the Romano-Germanic Empire is a very small +part of the great Schleswig-Holstein controversy. But +having been unnecessarily mixed up with two questions +properly quite distinct,—the first, as to the relation of +Schleswig to Holstein, and of both jointly to the Danish +crown; the second, as to the diplomatic engagements +which the Danish kings have in recent times contracted +with the German powers,—it has borne its part in making +the whole question the most intricate and interminable +that has vexed Europe for two centuries and a half. +Setting aside irrelevant matter, the facts as to the Empire +are as follows:—</p> + +<p>I. The Danish kings began to own the supremacy of +the Frankish Emperors early in the ninth century. Having +recovered their independence in the confusion that followed +the fall of the Carolingian dynasty, they were again +subdued by Henry the Fowler and Otto the Great, and +continued tolerably submissive till the death of Frederick +II and the period of anarchy which followed. Since that +time Denmark has been always independent, although her +king was, until the treaty of <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1865, a member of the +German Confederation for Holstein.</p> + +<p>II. Schleswig was in Carolingian times Danish; the +Eyder being, as Eginhard tells us, the boundary between +Saxonia Transalbiana (Holstein), and the Terra Nortmannorum +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">399</a></span> +(wherein lay the town of Sliesthorp), inhabited +by the Scandinavian heathen. Otto the Great conquered +all Schleswig, and, it is said, Jutland also, and added the +southern part of Schleswig to the immediate territory of +the Empire, erecting it into a margraviate. So it remained +till the days of Conrad II, who made the Eyder again the +boundary, retaining of course his suzerainty over the +kingdom of Denmark as a whole. But by this time the +colonization of Schleswig by the Germans had begun; +and ever since the numbers of the Danish population +seem to have steadily declined, and the mass of the people +to have grown more and more disposed to sympathize +with their southern rather than their northern neighbours.</p> + +<p>III. Holstein always was an integral part of the Empire, +as it is at this day of the North German Bund. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">400</a></span></p> + +<h3>NOTE C.<a href="#noteC" id="noteC"></a><br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08"><span class="smcap">On certain Imperial Titles and Ceremonies.</span></span></h3> + +<p>This subject is a great deal too wide and too intricate +to be more than touched upon here. But a few brief +statements may have their use; for the practice of the +Germanic Emperors varied so greatly from time to time, +that the reader becomes hopelessly perplexed without +some clue. And if there were space to explain the +causes of each change of title, it would be seen that the +subject, dry as it may appear, is very far from being a +barren or a dull one.</p> + +<p>I. <span class="smcap">Titles of Emperors.</span></p> +<p> +Charles the Great styled himself <span lang="la">'Carolus serenissimus +Augustus, a Deo coronatus, magnus et pacificus imperator, +Romanum (<span lang="en"><i>or</i></span> Romanorum) gubernans imperium, qui et +per misericordiam Dei rex Francorum et Langobardorum.'</span></p> + +<p>Subsequent Carolingian Emperors were usually entitled +simply <span lang="la">'Imperator Augustus.'</span> Sometimes <span lang="la">'rex Francorum +et Langobardorum'</span> was added<a name="FNanchor_428" id="FNanchor_428" href="#Footnote_428" class="fnanchor">[428]</a>.</p> + +<p>Conrad I and Henry I (the Fowler) were only German +kings.</p> + +<p>A Saxon Emperor was, before his coronation at Rome, +<span lang="la">'rex,'</span> or <span lang="la">'rex Francorum Orientalium,'</span> or <span lang="la">'Francorum +atque Saxonum rex;'</span> after it, simply <span lang="la">'Imperator Augustus.'</span> +Otto III is usually said to have introduced the form +<span lang="la">'Romanorum Imperator Augustus,'</span> but some authorities +state that it occurs in documents of the time of Lewis I. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">401</a></span></p> + +<p>Henry II and his successors, not daring to take the +title of Emperor till crowned at Rome (in conformity with +the superstitious notion which had begun with Charles the +Bald), but anxious to claim the sovereignty of Rome, as +indissolubly attached to the German crown, began to call +themselves <span lang="la">'reges Romanorum.'</span> The title did not, however, +become common or regular till the time of Henry IV, +in whose proclamations it occurs constantly.</p> + +<p>From the eleventh century till the sixteenth, the invariable +practice was for the monarch to be called <span lang="la">'Romanorum +rex semper Augustus,'</span> till his coronation at Rome +by the Pope; after it, <span lang="la">'Romanorum Imperator semper +Augustus.'</span></p> + +<p>In <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1508, Maximilian I, being refused a passage to +Rome by the Venetians, obtained a bull from Pope Julius +II permitting him to call himself <span lang="la">'Imperator electus'</span> +(erwählter Kaiser). This title Ferdinand I (brother of +Charles V) and all succeeding Emperors took immediately +upon their German coronation, and it was till <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1806 +their strict legal designation<a name="FNanchor_429" id="FNanchor_429" href="#Footnote_429" class="fnanchor">[429]</a>, +and was always employed +by them in proclamations or other official documents. +The term 'elect' was however omitted, even in formal +documents when the sovereign was addressed or spoken +of in the third person; and in ordinary practice he was +simply 'Roman Emperor.'</p> + +<p>Maximilian added the title <span lang="la">'Germaniæ rex,'</span> which had +never been known before, although the phrase <span lang="la">'rex Germanorum'</span> +may be found employed once or twice in early +times. <span lang="la">'Rex Teutonicorum,'</span> <span lang="la">'regnum Teutonicum<a name="FNanchor_430" id="FNanchor_430" href="#Footnote_430" class="fnanchor">[430]</a> +,'</span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">402</a></span> +occur often in the tenth and eleventh centuries. A great +many titles of less consequence were added from time to +time. Charles the Fifth had seventy-five, not, of course, +as Emperor, but in virtue of his vast hereditary possessions<a name="FNanchor_431" id="FNanchor_431" href="#Footnote_431" class="fnanchor">[431]</a>.</p> + +<p>It is perhaps worth remarking that the word Emperor +has not at all the same meaning now that it had even so +lately as two centuries ago. It is now a commonplace, +not to say vulgar, title, somewhat more pompous than that +of King, and supposed to belong especially to despots. +It is given to all sorts of barbarous princes, like those of +China and Abyssinia, in default of a better name. It is +peculiarly affected by new dynasties; and has indeed +grown so fashionable, that what with Emperors of Brazil, +of Hayti, and of Mexico, the good old title of King seems +in a fair way to become obsolete<a name="FNanchor_432" id="FNanchor_432" href="#Footnote_432" class="fnanchor">[432]</a>. But in former times +there was, and could be but one Emperor; he was always +mentioned with a certain reverence: his name summoned +up a host of thoughts and associations, which we cannot +comprehend or sympathize with. His office, unlike that +of modern Emperors, was by its very nature elective, and +not hereditary; and, so far from resting on conquest +or the will of the people, rested on and represented +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">403</a></span> +pure legality. War could give him nothing which law +had not given him already: the people could delegate +no power to him who was their lord and the viceroy +of God.</p> + +<p>II. <span class="smcap">The Crowns.</span></p> + +<p>Of the four crowns something has been said in the text. +They were those of Germany, taken at Aachen; of Burgundy, +at Arles; of Italy, sometimes at Pavia, more +usually at Milan or Monza; of the world, at Rome.</p> + +<p>The German crown was taken by every Emperor after +the time of Otto the Great; that of Italy by every one, +or almost every one, who took the Roman down to +Frederick III, by none after him; that of Burgundy, it +would appear, by four Emperors only, Conrad II, Henry +III, Frederick I, and Charles IV. The imperial crown +was received at Rome by most Emperors till Frederick +III; after him by none save Charles V, who obtained +both it and the Italian at Bologna in a somewhat informal +manner. But down to <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1806, every Emperor bound +himself by his capitulation to proceed to Rome to receive +it.</p> + +<p>It should be remembered that none of these inferior +crowns was necessarily connected with that of the Roman +Empire, which might have been held by a simple knight +without a foot of land in the world. For as there had +been Emperors (Lothar I, Lewis II, Lewis of Provence +(son of Boso), Guy, Lambert, and Berengar) who were +not kings of Germany, so there were several (all those +who preceded Conrad II) who were not kings of Burgundy, +and others (Arnulf, for example) who were not +kings of Italy. And it is also worth remarking, that +although no crown save the German was assumed by the +successors of Charles V, their wider rights remained in full +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">404</a></span> +force, and were never subsequently relinquished. There +was nothing, except the practical difficulty and absurdity +of such a project, to prevent Francis II from having +himself crowned at Arles<a name="FNanchor_433" id="FNanchor_433" href="#Footnote_433" class="fnanchor">[433]</a>, +Milan, and Rome.</p> + +<p>III. <span class="smcap">The King of the Romans (<span lang="de">Römischer Köni</span>g).</span></p> + +<p>It has been shewn above how and why, about the time +of Henry II, the German monarch began to entitle himself +<span lang="la">'Romanorum rex.'</span> Now it was not uncommon in +the Middle Ages for the heir-apparent to a throne to be +crowned during his father's lifetime, that at the death of +the latter he might step at once into his place. (Coronation, +it must be remembered, which is now merely a +spectacle, was in those days not only a sort of sacrament, +but a matter of great political importance.) This plan +was specially useful in an elective monarchy, such as Germany +was after the twelfth century, for it avoided the +delays and dangers of an election while the throne was +vacant. But as it seemed against the order of nature to +have two Emperors at once<a name="FNanchor_434" id="FNanchor_434" href="#Footnote_434" class="fnanchor">[434]</a>, +and as the sovereign's +authority in Germany depended not on the Roman but +on the German coronation, the practice came to be that +each Emperor during his own life procured, if he could, +the election of his successor, who was crowned at Aachen, +in later times at Frankfort, and took the title of 'King +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">405</a></span> +of the Romans.' During the presence of the Emperor +in Germany he exercised no more authority than a Prince +of Wales does in England, but on the Emperor's death he +succeeded at once, without any second election or coronation, +and assumed (after the time of Ferdinand I) the +title of 'Emperor Elect<a name="FNanchor_435" id="FNanchor_435" href="#Footnote_435" class="fnanchor">[435]</a>.' Before Ferdinand's time, he +would have been expected to go to Rome to be crowned +there. While the Hapsburgs held the sceptre, each +monarch generally contrived in this way to have his son +or some other near relative chosen to succeed him. But +many were foiled in their attempts to do so; and, in such +cases, an election was held after the Emperor's death, +according to the rules laid down in the Golden Bull.</p> + +<p>The first person who thus became king of the Romans +in the lifetime of an Emperor seems to have been Henry +VI, son of Frederick I.</p> + +<p>It was in imitation of this title that Napoleon called his +son king of Rome. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">406</a></span></p> + +<h3>NOTE D.<a href="#noteD" id="noteD"></a><br /> +<br /> +<span class="s08"><span class="smcap">Lines contrasting the Past and Present of Rome.</span></span></h3> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> + +<p><span lang="la">Dum simulacra mihi, dum numina vana placebant,</span></p> +<p class="i1"><span lang="la">Militia, populo, mœnibus alta fui:</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">At simul effigies arasque superstitiosas</span></p> +<p class="i1"><span lang="la">Deiiciens, uni sum famulata Deo,</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Cesserunt arces, cecidere palatia divûm,</span></p> +<p class="i1"><span lang="la">Servivit populus, degeneravit eques.</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Vix scio quæ fuerim, vix Romæ Roma recordor;</span></p> +<p class="i1"><span lang="la">Vix sinit occasus vel meminisse mei.</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Gratior hæc iactura mihi successibus illis;</span></p> +<p class="i1"><span lang="la">Maior sum pauper divite, stante iacens:</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Plus aquilis vexilla crucis, plus Cæsare Petrus,</span></p> +<p class="i1"><span lang="la">Plus cinctis ducibus vulgus inerme dedit.</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Stans domui terras, infernum diruta pulso,</span></p> +<p class="i1"><span lang="la">Corpora stans, animas fracta iacensque rego.</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Tunc miseræ plebi, modo principibus tenebrarum</span></p> +<p class="i1"><span lang="la">Impero: tunc urbes, nunc mea regna polus.</span></p> +</div></div> + +<p>Written by Hildebert, bishop of Le Mans, and afterwards +archbishop of Tours (born <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1057). Extracted +from his works as printed by Migne, <i>Patrologiæ Cursus +Completus</i><a name="FNanchor_436" id="FNanchor_436" href="#Footnote_436" class="fnanchor">[436]</a>.</p> + +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">407</a></span></p> + +<h2>INDEX.</h2> + +<ul class="idx"> +<li class="alpha">A.</li> + +<li>Aachen, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a> note, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Adalbert</span> (St.), <a href="#Page_245">245</a>; + the church founded at Rome to receive his ashes, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Adelheid</span> (Queen of Italy), account of her adventures, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Adolf</span> of Nassau, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Adso</span>, his <i lang="la">Vita Antichristi</i>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Aistulf</span> the Lombard, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Alaric</span>, his desire to preserve the institutions of the Empire, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Alberic</span> (consul or senator), <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Albert I</span> (son of Rudolf of Hapsburg), <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.</li> + +<li>Albigenses, revolt of the, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Alboin</span>, his invasion of Italy, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Alcuin</span> of York, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Alexander III</span> (Pope), Frederick I's contest with, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>; + their meeting at Venice, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Alfonso</span> of Castile, his double election with Richard of England, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li> + +<li>America, discovery of, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Anastasius</span>, his account of the coronation of Charles, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Angelo</span> (Michael), rebuilding of the Capitol by, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li> + +<li>Antichrist, views respecting, in the earlier Middle Ages, <a href="#Page_114">114</a> note; + in later times, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li> + +<li>Architecture, Roman, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>; + analogy between it and the civil and ecclesiastical constitution, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>; + preservation of an antique character in both, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Ardoin</span> (Marquis of Ivrea), <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li> + +<li>Aristocracy, barbarism of the, in the Middle Ages, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>; + struggles of the Teutonic Emperors against the, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>.</li> + +<li>Arles; <i>see</i> <a href="#Burgundy">Burgundy</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Arnold</span> of Brescia, Rome under, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>; + put to death at the instance of Pope Hadrian, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Arnulf</span> (Emperor), <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Athanaric</span>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Athanasius</span>, the triumph of, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Athaulf</span> the Visigoth, his thoughts and purposes respecting the Roman Empire, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li> + +<li>Augsburg, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>; + treaty of, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Augustine</span>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> + +<li>Aulic Council, the, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a> note.</li> + +<li>Austria, privilege of, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>; + her claim to represent the Roman Empire, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>.</li> + +<li>Austrian succession, war of the, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + +<li>Avignon, exactions of the court of, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>; + its subservience to France, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Avitus</span>, letter of, on Sigismund's behalf, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">408</a></span></li> + +<li class="alpha">B.</li> + +<li>Barbarians, feared by the Romans, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>; + Roman armies largely composed of, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>; + admitted to Roman titles and honours, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>; + their feelings towards the Roman Empire, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>; + their desire to preserve its institutions, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>; + value of the Roman officials and Christian bishops to the, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Bartolommeo</span> (San), the church of, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Basil</span> the Macedonian and Lewis II, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.</li> + +<li>'Basileus,' the title of, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.</li> + +<li>Basilica, erected at Aachen by Charles the Great, <a href="#Page_76">76</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Belisarius</span>, his war with the Ostrogoths, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</li> + +<li><a name="Belltower">Bell-tower</a>, or campanile, in the churches of Rome, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Benedict</span> of Soracte, <a href="#Page_51">51</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Benedict VIII</span> (Pope), alleged decree of, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li> + +<li>Benevento, the Annals of, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Berengar</span> of Friuli, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>; + his death, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Berengar II</span> (King of Italy), <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Bernard</span> (St.), <a href="#Page_109">109</a> note.</li> + +<li>Bible, rights of the Empire proved from the, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>; + perversion of its meaning, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.</li> + +<li>Bohemia, acquired by Luxemburg <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1309, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>; + the king of, an elector, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Boniface VIII</span> (Pope), his extravagant pretensions, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>; + declares himself Vicar of the Empire, <a href="#Page_219">219</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Boso</span>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.</li> + +<li>Bosphorus, removal of the seat of government to the, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.</li> + +<li>Britain, abandoned by Imperial Government, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>; + Roman Civil Law not forgotten in, at a late date, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>; + Roman ensigns and devices in, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>.</li> + +<li>Buildings, the old, destruction and alteration of, by invaders, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>; + by the Romans of the Middle Ages, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>; + by modern restorers of churches, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li> + +<li>Bull, the Golden, of Charles IV, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.</li> + +<li><a name="Burgundy" id="Burgundy">Burgundy</a>, the kingdom of, Otto's policy towards, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>; + added to the Empire under Conrad II, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>; + effect of its loss on the Empire, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>; + confusion caused by the name, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>; + ten senses in which it is met with, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>- <a href="#Page_397">397</a>.</li> + +<li>Byzantium, effect of the removal of the seat of power to, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>; + Otto's policy towards, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>; + attitude towards Emperor, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li> + +<li class="alpha">C.</li> + +<li>Campanile; <i>see</i> <a href="#Belltower">Bell-tower</a>.</li> + +<li>Canon law, correspondence between it and the <span lang="la">Corpus Juris Civilis</span>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>; + its consolidation by Gregory IX, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Capet</span> (Hugh), <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li> + +<li>Capitol, rebuilding of the, by Michael Angelo, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li> + +<li>Capitulary of <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 802, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Caracalla</span> (Emperor), effect of his edict, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> + +<li>Carolingian Emperors, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> + +<li>Carolingian Empire of the West, its end in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 888, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>; + Florus the Deacon's lament over its dissolution, <a href="#Page_85">85</a> note.</li> + +<li>Carroccio, the, <a href="#Page_178">178</a> note, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>.</li> + +<li>Cathari and other heretics, spread of, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li> + +<li>Catholicity or Romanism, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li> + +<li>Celibacy, enforcement of, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li> + +<li>Cenci, name of, <a href="#Page_289">289</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Charlemagne</span>; <i>see</i> <a href="#Charles">Charles I</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap"><a name="Charles" id="Charles">Charles</a> I</span> (the Great), extinguishes the Lombard kingdom, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>; + is received with honours by Pope Hadrian and the people, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">409</a></span> + his personal ambition, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>; + his treatment of Pope Leo III, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>; + title of 'Champion of the Faith and Defender of the Holy See' conferred upon, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>; + crowned at Rome, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>; + important consequences of his coronation, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>; + its real meaning, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>; + contemporary accounts, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>; + their uniformity, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>; + illegality of the transaction, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>; + three theories respecting it held four centuries after, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>; + was the coronation a surprise? <a href="#Page_58">58</a>; + his reluctance to assume the imperial title, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>; + solution suggested by Döllinger, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>; + seeks the hand of Irene, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>; + defect of his imperial title, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>; + theoretically the successor of the whole Eastern line of Emperors, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>; + has nothing to fear from Byzantine Princes, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>; + his authority in matters ecclesiastical, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>; + presses Hadrian to declare Constantine VI a heretic, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>; + his spiritual despotism applauded by subsequent Popes, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>; + importance attached by him to the Imperial name, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>; + issues a Capitulary, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>; + draws closer the connexion of Church and State, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>; + new position in civil affairs acquired with the Imperial title, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>; + his position as Frankish king, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>; + partial failure of his attempt to breathe a Teutonic spirit into Roman forms, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>; + his personal habits and sympathies, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>; + groundlessness of the claims of the modern French to, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>; + the conception of his Empire Roman, not Teutonic, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>; + his Empire held together by the Church, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>; + appreciation of his character generally, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>; + impress of his mind on mediæval society, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>; + buried at Aachen, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>; + inscription on his tomb, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>; + canonised as a saint, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>; + his plan of Empire, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Charles II</span> (the <span class="smcap">Bald</span>), <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Charles III</span> (the <span class="smcap">Fat</span>), <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Charles IV</span>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>; + his electoral constitution, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>; + his Golden Bull, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>; + general results of his policy, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>; + his object through life, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>; + the University of Prague founded by, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>; + welcomed into Italy by Petrarch, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Charles V</span>, accession of, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>; + casts in his lot with the Catholics, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>; + the momentous results, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>; + failure of his repressive policy, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Charles VI</span>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Charles VII</span>, his disastrous reign, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Charles VIII</span> (King of France), his pretensions on Naples and Milan, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Charles Martel</span>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Charles</span> of Valois, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Charles</span> the <span class="smcap">Bold</span> and Frederick III, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Chemnitz</span>, his comments on the condition and prospects of the Empire, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Childeric</span>, his deposition by the Holy See, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li> + +<li>Chivalry, the orders of, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> + +<li>Church, the, opposed by the Emperors, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>; + growth of, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>; + alliance of, with the State, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>; + organization of, framed on the model of the secular administration, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>; + the Emperor the head of, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>; + maintains the Imperial idea, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>; + attitude of Charles the Great towards, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>; + the bond that holds together the Empire of Charles, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>; + first gives men a sense of unity, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">410</a></span> + how regarded in Middle Ages, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>; + draws tighter all bonds of outward union, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>; + unity of, felt to be analogous to that of the Empire, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>; + becomes the exact counterpart of the Empire, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>; + position of, in Germany, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>; + Otto's position towards, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>; + effect of the Reformation upon, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>; + influence of the Empire upon the history of, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.</li> + +<li>Churches, national, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li> + +<li>Churches of Rome, destruction of old buildings by modern restorers of, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>; + mosaics and bell-tower in the, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li> + +<li>Cities, in Lombardy, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>; + growth of in Germany, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>; + their power, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li> + +<li>Civil law, revival of the study of, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>; + its study forbidden by the Popes in the thirteenth century, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Civilis</span>, the Batavian, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li> + +<li>Clergy, aversion of the Lombards to the, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>; + their idea of political unity, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>; + their power in the eleventh century, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>; + Gregory VII's condemnation of feudal investitures to the, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>; + their ambition and corruption in the later Middle Age, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Clovis</span>, his desire to preserve the institutions of the Empire, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>; + his unbroken success, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li> + +<li>Coins, papal, <a href="#Page_278">278</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Colonna</span> (John), Petrarch's letters to, <a href="#Page_270">270</a> and note; + the family of, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li> + +<li>Commons, the, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</li> + +<li>Concordat of Worms, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.</li> + +<li>Confederation of the Rhine, provisions of the, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Conrad I</span> (King of the East Franks), <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Conrad II</span>, the reign of, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>; + comparison between the prerogative at his accession and at the death of Henry V, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>; + the crown of Burgundy first gained by, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Conrad III</span>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Conrad IV</span>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Conradin</span> (Frederick II's grandson), murder of, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.</li> + +<li>Constance, the Council of, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>; + the peace of, signed by Frederick I, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Constantine</span>, his vigorous policy, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>; + the Donation of, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a> note.</li> + +<li>Constantinople, capture of, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> + +<li>Coronations, ceremonies at, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>; + the four, gone through by the Emperors, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>; + their meaning, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>; + churches in which they were performed, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + +<li>Corpus Juris Civilis, correspondence between, and the Canon Law, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li> + +<li>Councils, General, right of Emperors to summon, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li> + +<li>Counts Palatine, Otto's institution of, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Crescentius</span>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> + +<li>Crown, the Imperial, the right to confer, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>; + not legally attached to Frankish crown or nation, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>; + how treated by the Popes, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</li> + +<li>Crowns, the four, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.</li> + +<li>Crusades, the, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</li> + +<li class="alpha">D.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Dante</span>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>; + his attitude towards the Empire, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>; + his treatise <i>De Monarchia</i>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>; + sketch of its argument, <a href="#Page_264">264</a> et seq.; + its omissions, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li> + +<li>Dark Ages, existing relics of the, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li> + +<li>Decretals, the False, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">411</a></span></li> + +<li>Denmark, and the Slaves, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>; + imperial authority in, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>; + its relations to the Empire, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>.</li> + +<li>Diet, the, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>; + its rights as settled <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1648, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>; + its altered character <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1654, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>; + its triflings, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Diocletian</span>, his vigorous policy, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</li> + +<li>Divine right of the Emperor, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Döllinger</span> (Dr.), <a href="#Page_60">60</a> note.</li> + +<li>Dominicans, the order of, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</li> + +<li>Donation of Constantine, forgery of the, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a> note, <a href="#Page_261">261</a> note.</li> + +<li>Dukes, the, in Germany, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li> + +<li class="alpha">E.</li> + +<li>East, imperial pretensions in the, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li> + +<li>Eastern Church, the, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.</li> + +<li>Eastern Empire, its relations with the Western, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>; + decay of its power in the West, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>; + how regarded by the Popes, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li> + +<li>Edict of Caracalla, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Edward II</span> (King of England), his declaration of England's independence of the Empire, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Edward III</span> (King of England) and Lewis the Bavarian, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>; + his election against Charles IV, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Eginhard</span>, his statement respecting Charles's coronation, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li> + +<li>Elective constitution, the, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>; + difficulty of maintaining the principle in practice, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>; + its object the choice of the fittest man, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>; + restraint of the sovereign, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>; + recognition of the popular will, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li> + +<li>Elector, the title of, its advantage, <a href="#Page_232">232</a> note; + personages upon whom it was conferred by Napoleon, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li> + +<li>Electoral body in primitive times, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</li> + +<li>Electoral function, conception of the, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</li> + +<li>Electorate, the Eighth, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>; + the Ninth, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li> + +<li>Electors, the Seven, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>; + their names and offices, <a href="#Page_230">230</a> note; + the question of their vote, <a href="#Page_257">257</a> note.</li> + +<li>Emperor, the position of, in the second century, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>; + the head of the Church, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>; + sanctity of the name, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>; + correspondence between his position and functions and those of the Pope, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>; + proofs from mediæval documents, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>; + and from the coronation ceremonies, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>; + illustrations from mediæval art, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>; + nature of his power, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>; + fusion of his functions with those of German King, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>; + his office feudalized, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>; + attitude of Byzantine Emperors towards, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>; + his dignities and titles, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>; + the title not assumed till the Roman coronation, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>; + origin and results of this practice, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>; + policy of, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>; + his office as peace-maker, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>; + divine right of the, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>; + his right of creating kings, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>; + his international place at the Council of Constance, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>; + change in titles of, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>; + his rights as settled <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1648, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>; + altered meaning of the word now-a-days, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li> + +<li>Emperors, meaning of their four coronations, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>; + persons eligible as, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>; + after Henry VII, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>; + their short-sighted policy towards Rome, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>; + their visits to Rome, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>; + their approach, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>; + their entrance, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>; + hostility of the Pope and people to the, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">412</a></span> + their burial-places, <a href="#Page_287">287</a> note; + nature of the question at issue between the Popes and the, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>; + their titles, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.</li> + +<li>Emperors, Carolingian, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> + +<li>Emperors, Franconian, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li> + +<li>Emperors, Hapsburg, beginning of their influence in Germany, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>; + their policy, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>; + repeated attempts to set them aside, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>; + causes of the long retention of the throne by the, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>; + modern pretensions of, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>.</li> + +<li>Emperors, Italian, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.</li> + +<li>Emperors, Saxon, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li> + +<li><a name="Emperors" id="Emperors">Emperors</a>, Swabian or Hohenstaufen, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> + +<li>Emperors, Teutonic, defects in their title, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>; + their short-sighted policy, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>; + their memorials in Rome, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>; + names of those buried in Italy, <a href="#Page_287">287</a> note; + their struggles against nationality, aristocracy, and popular freedom, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>.</li> + +<li>Empire, the Roman, growth of despotism in, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>; + obliteration of national distinctions in, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>; + unity of, threatened from without and from within, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>; + preserved for a time by the policy of Diocletian and Constantine, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>; + partition of, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>; + influence of the Church in supporting, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>; + armies of, composed of barbarians, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>; + how regarded by the barbarians, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>; + belief in eternity of, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>; + reunion of Italy to, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>; + its influence in the Transalpine provinces, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>; + influence of religion and jurisprudence in supporting, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>; + belief in, not extinct in the eighth century, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>; + restoration of by Charles the Great, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>; + the 'translation' of the, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>; + divided between the grandsons of Charles, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>; + dissolution of, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>; + ideal state supposed to be embodied in, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>; + never, strictly speaking, restored, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li> + +<li>Empire, the Holy Roman, created by Otto the Great, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>; + a prolongation of the Empire of Charles, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>; + wherein it differed therefrom, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>; + motives for establishment of, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>; + identical with Holy Roman Church, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>; + its rights proved from the Bible, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>; + its anti-national character, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>; + its union with the German kingdom, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>; + dissimilarity between the two, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>; + results of the union, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>; + its pretensions in Hungary, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>; + in Poland, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>; + in Denmark, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>; + in France, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>; + in Sweden, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>; + in Spain, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>; + in England, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>; + in Naples, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>; + in Venice, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>; + in the East, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>; + the epithet 'Holy' applied by Frederick I, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>; + origin and meaning of epithet, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>; + its fall with Frederick II, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>; + Italy lost to, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>; + change in its position, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>; + its continuance due to its connexion with the German kingdom, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>; + its relations with the Papacy, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>; + its financial distress, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>; + theory of, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>; + its duties as an international judge and mediator, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>; + why an international power, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>; + illustrations, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>; + attitude of new learning towards, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>; + doctrine of its rights and functions never carried out in fact, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>; + end of its history in Italy, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>; + relation between it and the city, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>; + reaches its lowest point in Frederick III's reign, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>; + its loss of Burgundy, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, and of Switzerland, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">413</a></span> + change in its character, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>; + effects of the Renaissance upon, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>; + effects of the Reformation upon, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>; + its influence upon the name and associations of, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>; + narrowing of its bounds, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>; + causes of the continuance of, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>; + its relation to the balance of power, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>; + its position in Europe, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>; + its last phase, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>; + signs of its approaching fall, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>; + its end, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>; + the desire for its re-establishment, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>; + unwillingness of certain states, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>; + technically never extinguished, <a href="#Page_364">364</a> note; + summary of its nature and results, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>; + claim of Austria to represent, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>; + of France, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>; + of Russia, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>; + of Greece, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>; + of the Turks, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>; + parallel between the Papacy and, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>; + never truly mediæval, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>; + sense in which it was Roman, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>; + its condition in the tenth century, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>; + essential principles of, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>; + its influence on Germany, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>; + Austria as heir of, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>; + its bearing on the progress of Europe, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>; + ways in which it affected the political institutions of the Middle Ages, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>; + its influence upon modern jurisprudence, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>; + upon the history of the Church, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>; + influence of its inner life on the minds of men, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>; + principles adverse to, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>; + change marked by its fall, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>; + its relations to the nationalities of Europe, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>; + difficulty of fully understanding, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>.</li> + +<li>Empire and Papacy, interdependence of, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>; + consequences, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>; + struggle between, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>; + their relations, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>; + parallel between, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>; + compared as perpetuation of a name, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> + +<li>Empire Western, last days of the, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>; + its extinction by Odoacer, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>; + its restoration, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> + +<li>Empire, French, under Napoleon, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Engelbert</span>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a> note.</li> + +<li>England, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>; + Otto's position towards, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>; + authority not exercised by any Emperors in, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>; + vague notion that it must depend on the Empire, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>; + imperial pretensions towards, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>; + position of the regal power in, as compared with Germany, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>; + feudalism in, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.</li> + +<li>Estate, Third, did not exist in time of Otto the Great, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Eudes</span> (Count of Champagne), <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> + +<li>Europe, bearing of the Empire on the progress of, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>; + on the nationalities of, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>.</li> + +<li class="alpha">F.</li> + +<li>False Decretals, the, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Ferdinand I</span>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a> note, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Ferdinand II</span>, accession of, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>; + his plans, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>; + deprives the Palsgrave Frederick of his electoral vote, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li> + +<li>Feudal aristocracy, power of the, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>.</li> + +<li>Feudal king, his peculiar relation to his tenants, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li> + +<li>Feudalism, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>; + reason of its firm grasp upon society, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>; + hostility between it and imperialism, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>; + its results in France, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>; + in England, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>; + in Germany, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>; + struggles of the Teutonic Emperors against, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>.</li> + +<li>Financial distress of the Empire, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Florus</span> the Deacon's lament over the dissolution of the Carolingian Empire, <a href="#Page_85">85</a> note.</li> + +<li>Fontenay, battle of, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li> + +<li>France, modern, dates from Hugh Capet, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">414</a></span> + imperial authority exercised in, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>; + her irritation at Germany's precedence, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>; + growth of the regal power in, as compared with Germany, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>; + alliance of the Protestants with, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>; + territory gained by treaties of Westphalia, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>; + feudalism in, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>; + under Napoleon, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>; + her claim to represent the Roman Empire, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.</li> + +<li>Francia occidentalis, given to Charles the Bald, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Francis I</span>, reign of, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Francis II</span>, accession of, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>; + resignation of imperial crown by, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>.</li> + +<li>Franciscans, the order of, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</li> + +<li>Franconia, extinction of the dukedom of, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.</li> + +<li>Franconian Emperors, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li> + +<li>'Frank,' sense in which the name was used, <a href="#Page_142">142</a> note.</li> + +<li>Franks, rise of the, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>; + success of their arms, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>; + Catholics from the first, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>; + their greatness chiefly due to the clergy, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>; + enter Rome, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</li> + +<li>Franks, the West, Otto's policy towards, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li> + +<li>Frankfort, synod held at, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>; + coronations at, <a href="#Page_316">316</a> note, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Frederick I</span> (Barbarossa), his brilliant reign, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>; + his relations to the Popedom, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>; + his contest with Pope Hadrian IV, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>; + incident at their meeting on the way to Rome, <a href="#Page_314">314</a> note; + his contest with Pope Alexander III, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>; + their meeting at Venice, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>; + magnificent ascriptions of dignity to, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>; + assertion of his prerogative in Italy, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>; + his version of the 'Translation of the Empire,' <a href="#Page_175">175</a>; + his dealings with the rebels of Milan and Tortona, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>; + his temporary success, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>; + victory of the Lombards over, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>; + his prosperity as German king, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>; + his glorious life and happy death, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>; + legend respecting him, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>; + extent of his jurisdiction, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>; + his dominion in the East, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>; + his letter to Saladin, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>; + anecdote of, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Frederick II</span>, character of, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>; + events of his struggle with the Papacy, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>; + results of his reign, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>; + the charge of heresy against, <a href="#Page_251">251</a> note; + memorials left by, in Rome, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Frederick III</span>, abases himself before the Romish court, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>; + Charles the Bold seeks an arrangement with, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>; + his calamitous reign, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Frederick</span> (Count Palatine and King of Bohemia), deprived by Ferdinand II of his electoral vote, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Frederick</span> of Prussia (the Great), <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a> note.</li> + +<li>Freedom popular, growth of, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>; + struggles of the Teutonic Emperors against, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>.</li> + +<li class="alpha">G.</li> + +<li>Gallic race, political character of the, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.</li> + +<li>Gauverfassung, the so-called, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Gerbert</span> (Pope Sylvester II), <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> + +<li>'German Emperor,' the title of, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>.</li> + +<li>Germanic constitution, the, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>; + influence upon, of the theory of the Empire as an international power, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>; + attempted reforms of, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>; + means by which it was proposed to effect them, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>; + causes of their failure, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</li> + +<li>Germany, beginning of the national existence of, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>; + chooses Arnulf as king, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">415</a></span> + overrun by Hungarians, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>; + establishment of monarchy in, by Henry the Fowler, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>; + desires the restoration of the Carolingian Empire, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>; + position of in the tenth century, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>; + union of the Empire with, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>; + results of the union, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>; + dissimilarity of the two systems, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>; + feudalism in, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>; + the feudal polity of, generally, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>; + nature of the history of, till the twelfth century, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>; + princes of, ally themselves with the Pope against the Emperor, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>; + its hatred of the Romish Court, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>; + the position of under Frederick Barbarossa, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>; + growth of towns in, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>; + decline of imperial power in, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>; + state of during Great Interregnum, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>; + decline of regal power in, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>; + encroachments of nobles in, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>; + kingdom of, not originally elective, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>; + how it ultimately became elective, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>; + changes in the constitution of, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>; + its weakness as compared with other states of Europe, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>; + its loss of imperial territories, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>; + its internal weakness, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>; + position of the Emperor in, compared with that of his predecessors in Europe, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>; + beginning of the Hapsburg influence in, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>; + first consciousness of its nationality, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>; + destruction of its State-system, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>; + its troubles, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>; + finally severed from Rome, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>; + after the peace of Westphalia, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>; + effect of a number of petty independent states upon, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>; + feudalism in, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>; + its political life in the eighteenth century, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>; + foreign thrones acquired by its princes, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>; + French aggression upon, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>; + its weakness and stagnation, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>; + popular feeling in at the close of eighteenth century, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>; + Napoleon in, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>; + changes in, by war of 1866, <a href="#Page_365">365</a> note; + influence of the Holy Empire on, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Gerson</span>, chancellor of Paris, plans of, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li> + +<li>Ghibeline, the name of, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Goethe</span>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a> note, <a href="#Page_316">316</a> note, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li> + +<li>Golden Bull of Charles IV, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.</li> + +<li>Goths, wisest and least cruel of the Germanic family, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>; + Arian Goths regarded as enemies by Catholic Italians, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</li> + +<li>Greece, her influence in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>; + her claim to represent the Roman Empire, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>.</li> + +<li>Greeks and Latins, origin of their separation, <a href="#Page_37">37</a> note.</li> + +<li>Greeks, effect of their hostility upon the Teutonic Empire, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Gregory the Great</span>, fame of his sanctity and writings, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>; + means by which he advanced Rome's ecclesiastical authority, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Gregory II</span> (Pope), reason of his reluctance to break with the Byzantine princes, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Gregory III</span> (Pope) appeals to Charles Martel for succour against the Lombards, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Gregory V</span> (Pope), <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap"><a name="Gregory" id="Gregory">Gregory</a> VII</span> (Pope), his condemnation of feudal investitures to the clergy, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>; + war between him and Henry IV, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>; + his letter to William the Conqueror, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>; + passage in his second excommunication of Henry, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>; + results of the struggle between them, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>; + his death, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>; + his theory as to the rights of the Pope with respect to the election of Emperors, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>; + his silence about the Translation of the Empire, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">416</a></span> + his simile between the Empire and the Popedom, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>; + his demands on the Emperor, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Gregory IX</span> (Pope), Canon law consolidated by, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>; + receives the title of 'Justinian of the Church,' <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Gregory X</span> (Pope), <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Grotius</span>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.</li> + +<li>Guelf, the name of, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Guido</span>, or <span class="smcap">Guy</span>, of Spoleto, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Guiscard</span>, Robert, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Gundobald</span> the Burgundian, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Gunther</span> of Schwartzburg, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Gustavus Adolphus</span>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li> + +<li class="alpha">H.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Hadrian I</span> (Pope), summons Charles (the Great) to resist the Lombards, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>; + motives of his policy, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>; + his allusion to Constantine's Donation, <a href="#Page_118">118</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Hadrian IV</span> (Pope), Frederick I's contest with, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>; + his pretensions, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Hallam</span>, his view of the grant of a Roman dignity to Clovis, <a href="#Page_30">30</a> note.</li> + +<li>Hanseatic Confederacy, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li> + +<li>Hapsburg, the castle of, <a href="#Page_213">213</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Harold</span> the <span class="smcap">Blue-toothed</span>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Henry I</span> (the Fowler), <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Henry II</span> crowned Emperor, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Henry II</span> (King of France), assumes the title of 'Protector of the German Liberties,' <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Henry II</span> (King of England), his submissive tone towards Frederick I, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Henry III</span>, power of the Empire at its meridian under, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>; + his reform of the Popedom, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>; + fatal results of his encroachments, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>; + his death, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Henry IV</span>, election of, <a href="#Page_226">226</a> note; + war between him and Gregory VII, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>; + his humiliation, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>; + results of the struggle, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>; + his death, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Henry V</span> (Emperor), his claims over ecclesiastics, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>; + his quarrel with Pope Paschal II, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>; + his perilous position, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>; + comparison between the prerogative at his death and that at the accession of Conrad II, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>; + tumults produced by his coronation, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Henry V</span> (King of England) refuses submission to the Emperor Sigismund, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Henry VI</span>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>; + his proposal to unite Naples and Sicily to the Empire, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>; + opposition to the scheme, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>; + his untimely death, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Henry VII</span>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>; + in Italy, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>; + his death, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Henry VIII</span> (King of England), <a href="#Page_334">334</a> note.</li> + +<li>Hessen-Cassel, Elector of, dethroned, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Hilary</span>, feelings of, towards the Roman Empire, <a href="#Page_21">21</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Hildebert</span> (Bishop of Caen), his lines contrasting the past and present of Rome, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Hildebrand</span>; <i>see</i> <a href="#Gregory">Gregory VII</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Hippolytus</span> a Lapide, the treatise of, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li> + +<li>Hohenstaufen; <i>see</i> <a href="#Emperors">Emperors, Swabian</a>.</li> + +<li>Hohenstaufen, the castle of, <a href="#Page_165">165</a> note.</li> + +<li>Holland, declared independent, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li> + +<li>Holstein, its relations to the Empire, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Hugh Capet</span>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Hugh</span> of Burgundy, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li> + +<li>Hungarians, the, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li> + +<li>Hungary, imperial authority exercised in, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">417</a></span> + its connexion with the Hapsburgs, <a href="#Page_184">184</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Huss</span>, the writings of, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li> + +<li class="alpha">I.</li> + +<li>Iconoclastic controversy, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li> + +<li><span lang="la">'Imperator electus,'</span> the title of, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.</li> + +<li>Imperialism, Roman, French, and Mediæval, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>.</li> + +<li>Imperial titles and ceremonies, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Innocent III</span> (Pope), his exertions on behalf of Otto IV, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>; + his pretensions, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>; + his struggle with Frederick II, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Innocent X</span> and the sacred number Seven of the electors, <a href="#Page_227">227</a> note; + his protest against the Peace of Westphalia, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li> + +<li>International power, the need of an, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>; + why the Roman Empire an, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li> + +<li>Interregnum, the Great, frightful state of Germany during, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>; + enables the feudal aristocracy to extend their power, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>.</li> + +<li>Investitures, the struggle of the, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Irene</span> (Empress), behaviour of, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> + +<li>Irminsûl, overthrow of, by Charles the Great, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>; + meaning of term, <a href="#Page_69">69</a> note.</li> + +<li>Italian Emperors, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.</li> + +<li>Italian nationality, era at which its first rudiments appeared, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li> + +<li>Italians, modern, their feelings towards Rome, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li> + +<li>Italy, under Odoacer, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>; + attempt of Theodoric to establish a national monarchy in, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>; + reconquered by Justinian, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>; + harassed by the Lombards, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>; + condition of, previous to Otto's descent into, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>; + Otto the Great's first expedition into, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>; + its connexion with Germany, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>; + Otto's rule in, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>; + liberties of the northern cities of, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>; + Frederick I in, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>; + Henry VII in, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>; + lost to the Empire, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>; + names of Emperors buried in, <a href="#Page_287">287</a> note; + the nation at the present day, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>.</li> + +<li>Italy, Southern, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li> + +<li class="alpha">J.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">John VIII</span> (Pope), <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">John XII</span> (Pope), crowns Otto the Great, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>; + plots against him, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>; + his reprobate life, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>; + Liudprand's list of the charges against, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>; + letter recounting them sent to him, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>; + his reply, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>; + Otto's answer, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>; + deposed by Otto, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>; + regret of the Romans at his expulsion, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>; + his return and death, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">John XXII</span> (Pope), his conflict with Lewis IV, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Joseph II</span>, reign of, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Julius Cæsar</span>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Julius II</span> (Pope), <a href="#Page_316">316</a>.</li> + +<li>Jurisprudence, influence of, in supporting the Empire, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>; + aversion of the Romish court to the ancient, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>; + influence of the Empire on modern, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>.</li> + +<li>Jurists, their attitude towards imperialism, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Justinian</span>, Italy reconquered by, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>; + study of the legislation of, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li> + +<li>'Justinian of the Church,' title of, conferred on Gregory IX, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li> + +<li>Jutland, Otto penetrates into, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li> + +<li class="alpha">K.</li> + +<li>Kings, the Emperor's right of creating, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">418</a></span></li> + +<li>Knighthood, analogy between priesthood and, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> + +<li class="alpha">L.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Lactantius</span>, his belief in the eternity of the Roman Empire, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Lambert</span> (son of Guido of Spoleto), <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</li> + +<li>Landgrave of Thuringia, choice of the, commanded by the Pope, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.</li> + +<li>Lateran Palace at Rome, mosaic of the, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + +<li>Latins and Greeks, origin of their separation, <a href="#Page_37">37</a> note.</li> + +<li>Lauresheim, Annals of, their account of the coronation of Charles, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li> + +<li>Law, old, the influence exercised by, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>; + era of the revived study of, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>.</li> + +<li>Learning, revival of, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>; + connexion between it and imperialism, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Leo I</span> (Pope), his assertion of universal jurisdiction, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Leo</span> the <span class="smcap">Isaurian</span> (Emperor), his attempt to abolish the worship of images, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Leo III</span> (Pope), his accession, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>; + his adventures, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>; + crowns Charles at Rome on Christmas Day, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 800, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>; + charter of, issued on same day, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>; + relation of, to the act of coronation, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>; + lectured by Charles, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Leo VIII</span> (Pope), <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li> + +<li>Leonine city, the, <a href="#Page_286">286</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Leopold I</span>, ninth electorate conferred by, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Leopold II</span>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Lewis I</span> (the Pious), <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Lewis II</span>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a> note, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Lewis III</span> (son of Boso), <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Lewis IV</span>, his conflict with Pope John XXII, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Lewis XII</span> (King of France), his pretensions on Naples and Milan, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Lewis XIV</span> (King of France), <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Lewis</span> (the German) (son of Lewis the Pious), <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Lewis</span> the <span class="smcap">Child</span> (son of Arnulf), <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li> + +<li>Literature, revival of, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>; + connexion between it and imperialism, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Liudprand</span> (Bishop of Cremona), his list of the accusations against John XII, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>; + account of his embassy to the princess Theophano, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Liudprand</span> (King of the Lombards), attacks Rome and the exarchate, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li> + +<li>Lombard cities, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>; + their victory over Frederick I, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li> + +<li>Lombards, arrival of the, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 568, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>; + their aversion to the clergy, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>; + the Popes seek help from the Franks against the, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>; + extinction of their kingdom by Charlemagne, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Lothar I</span> (son of Lewis the Pious), <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Lothar II</span>, election of, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Lothar</span> (son of Hugh of Burgundy), <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li> + +<li>Lotharingia or Lorraine, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li> + +<li>Luneville, the Peace of, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Luther</span>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li> + +<li class="alpha">M.</li> + +<li>Majesty, the title of, <a href="#Page_247">247</a> note.</li> + +<li>Mallum, the popular assembly so called, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Manuel Comnenus</span>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</li> + +<li>Mario (Monte), <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Marsilius</span> of Padua, his <span lang="la">'de Imperio Romano,'</span> <a href="#Page_231">231</a> note. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">419</a></span></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Maximilian I</span>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>; + character of his epoch, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>; + events of his reign, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>; + his title of <span lang="la">'Imperator electus,'</span> <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>; + his proposals to recover Burgundy and Italy, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Maximilian II</span>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>.</li> + +<li>Mayfield, the popular assembly so called, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> + +<li>Mediæval art, rights of the Empire set forth in, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>.</li> + +<li>Mediæval monuments, causes of the want of in Rome, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Michael</span>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Michael Angelo</span>, capital rebuilt by, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li> + +<li>Middle Ages, the state of the human mind in, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>; + theology of, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>; + philosophy of, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>; + relations of Church and State during, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>; + mode of interpreting Scriptures in, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>; + art of, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>; + opposition of theory and practice in, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>; + real beginning of, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>; + reverence for ancient forms and phrases in, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>; + absence of the idea of change or progress in, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>; + the city of Rome in, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>; + barbarism of the aristocracy in, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>; + ambition and corruption of the clergy in the latter, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>; + destruction of old buildings by the Romans of, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>; + existing relics of, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>; + aspiration for unity during, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>; + the Visible Church in the, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>; + ferocity of the heroes of, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>; + ways in which the Empire affected the political institutions of, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>; + idea of the communion of saints during, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>.</li> + +<li>Milan, Frederick I's dealings with the rebels of, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>; + the rebuilding of, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>; + victory of Frederick II over, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>; + pretensions of Charles VIII and Lewis XII of France on, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> + +<li>Mahommedanism, rise of, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li> + +<li>Moissac, Chronicle of, its account of the coronation of Charles, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Mommsen</span>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>.</li> + +<li>Monarchy, universal, doctrine of, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.</li> + +<li>Monarchy, elective, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li> + +<li>Mosaics in the churches of Rome, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Müller</span>, Johannes von, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li> + +<li>Münster, the treaty of; <i>see</i> <a href="#Westphalia">Westphalia</a>.</li> + +<li class="alpha">N.</li> + +<li>Naples, imperial authority in, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>; + pretensions of Charles VIII and Lewis XII of France on, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Napoleon</span>, as compared with Charles the Great, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>; + extinction of Electorates by, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>; + Emperor of the West, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>; + his belief that he was the successor of Charlemagne, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>; + attitude of the Papacy towards, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>; + his mission in Germany, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li> + +<li>Nationalities of Europe, the formation of, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>; + relations of the Empire to the, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>.</li> + +<li>Nationality, struggles of the Teutonic Emperors against, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>.</li> + +<li>Neo-Platonism, Alexandrian, effect of, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.</li> + +<li>Nicæa, first council of, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>; + second council of, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Nicephorus</span>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Nicholas I</span> (Pope) and the case of Teutberga, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Nicholas II</span> (Pope), fixes a regular body to elect the Pope, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Nicholas V</span> (Pope), <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li>Nobles, the, in feudal times, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>; + encroachments of the, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.</li> + +<li>Nürnberg, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">420</a></span></li> + +<li class="alpha">O.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Occam</span>, the English Franciscan, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Odo</span>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Odoacer</span>, extinction of the Western Empire by, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 476, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>; + his original position, <a href="#Page_25">25</a> note; + his assumption of the title of King, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>; + nature of his government, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Optatus</span> (Bishop of Milevis), his treatise <i lang="la">Contra Donatistas</i>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a> note.</li> + +<li>Orsini, the family of, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li> + +<li>Osnabrück, treaty of; <i>see</i> <a href="#Westphalia">Westphalia</a>.</li> + +<li>Ostrogoths, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>; + war between Belisarius and the, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Otto I</span>, the <span class="smcap">Great</span>, appealed to by Adelheid, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>; + his first expedition into Italy, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>; + invitation sent by the Pope to, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>; + his victory over the Hungarians, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>; + crowned king of Italy at Rome, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>; + his coronation a favourable opening to sacerdotal claims, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>; + causes of the revival of the Empire under, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>; + his coronation feast the inauguration of the Teutonic realm, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>; + consequences of his assumption of the imperial title, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>; + his position towards the Church, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>; + changes in title, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>; + his imperial office feudalized, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>; + the Germans made a single people by, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>; + incidents which befel him in Rome, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>; + inquires into the character and manners of Pope John XII, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>; + his letters to John, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>; + deposes John, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>; + appoints Leo in his stead, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>; + his suppression of the revolts of the Romans on account of John, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>; + his rule in Italy, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>; + resumes Charles's plans of foreign conquest, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>; + his policy towards Byzantium, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>; + seeks for his heir the hand of the princess Theophano, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>; + his policy towards the West Franks, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>; + his Northern and Eastern conquests, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>; + extent of his empire, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>; + comparison between it and that of Charles, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>; + beneficial results of his rule, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>; + how styled by Nicephorus, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Otto II</span>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>; + memorials left by, in Rome, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Otto III</span>, his plans and ideas, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>; + his intense religious belief in the Emperor's duties, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>; + his reason for using the title 'Romanorum Imperator,' <a href="#Page_147">147</a>; + his early death, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>; + his burial at Aachen, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>; + respect in which his life was so memorable, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>; + compared with Frederick II, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>; + his expostulation with the Roman people, <a href="#Page_285">285</a> note; + memorials left by, in Rome, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Otto IV</span>, Pope Innocent III's exertions in behalf of, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>; + overthrown by Innocent, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>; + explanation of a curious seal of, <a href="#Page_266">266</a> note.</li> + +<li class="alpha">P.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Palgrave</span> (Sir F.), his view of the grant of a Roman dignity to Clovis, <a href="#Page_30">30</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Palsgrave</span>, deprived of his vote, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>; + reinstated, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li> + +<li>Panslavism, Russia's doctrine of, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>.</li> + +<li>Papacy, the Teutonic reform of, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>; + Frederick I's bad relations with, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>; + Henry III's purification of, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>; + growth of its power, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>; + its relations with the Empire, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>; + its condition after the dissolution of the Carolingian Empire, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">421</a></span> + its attitude towards Napoleon, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li> + +<li>Papacy and Empire, interdependence of, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>; + its consequences, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>; + struggle between them, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>; + their relations, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>; + parallel between, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>; + compared as perpetuation of a name, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> + +<li>Papal elections, veto of Emperor on, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.</li> + +<li>Partition treaty of Verdun, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Paschal II</span> (Pope), his quarrel with Henry V, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.</li> + +<li>Patrician of the Romans, import of the title, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>; + date when it was bestowed on Pipin, <a href="#Page_40">40</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Patritius</span>, secretary of Frederick III, on the poverty of the Empire, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</li> + +<li>Pavia, the Council of, and Charles the Bald, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</li> + +<li>Persecution, Protestant, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li> + +<li>Peter's (St.), old, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Petrarch</span>, his feelings towards the Empire, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>; + towards the city of Rome, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Pfeffinger</span>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Philip</span> of Hohenstaufen, contest between Otto of Brunswick and, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>; + his assassination, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.</li> + +<li>Philosophy, scholastic, spread of, in the thirteenth century, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Pipin</span> of Herstal, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Pipin</span> the <span class="smcap">Short</span> appointed successor to Childeric, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>; + twice rescues Rome from the Lombards, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>; + receives the title of Patrician of the Romans, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>; + import of this title, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>; + date at which it was bestowed, <a href="#Page_40">40</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Pius VII</span> (Pope), <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li> + +<li>Placitum, the popular assembly so called, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Podiebrad</span> (George), (King of Bohemia), <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li> + +<li>Poland, imperial authority in, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>; + partition of, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li> + +<li>Politics, beginning of the existence of, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li> + +<li>Popes, emancipation of the, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>; + appeal to the Franks for succour against the Lombards, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>; + their reasons for desiring the restoration of the Western Empire, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>; + their theory respecting the coronation of Charles, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>; + their profligacy in the tenth century, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>; + their theory respecting the chair of St. Peter, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>; + their position and functions, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>; + growth of their pretensions, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>; + and power, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>; + their relations to the Emperor, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>; + their temporal power, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>; + their position as international judges, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>; + reaction against their pretensions, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>; + their aversion to the study of ancient jurisprudence, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>; + hostility of, to the Germans, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>; + nature of the question at issue between the Emperors and, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Porcaro</span> (Stephen), conspiracy of, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li> + +<li>Prætaxation, the so-called right of, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li> + +<li>Pragmatic Sanctions of Frederick II, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>.</li> + +<li>Prague, University of, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li> + +<li>Prerogative, Imperial, contrast of, at accession of Conrad II and death of Henry V, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li> + +<li>Priesthood, analogy between knighthood and, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> + +<li>Princes, league of, formed by Frederick the Great, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + +<li>Protestant States, their conduct after the Reformation, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li> + +<li>Protestants of Germany, their alliance with France, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li> + +<li>Public Peace and Imperial Chamber, establishment of the, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">422</a></span></li> + +<li class="alpha">R.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Radulfus de Colonna</span>, his account of the origin of the separation of Greeks and Latins, <a href="#Page_37">37</a> note.</li> + +<li>Ravenna, exarch of, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li> + +<li>Reformation, dawnings of the, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>; + Charles V's attitude towards the, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>; + influence of its spirit on the Empire, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>; + its real meaning, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>; + its effect on the doctrines regarding the Visible Church, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>; + consequent effect upon the Empire, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>; + its small immediate influence on political and religious liberty, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>; + conduct of the Protestant States after the, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>; + its influence on the name and associations of the Empire, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li> + +<li>Religion, influence of, in supporting the Empire, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>; + wars of, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li> + +<li>Renaissance, the, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> + +<li><span lang="la">'Renovatio Romani Imperii,'</span> signification of the seal bearing legend of, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> + +<li>Rhine, towns of the, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>; + provisions of the Confederation of the, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Richard I</span> (King of England), pays homage to the Emperor Henry VI, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>; + his release, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Richard</span> (Earl of Cornwall), his double election with Alfonso X of Castile, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Richelieu</span>, policy of, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Ricimer</span> (patrician), <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Rienzi</span>, Petrarch's letter to the Roman people respecting, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>; + his character and career, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.</li> + +<li>Romans, revolts of the, at the expulsion of Pope John XII, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>; + Otto's vigorous measures against the, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>; + their revolt from the Iconoclastic Emperors of the East, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>; + the title of King of the, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.</li> + +<li>Romanism or Catholicity, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li> + +<li>Rome, commanding position of, in the second century, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>; + prestige of, not destroyed by the partition of the Empire, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>; + lingering influences of her Church and Law, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>; + claim of, to the right of conferring the imperial crown, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>; + republican institutions of, renewed, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>; + profligacy of, in the tenth century, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>; + under Arnold of Brescia, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>; + imitations of old, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>; + in the Middle Ages, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>; + absence of Gothic in, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>; + the modern traveller in, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>; + causes of her rapid decay, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>; + peculiarities of her position, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>; + her internal history from the sixth to the twelfth century, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>; + her condition in the ninth and tenth centuries, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>; + growth of a republican feeling in, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>; + short-sighted policy of the Emperors towards, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>; + causes of the failure of the struggle for independence in, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>; + her internal condition, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>; + her people, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>; + her nobility, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>; + her bishop, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>; + relation of the Emperor to, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>; + the Emperors' visits to, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>; + dislike of, to the Germans, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>; + memorials of Otto III in, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>; + of Otto II, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>; + of Frederick II, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>; + causes of the want of mediæval monuments in, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>; + barbarism of the aristocracy of, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>; + ambition, weakness, and corruption of the clergy of, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>; + tendency of her builders to adhere to the ancient manner, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>; + destruction and alteration of old buildings in, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>; + her modern churches, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>; + existing relics of Dark and Middle Ages in, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">423</a></span> + changed aspect of, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>; + analogy between her architecture and the civil and ecclesiastical constitution, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>; + relation of, to the Empire, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>; + feelings of modern Italians towards, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>; + perpetuation of the name of, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>; + parallel instances, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>; + Hildebert's lines contrasting the past and present of, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Romulus Augustulus</span>, his resignation at Odoacer's bidding, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Rudolf</span> (King of Transjurane), <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Rudolf</span> of Hapsburg, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>; + financial distress under, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>; + Schiller's description of the coronation feast of, <a href="#Page_231">231</a> note, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Rudolf II</span>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Rudolf III</span>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Rudolf</span> of Swabia, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Rudolf III</span> (King of Burgundy), his proposal to bequeath Burgundy to Henry II, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> + +<li>Russia, her claim to represent the Roman Empire, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>.</li> + +<li class="alpha">S.</li> + +<li>Sachsenspiegel, the, <a href="#Page_108">108</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Saladin</span> (the Sultan), Frederick I's letter to, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li> + +<li>Santa Maria Novella at Florence, fresco in, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li> + +<li>Saxon Emperors, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li> + +<li>Saxony, extinction of the dukedom of, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.</li> + +<li>Schleswig, its annexation by Otto, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>; + its relation to the Empire, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>.</li> + +<li>Scholastic philosophy, spread of, in the thirteenth century, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.</li> + +<li>Seal, ascribed to <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 800, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Septimius Severus</span>, concentration of power in his hands, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Sergius IV</span> (Pope), <a href="#Page_228">228</a> note.</li> + +<li>Seven Years' War, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + +<li>Sicambri, probably the chief source of the Frankish nation, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> + +<li>Sicily, imperial authority in, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Sigismund</span> (the Burgundian king), his desire to preserve the institutions of the Empire, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Sigismund</span> (Emperor), his visit to Henry V, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>; + at the Council of Constance, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li> + +<li>Simony, measures taken against, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li> + +<li>Slavic races, the, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>.</li> + +<li>Smalkaldic league, the, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.</li> + +<li>Southern Italy, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li> + +<li>Spain, Otto's position towards, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>; + authority not exercised by any Emperor in, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>; + compared with Germany, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>.</li> + +<li>Speyer, Diet of, <a href="#Page_111">111</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Stephania</span> (widow of Crescentius), <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li> + +<li>Swabia, extinction of the dukedom of, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>; + the towns of, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>; + theory of the Emperors of the house of, respecting the coronation of Charles, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li> + +<li>Sweden, improbability of imperial pretensions to, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li> + +<li>Swiss Confederation, the, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>; + her gains by treaties of Westphalia, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li> + +<li>Switzerland lost to the Empire, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Sylvester</span> (Pope), <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li> + +<li class="alpha">T.</li> + +<li>Taxes, mode of collecting in Roman Empire, <a href="#Page_9">9</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Tertullian</span>, his feelings towards the Roman Emperor, <a href="#Page_21">21</a> note, <a href="#Page_23">23</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Teutberga</span> (wife of Lothar), the famous case of, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li> + +<li>Teutonic race, political character of the, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Theodebert</span> (son of Clovis), his desire to preserve the institutions of the Empire, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">424</a></span></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Theodoric</span> the Ostrogoth, his attempt to establish a national monarchy in Italy, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>; + its failure, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>; + his usual place of residence, <a href="#Page_28">28</a> note; + prosperity under his reign, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Theodosius</span> (the Emperor), his abasement before St. Ambrose, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Theophano</span> (princess), <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> + +<li>Thirty Years' War, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>; + its unsatisfactory results, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>; + its substantial advantage to the German princes, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Thomas</span> (St.), his statement respecting the election of Emperors, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</li> + +<li>Tithes, first enforced by Charles the Great, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> + +<li>Titles, change of, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.</li> + +<li>Tortona, Frederick I's dealing with the rebels of, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li> + +<li>Transalpine provinces, influence of the Empire in, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li> + +<li>'Translation of the Empire,' <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</li> + +<li>Transubstantiation, <a href="#Page_326">326</a> note.</li> + +<li>Turks, the, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>; + their claim to represent the Roman Empire, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Turpin</span> (Archbishop), <a href="#Page_51">51</a> note.</li> + +<li class="alpha">U.</li> + +<li>University of Prague, foundation of, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li> + +<li>Unity, political, idea of, upheld by the clergy, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Urban IV</span> (Pope), on the right of choosing the Roman king, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li> + +<li class="alpha">V.</li> + +<li>Venice, her attitude, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>; + imperial pretensions towards, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>; + maintains her independence, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li> + +<li>Verdun, partition treaty of, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Vespasian</span>, his dying jest, <a href="#Page_23">23</a> note.</li> + +<li>Vienna, Congress of, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Villani</span> (Matthew), his idea of the Teutonic Emperors, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>; + his etymology of Guelf and Ghibeline, <a href="#Page_304">304</a> note.</li> + +<li>Visigothic kings of Spain, the Empire's rights admitted by the, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li> + +<li class="alpha">W.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Wallenstein</span>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Wenzel</span> of Bohemia, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li> + +<li>Western Empire, its last days, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>; + its extinction by Odoacer, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>; + its restoration, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> + +<li><a name="Westphalia" id="Westphalia">Westphalia</a>, the Peace of, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>; + its advantages to France, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>; + to Sweden, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>; + its importance in imperial history, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Wickliffe</span>, excitement caused by his writings, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">William</span> the Conqueror, letter of Hildebrand to, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Wippo</span>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Witukind</span>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a> note.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Woitech</span> (St. Adalbert), <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> + +<li>World-Monarchy, the idea of a, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>; + influence of metaphysics upon the theory, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.</li> + +<li>World-Religion, the idea of a, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>; + coincides with the World-Empire, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li> + +<li>Worms, Concordant of, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>; + Diet of, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<div class="footnotes"> +<h2 class="fntitle">FOOTNOTES:</h2> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> + The author has in preparation, and hopes before long to +complete and publish, a set of chronological tables which may +be made to serve as a sort of skeleton history of mediæval Germany +and Italy.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> + Reckoning the Anti-pope Felix (<span class="smcap">A.D</span>. 356) as Felix II.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> + Crowned Emperor, but at Bologna, not at Rome.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> + According to the vicious financial +system that prevailed, the <i>curiales</i> +in each city were required to +collect the taxes, and when there +was a deficit, to supply it from +their own property.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> + See the eloquent passage of +Claudian, <i lang="la">In secundum consulatum +Stilichonis</i>, 129, <i>sqq.</i>, from which +the following lines are taken (150-60):—</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1"><span lang="la">'Hæc est in gremio victos quæ sola recepit,</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Humanumque genus communi nomine fovit,</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Matris, non dominæ, ritu; civesque vocavit</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Quos domuit, nexuque pio longinqua revinxit.</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Hujus pacificis debemus moribus omnes</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Quod veluti patriis regionibus utitur hospes:</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Quod sedem mutare licet: quod cernere Thulen</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Lusus, et horrendos quondam penetrare recessus:</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Quod bibimus passim Rhodanum, potamus Oronten,</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Quod cuncti gens una sumus. Nec terminus unquam</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Romanæ ditionis erit.'</span></p> +</div></div> +</div> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> + In the Roman jurisprudence, <i lang="la">ius sacrum</i> is a branch of <i>ius +publicum</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_7" id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> + Tertullian, writing circ. <span class="s08">A.D.</span> +200, says: <span lang="la">'Sed quid ego amplius +de religione atque pietate Christiana +in imperatorem quem necesse +est suspiciamus ut eum quem Dominus +noster elegerit. Et merito +dixerim, noster est magis Cæsar, ut +a nostro Deo constitutus.'</span>—<i>Apologet.</i> +cap. 34.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_8" id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> + See the book of Optatus, bishop +of Milevis, <i lang="la">Contra Donatistas</i>. <span lang="la">'Non +enim respublica est in ecclesia, sed +ecclesia in republica, id est, in imperio +Romano, cum super imperatorem +non sit nisi solus Deus:'</span> (p. +999 of vol. ii. of Migne's <i lang="la">Patrologiæ +Cursus completus</i>.) The +treatise of Optatus is full of interest, +as shewing the growth of the idea +of the visible Church, and of the +primacy of Peter's chair, as constituting +its centre and representing +its unity.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_9" id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Addiderat consilium coercendi intra terminos imperii.'</span>—Tac. +<i>Ann.</i> i. 2.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_10" id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> + Tac. <i>Ann.</i> ii. 9.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_11" id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> + Stilicho, the bulwark of the Empire, seems to have been himself +a Vandal by extraction.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_12" id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> + Of course not the consulship itself, but the <i lang="la">ornamenta consularia</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_13" id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> + Jornandes, <i lang="la">De Rebus Geticis</i>, cap. 28.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_14" id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> + Tac. <i>Hist.</i> i. and iv.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_15" id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Vester quidem est populus +meus sed me plus servire vobis +quam illi præesse delectat. Traxit +istud a proavis generis mei apud +vos decessoresque vestros semper +animo Romana devotio, ut illa +nobis magis claritas putaretur, +quam vestra per militiæ titulos porrigeret +celsitudo: cunctisque auctoribus +meis semper magis ambitum +est quod a principibus sumerent +quam quod a patribus attulissent. +Cumque gentem nostram videamur +regere, non aliud nos quam milites +vestros credimus ordinari.... Per +nos administratis remotarum spatia +regionum: patria nostra vester orbis +est. Tangit Galliam suam lumen +orientis, et radius qui illis partibus +oriri creditur, hic refulget. Dominationem +vobis divinitus præstitam +obex nulla concludit, nec ullis provinciarum +terminis diffusio felicium +sceptrorum limitatur. Salvo divinitatis +honore sit dictum.'</span>—Letter +printed among the works of Avitus, +Bishop of Vienne. (Migne's +<i lang="la">Patrologia</i>, vol. lix. p. 285.)</p> + +<p class="footnote">This letter, as its style shews, +is the composition not of Sigismund +himself, but of Avitus, writing on +Sigismund's behalf. But this makes +it scarcely less valuable evidence +of the feelings of the time.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_16" id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Referre solitus est (<i>sc.</i> Ataulphus) +se in primis ardenter inhiasse: +ut obliterato Romanorum +nomine Romanum omne solum +Gothorum imperium et faceret et +vocaret: essetque, ut vulgariter +loquar, Gothia quod Romania fuisset; +fieretque nunc Ataulphus quod +quondam Cæsar Augustus. At ubi +multa experientia probavisset, neque +Gothos ullo modo parere legibus +posse propter effrenatam barbariem, +neque reipublicæ interdici +leges oportere sine quibus respublica +non est respublica; elegisse se saltem, +ut gloriam sibi de restituendo +in integrum augendoque Romano +nomine Gothorum viribus quæreret, +habereturque apud posteros Romanæ +restitutionis auctor postquam +esse non potuerat immutator. Ob +hoc abstinere a bello, ob hoc inhiare +paci nitebatur.'</span>—Orosius, vii. 43.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_17" id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> + Athaulf formed only to abandon +it.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_18" id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> + See, among other passages, +Varro, <i lang="la">De lingua Latina</i>, iv. 34; +Cic., <i lang="la">Pro Domo</i>, 33; and in the +<i lang="la">Corpus Iuris Civilis</i>, Dig. i. 5, 17; +l. 1, 33; xiv. 2, 9; quoted by +Ægidi, <span lang="de"><i>Der Fürstenrath nach dem +Luneviller Frieden</i></span>. The phrase +<span lang="la">'urbs æterna'</span> appears in a novel +issued by Valentinian III.</p> + +<p class="footnote">Tertullian speaks of Rome as +<span lang="la">'civitas sacrosancta.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_19" id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> + Lact. <i>Divin. Instit.</i> vii. 25: +<span lang="la">'Etiam res ipsa declarat lapsum +ruinamque rerum brevi fore: nisi +quod incolumi urbe Roma nihil +istiusmodi videtur esse metuendum. +At vero cum caput illud orbis occident, +et <span class="greek" title="rhymê">ῥύμη</span> esse cœperit quod +Sibyllæ fore aiunt, quis dubitet +venisse iam finem rebus humanis, +orbique terrarum? Illa, illa est +civitas quæ adhuc sustentat omnia, +precandusque nobis et adorandus +est Deus cœli si tamen statuta eius +et placita differri possunt, ne citius +quam putemus tyrannus ille abominabilis +veniat qui tantum facinus +moliatur, ac lumen illud effodiat +cuius interitu mundus ipse lapsurus +est.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote">Cf. Tertull. <i>Apolog.</i> cap. xxxii: +<span lang="la">'Est et alia maior necessitas nobis +orandi pro imperatoribus, etiam pro +omni statu imperii rebusque Romanis, +qui vim maximam universo +orbi imminentem ipsamque clausulam +sæculi acerbitates horrendas +comminantem Romani imperii commeatu +scimus retardari.'</span> Also the +same writer, <i lang="la">Ad Scapulam</i>, cap. ii: +<span lang="la">'Christianus sciens imperatorem a +Deo suo constitui, necesse est ut +ipsum diligat et revereatur et honoret +et salvum velit cum toto +Romano imperio quousque sæculum +stabit: tamdiu enim stabit.'</span> So too +the author—now usually supposed +to be Hilary the Deacon—of the +Commentary on the Pauline Epistles +ascribed to S. Ambrose: <span lang="la">'Non +prius veniet Dominus quam regni +Romani defectio fiat, et appareat +antichristus qui interficiet sanctos, +reddita Romanis libertate, sub suo +tamen nomine.'</span>—Ad II Thess. ii. +4, 7.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_20" id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> + For example, by the <span lang="la">'restitutio natalium,'</span> and the '<span lang="la">adrogatio per +rescriptum principis,'</span> or, as it is expressed, <span lang="la">'per sacrum oraculum.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_21" id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> + Even the Christian Emperors +took the title of Pontifex Maximus, +till Gratian refused it: <span class="greek" title="athemiston +einai Christianô to schêma nomisas">ἀθέμιστον εἶναι Χριστιάνῳ τὸ σχῆμα νομίσας</span>.—Zosimus, +lib. iv. cap. 36.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_22" id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Maiore formidine et callidiore +timiditate Cæsarem observatis quam +ipsum ex Olympo Iovem, et merito, +si sciatis.... Citius denique apud +vos per omnes Deos quam per unum +genium Cæsaris peieratur.'</span>—Tertull. +<i>Apolog.</i> c. xxviii.</p> + +<p class="footnote">Cf. Zos. v. 51: <span class="greek" title="ei men gar pros +ton theon tetychêkei didomenos horkos, +ên an hôs eikos paridein endidontas +tê tou theou philanthrôpia tên epi +tê asebeia syngnômên. epei de +kata tên tou basileôs omômokesan +kephalês, ouk einai themiton +autois eis ton tosouton horkon examartein.">εἰ μὲν γὰρ πρὸς +τὸν θεὸν τετυχήκει διδόμενος ὅρκος, +ἦν ἂν ὡς εἰκὸς παριδεῖν ἐνδίδοντας +τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ φιλανθρωπίᾳ τὴν ἐπὶ +τῇ ἀσεβείᾳ συγγνώμην. ἐπεὶ δὲ +κατὰ τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως ὀμωμόκεσαν +κεφαλῆς, οὐκ εἶναι θεμιτὸν +αὐτοῖς εἰς τὸν τοσοῦτον ὅρκον ἐξαμαρτεῖν.</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_23" id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> + Tac. <i>Ann.</i> i. 73; iii. 38, etc.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_24" id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> + It is curious that this should +have begun in the first years of the +Empire. See, among other passages +that might be cited from the Augustan +poets, Virg. <i>Georg.</i> i. 42; +iv. 462; Hor. <i>Od.</i> iii. 3, 11; +Ovid, <i>Epp. ex Ponto</i>, iv. 9. 105.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_25" id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> + Hence Vespasian's dying jest, +<span lang="la">'Ut puto, deus fio.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_26" id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> + <span class="greek" title="hopou an ho basileus ê, ekei hê Rhômê">ὅπου ἂν ὁ βασιλεὺς ᾖ, ἐκεῖ ἡ Ῥώμη</span>.—Herodian.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_27" id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> + If the accounts we find of the Armorican republic can be trusted.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_28" id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> + Odoacer or Odovaker, as it +seems his name ought to be written, +is usually, but incorrectly, described +as a King of the Heruli, who led +his people into Italy and overthrew +the Empire of the West; others +call him King of the Rugii, or +Skyrri, or Turcilingi. The truth +seems to be that he was not a king +at all, but the son of a Skyrrian +chieftain (Edecon, known as one of +the envoys whom Attila sent to +Constantinople), whose personal +merits made him chosen by the +barbarian auxiliaries to be their +leader. The Skyrri were a small +tribe, apparently akin to the more +powerful Heruli, whose name is +often extended to them.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_29" id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> + <span class="greek" title="Augoustos ho Orestou huios + akousas Zênôna palin tên basileian + anakektêsthai tês heô ... + ênankase tên boulên aposteilai + presbeian Zênôni sêmainousan hôs + idias men autois basileias ou deoi, + koinos de apochrêsei monos ôn autokratôr + ep' amphoterois tois perasi. + ton mentoi Odoachon hyp' autôn probeblêsthai + hikanon onta sôzein ta + par' autois pragmata politikên + echôn noun kai synesin homou kai + machimon. kai deisthai tou Zênônos + patrikiou te autô aposteilai axian + kai tên tôn Italôn toutô epheinai + dioikêsin">Αὔγουστος ὁ Ὀρέστου υἱὸς + ἀκούσας Ζήνωνα πάλιν τὴν βασιλείαν + ἀνακεκτῆσθαι τῆς ἕω ... + ἠνάγκασε τὴν βουλὴν ἀποστεῖλαι + πρεσβεῖαν Ζήνωνι σημαίνουσαν ὡς + ἰδίας μὲν αὐτοῖς βασιλείας οὐ δέοι, + κοινὸς δὲ ἀποχρήσει μόνος ὢν αὐτοκράτωρ + ἐπ' ἀμφοτέροις τοῖς πέρασι. + τὸν μέντοι Ὀδόαχον ὑπ' αὐτῶν προβεβλῆσθαι + ἱκανὸν ὄντα σώζειν τὰ + παρ' αὐτοῖς πράγματα πολιτικὴν + ἐχὼν νοῦν καὶ σύνεσιν ὁμοῦ καὶ + μάχιμον. καὶ δεῖσθαι τοῦ Ζήνωνος + πατρικίου τε αὐτῷ ἀποστεῖλαι ἀξίαν + καὶ τὴν τῶν Ἰτάλων τουτῷ ἐφεῖναι + διοίκησιν</span>.—Malchus ap. Photium +in <i>Corp. Hist. Byzant.</i></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_30" id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> + Not king of Italy, as is often +said. The barbarian kings did not +for several centuries employ territorial +titles; the title 'king of +France,' for instance, was first used +by Henry IV. Jornandes tells us +that Odoacer never so much as +assumed the insignia of royalty.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_31" id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> + Sismondi, <span lang="fr"><i>Histoire de la Chute +de l'Empire Occidentale</i></span>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_32" id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Nil deest nobis imperio vestro +famulantibus.'</span>—Theodoric to Zeno: +Jornandes, <i lang="la">De Rebus Geticis</i>, cap. +57.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_33" id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Unde et pæne omnibus barbaris +Gothi sapientiores exstiterunt +Græcisque pæne consimiles.'</span>—Jorn. +cap. 5.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_34" id="Footnote_34" href="#FNanchor_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> + Theodoric (Thiodorich) seems +to have resided usually at Ravenna, +where he died and was buried; a remarkable +building which tradition +points out as his tomb stands a little +way out of the town, near the railway +station, but the porphyry sarcophagus, +in which his body is +supposed to have lain, has been +removed thence, and may be seen +built up into the wall of the building +called his palace, situated close +to the church of Sant' Apollinare, +and not far from the tomb of +Dante. There does not appear to +be any sufficient authority for attributing +this building to Ostrogothic +times; it is very different from the +representation of Theodoric's palace +which we have in the contemporary +mosaics of Sant' Apollinare in urbe.</p> + +<p class="footnote">In the German legends, however, +Theodoric is always the prince of +Verona (Dietrich von Berne), no +doubt because that city was better +known to the Teutonic nations, and +because it was thither that he moved +his court when transalpine affairs +required his attention. His castle +there stood in the old town on the +left bank of the Adige, on the +height now occupied by the citadel; +it is doubtful whether any traces of +it remain, for the old foundations +which we now see may have belonged +to the fortress erected by +Gian Galeazzo Visconti in the +fourteenth century.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_35" id="Footnote_35" href="#FNanchor_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Igitur Chlodovechus ab imperatore +Anastasio codicillos de +consulatu accepit, et in basilica +beati Martini tunica blatea indutus +est et chlamyde, imponens vertici +diadema ... et ab ea die tanquam +consul aut (=et) Augustus est vocitatus.'</span>—Gregory +of Tours, ii. 58.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_36" id="Footnote_36" href="#FNanchor_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> + Sir F. Palgrave (<i>English Commonwealth</i>) +considers this grant as +equivalent to a formal ratification +of Clovis' rule in Gaul. Hallam +rates its importance lower (<i>Middle +Ages</i>, note iii. to chap. i.). Taken +in connection with the grant of +south-eastern Gaul to Theodebert +by Justinian, it may fairly be held +to shew that the influence of the +Empire was still felt in these distant +provinces.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_37" id="Footnote_37" href="#FNanchor_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> + Even so early as the middle +of the fifth century, S. Leo the +Great could say to the Roman +people, <span lang="la">'Isti (sc. Petrus et Paulus) +sunt qui te ad hanc gloriam provexerunt +ut gens sancta, populus +electus, civitas sacerdotalis et regia, +per sacram B. Petri sedem caput +orbis effecta latius præsideres religione +divina quam dominatione terrena.'</span>—<i>Sermon +on the feast of +SS. Peter and Paul.</i> (Opp. <i>ap.</i> Migne +tom. i. p. 336.)</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_38" id="Footnote_38" href="#FNanchor_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Ius Romanum est adhuc in +viridi observantia et eo iure præsumitur +quilibet vivere nisi adversum +probetur.'</span>—Maranta, quoted +by Marquard Freher.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_39" id="Footnote_39" href="#FNanchor_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Denique gens Francorum +multos et fœcundissimos fructus +Domino attulit, non solum credendo, +sed et alios salutifere convertendo,'</span> +says the emperor Lewis +II in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 871.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_40" id="Footnote_40" href="#FNanchor_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> + Martin, as in earlier times +Sylverius.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_41" id="Footnote_41" href="#FNanchor_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> + A singular account of the +origin of the separation of the +Greeks and Latins occurs in the +treatise of Radulfus de Columna +(Ralph Colonna, or, as some think, +de Coloumelle), <i lang="la">De translatione Imperii +Romani</i> (circ. 1300). 'The +tyranny of Heraclius,' says he, +'provoked a revolt of the Eastern +nations. They could not be reduced, +because the Greeks at the +same time began to disobey the +Roman Pontiff, receding, like Jeroboam, +from the true faith. Others +among these schismatics (apparently +with the view of strengthening their +political revolt) carried their heresy +further and founded Mohammedanism.' +Similarly, the Franciscan +Marsilius of Padua (circa 1324) says +that Mohammed, 'a rich Persian,' +invented his religion to keep the +East from returning to allegiance to +Rome. It is worth remarking that +few, if any, of the earlier historians +(from the tenth to the fifteenth +century) refer to the Emperors of +the West from Constantine to +Augustulus: the very existence of +this Western line seems to have +been even in the eighth or ninth +century altogether forgotten.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_42" id="Footnote_42" href="#FNanchor_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> + Anastasius, <i lang="la">Vitæ Pontificum +Romanorum</i> i. <i>ap.</i> Muratori.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_43" id="Footnote_43" href="#FNanchor_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> + Letter in <i lang="la">Codex Carolinus</i>, in +Muratori's <i lang="la">Scriptores Rerum Italicarum</i>, +vol. iii. (part 2nd), addressed +<span lang="la">'Subregulo Carolo.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_44" id="Footnote_44" href="#FNanchor_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> + Letter in <i>Cod. Carol.</i> (Mur. +<i>R. S. I.</i> iii. [2.] p. 96), a strange +mixture of earnest adjurations, +dexterous appeals to Frankish +pride, and long scriptural quotations: +<span lang="la">'Declaratum quippe est quod +super omnes gentes vestra Francorum +gens prona mihi Apostolo Dei +Petro exstitit, et ideo ecclesiam +quam mihi Dominus tradidit vobis +per manus Vicarii mei commendavi.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_45" id="Footnote_45" href="#FNanchor_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> + The exact date when Pipin received +the title cannot be made +out. Pope Stephen's next letter +(p. 96 of Mur. iii.) is addressed +<span lang="la">'Pipino, Carolo et Carolomanno +patriciis.'</span> And so the <i lang="la">Chronicon +Casinense</i> (Mur. iv. 273) says it +was first given to Pipin. Gibbon +can hardly be right in attributing +it to Charles Martel, although one +or two documents may be quoted +in which it is used of him. As +one of these is a letter of Pope +Gregory II's, the explanation may +be that the title was offered or intended +to be offered to him, although +never accepted by him.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_46" id="Footnote_46" href="#FNanchor_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> + The title of Patrician appears +even in the remote West: it stands +in a charter of Ina the West Saxon +king, and in one given by Richard +of Normandy in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1015. Ducange, +<i>s.v.</i></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_47" id="Footnote_47" href="#FNanchor_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> + After the <i lang="la">translatio ad Francos</i> +of <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 800, the two Empires +corresponded exactly to the two +Khalifates of Bagdad and Cordova.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_48" id="Footnote_48" href="#FNanchor_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> +</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="i6"><span lang="la">'Plaudentem cerne senatum</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Et Byzantinos proceres, Graiosque Quirites.'</span></p> +<p class="i10"><i>In Eutrop.</i> ii. 135.</p> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_49" id="Footnote_49" href="#FNanchor_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> + Several Emperors during this +period had been patrons of images, +as was Irene at the moment of +which I write: the stain nevertheless +adhered to their government +as a whole.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_50" id="Footnote_50" href="#FNanchor_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> + I should not have thought it +necessary to explain that the sentence +in the text is meant simply +to state what were (so far as can +be made out) the sentiments and +notions of the ninth century, if a +writer in the <i>Tablet</i> (reviewing a +former edition) had not understood +it as an expression of the author's +own belief.</p> + +<p class="footnote">To a modern eye there is of +course no necessary connection between +the Roman Empire and a +catholic and apostolic Church; in +fact, the two things seem rather, +such has been the impression made +on us by the long struggle of +church and state, in their nature +mutually antagonistic. The interest +of history lies not least in this, that +it shews us how men have at different +times entertained wholly +different notions respecting the relation +to one another of the same +ideas or the same institutions.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_51" id="Footnote_51" href="#FNanchor_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> + Monachus Sangallensis, <i lang="la">De +Gestis Karoli</i>; in Pertz, <i lang="la">Monumenta +Germaniæ Historica</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_52" id="Footnote_52" href="#FNanchor_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> + Monachus Sangallensis; <i lang="la">ut +supra</i>. So Pope Gregory the Great +two centuries earlier: <span lang="la">'Quanto +cæteros homines regia dignitas +antecedit, tanto cæterarum gentium +regna regni Francorum culmen +excellit.'</span> Ep. v. 6.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_53" id="Footnote_53" href="#FNanchor_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> + Alciatus, <i lang="la">De Formula imperii +Romani</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_54" id="Footnote_54" href="#FNanchor_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> + Or rather, according to the +then prevailing practice of beginning +the year from Christmas-day, +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 801.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_55" id="Footnote_55" href="#FNanchor_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> + An elaborate description of old +St. Peter's may be found in Bunsen's +and Platner's <span lang="de"><i>Beschreibung der Stadt +Rom</i></span>; with which compare Bunsen's +work on the Basilicas of +Rome.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_56" id="Footnote_56" href="#FNanchor_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> + The primitive custom was for +the bishop to sit in the centre of +the apse, at the central point of +the east end of the church (or, as +it would be more correct to say, +the end furthest from the door) +just as the judge had done in those +law courts on the model of which +the first basilicas were constructed. +This arrangement may still be seen +in some of the churches of Rome, +as well as elsewhere in Italy; nowhere +better than in the churches +of Ravenna, particularly the beautiful +one of Sant' Apollinare in +Classe, and in the cathedral of +Torcello, near Venice.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_57" id="Footnote_57" href="#FNanchor_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> + On this chair were represented +the labours of Hercules and the +signs of the zodiac. It is believed +at Rome to be the veritable chair +of the Apostle himself, and whatever +may be thought of such an +antiquity as this, it can be satisfactorily +traced back to the third +or fourth century of Christianity. +(The story that it is inscribed +with verses from the Koran is, +I believe, without foundation.) +It is now enclosed in a gorgeous +casing of gilded wood (some say, +of bronze), and placed aloft at the +extremity of St. Peter's, just over +the spot where a bishop's chair +would in the old arrangement of +the basilica have stood. The sarcophagus +in which Charles himself +lay, till the French scattered his +bones abroad, had carved on it +the rape of Proserpine. It may +still be seen in the gallery of the +basilica at Aachen.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_58" id="Footnote_58" href="#FNanchor_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> + Eginhard, <i lang="la">Vita Karoli</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_59" id="Footnote_59" href="#FNanchor_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> + The coronation scene is described +in all the annals of the time, +to which it is therefore needless to +refer more particularly.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_60" id="Footnote_60" href="#FNanchor_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> + Before the end of the tenth +century we find the monk Benedict +of Soracte ascribing to Charles +an expedition to Palestine, and +other marvellous exploits. The +romance which passes under the +name of Archbishop Turpin is well +known. All the best stories about +Charles—and some of them are +very good—may be found in the +book of the Monk of St. Gall. +Many refer to his dealings with +the bishops, towards whom he is +described as acting like a good-humoured +schoolmaster.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_61" id="Footnote_61" href="#FNanchor_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> + Baronius, <i>Ann.</i>, ad ann. 800; +Bellarminus, <i lang="la">De translatione imperii +Romani adversus Illyricum</i>; +Spanhemius, <i lang="la">De ficta translatione +imperii</i>; Conringius, <i lang="la">De imperio +Romano Germanico</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_62" id="Footnote_62" href="#FNanchor_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> + See especially Greenwood, <i>Cathedra Petri</i>, vol. iii. p. 109.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_63" id="Footnote_63" href="#FNanchor_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> + <i>Ann. Lauresb. ap.</i> Pertz, <i>M. G. H.</i> i.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_64" id="Footnote_64" href="#FNanchor_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> + <i>Apud</i> Pertz, <i>M. G. H.</i> i.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_65" id="Footnote_65" href="#FNanchor_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> + <i lang="la">Vitæ Pontif.</i> in Mur. <i>S. R. I.</i> +Anastasius in reporting the shout +of the people omits the word +<span lang="la">'Romanorum,'</span> which the other +annalists insert after <span lang="la">'imperatori.'</span> +The balance of probability is certainly +in his favour.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_66" id="Footnote_66" href="#FNanchor_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> + Lorentz, <span lang="de"><i>Leben Alcuins</i></span>. And cf. Döllinger, <span lang="de"><i>Das Kaiserthum Karls +des Grossen und seiner Nachfolger</i></span>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_67" id="Footnote_67" href="#FNanchor_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> + See a very learned and interesting +tract entitled <span lang="de"><i>Das Kaiserthum +Karls des Grossen und seiner Nachfolger</i></span>, +recently published by Dr. v. +Döllinger of Munich.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_68" id="Footnote_68" href="#FNanchor_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> + <span class="greek" title="Apokrisiarioi para Karoullou + kai Leontos aitoumenoi zeuchthênai + autên tô Karoullô pros gamon + kai henôsai ta Heôa kai ta Hesperia."> Ἀποκρισιάριοι παρὰ Καρούλλου + καὶ Λέοντος αἰτούμενοι ζευχθῆναι + αὐτὴν τῷ Καρούλλῳ πρὸς γάμον + καὶ ἑνῶσαι τὰ Ἑωὰ καὶ τὰ Ἑσπερία.</span>—Theoph. +<i>Chron.</i> in <i>Corp. Scriptt. +Hist. Byz.</i></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_69" id="Footnote_69" href="#FNanchor_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> + Their ambassadors at last saluted +him by the desired title +<span lang="la">'Laudes ei dixerunt imperatorem eum +et basileum appellantes.'</span> Eginh. +<i>Ann.</i>, ad ann. 812.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_70" id="Footnote_70" href="#FNanchor_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> + Harun er Rashid; Eginh. <i>Vita +Karoli</i>, c. 16.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_71" id="Footnote_71" href="#FNanchor_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> + So Pope John VIII in a document +quoted by Waitz, <span lang="de"><i>Deutsche +Verfassungs-geschichte</i></span>, iii.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_72" id="Footnote_72" href="#FNanchor_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> + Pertz, <i>M. G. H.</i> iii. (legg. I.)</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_73" id="Footnote_73" href="#FNanchor_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> + Pütter, <i>Historical Development +of the German Constitution</i>; so too +Conring, and esp. David Blondel, +<i>Adv. Chiffletium</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_74" id="Footnote_74" href="#FNanchor_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Græcia capta ferum victorem +cepit,'</span> is repeated in this conquest +of the Teuton by the Roman.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_75" id="Footnote_75" href="#FNanchor_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> + The notion that once prevailed +that the Irminsûl was the 'pillar of +Hermann,' set up on the spot of +the defeat of Varus, is now generally +discredited. Some German +antiquaries take the pillar to be a +rude figure of the native god Irmin; +but nothing seems to be known of +this alleged deity: and it is more +probable that the name Irmin is +after all merely an altered form +of the Keltic word which appears in +Welsh as Hir Vaen, the long stone +(<i>Maen</i>, a stone). Thus the pillar, +so far from being the monument of +the great Teutonic victory, would +commemorate a pre-Teutonic race, +whose name for it the invading +tribes adopted. The Rev. Dr. Scott, +of Westminster, to whose kindness +I am indebted for this explanation, +informs me that a rude ditty recording +the destruction of the pillar +by Charles was current on the spot +a few years ago. It ran thus:—</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1"><span lang="de">'Irmin slad Irmin</span></p> +<p><span lang="de">Sla Pfeifen sla Trommen</span></p> +<p><span lang="de">Der Kaiser wird kommen</span></p> +<p><span lang="de">Mit Hammer und Stangen</span></p> +<p><span lang="de">Wird Irmin uphangen.'</span></p> +</div></div></div> +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_76" id="Footnote_76" href="#FNanchor_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> + Eginhard, <i>Ann</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_77" id="Footnote_77" href="#FNanchor_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> + Most probably the Scots of Ireland—Eginhard, <i>Vita Karoli</i>, cap. 16.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_78" id="Footnote_78" href="#FNanchor_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> + Eginhard, <i>Vita Karoli</i>, cap. 23.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_79" id="Footnote_79" href="#FNanchor_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> + Aix-la-Chapelle. See the lines +in Pertz (<i>M. G. H.</i> ii.), beginning,—</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1"><span lang="la">'Urbs Aquensis, urbs regalis,</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Sedes regni principalis,</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Prima regum curia.'</span></p> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="footnote">This city is commonly called Aken +in English books of the seventeenth +century, and probably that ought to +be taken as its proper English name. +That name has, however, fallen so +entirely into disuse that I do not +venture to use it; and as the employment +of the French name Aix-la-Chapelle +seems inevitably to produce +the belief that the place is +and was, even in Charles's time, a +French town, there is nothing for it +but to fall back upon the comparatively +unfamiliar German name.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_80" id="Footnote_80" href="#FNanchor_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> + Engilenheim, or Ingelheim, lies +near the left shore of the Rhine +between Mentz and Bingen.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_81" id="Footnote_81" href="#FNanchor_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> + Eginhard, <i>Vita Karoli</i>, cap. 29.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_82" id="Footnote_82" href="#FNanchor_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> + Eginhard, <i>Vita Karoli</i>, cap. 17.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_83" id="Footnote_83" href="#FNanchor_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> + It is not a little curious that of +the three whom the modern French +have taken to be their national +heroes all should have been foreigners, +and two foreign conquerors.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_84" id="Footnote_84" href="#FNanchor_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> + This basilica was built upon +the model of the church of the +Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and +as it was the first church of any +size that had been erected in those +regions for centuries past, it excited +extraordinary interest among the +Franks and Gauls. In many of its +features it greatly resembles the +beautiful church of San Vitale, at +Ravenna (also modelled upon that +of the Holy Sepulchre) which was +begun by Theodoric, and completed +under Justinian. Probably +San Vitale was used as a pattern +by Charles's architects: we know +that he caused marble columns to +be brought from Ravenna to deck +the church at Aachen. Over the +tomb of Charles, below the central +dome (to which the Gothic +choir we now see was added some +centuries later), there hangs a huge +chandelier, the gift of Frederick +Barbarossa.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_85" id="Footnote_85" href="#FNanchor_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Romuleum Francis præstitit +imperium.'</span>—Elegy of Ermoldus +Nigellus, in Pertz; <i>M. G. H.</i>, t. i. +So too Florus the Deacon,—</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1"><span lang="la">'Huic etenim cessit etiam gens Romula genti,</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Regnorumque simul mater Roma inclyta cessit:</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Huius ibi princeps regni diademata sumpsit</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Munere apostolico, Christi munimine fretus.'</span></p> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_86" id="Footnote_86" href="#FNanchor_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> + Usage has established this +translation of <span lang="la">'Hludowicus Pius,'</span> +but 'gentle' or 'kind-hearted' +would better express the meaning +of the epithet.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_87" id="Footnote_87" href="#FNanchor_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> + Von Ranke discovers in this +early traces of the aversion of the +Germans to the pretensions of the +spiritual power.—<i>History of Germany +during the Reformation</i>: Introduction.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_88" id="Footnote_88" href="#FNanchor_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> + Singularly enough, when one +thinks of modern claims, the dynasty +of France (Francia occidentalis) +had the least share of it. +Charles the Bald was the only +West Frankish Emperor, and reigned +a very short time.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_89" id="Footnote_89" href="#FNanchor_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> + Tac. <i>Hist.</i> i. 4.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_90" id="Footnote_90" href="#FNanchor_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> + For an account of the various +applications of the name Burgundy, +see <a href="#noteA">Appendix, Note A</a>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_91" id="Footnote_91" href="#FNanchor_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> + The accession of Boso took +place in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 877, eleven years +before Charles the Fat's death. +But the new kingdom could not +be considered legally settled until +the latter date, and its establishment +is at any rate a part of that +general break-up of the great +Carolingian empire whereof <span class="s08">A.D.</span> +888 marks the crisis. See <a href="#noteA">Appendix +A</a> at the end.</p> + +<p class="footnote">It is a curious mark of the reverence +paid to the Carolingian blood, +that Boso, a powerful and ambitious +prince, seems to have chiefly +rested his claims on the fact that +he was husband of Irmingard, +daughter of the Emperor Lewis II. +Baron de Gingins la Sarraz quotes +a charter of his (drawn up when +he seems to have doubted whether +to call himself king) which begins, +<span lang="la">'Ego Boso Dei gratia id quod sum, +et coniux mea Irmingardis proles +imperialis.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_92" id="Footnote_92" href="#FNanchor_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> + Lewis had been surprised by +Berengar at Verona, blinded, and +forced to take refuge in his own +kingdom of Provence.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_93" id="Footnote_93" href="#FNanchor_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> + Alberic is called variously senator, +consul, patrician, and prince of +the Romans.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_94" id="Footnote_94" href="#FNanchor_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> + Adelheid was daughter of Rudolf, +king of Trans-Jurane Burgundy. +She was at this time in +her nineteenth year.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_95" id="Footnote_95" href="#FNanchor_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> + <i>Chron. Moiss.</i>, in Pertz; <i>M. G. H.</i> i. 305.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_96" id="Footnote_96" href="#FNanchor_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> + See especially the poem of +Florus the Deacon (printed in +the Benedictine collection and in +Migne), a bitter lament over the +dissolution of the Carolingian +Empire. It is too long for quotation. +I give four lines here:—</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1"><span lang="la">'Quid faciant populi quos ingens alluit Hister,</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Quos Rhenus Rhodanusque rigant, Ligerisve, Padusve,</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Quos omnes dudum tenuit concordia nexos,</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Foedere nunc rupto divortia moesta fatigant.'</span></p> +</div></div></div> +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_97" id="Footnote_97" href="#FNanchor_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> + Witukind, <i>Annales</i>, in Pertz. +It may, however, be doubted whether +the annalist is not here giving +a very free rendering of the triumphant +cries of the German army.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_98" id="Footnote_98" href="#FNanchor_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> + Cf. esp. the <span lang="la">'<i>Libellus de imperatoria +potestate in urbe Roma</i>,'</span> +in Pertz.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_99" id="Footnote_99" href="#FNanchor_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Licet videamus Romanorum +regnum in maxima parte jam destructum, +tamen quamdiu reges +Francorum duraverint qui Romanum +imperium tenere debent, dignitas +Romani imperii ex toto non +peribit, quia stabit in regibus +suis.'</span>—<i lang="la">Liber de Antichristo</i>, addressed +by Adso, abbot of Moutier-en-Der, +to queen Gerberga (circa +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 950).</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_100" id="Footnote_100" href="#FNanchor_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> + From the money which Otto +struck in Italy, it seems probable +that he did occasionally use the title +of king of Italy or of the Lombards. +That he was crowned can hardly be +considered quite certain.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_101" id="Footnote_101" href="#FNanchor_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'A papa imperator ordinatur,'</span> +says Hermannus Contractus. <span lang="la">'Dominum +Ottonem, ad hoc usque +vocatum regem, non solum Romano +sed et pœne totius Europæ +populo acclamante imperatorem +consecravit Augustum.'</span>—<i>Annal. +Quedlinb.</i>, ad ann. 962. <span lang="la">'Benedictionem +a domno apostolico Iohanne, +cuius rogatione huc venit, cum sua +coniuge promeruit imperialem ac +patronus Romanæ effectus est ecclesiæ.'</span>—Thietmar. +<span lang="la">'Acclamatione +totius Romani populi ab apostolico +Iohanne, filio Alberici, imperator et +Augustus vocatur et ordinatur.'</span>—Continuator +Reginonis. And similarly +the other annalists.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_102" id="Footnote_102" href="#FNanchor_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> + I do not mean to say that the +system of ideas which it is endeavoured +to set forth in the following +pages was complete in this +particular form, either in the days of +Charles or in those of Otto, or in those +of Frederick Barbarossa. It seems +to have been constantly growing and +decaying from the fourth century +to the sixteenth, the relative prominence +of its cardinal doctrines varying +from age to age. But, just as the +painter who sees the ever-shifting +lights and shades play over the face +of a wide landscape faster than his +brush can place them on the canvas, +in despair at representing their +exact position at any single moment, +contents himself with painting +the effects that are broadest +and most permanent, and at giving +rather the impression which the +scene makes on him than every +detail of the scene itself, so here, +the best and indeed the only practicable +course seems to be that of +setting forth in its most self-consistent +form the body of ideas and +beliefs on which the Empire rested, +although this form may not be exactly +that which they can be asserted +to have worn in any one +century, and although the illustrations +adduced may have to be taken +sometimes from earlier, sometimes +from later writers. As the doctrine +of the Empire was in its essence +the same during the whole Middle +Age, such a general description as +is attempted here may, I venture +to hope, be found substantially true +for the tenth as well as for the +fourteenth century.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_103" id="Footnote_103" href="#FNanchor_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> + Empires like the Persian did +nothing to assimilate the subject +races, who retained their own laws +and customs, sometimes their own +princes, and were bound only to +serve in the armies and fill the +treasury of the Great King.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_104" id="Footnote_104" href="#FNanchor_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> + Od. iii. 72:—</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="i2"><span class="greek" title="... ê mapsidiôs alalêsthe,">ἢ μαψίδιως ἀλάλησθε,</span></p> +<p><span class="greek" title="hoia te lêïstêres, hypeir hala, toit' aloôntai">οἷά τε ληϊστῆρες, ὑπεὶρ ἅλα, τοίτ' ἀλόωνται</span></p> +<p><span class="greek" title="psychas parthemenoi, kakon allodapoisi pherontes?"> ψυχὰς παρθέμενοι, κακὸν <b>ἀλλοδαποῖσι</b> φέροντες;</span></p> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="footnote">Cf. Od. ix. 39: and the Hymn to the Pythian Apollo, I. 274. So in II. +v. 214, <span class="greek" title="allotrios phôs">ἀλλότριος φώς</span>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_105" id="Footnote_105" href="#FNanchor_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> + Plato, in the beginning of the +Laws, represents it as natural between +all states: <span class="greek" title="polemos physei +hyparchei pros hapasas tas poleis">πολεμὸς φύσει +ὑπάρχει πρὸς ἁπάσας τὰς πόλεις</span>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_106" id="Footnote_106" href="#FNanchor_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> + See especially Acts xvii. 26; +Gal. iii. 28; Eph. ii. 11, sqq.; iv. +3-6; Col. iii. 11.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_107" id="Footnote_107" href="#FNanchor_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> + This is drawn out by Laurent, +<span lang="fr"><i>Histoire du Droit des Gens</i></span>; and +Ægidi, <span lang="de"><i>Der Fürstenrath nach dem +Luneviller Frieden</i></span>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_108" id="Footnote_108" href="#FNanchor_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Romanos enim vocitant homines +nostræ religionis.'</span>—Gregory of +Tours, quoted by Ægidi, from A. +F. Pott, <i>Essay on the Words 'Römisch,' +'Romanisch,' 'Roman,' +'Romantisch.'</i> So in the Middle +Ages, <span class="greek" title="Rhômaioi">Ῥωμαῖοι</span> is used to mean +Christians, as opposed to <span class="greek" title="Hellênes"> Ἕλληνες</span>, +heathens.</p> + +<p class="footnote">Cf. Ducange, <span lang="la">'Romani olim dicti +qui alias Christiani vel etiam Catholici.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_109" id="Footnote_109" href="#FNanchor_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> + As a reviewer in the <i>Tablet</i> +(whose courtesy it is the more pleasant +to acknowledge since his point +of view is altogether opposed to +mine) has understood this passage +as meaning that 'people imagined +the Christian religion was to last +for ever because the Holy Roman +Empire was never to decay,' it may +be worth while to say that this is +far from being the purport of the +argument which this chapter was +designed to state. The converse +would be nearer the truth:—'people +imagined the Holy Roman Empire +was never to decay, because the +Christian religion was to last for +ever.'</p> + +<p class="footnote">The phenomen may perhaps be +stated thus:—Men who were already +disposed to believe the Roman Empire +to be eternal for one set of reasons, +came to believe the Christian +Church to be eternal for another and, +to them, more impressive set of reasons. +Seeing the two institutions +allied in fact, they took their alliance +and connection to be eternal +also; and went on for centuries +believing in the necessary existence +of the Roman Empire because they +believed in its necessary union with +the Catholic Church.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_110" id="Footnote_110" href="#FNanchor_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> + Augustine, in the <i lang="la">De Civitate +Dei</i>. His influence, great through +all the Middle Ages, was greater on +no one than on Charles.—<span lang="la">'Delectabatur +et libris sancti Augustini, +præcipueque his qui De Civitate Dei +prætitulati sunt.'</span>—Eginhard, <i lang="la">Vita +Karoli</i>, cap. 24.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_111" id="Footnote_111" href="#FNanchor_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Quapropter universorum precibus +fidelium optandum est, ut in +omnem gloriam vestram extendatur +imperium, ut scilicet catholica fides... veraciter in una confessione +cunctorum cordibus infigatur, quatenus +summi Regis donante pietate +eadem sanctæ pacis et perfectæ caritatis +omnes ubique regat et custodiat +unitas.'</span> Quoted by Waitz (<span lang="de"><i>Deutsche +Verfassungsgeschichte</i></span>, ii. 182) from +an unprinted letter of Alcuin.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_112" id="Footnote_112" href="#FNanchor_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> + A curious illustration of this +tendency of mind is afforded by +the descriptions we meet with of +Learning or Theology (<i lang="la">Studium</i>) +as a concrete existence, having a +visible dwelling in the University +of Paris. The three great powers +which rule human life, says one +writer, the Popedom, the Empire, +and Learning, have been severally +entrusted to the three foremost +nations of Europe: Italians, Germans, +French. <span lang="la">'His siquidem tribus, +scilicet sacerdotio imperio et studio, +tanquam tribus virtutibus, videlicet +naturali vitali et scientiali, catholica +ecclesia spiritualiter mirificatur, +augmentatur et regitur. His itaque +tribus, tanquam fundamento, +pariete et tecto, eadem ecclesia +tanquam materialiter proficit. Et +sicut ecclesia materialis uno tantum +fundamento et uno tecto eget, +parietibus vero quatuor, ita imperium +quatuor habet parietes, hoc +est, quatuor imperii sedes, Aquisgranum, +Arelatum, Mediolanum, +Romam.'</span>—<i lang="la">Jordanis Chronica</i>; <i>ap.</i> +Schardius <i lang="la">Sylloge Tractatuum</i>. And +see Döllinger, <span lang="de"><i>Die Vergangenheit +und Gegenwart der katholischen +Theologie</i></span>, p. 8.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_113" id="Footnote_113" href="#FNanchor_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Una est sola respublica totius +populi Christiani, ergo de necessitate +erit et unus solus princeps et rex +illius reipublicæ, statutus et stabilitus +ad ipsius fidei et populi Christiani +dilatationem et defensionem. +Ex qua ratione concludit etiam +Augustinus (<i>De Civitate Dei</i>, lib. +xix.) quod extra ecclesiam nunquam +fuit nec potuit nec poterit esse +verum imperium, etsi fuerint imperatores +qualitercumque et secundum +quid, non simpliciter, qui +fuerunt extra fidem Catholicam et +ecclesiam.'</span>—Engelbert (abbot of +Admont in Upper Austria), <i lang="la">De +Ortu et Fine imperii Romani</i> (circ. +1310).</p> + +<p class="footnote">In this <span lang="la">'de necessitate'</span> everything +is included.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_114" id="Footnote_114" href="#FNanchor_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> + See <a href="#Footnote_37">note f, p. 32</a>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_115" id="Footnote_115" href="#FNanchor_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> + This is admirably brought out by Ægidi, <span lang="de"><i>Der Fürstenrath nach dem +Luneviller Frieden</i></span>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_116" id="Footnote_116" href="#FNanchor_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> + See the original forgery (or +rather the extracts which Gratian +gives from it) in the <i lang="la">Corpus Iuris +Canonici</i>, <i>Dist.</i> xcvi. cc. 13, 14. +<span lang="la">'Et sicut nostram terrenam imperialem +potentiam, sic sacrosanctam +Romanam ecclesiam decrevimus +veneranter honorari, et amplius +quam nostrum imperium et +terrenum thronum sedem beati Petri +gloriose exaltari, tribuentes ei potestatem +et gloriæ dignitatem atque +vigorem et honorificentiam imperialem.... +Beato Sylvestro patri +nostro summo pontifici et universali +urbis Romæ papæ, et omnibus +eius successoribus pontificibus, qui +usque in finem mundi in sede beati +Petri erunt sessuri, de præsenti +contradimus palatium imperii nostri +Lateranense, deinde diadema, videlicet +coronam capitis nostri, simulque +phrygium, necnon et superhumerale, +verum etiam et chlamydem purpuream +et tunicam coccineam, et +omnia imperialia indumenta, sed et +dignitatem imperialem præsidentium +equitum, conferentes etiam et imperialia +sceptra, simulque cuncta +signa atque banda et diversa ornamenta +imperialia et omnem processionem +imperialis culminis et +gloriam potestatis nostræ.... +Et sicut imperialis militia ornatur +ita et clerum sanctæ Romanæ ecclesiæ +ornari decernimus.... Unde +ut pontificalis apex non vilescat sed +magis quam terreni imperii dignitas +gloria et potentia decoretur, ecce +tam palatium nostrum quam Romanam +urbem et omnes Italiæ seu +occidentalium regionum provincias +loca et civitates beatissimo papæ +Sylvestro universali papæ contradimus +atque relinquimus.... +Ubi enim principatus sacerdotum +et Christianæ religionis caput ab +imperatore cœlesti constitutum est, +iustum non est ut illic imperator +terrenus habeat potestatem.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote">The practice of kissing the +Pope's foot was adopted in imitation +of the old imperial court. It +was afterwards revived by the German +Emperors.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_117" id="Footnote_117" href="#FNanchor_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> + Döllinger has shewn in a recent +work (<span lang="de"><i>Die Papst-Fabeln des Mittelalters</i></span>) +that the common belief that +Gregory II excited the revolt against +Leo the Iconoclast is unfounded.</p> + +<p class="footnote">So Anastasius, <span lang="la">'Ammonebat (<i>sc.</i> +Gregorius Secundus) ne a fide vel +amore Romani imperii desisterent.'</span>—<i>Vitæ +Pontif. Rom.</i></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_118" id="Footnote_118" href="#FNanchor_118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> + Of this curious seal, a leaden +one, preserved at Paris, a figure is +given upon the cover of this volume. +There are very few monuments of +that age whose genuineness can be +considered altogether beyond doubt; +but this seal has many respectable +authorities in its favour. See, +among others, Le Blanc, <span lang="fr"><i>Dissertation +historique sur quelques Monnoies +de Charlemagne</i></span>, Paris, 1689; +J. M. Heineccius, <i lang="la">De Veteribus +Germanorum aliarumque nationum +sigillis</i>, Lips. 1709; Anastasius, +<i lang="la">Vitæ Pontificum Romanorum</i>, ed. +Vignoli, Romæ, 1752; Götz, +<i lang="de">Deutschlands Kayser-Münzen des +Mittelalters</i>, Dresden, 1827; and +the authorities cited by Waitz, +<span lang="de"><i>Deutsche Verfassungs-geschichte</i></span>, iii. +179, n. 4.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_119" id="Footnote_119" href="#FNanchor_119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Præterea mirari se dilecta +fraternitas tua quod non Francorum +set Romanorum imperatores +nos appellemus; set scire te convenit +quia nisi Romanorum imperatores +essemus, utique nec Francorum. +A Romanis enim hoc +nomen et dignitatem assumpsimus, +apud quos profecto primum tantæ +culmen sublimitatis effulsit,'</span> &c—<i>Letter +of the Emperor Lewis II to +Basil the Emperor at Constantinople</i>, +from <i>Chron. Salernit. ap.</i> Murat. +<i>S. R. I.</i></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_120" id="Footnote_120" href="#FNanchor_120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Illam (<i>sc.</i> Romanam ecclesiam) +solus ille fundavit, et super +petram fidei mox nascentis erexit, +qui beato æternæ vitæ clavigero +terreni simul et cœlestis imperii +iura commisit.'</span>—<i lang="la">Corpus Iuris +Canonici</i>, <i>Dist.</i> xxii. c. 1. The +expression is not uncommon in +mediæval writers. So <span lang="la">'unum est +imperium Patris et Filii et Spiritus +Sancti, cuius est pars ecclesia constituta +in terris,'</span> in Lewis II's +letter.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_121" id="Footnote_121" href="#FNanchor_121"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Merito summus Pontifex Romanus +episcopus dici potest rex et +sacerdos. Si enim dominus noster +Iesus Christus sic appellatur, non +videtur incongruum suum vocare +successorem. Corporale et temporale +ex spirituali et perpetuo dependet, +sicut corporis operatio ex +virtute animæ. Sicut ergo corpus +per animam habet esse virtutem et +operationem, ita et temporalis iurisdictio +principum per spiritualem +Petri et successorum eius.'</span>—St. +Thomas Aquinas, <i lang="la">De Regimine +Principum</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_122" id="Footnote_122" href="#FNanchor_122"><span class="label">[122]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Nonne Romana ecclesia tenetur +imperatori tanquam suo patrono, +et imperator ecclesiam fovere et +defensare tanquam suus vere patronus? +certe sic.... Patronis +vero concessum est ut prælatos in +ecclesiis sui patronatus eligant. +Cum ergo imperator onus sentiat +patronatus, ut qui tenetur eam defendere, +sentire debet honorem et +emolumentum.'</span> I quote this from +a curious document in Goldast's +collection of tracts (<i lang="la">Monarchia Imperii</i>), +entitled '<i>Letter of the four +Universities, Paris, Oxford, Prague, +and the <span lang="la">"Romana generalitas,"</span> to the +Emperor Wenzel and Pope Urban</i>,' +<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1380. The title can scarcely +be right, but if the document is, +as in all probability it is, not later +than the fifteenth century, its being +misdescribed, or even its being a +forgery, does not make it less valuable +as an evidence of men's ideas.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_123" id="Footnote_123" href="#FNanchor_123"><span class="label">[123]</span></a> + So Leo III in a charter issued +on the day of Charles's coronation: +<span lang="la">'... actum in præsentia gloriosi +atque excellentissimi filii nostri +Caroli quem auctore Deo in defensionem +et provectionem sanctæ +universalis ecclesiæ hodie Augustum +sacravimus.'</span>—Jaffé <i lang="la">Regesta Pontificum +Romanorum</i>, ad ann. 800.</p> + +<p class="footnote">So, indeed, Theodulf of Orleans, +a contemporary of Charles, ascribes +to the Emperor an almost papal authority +over the Church itself:—</p> +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poem"> +<div class="footnote"> +<p class="o1"><span lang="la">'Cœli habet hic (<i>sc.</i> Papa) claves, proprias te iussit habere;</span></p> +<p class="i1"><span lang="la">Tu regis ecclesiæ, nam regit ille poli;</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Tu regis eius opes, clerum populumque gubernas,</span></p> +<p class="i1"><span lang="la">Hic te cœlicolas ducet ad usque choros.'</span></p> +<p class="i10">In D. Bouquet, v. 415.</p> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_124" id="Footnote_124" href="#FNanchor_124"><span class="label">[124]</span></a> + Perhaps at no more than +three: in the time of Charles and +Leo; again under Otto III and +his two Popes, Gregory V and Sylvester +II; thirdly, under Henry +III; certainly never thenceforth.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_125" id="Footnote_125" href="#FNanchor_125"><span class="label">[125]</span></a> + <i>The Sachsenspiegel</i> (<i lang="la">Speculum +Saxonicum</i>, circ. <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1240), the +great North-German law book, +says, 'The Empire is held from +God alone, not from the Pope. +Emperor and Pope are supreme +each in what has been entrusted +to him: the Pope in what concerns +the soul; the Emperor in all that +belongs to the body and to knighthood.' +<i>The Schwabenspiegel</i>, compiled +half a century later, subordinates +the prince to the pontiff: +<span lang="de">'Daz weltliche Schwert des Gerichtes +daz lihet der Babest dem +Chaiser; daz geistlich ist dem +Babest gesetzt daz er damit richte.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_126" id="Footnote_126" href="#FNanchor_126"><span class="label">[126]</span></a> + So Boniface VIII in the bull +<i lang="la">Unam Sanctam</i>, will have but one +head for the Christian people. +<span lang="la">'Igitur ecclesiæ unius et unicæ +unum corpus, unum caput, non duo +capita quasi monstrum.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_127" id="Footnote_127" href="#FNanchor_127"><span class="label">[127]</span></a> + St. Bernard writes to Conrad +III: <span lang="la">'Non veniat anima mea in +consilium eorum qui dicunt vel imperio +pacem et libertatem ecclesiæ +vel ecclesiæ prosperitatem et exaltationem +imperii nocituram.'</span> So in +the <i lang="la">De Consideratione</i>: <span lang="la">'Si utrumque +simul habere velis, perdes +utrumque,'</span> of the papal claim to +temporal and spiritual authority, +quoted by Gieseler.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_128" id="Footnote_128" href="#FNanchor_128"><span class="label">[128]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Sedens in solio armatus et cinctus +ensem, habensque in capite Constantini +diadema, stricto dextra capulo +ensis accincti, ait: "Numquid +ego summus sum pontifex? nonne +ista est cathedra Petri? Nonne +possum imperii iura tutari? ego sum Cæsar, +ego sum imperator."'</span>—Fr. Pipinus +(ap. Murat. <i>S. R. I.</i> ix.) l. iv. c. 47. +These words, however, are by this +writer ascribed to Boniface, when +receiving the envoys of the emperor +Albert I, in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1299. I have not +been able to find authority for their +use at the jubilee, but give the current +story for what it is worth.</p> + +<p class="footnote">It has been suggested that Dante +may be alluding to this sword scene +in a well-known passage of the +Purgatorio (xvi. l. 106):—</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1"><span lang="it">'Soleva Roma, che 'l buon mondo feo</span></p> +<p class="i1"><span lang="it">Duo Soli aver, che l' una e l' altra strada</span></p> +<p class="i1"><span lang="it">Facean vedere, e del mondo e di Deo.</span></p> +<p><span lang="it">L' un l' altro ha spento, ed è giunta la spada</span></p> +<p class="i1"><span lang="it">Col pastorale: e l' un coll altro insieme</span></p> +<p class="i1"><span lang="it">Per viva forzu mal convien che vada.'</span></p> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_129" id="Footnote_129" href="#FNanchor_129"><span class="label">[129]</span></a> + See especially Peter de Andlo +(<i lang="la">De Imperio Romano</i>); Ralph +Colonna (<i lang="la">De translatione Imperii +Romani</i>); Dante (<i lang="la">De Monarchia</i>); +Engelbert (<i lang="la">De Ortu et Fine Imperii +Romani</i>); Marsilius Patavinus +(<i lang="la">De translatione Imperii Romani</i>); +Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini (<i lang="la">De Ortu +et Authoritate Imperii Romani</i>); +Zoannetus (<i lang="la">De Imperio Romano +atque ejus Iurisdictione</i>); and the +writers in Schardius's <i>Sylloge</i>, and +in Goldast's Collection of Tracts, +entitled <i lang="la">Monarchia Imperii</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_130" id="Footnote_130" href="#FNanchor_130"><span class="label">[130]</span></a> + Letter of Lewis II to Basil the +Macedonian, in <i>Chron. Salernit.</i> in +Mur. <i>S. R. I.</i>; also given by Baronius, +<i>Ann. Eccl.</i> ad ann. 871.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_131" id="Footnote_131" href="#FNanchor_131"><span class="label">[131]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Ad summum dignitatis pervenisti: +Vicarius es Christi.'</span>—Wippo, +<i lang="la">Vita Chuonradi</i> (<i>ap.</i> Pertz), +c. 3.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_132" id="Footnote_132" href="#FNanchor_132"><span class="label">[132]</span></a> + Letter in Radewic, <i>ap.</i> Murat, +<i>S. R. I.</i></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_133" id="Footnote_133" href="#FNanchor_133"><span class="label">[133]</span></a> + Lewis IV is styled in one of +his proclamations, <span lang="la">'Gentis humanæ, +orbis Christiani custos, urbi et orbi +a Deo electus præesse.'</span>—Pfeffinger, +<i lang="la">Vitriarius Illustratus</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_134" id="Footnote_134" href="#FNanchor_134"><span class="label">[134]</span></a> + In a document issued by the +Diet of Speyer (<span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1529) the +Emperor is called <span lang="de">'Oberst, Vogt, und +Haupt der Christenheit.'</span> Hieronymus +Balbus, writing about the same +time, puts the question whether all +Christians are subject to the Emperor +in temporal things, as they +are to the Pope in spiritual, and +answers it by saying, <span lang="la">'Cum ambo +ex eodem fonte perfluxerint et +eadem semita incedant, de utroque +idem puto sentiendum.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_135" id="Footnote_135" href="#FNanchor_135"><span class="label">[135]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Non magis ad Papam depositio +seu remotio pertinet quam +ad quoslibet regum prælatos, qui +reges suos prout assolent, consecrant +et inungunt.'</span>—<i>Letter of Frederick +II</i> (lib. i. c. 3).</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_136" id="Footnote_136" href="#FNanchor_136"><span class="label">[136]</span></a> + <i lang="la">Liber Ceremonialis Romanus</i>, +lib. i. sect. 5; with which compare +the <i lang="la">Coronatio Romana</i> of Henry +VII, in Pertz, and Muratori's Dissertation +in vol. i. of the <i lang="la">Antiquitates +Italiæ Medii Ævi</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_137" id="Footnote_137" href="#FNanchor_137"><span class="label">[137]</span></a> + See Goldast, <i>Collection of Imperial +Constitutions</i>; and Moser, +<span lang="de"><i>Römische Kayser</i></span>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_138" id="Footnote_138" href="#FNanchor_138"><span class="label">[138]</span></a> + The abbot Engelbert (<i lang="la">De Ortu +et Fine Imperii Romani</i>) quotes +Origen and Jerome to this effect, +and proceeds himself to explain, +from 2 Thess. ii., how the falling +away will precede the coming of +Antichrist. There will be a triple +<span lang="la">'discessio,'</span> of the kingdoms of the +earth from the Roman Empire, of +the Church from the Apostolic See, +of the faithful from the faith. Of +these, the first causes the second; +the temporal sword to punish heretics +and schismatics being no longer +ready to work the will of the rulers +of the Church.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_139" id="Footnote_139" href="#FNanchor_139"><span class="label">[139]</span></a> + A full statement of the views +that prevailed in the earlier Middle +Age regarding Antichrist—as well +as of the singular prophecy of the +Frankish Emperor who shall appear +in the latter days, conquer the +world, and then going to Jerusalem +shall lay down his crown on the +Mount of Olives and deliver over +the kingdom to Christ—may be +found in the little treatise, <i lang="la">Vita +Antichristi</i>, which Adso, monk and +afterwards abbot of Moutier-en-Der, +compiled (cir. 950) for the +information of Queen Gerberga, +wife of Louis d'Outremer. Antichrist +is to be born a Jew of the +tribe of Dan (Gen. xlix. 17), <span lang="la">'non +de episcopo et monacha, sicut alii +delirando dogmatizant, sed de immundissima +meretrice et crudelissimo +nebulone. Totus in peccato +concipietur, in peccato generabitur, +in peccato nascetur.'</span> His birthplace +is Babylon: he is to be +brought up in Bethsaida and Chorazin.</p> + +<p class="footnote">Adso's book may be found printed +in Migne, t. ci. p. 1290.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_140" id="Footnote_140" href="#FNanchor_140"><span class="label">[140]</span></a> + S. Thomas explains the prophecy +in a remarkable manner, +shewing how the decline of the +Empire is no argument against its +fulfilment. <span lang="la">'Dicendum quod nondum +cessavit, sed est commutatum +de temporali in spirituale, ut dicit +Leo Papa in sermone de Apostolis: +et ideo discessio a Romano imperio +debet intelligi non solum a temporali +sed etiam a spirituali, scilicit +a fide Catholica Romanæ Ecclesiæ. +Est autem hoc conveniens signum +nam Christus venit, quando Romanum +imperium omnibus dominabatur: +ita e contra signum adventus +Antichristi est discessio ab eo.'</span>—<i>Comment. +ad 2 Thess.</i> ii.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_141" id="Footnote_141" href="#FNanchor_141"><span class="label">[141]</span></a> + See <a href="#Footnote_149">note z, page 119</a>. The +Papal party sometimes insisted that +both swords were given to Peter, +while the imperialists assigned the +temporal sword to John. Thus a +gloss to the <span lang="de"><i>Sachsenspiegel</i></span> says, +<span lang="de">'Dat eine svert hadde Sinte Peter, +dat het nu de paves: dat andere hadde +Johannes, dat het nu de keyser.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_142" id="Footnote_142" href="#FNanchor_142"><span class="label">[142]</span></a> + 2 Thess. ii. 7.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_143" id="Footnote_143" href="#FNanchor_143"><span class="label">[143]</span></a> + St. Augustine, however, though +he states the view (applying the +passage to the Roman Empire) +which was generally received in +the Middle Ages, is careful not +to commit himself positively to +it.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_144" id="Footnote_144" href="#FNanchor_144"><span class="label">[144]</span></a> + <i lang="la">Jordanis Chronica</i> (written towards the close of the thirteenth +century).</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_145" id="Footnote_145" href="#FNanchor_145"><span class="label">[145]</span></a> + Compare with this the words +which Pope Hadrian I. had used +some twenty-three years before, of +Charles as representative of Constantine: +<span lang="la">'Et sicut temporibus +Beati Sylvestri, Romani pontificis, +a sanctæ recordationis piissimo +Constantino magno imperatore, per +eius largitatem sancta Dei catholica +et apostolica Romana ecclesia elevata +atque exaltata est, et potestatem +in his Hesperiæ partibus +largiri dignatus est, ita et in his +vestris felicissimis temporibus atque +nostris, sancta Dei ecclesia, id est, +beati Petri apostoli germinet atque +exsultet, ut omnes gentes quæ hæc +audierint edicere valeant, 'Domine +salvum fac regem, et exaudi nos in +die in qua invocaverimus te;' quia +ecce novus Christianissimus Dei +Constantinus imperator his temporibus +surrexit, per quem omnia +Deus sanctæ suæ ecclesiæ beati +apostolorum principis Petri largiri +dignatus est.'</span>—<i>Letter XLIX of Cod. +Carol.</i>, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 777 (in Mur. <i lang="la">Scriptores +Rerum Italicarum</i>).</p> + +<p class="footnote">This letter is memorable as containing +the first allusion, or what +seems an allusion, to Constantine's +Donation.</p> + +<p class="footnote">The phrase <span lang="la">'sancta Dei ecclesia, +id est, B. Petri apostoli,'</span> is worth +noting.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_146" id="Footnote_146" href="#FNanchor_146"><span class="label">[146]</span></a> + The church in which the opening +scene of Boccaccio's <i>Decameron</i> +is laid.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_147" id="Footnote_147" href="#FNanchor_147"><span class="label">[147]</span></a> + So Kugler (Eastlake's ed. vol. i. +p. 144), and so also Messrs. Crowe +and Cavalcaselle, in their <i>New History +of Painting in Italy</i>, vol. ii. +pp. 85 <i>sqq.</i></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_148" id="Footnote_148" href="#FNanchor_148"><span class="label">[148]</span></a> + <span lang="la">Domini canes</span>. Spotted because +of their black-and-white +raiment.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_149" id="Footnote_149" href="#FNanchor_149"><span class="label">[149]</span></a> + There is of course a great deal +more detail in the picture, which +it does not appear necessary to +describe. St. Dominic is a conspicuous +figure.</p> + +<p class="footnote">It is worth remarking that the +Emperor, who is on the Pope's left +hand, and so made slightly inferior +to him while superior to every one +else, holds in his hand, instead of +the usual imperial globe, a death's +head, typifying the transitory nature +of his power.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_150" id="Footnote_150" href="#FNanchor_150"><span class="label">[150]</span></a> + Although this was of course +never his legal title. Till 1806 +he was <span lang="la">'Romanorum Imperator +semper Augustus;'</span> <span lang="de">'Römischer +Kaiser.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_151" id="Footnote_151" href="#FNanchor_151"><span class="label">[151]</span></a> + Pütter, <i lang="la">Dissertationes de Instauratione +Imperii Romani</i>; cf. +Goldast's <i>Collection of Constitutions</i>; +and the proclamations and other +documents collected in Pertz, +<i>M. G. H.</i> legg. I.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_152" id="Footnote_152" href="#FNanchor_152"><span class="label">[152]</span></a> + Pütter (<i lang="la">De Instauratione Imperii +Romani</i>) will have it that upon +this mistake, as he calls it, of Otto's, +the whole subsequent history of the +Empire turned; that if Otto had +but continued to style himself <span lang="la">'Francorum +Rex,'</span> Germany would have +been spared all her Italian wars.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_153" id="Footnote_153" href="#FNanchor_153"><span class="label">[153]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Iohannes episcopus, servus servorum +Dei, omnibus episcopis. Nos +audivimus dicere quia vos vultis +alium papam facere: si hoc facitis, +da Deum omnipotentem excommunico +vos, ut non habeatis licentiam +missam celebrare aut nullum ordinare.'</span>—Liudprand, +<i lang="la">ut supra</i>. The +'da' is curious, as shewing the +progress of the change from Latin +to Italian. The answer sent by +Otto and the council takes exception +to the double negative.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_154" id="Footnote_154" href="#FNanchor_154"><span class="label">[154]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Cives fidelitatem promittunt +hæc addentes et firmiter iurantes +nunquam se papam electuros aut +ordinaturos præter consensum atque +electionem domini imperatoris Ottonis +Cæsaris Augusti filiique ipsius +Ottonis.'</span>—Liudprand, <i lang="la">Gesta Ottonis</i>, +lib. vi.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_155" id="Footnote_155" href="#FNanchor_155"><span class="label">[155]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'In timporibus adeo a dyabulo +est percussus ut infra dierum octo +spacium eodem sit in vulnere mortuus,'</span> +says the chronicler, crediting +with but little of his wonted cleverness +the supposed author of John's +death, who well might have desired +a long life for so useful a +servant.</p> + +<p class="footnote">He adds a detail too characteristic +of the time to be omitted—<span lang="la">'Sed +eucharistiæ viaticum, ipsius +instinctu qui eum percusserat, non +percepit.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_156" id="Footnote_156" href="#FNanchor_156"><span class="label">[156]</span></a> + <i lang="la">Corpus Iuris Canonici</i>, Dist. +lxiii., <span lang="la">'<i>In synodo</i>.'</span> A decree which +is probably substantially genuine, +although the form in which we +have it is evidently of later date.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_157" id="Footnote_157" href="#FNanchor_157"><span class="label">[157]</span></a> + Cf. St. Peter Damiani's lines—</p> + + <div class="footnote"> + <div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poem"> + <p class="o1"><span lang="la">'Roma vorax hominum domat ardua colla virorum,</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Roma ferax febrium necis est uberrima frugum,</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Romanæ febres stabili sunt iure fideles.'</span></p> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_158" id="Footnote_158" href="#FNanchor_158"><span class="label">[158]</span></a> + There was a separate chancellor for Italy, as afterwards for the +kingdom of Burgundy.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_159" id="Footnote_159" href="#FNanchor_159"><span class="label">[159]</span></a> + Liudprand, <i lang="la">Legatio Constantinopolitana</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_160" id="Footnote_160" href="#FNanchor_160"><span class="label">[160]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Sancti imperii nostri olim +servos principes, Beneventanum +scilicet, tradat,'</span> &c. The epithet +is worth noticing.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_161" id="Footnote_161" href="#FNanchor_161"><span class="label">[161]</span></a> + Liudprand calls the Eastern +Franks <span lang="la">'Franci Teutonici'</span> to distinguish +them from the Romanized +Franks of Gaul or <span lang="la">'Francigenæ,'</span> +as they were frequently called. The +name 'Frank' seems even so early +as the tenth century to have been +used in the East as a general name +for the Western peoples of Europe. +Liudprand says that the Greek +Emperor included <span lang="la">'sub Francorum +nomine tam Latinos quam Teutonicos.'</span> +Probably this use dates +from the time of Charles.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_162" id="Footnote_162" href="#FNanchor_162"><span class="label">[162]</span></a> + Conring, <i lang="la">De Finibus Imperii</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_163" id="Footnote_163" href="#FNanchor_163"><span class="label">[163]</span></a> + Basileus was a favourite title of +the English kings before the Conquest. +Titles like this used in these +early English charters prove, it need +hardly be said, absolutely nothing +as to the real existence of any +rights or powers of the English +king beyond his own borders. What +they do prove (over and above the +taste for florid rhetoric in the royal +clerks) is the impression produced +by the imperial style, and by the +idea of the emperor's throne as supported +by the thrones of kings and +other lesser potentates.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_164" id="Footnote_164" href="#FNanchor_164"><span class="label">[164]</span></a> + The coins of Crescentius are +said to exhibit the insignia of the +old Empire.—Palgrave, <i>Normandy +and England</i>, i. 715. But probably +some at least of them are forgeries.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_165" id="Footnote_165" href="#FNanchor_165"><span class="label">[165]</span></a> + Proclamation in Pertz, <i>M. G. H.</i> ii.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_166" id="Footnote_166" href="#FNanchor_166"><span class="label">[166]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Imperator antiquam Romanorum +consuetudinem iam ex magna +parte deletam suis cupiens renovare +temporibus multa faciebat quæ diversi +diverse sentiebant.'</span>—Thietmar, +<i>Chron.</i> ix.; ap. Pertz, <i>M. G. H.</i> t. iii.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_167" id="Footnote_167" href="#FNanchor_167"><span class="label">[167]</span></a> + <i lang="la">Annales Quedlinb.</i>, ad ann. +1002.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_168" id="Footnote_168" href="#FNanchor_168"><span class="label">[168]</span></a> + Henry had already entered +Italy in 1004.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_169" id="Footnote_169" href="#FNanchor_169"><span class="label">[169]</span></a> + <i lang="la">Annales Beneventani</i>, in Pertz, <i>M. G. H.</i></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_170" id="Footnote_170" href="#FNanchor_170"><span class="label">[170]</span></a> + See <a href="#noteA">Appendix, Note A</a>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_171" id="Footnote_171" href="#FNanchor_171"><span class="label">[171]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Roma per sedem Beati Petri caput orbis effecta.'</span>—See <a href="#Footnote_37">note <i>i</i>, +p. 32</a>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_172" id="Footnote_172" href="#FNanchor_172"><span class="label">[172]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Claves tibi <i>ad regnum</i> dimisimus.'</span>—Pope +Stephen to Charles +Martel, in <i lang="la">Codex Carolinus</i>, ap. +Muratori, <i>S. R. I.</i> iii. Some, however, +prefer to read <span lang="la">'ad rogum.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_173" id="Footnote_173" href="#FNanchor_173"><span class="label">[173]</span></a> + <i lang="la">Corpus Iuris Canonici</i>, Dist. +lxiii. c. 22.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_174" id="Footnote_174" href="#FNanchor_174"><span class="label">[174]</span></a> + Dist. lxiii. c. 30. This decree +is, however, in all probability spurious.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_175" id="Footnote_175" href="#FNanchor_175"><span class="label">[175]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Nos elegimus merito et approbavimus +una cum annisu et voto +patrum amplique senatus et gentis +togatæ,'</span> &c., ap. Baron. <i>Ann. Eccl.</i>, +ad ann. 876.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_176" id="Footnote_176" href="#FNanchor_176"><span class="label">[176]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Divina vos pietas B. principum +apostolorum Petri et Pauli interventione +per vicarium ipsorum +dominum Ioannem summum pontificem... ad imperiale culmen +S. Spiritus iudicio provexit.'</span>—<i>Concil. +Ticinense</i>, in Mur., <i>S. R. I.</i> +ii.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_177" id="Footnote_177" href="#FNanchor_177"><span class="label">[177]</span></a> + Strictly speaking, Henry was at this time only king of the Romans: +he was not crowned Emperor at Rome till 1084.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_178" id="Footnote_178" href="#FNanchor_178"><span class="label">[178]</span></a> + Letter of Gregory VII to William I, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1080. I quote from Migne, +t. cxlviii. p. 568.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_179" id="Footnote_179" href="#FNanchor_179"><span class="label">[179]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Gradum statim post Principes +Electores.'</span>—Frederick I's Privilege +of Austria, in Pertz, <i>M. G. H.</i> legg. +ii.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_180" id="Footnote_180" href="#FNanchor_180"><span class="label">[180]</span></a> + Hohenstaufen is a castle in +what is now the kingdom of Würtemberg, +about four miles from the +Göppingen station of the railway +from Stuttgart to Ulm. It stands, +or rather stood, on the summit of +a steep and lofty conical hill, commanding +a boundless view over the +great limestone plateau of the +Rauhe Alp, the eastern declivities +of the Schwartzwald, and the bare +and tedious plains of western Bavaria. +Of the castle itself, destroyed +in the Peasants' War, there +remain only fragments of the wall-foundations: +in a rude chapel lying +on the hill slope below are some +strange half-obliterated frescoes; +over the arch of the door is inscribed +<span lang="la">'Hic transibat Cæsar.'</span> Frederick +Barbarossa had another famous +palace at Kaiserslautern, a small town +in the Palatinate, on the railway +from Mannheim to Treves, lying in +a wide valley at the western foot of +the Hardt mountains. It was destroyed +by the French and a +house of correction has been built +upon its site; but in a brewery +hard by may be seen some of the +huge low-browed arches of its lower +story.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_181" id="Footnote_181" href="#FNanchor_181"><span class="label">[181]</span></a> + A great deal of importance seems to have been attached to this +symbolic act of courtesy. See Art. I of the <span lang="de">Sachsenspiegel</span>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_182" id="Footnote_182" href="#FNanchor_182"><span class="label">[182]</span></a> + Letter to the German bishops in Radewic; Mur., <i>S. R. I.</i>, t. vi. +p. 833.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_183" id="Footnote_183" href="#FNanchor_183"><span class="label">[183]</span></a> + A picture in the great hall of the ducal palace (the <span lang="it">Sala del Maggio +Consiglio</span>) represents the scene. See Rogers' Italy.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_184" id="Footnote_184" href="#FNanchor_184"><span class="label">[184]</span></a> + Psalm xci.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_185" id="Footnote_185" href="#FNanchor_185"><span class="label">[185]</span></a> + Document of 1230, quoted by +Von Raumer, v. p. 81.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_186" id="Footnote_186" href="#FNanchor_186"><span class="label">[186]</span></a> + Speech of archbishop of Milan, +in Radewic; Mur. vi.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_187" id="Footnote_187" href="#FNanchor_187"><span class="label">[187]</span></a> + Frederick's election (at Frankfort) +was made <span lang="la">'non sine quibusdam +Italiæ baronibus.'</span>—Otto Fris. i. +But this was the exception.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_188" id="Footnote_188" href="#FNanchor_188"><span class="label">[188]</span></a> + See also <a href="#Page_269"><i>post</i>, Chapter XVI.</a></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_189" id="Footnote_189" href="#FNanchor_189"><span class="label">[189]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Senatus Populusque Romanus +urbis et orbis totius domino Conrado.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_190" id="Footnote_190" href="#FNanchor_190"><span class="label">[190]</span></a> + Otto of Freysing.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_191" id="Footnote_191" href="#FNanchor_191"><span class="label">[191]</span></a> + Later in his reign, Frederick +condescended to negotiate with +these Roman magistrates against +a hostile Pope, and entered into +a sort of treaty by which they +were declared exempt from all +jurisdiction but his own.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_192" id="Footnote_192" href="#FNanchor_192"><span class="label">[192]</span></a> + See the first note to Shelley's +<i>Hellas</i>. Sismondi is mainly answerable +for this conception of Barbarossa's +position.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_193" id="Footnote_193" href="#FNanchor_193"><span class="label">[193]</span></a> + They say rebelliously, says +Frederick, <span lang="la">'Nolumus hunc regnare +super nos ... at nos maluimus +honestam mortem quam ut,'</span> &c.—Letter +in Pertz. <i>M. G. H.</i> legg. ii.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_194" id="Footnote_194" href="#FNanchor_194"><span class="label">[194]</span></a> +</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1"><span lang="la">'De tributo Cæsaris nemo cogitabat;</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Omnes erant Cæsares, nemo censum dabat;</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Civitas Ambrosii, velut Troia, stabat,</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Deos parum, homines minus formidabat.'</span></p> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="footnote">Poems relating to the Emperor Frederick of Hohenstaufen, published by +Grimm.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_195" id="Footnote_195" href="#FNanchor_195"><span class="label">[195]</span></a> + Charles the Great was canonized +by Frederick's anti-pope and +confirmed afterwards.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_196" id="Footnote_196" href="#FNanchor_196"><span class="label">[196]</span></a> + <i lang="la">Acta Concil. Hartzhem.</i> iii., +quoted by Von Raumer, ii. 6.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_197" id="Footnote_197" href="#FNanchor_197"><span class="label">[197]</span></a> + Poems relating to Frederick I, +<i lang="la">ut supra</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_198" id="Footnote_198" href="#FNanchor_198"><span class="label">[198]</span></a> + The carroccio was a waggon +with a flagstaff planted on it, which +served the Lombards for a rallying-point +in battle.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_199" id="Footnote_199" href="#FNanchor_199"><span class="label">[199]</span></a> + Lübeck, Hamburg, Bremen, +and Frankfort.</p> + +<p class="footnote">[Since this was first written +Frankfort has been annexed by +Prussia, and her three surviving +sisters have, by their entrance into +the North German confederation, +lost something of their independence.]</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_200" id="Footnote_200" href="#FNanchor_200"><span class="label">[200]</span></a> + The legend is one which appears +under various forms in many +countries.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_201" id="Footnote_201" href="#FNanchor_201"><span class="label">[201]</span></a> + 'Pruzzi,' says the biographer +of St. Adalbert, <span lang="la">'quorum Deus est +venter et avaritia iuncta cum +morte.'</span>—<i>M. G. H.</i> t. iv.</p> + +<p class="footnote">It is curious that this non-Teutonic +people should have given +their name to the great German +kingdom of the present.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_202" id="Footnote_202" href="#FNanchor_202"><span class="label">[202]</span></a> + Conring, <i lang="la">De Finibus Imperii</i>. +It is hardly necessary to observe +that the connection of Hungary +with the Hapsburgs is of comparatively +recent origin, and of a purely +dynastic nature. The position of +the archdukes of Austria as kings +of Hungary had nothing to do +legally with the fact that many of +them were also chosen Emperors, +although practically their possession +of the imperial crown had greatly +aided them in grasping and retaining +the thrones of Hungary and +Bohemia.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_203" id="Footnote_203" href="#FNanchor_203"><span class="label">[203]</span></a> + Cf. Pfeffel, <span lang="fr"><i>Abrégé Chronologique</i></span>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_204" id="Footnote_204" href="#FNanchor_204"><span class="label">[204]</span></a> + Letter of Frederick I to Otto +of Freising, prefixed to the latter's +History. This king is also called +Sweyn.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_205" id="Footnote_205" href="#FNanchor_205"><span class="label">[205]</span></a> + See <a href="#noteB">Appendix, Note B</a>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_206" id="Footnote_206" href="#FNanchor_206"><span class="label">[206]</span></a> + Albertus Stadensis apud Conringium, <i lang="la">De Finibus Imperii</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_207" id="Footnote_207" href="#FNanchor_207"><span class="label">[207]</span></a> + There is an allusion to this in +the poems of the Cid. Arthur +Duck, <i lang="la">De Usu et Authoritate Iuris +Civilis</i>, quotes the view of some +among the older jurists, that Spain +having been, as far as the Romans +were concerned, a <i lang="la">res derelicta</i>, recovered +by the Spaniards themselves +from the Moors, and thus acquired +by <i lang="la">occupatio</i>, ought not to be subject +to the Emperors.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_208" id="Footnote_208" href="#FNanchor_208"><span class="label">[208]</span></a> + One of the greatest of English +kings appears performing an act of +courtesy to the Emperor which was +probably construed into an acknowledgment +of his own inferior position. +Describing the Roman coronation +of the Emperor Conrad II, +Wippo (c. 16) tells us <span lang="la">'His ita peractis +in duorum regum præsentia +Ruodolfi regis Burgundiæ et Chnutonis +regis Anglorum divino officio +finito imperator duorum regum medius +ad cubiculum suum honorifice +ductus est.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_209" id="Footnote_209" href="#FNanchor_209"><span class="label">[209]</span></a> + Letter in Otto Fris. i.: <span lang="la">'Nobis +submittuntur Francia et Hispania, +Anglia et Dania.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_210" id="Footnote_210" href="#FNanchor_210"><span class="label">[210]</span></a> + Letter in Radewic says, <span lang="la">'Regnum +nostrum vobis exponimus.... +Vobis imperandi cedat auctoritas, +nobis non deerit voluntas obsequendi.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_211" id="Footnote_211" href="#FNanchor_211"><span class="label">[211]</span></a> + The alleged instances of homage +by the Scots to the Saxon +and early Norman kings are almost +all complicated in some such +way. They had once held also +the earldom of Huntingdon from +the English crown, and some have +supposed (but on no sufficient +grounds) that homage was also done +by them for Lothian.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_212" id="Footnote_212" href="#FNanchor_212"><span class="label">[212]</span></a> + Selden, <i>Titles of Honour</i>, part i. +chap. ii.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_213" id="Footnote_213" href="#FNanchor_213"><span class="label">[213]</span></a> + Edward refused upon the +ground that he was '<i lang="la">rex inunctus</i>.'</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_214" id="Footnote_214" href="#FNanchor_214"><span class="label">[214]</span></a> + Sigismund had shortly before +given great offence in France by +dubbing knights.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_215" id="Footnote_215" href="#FNanchor_215"><span class="label">[215]</span></a> + Sigismund answered, <span lang="la">'Nihil se +contra superioritatem regis prætexere.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_216" id="Footnote_216" href="#FNanchor_216"><span class="label">[216]</span></a> + Selden, <i>Titles of Honour</i>, part i. +chap. ii. Nevertheless, notaries in +Scotland, as elsewhere, continued +for a long time to style themselves +<span lang="la">'Ego M. auctoritate imperiali (<span lang="en">or</span> +papali) notarius.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_217" id="Footnote_217" href="#FNanchor_217"><span class="label">[217]</span></a> + It is not necessary to prove +this letter to have been the composition +of Frederick or his ministers. +If it be (as it doubtless is) +contemporary, it is equally to the +purpose as an evidence of the +feelings and ideas of the age. +As a reviewer of a former edition +of this book has questioned its +authenticity, I may mention that +it is to be found not only in +Hoveden, but also in the <span lang="la">'Itinerarium +regis Ricardi,'</span> in Ralph de +Diceto, and in the <span lang="la">'Chronicon +Terrae Sanctae.'</span> [See Mr. Stubbs' +edition of Hoveden, vol. ii. p. 356.]</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_218" id="Footnote_218" href="#FNanchor_218"><span class="label">[218]</span></a> + Liutprand, <i lang="la">Legatio Constantinopolitana</i>. +Nicephorus says, <span lang="la">'Vis +maius scandalum quam quod se imperatorem +vocat.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_219" id="Footnote_219" href="#FNanchor_219"><span class="label">[219]</span></a> + Otto of Freising, i.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_220" id="Footnote_220" href="#FNanchor_220"><span class="label">[220]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Isaachius a Deo constitutus +Imperator, sacratissimus, excellentissimus, +potentissimus, moderator +Romanorum, Angelus totius orbis, +heres coronæ magni Constantini, +dilecto fratri imperii sui, maximo +principi Alemanniæ.'</span> A remarkable +speech of Frederick's to the envoys +of Isaac, who had addressed a letter +to him as <span lang="la">'Rex Alemaniæ'</span> is preserved +by Ansbert (<i lang="la">Historia de Expeditione +Friderici Imperatoris</i>):—<span lang="la">'Dominus +Imperator divina se illustrante +gratia ulterius dissimulare non +valens temerarium fastum regis (<i>sc.</i> +Græcorum) et usurpantem vocabulum +falsi imperatoris Romanorum, +hæc inter cætera exorsus est:—"Omnibus +qui sanæ mentis sunt +constat, quia unus est Monarchus +Imperator Romanorum, sicut et +unus est pater universitatis, pontifex +videlicet Romanus; ideoque cum +ego Romani imperii sceptrum plusquam +per annos XXX absque omnium +regum vel principum contradictione +tranquille tenuerim et in +Romana urbe a summo pontifice +imperiali benedictione unctus sim et +sublimatus, quia denique Monarchiam +prædecessores mei imperatores +Romanorum plusquam per +CCCC annos etiam gloriose transmiserint, +utpote a Constantinopolitana +urbe ad pristinam sedem imperii, +caput orbis Romam, acclamatione +Romanorum et principum +imperii, auctoritate quoque summi +pontificis et S. catholicæ ecclesiæ +translatam, propter tardum et infructuosum +Constantinopolitani imperatoris +auxilium contra tyrannos +ecclesiæ, mirandum est admodum cur +frater meus dominus vester Constantinopolitanus +imperator usurpet +inefficax sibi idem vocabulum et +glorietur stulte alieno sibi prorsus +honore, cum liquido noverit me et +nomine dici et re esse Fridericum +Romanorum imperatorem semper +Augustum."'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote">Isaac was so far moved by Frederick's +indignation that in his next +letter he addressed him as <span lang="la">'generosissimum +imperatorem Alemaniæ,'</span> +and in a third thus:—</p> + +<p class="footnote"><span lang="la">'Isaakius in Christo fidelis divinitus +coronatus, sublimis, potens, +excelsus, hæres coronæ magni Constantini +et Moderator Romeon Angelus +nobilissimo Imperatori antiquæ +Romæ, regi Alemaniæ et dilecto +fratri imperii sui, salutem,'</span> &c., &c. +(Ansbert, <i lang="la">ut supra</i>.)</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_221" id="Footnote_221" href="#FNanchor_221"><span class="label">[221]</span></a> + Baronius, ad ann.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_222" id="Footnote_222" href="#FNanchor_222"><span class="label">[222]</span></a> + See <a href="#noteC">Appendix, Note C</a>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_223" id="Footnote_223" href="#FNanchor_223"><span class="label">[223]</span></a> + Godefr. Viterb., <i>Pantheon</i>, in +Mur., <i>S. R. I.</i>, tom. vii.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_224" id="Footnote_224" href="#FNanchor_224"><span class="label">[224]</span></a> + Dönniges, <span lang="de"><i>Deutsches Staatsrecht</i></span>, +thinks that the crown of +Italy, neglected by the Ottos, and +taken by Henry II, was a recognition +of the separate nationality of +Italy. But Otto I seems to have +been crowned king of Italy, and +Muratori (<i>Ant. It.</i> Dissert. iii.) +believes that Otto II and Otto III +were likewise.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_225" id="Footnote_225" href="#FNanchor_225"><span class="label">[225]</span></a> + See <a href="#noteA">Appendix, note A</a>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_226" id="Footnote_226" href="#FNanchor_226"><span class="label">[226]</span></a> + Some add a fifth crown, of +Germany (making that of Aachen +Frankish), which they say belonged +to Regensburg—Marquardus Freherus.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_227" id="Footnote_227" href="#FNanchor_227"><span class="label">[227]</span></a> + <span lang="de">'Dy erste ist tho Aken: dar +kronet men mit der Yseren Krone, +so is he Konig over alle Dudesche +Ryke. Dy andere tho Meylan, de +is Sulvern, so is he Here der Walen. +Dy drüdde is tho Rome; dy is +guldin, so is he Keyser over alle dy +Werlt.'</span>—Gloss to the <i lang="de">Sachsenspiegel</i>, +quoted by Pfeffinger. Similarly +Peter de Andlo.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_228" id="Footnote_228" href="#FNanchor_228"><span class="label">[228]</span></a> + Cf. Gewoldus, <i lang="la">De Septemviratu +imperii Romani</i>. One would +expect some ingenious allegorizer +to have discovered that the crown +of Burgundy must be, and therefore +is, of copper or bronze, making the +series complete, like the four ages +of men in Hesiod. But I have not +been able to find any such.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_229" id="Footnote_229" href="#FNanchor_229"><span class="label">[229]</span></a> + Hence the numbers attached to +the names of the Emperors are often +different in German and Italian +writers, the latter not reckoning +Henry the Fowler nor Conrad I. +So Henry III (of Germany) calls +himself <span lang="la">'Imperator Henricus Secundus;'</span> +and all distinguish the +years of their <i lang="la">regnum</i> from those +of the <i lang="la">imperium</i>. Cardinal Baronius +will not call Henry V anything +but Henry III, not recognizing +Henry IV's coronation, because it +was performed by an antipope.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_230" id="Footnote_230" href="#FNanchor_230"><span class="label">[230]</span></a> + Life of S. Adalbert (written +at Rome early in the eleventh +century, probably by a brother of +the monastery of SS. Boniface and +Alexius) in Pertz, <i>M. G. H.</i> iv.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_231" id="Footnote_231" href="#FNanchor_231"><span class="label">[231]</span></a> + Given by Glaber Rudolphus. +It is on the face of it a most impudent +forgery: <span lang="la">'Ne quisquam +audacter Romani Imperii sceptrum +præpostere gestare princeps appetat +neve Imperator dici aut +esse valeat nisi quem Papa Romanus +morum probitate aptum +elegerit, eique commiserit insigne +imperiale.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_232" id="Footnote_232" href="#FNanchor_232"><span class="label">[232]</span></a> + Universal and undisputed in +the West, which, for practical purposes, +meant the world. The denial +of the supreme jurisdiction of +Peter's chair by the eastern churches +affected very slightly the belief of +Latin Christendom, just as the existence +of a rival emperor at Constantinople +with at least as good +a legal title as the Teutonic Cæsar, +was readily forgotten or ignored +by the German and Italian subjects +of the latter.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_233" id="Footnote_233" href="#FNanchor_233"><span class="label">[233]</span></a> + Odious especially for the inscription,—</p> + + <div class="footnote"> + <div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poem"> + <p class="o1"><span lang="la">'Rex venit ante fores nullo prius urbis honore;</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Post homo fit Papæ, sumit quo dante coronam.'</span>—Radewic.</p> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_234" id="Footnote_234" href="#FNanchor_234"><span class="label">[234]</span></a> + Mediæval history is full of +instances of the superstitious +veneration attached to the rite of +coronation (made by the Church +almost a sacrament), and to the +special places where, or even +utensils with which it was performed. +Everyone knows the +importance in France of Rheims +and its sacred <i>ampulla</i>; so the +Scottish king must be crowned +at Scone, an old seat of Pictish +royalty—Robert Bruce risked a +great deal to receive his crown +there; so no Hungarian coronation +was valid unless made with the +crown of St. Stephen; the possession +whereof is still accounted so +valuable by the Austrian court.</p> + +<p class="footnote">Great importance seems to have +been attached to the imperial globe +(Reichsapfel) which the Pope delivered +to the Emperor at his coronation.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_235" id="Footnote_235" href="#FNanchor_235"><span class="label">[235]</span></a> + Whether the poem which +passes under the name of Gunther +Ligurinus be his work or that of +some scholar in a later age is for +the present purpose indifferent.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_236" id="Footnote_236" href="#FNanchor_236"><span class="label">[236]</span></a> + Zedler, <i>Universal Lexicon</i>, +s. v. <i>Reich</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_237" id="Footnote_237" href="#FNanchor_237"><span class="label">[237]</span></a> + It does not occur before +Frederick I's time in any of the +documents printed by Pertz; and +this is the date which Boeclerus also +assigns in his treatise, <i lang="la">De Sacro +Imperio Romano</i>, vindicating the +terms <span lang="la">'sacrum'</span> and <span lang="la">'Romanum'</span> +against the aspersions of Blondel.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_238" id="Footnote_238" href="#FNanchor_238"><span class="label">[238]</span></a> + Pertz, <i>M. G. H.</i>, tom. iv. +(legum ii.)</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_239" id="Footnote_239" href="#FNanchor_239"><span class="label">[239]</span></a> + Ibid. iv.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_240" id="Footnote_240" href="#FNanchor_240"><span class="label">[240]</span></a> + Radewic. <i>ap.</i> Pertz.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_241" id="Footnote_241" href="#FNanchor_241"><span class="label">[241]</span></a> + Blondellus adv. Chiffletium. +Most of these theories are stated +by Boeclerus. Jordanes (<i lang="la">Chronica</i>) +says, <span lang="la">'Sacri imperii quod non est +dubium sancti Spiritus ordinatione, +secundum qualitatem ipsam et exigentiam +meritorum humanorum +disponi.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_242" id="Footnote_242" href="#FNanchor_242"><span class="label">[242]</span></a> + Marquard Freher's notes to +Peter de Andlo, book i. chap. vii.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_243" id="Footnote_243" href="#FNanchor_243"><span class="label">[243]</span></a> + So in the song on the capture +of the Emperor Lewis II by Adalgisus +of Benevento, we find the +words, <span lang="la">'Ludhuicum comprenderunt +sancto, pio, Augusto.'</span> (Quoted by +Gregorovius, <span lang="de"><i>Geschichte der Stadt +Rom im Mittelalter</i></span>, iii. p. 185.)</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_244" id="Footnote_244" href="#FNanchor_244"><span class="label">[244]</span></a> + Goldast, <i>Constitutiones</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_245" id="Footnote_245" href="#FNanchor_245"><span class="label">[245]</span></a> + Pertz, <i>M. G. H.</i>, legg. ii.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_246" id="Footnote_246" href="#FNanchor_246"><span class="label">[246]</span></a> + 'Apostolic majesty' was the +proper title of the king of Hungary. +The Austrian court has recently +revived it.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_247" id="Footnote_247" href="#FNanchor_247"><span class="label">[247]</span></a> + Moser, <span lang="de"><i>Römische Kayser</i></span>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_248" id="Footnote_248" href="#FNanchor_248"><span class="label">[248]</span></a> + Urban IV used the title in +1259: Francis I (of France) calls +the Empire <span lang="la">'sacrosanctum.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_249" id="Footnote_249" href="#FNanchor_249"><span class="label">[249]</span></a> + Cf. 'Holy Russia.'</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_250" id="Footnote_250" href="#FNanchor_250"><span class="label">[250]</span></a> + It is almost superfluous to +observe that the beginning of the +title 'Holy' has nothing to do +with the beginning of the Empire +itself. Essentially and substantially, +the Holy Roman Empire +was, as has been shewn +already, the creation of Charles +the Great. Looking at it more +technically, as the monarchy, not +of the whole West, like that of +Charles, but of Germany and +Italy, with a claim, which was +never more than a claim, to universal +sovereignty, its beginning +is fixed by most of the German +writers, whose practice has been +followed in the text, at the coronation +of Otto the Great. But +the title was at least one, and +probably two centuries later.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_251" id="Footnote_251" href="#FNanchor_251"><span class="label">[251]</span></a> + I quote from the <span lang="la">Liber Augustalis</span> +printed among Petrarch's works +the following curious description of +Frederick: <span lang="la">'Fuit armorum strenuus, +linguarum peritus, rigorosus, luxuriosus, +epicurus, nihil curans vel +credens nisi temporale: fuit malleus +Romanae ecclesiae.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote">As Otto III had been called +<span lang="la">'mirabilia mundi,'</span> so Frederick II +is often spoken of in his own time +as <span lang="la">'stupor mundi Fridericus.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_252" id="Footnote_252" href="#FNanchor_252"><span class="label">[252]</span></a> + <span lang="it">'Quà entro è lo secondo Federico.'</span>—<i>Inferno</i>, canto x.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_253" id="Footnote_253" href="#FNanchor_253"><span class="label">[253]</span></a> + The interregnum is by some +reckoned as the two years before +Richard's election; by others, as +the whole period from the death +of Frederick II or that of his son +Conrad IV till Rudolf's accession +in 1273.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_254" id="Footnote_254" href="#FNanchor_254"><span class="label">[254]</span></a> + Surnamed, from his scientific +tastes, 'the Wise.'</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_255" id="Footnote_255" href="#FNanchor_255"><span class="label">[255]</span></a> + Hapsburg is a castle in the +Aargau on the banks of the Aar, +and near the line of railway from +Olten to Zürich, from a point on +which a glimpse of it may be had. +'Within the ancient walls of Vindonissa,' +says Gibbon, 'the castle +of Hapsburg, the abbey of Königsfeld, +and the town of Bruck have +successively arisen. The philosophic +traveller may compare the +monuments of Roman conquests, +of feudal or Austrian tyranny, of +monkish superstition, and of industrious +freedom. If he be truly +a philosopher, he will applaud the +merit and happiness of his own +time.'</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_256" id="Footnote_256" href="#FNanchor_256"><span class="label">[256]</span></a> + <i lang="la">Corpus Iuris Canonici</i>, Decr. +Greg. i. 6, cap. 34, <span lang="la"><i>Venerabilem</i>: +'Ius et authoritas examinandi personam +electam in regem et promovendam +ad imperium, ad nos +spectat, qui eum inungimus, consecramus, +et coronamus.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_257" id="Footnote_257" href="#FNanchor_257"><span class="label">[257]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Illis principibus,'</span> writes Innocent, +<span lang="la">'ius et potestatem eligendi +regem [Romanorum] in imperatorem +postmodum promovendum recognoscimus, +ad quos de iure ac +antiqua consuetudine noscitur pertinere, +præsertim quum ad eos ius +et potestas huiusmodi ab apostolica +sede pervenerit, quæ Romanum +imperium in persona magnifici +Caroli a Græcis transtulit in Germanos.'</span>—Decr. +Greg. i. 6, cap. 34, +<i lang="la">Venerabilem</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_258" id="Footnote_258" href="#FNanchor_258"><span class="label">[258]</span></a> + Its influence, however, as Döllinger +(<span lang="de"><i>Das Kaiserthum Karls des +Grossen und seiner Nachfolger</i></span>) +remarks, first became great when +this letter, some forty or fifty years +after Innocent wrote it, was inserted +in the digest of the canon law.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_259" id="Footnote_259" href="#FNanchor_259"><span class="label">[259]</span></a> + Vid. supra, pp. 52-58.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_260" id="Footnote_260" href="#FNanchor_260"><span class="label">[260]</span></a> + Upon this so-called 'Translation +of the Empire,' many books remain +to us: many more have probably +perished. A good although far +from impartial summary of the +controversy may be found in Vagedes, +<i lang="la">De Ludibriis Aulæ Romanæ +in transferendo Imperio Romano</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_261" id="Footnote_261" href="#FNanchor_261"><span class="label">[261]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Vacante imperio Romano, +cum in illo ad sæcularem iudicem +nequeat haberi recursus, ad summum +pontificem, cui in persona +B. Petri terreni simul et cœlestis +imperii iura Deus ipse commisit, +imperii prædicti iurisdictio regimen +et dispositio devolvitur.'</span>—Bull +<i lang="la">Si fratrum</i> (of John XXI, in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> +1316), in <i>Bullar. Rom.</i> So again: +<span lang="la">'Attendentes quod Imperii Romani +regimen cura et administratio tempore +quo illud vacare contingit ad +nos pertinet, sicut dignoscitur pertinere.'</span> +So Boniface VIII, refusing +to recognize Albert I, because he +was ugly and one-eyed (<span lang="la">'est homo +monoculus et vultu sordido, non +potest esse Imperator'</span>), and had +taken a wife from the serpent brood +of Frederick II (<span lang="la">'de sanguine viperali +Friderici'</span>), declared himself +Vicar of the Empire, and assumed +the crown and sword of Constantine.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_262" id="Footnote_262" href="#FNanchor_262"><span class="label">[262]</span></a> + Avignon was not yet in the +territory of France: it lay within +the bounds of the kingdom of +Arles. But the French power was +nearer than that of the Emperor; +and pontiffs many of them French +by extraction sympathized, as was +natural, with princes of their own +race.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_263" id="Footnote_263" href="#FNanchor_263"><span class="label">[263]</span></a> + Quoted by Moser, <span lang="de"><i>Römische +Kayser</i></span>, from <i>Chron. Hirsang.</i>: +<span lang="la">'Regni vires temporum iniuria +nimium contritæ vix uni alendo +regi sufficerent, tantum abesse ut +sumptus in duos reges ferre queant.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_264" id="Footnote_264" href="#FNanchor_264"><span class="label">[264]</span></a> + At Rupert's death, under +whom the mischief had increased +greatly, there were, we are told, +many bishops better off than the +Emperor.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_265" id="Footnote_265" href="#FNanchor_265"><span class="label">[265]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Proventus Imperii ita minimi +sunt ut legationibus vix suppetant.'</span>—Quoted +by Moser.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_266" id="Footnote_266" href="#FNanchor_266"><span class="label">[266]</span></a> + Albert I tried in vain to wrest +the tolls of the Rhine from the +grasp of the Rhenish electors.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_267" id="Footnote_267" href="#FNanchor_267"><span class="label">[267]</span></a> + The Æthelings of the line of +Cerdic, among the West Saxons, +and the Bavarian Agilolfings, may +thus be compared with the Achæmenids +of Persia or the heroic +houses of early Greece.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_268" id="Footnote_268" href="#FNanchor_268"><span class="label">[268]</span></a> + Wippo, describing the election +of Conrad the Franconian, +says, <span lang="la">'Inter confinia Moguntiæ +et Wormatiæ convenerunt cuncti +primates et, ut ita dicam, vires +et viscera regni.'</span> So Bruno says +that Henry IV was elected by +the '<i lang="la">populus</i>.' So Gunther Ligurinus +of Frederick I's election:—</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1"><span lang="la">'Acturi sacræ de successione coronæ</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Conveniunt proceres, totius viscera regni.'</span></p> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="footnote">So Amandus, secretary of Frederick +Barbarossa, in describing his +election, says, <span lang="la">'Multi illustres heroes +ex Lombardia, Tuscia, Ianuensi et +aliis Italiæ dominiis, ac maior et +potior pars principum ex Transalpino +regno.'</span>—Quoted by Mur. +<i>Antiq.</i> Diss. iii. And see many +other authorities to the same effect, +collected by Pfeffinger, <i lang="la">Vitriarius +illustratus</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_269" id="Footnote_269" href="#FNanchor_269"><span class="label">[269]</span></a> + Alciatus, <i lang="la">De Formula Romani +Imperii</i>. He adds that the Gauls +and Italians were incensed at the +preference shewn to Germany. So +too Radulfus de Columna.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_270" id="Footnote_270" href="#FNanchor_270"><span class="label">[270]</span></a> + Quoted by Gewoldus, <i lang="la">De Septemviratu +Sacri Imperii Romani</i>, +himself a violent advocate of +Gregory's decree, though living as +late as the days of Ferdinand II. +As late as <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1648 we find Pope +Innocent X maintaining that the +sacred number <i>Seven</i> of the electors +was <span lang="la">'apostolica auctoritate olim +præfinitus.'</span> Bull <i lang="la">Zelo domus</i> in +<i>Bullar. Rom.</i></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_271" id="Footnote_271" href="#FNanchor_271"><span class="label">[271]</span></a> + Sometimes we hear of a decree +made by Pope Sergius IV and his +cardinals (of course equally fabulous +with Otto's). So John Villani, +iv. 2.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_272" id="Footnote_272" href="#FNanchor_272"><span class="label">[272]</span></a> + In 1152 we read, <span lang="la">'Id iuris +Romani Imperii apex habere dicitur +ut non per sanguinis propaginem +sed per principum electionem +reges creentur.'</span>—Otto Fris. Gulielmus +Brito, writing not much +later, says (quoted by Freher),—</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + <div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poem"> + <p class="o1"><span lang="la">'Est etenim talis dynastia Theutonicorum</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Ut nullus regnet super illos, ni prius illum</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Eligat unanimis cleri populique voluntas.'</span></p> +</div></div></div> +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_273" id="Footnote_273" href="#FNanchor_273"><span class="label">[273]</span></a> + Innocent III, during the contest +between Philip and Otto IV, +speaks of <span lang="la">'principes ad quos principaliter +spectat regis Romani electio.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_274" id="Footnote_274" href="#FNanchor_274"><span class="label">[274]</span></a> +<span lang="la">'Rex Bohemiæ non eligit, +quia non est Teutonicus,'</span> says a +writer early in the fourteenth century.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_275" id="Footnote_275" href="#FNanchor_275"><span class="label">[275]</span></a> + The names and offices of the +seven are concisely given in these +lines, which appear in the treatise of Marsilius of Padua, <i lang="la">De Imperio +Romano</i>:—</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1"><span lang="la">'Moguntinensis, Trevirensis, Coloniensis,</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Quilibet Imperii sit Cancellarius horum;</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Et Palatinus dapifer, Dux portitor ensis,</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Marchio præpositus cameræ, pincerna Bohemus,</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Hi statuunt dominum cunctis per sæcula summum.'</span></p> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="footnote">It is worth while to place beside +this the first stanza of Schiller's +ballad, <span lang="de"><i>Der Graf von Hapsburg</i></span>, +in which the coronation feast of +Rudolf is described:—</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1"><span lang="de">'Zu Aachen in seiner Kaiserpracht</span></p> +<p class="i1"><span lang="de">Im alterthümlichen Saale,</span></p> +<p><span lang="de">Sass König Rudolphs heilige Macht</span></p> +<p class="i1"><span lang="de">Beim festlichen Krönungsmahle.</span></p> +<p><span lang="de">Die Speisen trug der Pfalzgraf des Rheins,</span></p> +<p><span lang="de">Es schenkte der Böhme des perlenden Weins,</span></p> +<p class="i1"><span lang="de">Und alle die Wähler, die Sieben,</span></p> +<p><span lang="de">Wie der Sterne Chor um die Sonne sich stellt,</span></p> +<p><span lang="de">Umstanden geschäftig den Herrscher der Welt,</span></p> +<p class="i1"><span lang="de">Die Würde des Amtes zu üben.'</span></p> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="footnote">It is a poetical licence, however (as +Schiller himself admits), to bring the +Bohemian there, for King Ottocar +was far away at home, mortified +at his own rejection, and already +meditating war.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_276" id="Footnote_276" href="#FNanchor_276"><span class="label">[276]</span></a> + The electoral prince (Kurfürst) +of Hessen-Cassel. His retention of +the title has this advantage, that it +enables the Germans readily to distinguish +electoral Hesse (Kur-Hessen) +from the Grand Duchy (Hessen-Darmstadt) +and the landgraviate +(Hessen Homburg). [Since the +above was written (in 1865) this +last relic of the electoral system has +passed away, the Elector of Hessen +having been dethroned in 1866, +and his territories (to the great +satisfaction of the inhabitants, whom +he had worried by a long course of +petty tyrannies) annexed to the +Prussian kingdom, along with +Hanover, Nassau, and the free +city of Frankfort. Count Bismarck, +as he raises his master nearer and +nearer to the position of a Germanic +Emperor, destroys one by +one the historical memorials of that +elder Empire which people had +learned to associate with the Austrian +house.]</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_277" id="Footnote_277" href="#FNanchor_277"><span class="label">[277]</span></a> + Goethe, whose imagination +was wonderfully attracted by the +splendours of the old Empire, has +given in the second part of <i>Faust</i> +a sort of fancy sketch of the origin +of the great offices and the territorial +independence of the German +princes. Two lines express concisely +the fiscal rights granted by +the Emperor to the electors:—</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + <div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poem"> + <p class="o1"><span lang="de">'Dann Steuer Zins und Beed, Lehn und Geleit und Zoll,</span></p> +<p><span lang="de">Berg-, Salz- und Münz-regal euch angehören soll.'</span></p> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_278" id="Footnote_278" href="#FNanchor_278"><span class="label">[278]</span></a> + This line is said to be as old as the time of Otto III.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_279" id="Footnote_279" href="#FNanchor_279"><span class="label">[279]</span></a> + See esp. Ægidi, <span lang="de"><i>Der Fürstenrath +nach dem Luneviller Frieden</i></span>, +and the passages by him +quoted.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_280" id="Footnote_280" href="#FNanchor_280"><span class="label">[280]</span></a> + The archbishop of Mentz addresses +Conrad II on his election +thus: <span lang="la">'Deus quum a te multa +requirat tum hoc potissimum desiderat +ut facias iudicium et iustitiam +et pacem patriæ quæ respicit +ad te, ut sis defensor ecclesiarum et +clericorum, tutor viduarum et orphanorum.'</span>—Wippo, +Vita Chuonradi, +c. 3, <i>ap.</i> Pertz. So Pope Urban IV +writes to Richard: <span lang="la">'Ut consternatis +Imperii Romani inimicis, in pacis +pulchritudine sedeat populus Christianus +et requie opulenta quiescat.'</span> +Compare also the <span lang="la">'Edictum de +crimine læsæ maiestatis'</span> issued by +Henry VII in Italy: <span lang="la">'Ad reprimenda +multorum facinora qui ruptis totius +debitæ fidelitatis habenis adversus +Romanum imperium, in cuius +tranquillitate totius orbis regularitas +requiescit, hostili animo armati conentur +nedum humana, verum etiam +divina præcepta, quibus iubetur quod +omnis anima Romanorum principi +sit subiecta, scelestissimis facinoribus +et rebellionibus demoliri,'</span> &c.—Pertz, +<i>M. G. H.</i>, legg. ii. p. 544.</p> + +<p class="footnote">See also a curious passage in the +Life of St. Adalbert, describing the +beginning of the reign at Rome of +the Emperor Otto III, and his cousin +and nominee Pope Gregory V: +<span lang="la">'Lætantur cum primatibus minores +civitatis: cum afflicto paupere exultant +agmina viduarum, quia novus +imperator dat iura populis; dat +iura novus papa.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_281" id="Footnote_281" href="#FNanchor_281"><span class="label">[281]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Imperator est monarcha omnium +regum et principum terrenorum ... nec insurgat superbia +Gallicorum quæ dicat quod non +recognoscit superiorem, mentiuntur, +quia de iure sunt et esse debent sub +rege Romanorum et Imperatore.'</span>—Speech +of Boniface VIII. It is +curious to compare with this the +words addressed nearly five centuries +earlier by Pope John VIII to Lewis, +king of Bavaria: <span lang="la">'Si sumpseritis +Romanum imperium, omnia regna +vobis subiecta existent.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_282" id="Footnote_282" href="#FNanchor_282"><span class="label">[282]</span></a> + So Alfonso, king of Naples, +writes to Frederick III: <span lang="la">'Nos reges +omnes debemus reverentiam Imperatori, +tanquam summo regi, qui +est Caput et Dux regum.'</span>—Quoted +by Pfeffinger, <i lang="la">Vitriarius illustratus</i>, +i. 379. And Francis I (of France), +speaking of a proposed combined +expedition against the Turks, says, +<span lang="la">'Cæsari nihilominus principem ea +in expeditione locum non gravarer +ex officio cedere.'</span>—For a long time +no European sovereign save the +Emperor ventured to use the title +of 'Majesty.' The imperial chancery +conceded it in 1633 to the kings of +England and Sweden; in 1641 to +the king of France.—Zedler, <i>Universal +Lexicon</i>, <i>s. v.</i> Majestät.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_283" id="Footnote_283" href="#FNanchor_283"><span class="label">[283]</span></a> + For with the progress of society +and the growth of commerce +the old feudal customs were through +the greater part of Western Europe, +and especially in Germany, either +giving way to or being remodelled +and supplemented by the civil law.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_284" id="Footnote_284" href="#FNanchor_284"><span class="label">[284]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Imperator est animata lex in +terris.'</span>—Quoted by Von Raumer, +v. 81.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_285" id="Footnote_285" href="#FNanchor_285"><span class="label">[285]</span></a> + Thus we are told of the Emperor +Charles the Bald, when he +confirmed the election of Boso, king +of Burgundy and Provence, <span lang="la">'Dedit +Bosoni Provinciam (<i>sc.</i> Carolus +Calvus), et corona in vertice capitis +imposita, eum regem appellari iussit, +ut more priscorum imperatorum +regibus videretur dominari.'</span>—<i>Regin. +Chron.</i> Frederick II made +his son Enzio (that famous Enzio +whose romantic history every one +who has seen Bologna will remember) +king of Sardinia, and also +erected the duchy of Austria into +a kingdom, although for some +reason the title seems never to +have been used; and Lewis IV gave +to Humbert of Dauphiné the title +of King of Vienne, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1336.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_286" id="Footnote_286" href="#FNanchor_286"><span class="label">[286]</span></a> + It is probably for this reason +that the <i lang="la">Ordo Romanus</i> directs +the Emperor and Empress to be +crowned (in St. Peter's) at the altar +of St. Maurice, the patron saint of +knighthood.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_287" id="Footnote_287" href="#FNanchor_287"><span class="label">[287]</span></a> + See especially Gerlach Buxtorff, +<i lang="la">Dissertatio ad Auream Bullam</i>; +and Augustinus Stenchus, +<i lang="la">De Imperio Romano</i>; quoted by +Marquard Freher. It was keenly +debated, while Charles V and +Francis I (of France) were rival +candidates, whether any one but +a German was eligible. By birth +Charles was either a Spaniard or +a Fleming; but this difficulty his +partisans avoided by holding that +he had been, according to the civil +law, <i lang="la">in potestate</i> of Maximilian his +grandfather. However, to say nothing +of the Guidos and Berengars +of earlier days, the examples of +Richard and Alfonso are conclusive +as to the eligibility of others than +Germans. Edward III of England +was, as has been said, actually +elected; Henry VIII was a candidate. +And attempts were frequently +made to elect the kings of France.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_288" id="Footnote_288" href="#FNanchor_288"><span class="label">[288]</span></a> + The mediæval practice seems to +have been that which still prevails +in the Roman Catholic Church—to +presume the doctrinal orthodoxy +and external conformity of every +citizen, whether lay or clerical, +until the contrary be proved. Of +course when heresy was rife it +went hard with suspected men, +unless they could either clear themselves +or submit to recant. But +no one was required to pledge himself +beforehand, as a qualification +for any office, to certain doctrines. +And thus, important as an Emperor's +orthodoxy was, he does not +appear to have been subjected to +any test, although the Pope pretended +to the right of catechizing +him in the faith and rejecting him +if unsound. In the <i lang="la">Ordo Romanus</i> +we find a long series of questions +which the Pontiff was to administer, +but it does not appear, and is in the +highest degree unlikely, that such +a programme was ever carried out.</p> + +<p class="footnote">The charge of heresy was one of +the weapons used with most effect +against Frederick II.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_289" id="Footnote_289" href="#FNanchor_289"><span class="label">[289]</span></a> + Honorius II in 1229 forbade +it to be studied or taught in the +University of Paris. Innocent IV +published some years later a still +more sweeping prohibition.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_290" id="Footnote_290" href="#FNanchor_290"><span class="label">[290]</span></a> + See Von Savigny, <i>History of +Roman Law in the Middle Ages</i>, +vol. iii. pp. 81, 341-347.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_291" id="Footnote_291" href="#FNanchor_291"><span class="label">[291]</span></a> + Charles the Bold of Burgundy +was a potentate incomparably +stronger than the Emperor Frederick +III from whom he sought the +regal title.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_292" id="Footnote_292" href="#FNanchor_292"><span class="label">[292]</span></a> + Cf. Sismondi, <span lang="fr"><i>Républiques Italiennes</i></span>, iv. chap. xxvii.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_293" id="Footnote_293" href="#FNanchor_293"><span class="label">[293]</span></a> + See Dante, <i>Paradiso</i>, canto vi.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_294" id="Footnote_294" href="#FNanchor_294"><span class="label">[294]</span></a> +</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + <div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poem"> + <p class="o1"><span lang="it">'Vieni a veder la tua Roma, che piange</span></p> +<p><span lang="it">Vedova, sola, e di e notte chiama:</span></p> +<p><span lang="it">"Cesare mio, perchè non m' accompagne?"'</span></p> +<p class="i10"><i lang="it">Purgatorio</i>, canto vi.</p> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_295" id="Footnote_295" href="#FNanchor_295"><span class="label">[295]</span></a> + <i>Purgatorio</i>, canto vii.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_296" id="Footnote_296" href="#FNanchor_296"><span class="label">[296]</span></a> + <i>Inferno</i>, canto xxxiv.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_297" id="Footnote_297" href="#FNanchor_297"><span class="label">[297]</span></a> + Not that the doctors of the +civil law were necessarily political +partisans of the Emperors. Savigny +says that there were on the contrary +more Guelfs than Ghibelines +among the jurists of Bologna.—<i>Roman +Law in the Middle Ages</i>, +vol. iii. p. 80.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_298" id="Footnote_298" href="#FNanchor_298"><span class="label">[298]</span></a> + Cf. Palgrave, <i>Normandy and +England</i>, vol. ii. (of Otto and Adelheid). +The <i lang="la">Ordo Romanus</i> talks +of a <span lang="la">'Camera Iuliæ'</span> in the Lateran +palace, reserved for the Empress.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_299" id="Footnote_299" href="#FNanchor_299"><span class="label">[299]</span></a> + See notes to <i>Chron. Casin.</i> in +Muratori, <i>S. R. I.</i> iv. 515.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_300" id="Footnote_300" href="#FNanchor_300"><span class="label">[300]</span></a> + <span lang="de">Zu aller Zeiten Mehrer des +Reichs</span>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_301" id="Footnote_301" href="#FNanchor_301"><span class="label">[301]</span></a> + <i lang="la">Novellæ Constitutiones</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_302" id="Footnote_302" href="#FNanchor_302"><span class="label">[302]</span></a> + Marquard Freher. The question +whether the seven electors +vote as <i lang="la">singuli</i> or as a <i lang="la">collegium</i>, +is solved by shewing that they +have stepped into the place of the +senate and people of Rome, whose +duty it was to choose the Emperor, +though (it is naïvely added) the +soldiers sometimes usurped it.—Peter +de Andlo, <i lang="la">De Imperio Romano</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_303" id="Footnote_303" href="#FNanchor_303"><span class="label">[303]</span></a> + Thus Charles, in a capitulary +added to a revised edition of the +Lombard law issued in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 801, +says, <span lang="la">'Anno consulatus nostri +primo.'</span> So Otto III calls himself +<span lang="la">'Consul Senatus populique Romani.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_304" id="Footnote_304" href="#FNanchor_304"><span class="label">[304]</span></a> + Francis II, the last Emperor, +was one hundred and twentieth +from Augustus. Some chroniclers +call Otto the Great Otto II, counting +in Salvius Otho, the successor +of Galba.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_305" id="Footnote_305" href="#FNanchor_305"><span class="label">[305]</span></a> + See <a href="#Page_45">p. 45</a> and <a href="#Footnote_162">note to p. 143</a>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_306" id="Footnote_306" href="#FNanchor_306"><span class="label">[306]</span></a> + Nürnberg herself was not of +Roman foundation. But this makes +the imitation all the more curious. +The fashion even passed from the +cities to rural communities like +some of the Swiss cantons. Thus +we find <span lang="la">'Senatus populusque Uronensis.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_307" id="Footnote_307" href="#FNanchor_307"><span class="label">[307]</span></a> + See Palgrave, <i>Normandy and England</i>, i. p. 379.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_308" id="Footnote_308" href="#FNanchor_308"><span class="label">[308]</span></a> + Æneas Sylvius, <i lang="la">De Ortu et +Authoritate Imperii Romani</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_309" id="Footnote_309" href="#FNanchor_309"><span class="label">[309]</span></a> + Thus some civilians held Constantine's +Donation null; but the +canonists, we are told, were clear as +to its legality.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_310" id="Footnote_310" href="#FNanchor_310"><span class="label">[310]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Et idem dico de istis aliis regibus +et principibus, qui negant se +esse subditos regi Romanorum, ut +rex Franciæ, Angliæ, et similes. Si +enim fatentur ipsum esse Dominum +universalem, licet ab illo universali +domino se subtrahant ex privilegio +vel ex præscriptione vel consimili, +non ergo desunt esse cives Romani, +per ea quæ dicta sunt. Et per hoc +omnes gentes quæ obediunt S. matri +ecclesiæ sunt de populo Romano. +Et forte si quis diceret dominum +Imperatorem non esse dominum et +monarcham totius orbis, esset hæreticus, +quia diceret contra determinationem +ecclesiæ et textum S. +evangelii, dum dicit, "Exivit edictum +a Cæsare Augusto ut describeretur +universus orbis." Ita et +recognovit Christus Imperatorem +ut dominum.'</span>—Bartolus, <i>Commentary +on the Pandects</i>, xlviii. i. 24; +<i lang="la">De Captivis et postliminio reversis</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_311" id="Footnote_311" href="#FNanchor_311"><span class="label">[311]</span></a> + Peter de Andlo, <i lang="la">multis locis</i> +(see esp. cap. viii.), and other writings +of the time. Cf. Dante's +letter to Henry VII: <span lang="la">'Romanorum +potestas nec metis Italiæ nec tricornis +Siciliæ margine coarctatur. +Nam etsi vim passa in angustum +gubernacula sua contraxit undique, +tamen de inviolabili iure fluctus +Amphitritis attingens vix ab inutili +unda Oceani se circumcingi dignatur. +Scriptum est enim</span></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="o1"><span lang="la">"Nascetur pulchra Troianus origine Cæsar,</span></p> +<p><span lang="la">Imperium Oceano, famam qui terminet astris."'</span></p> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="footnote">So Fr. Zoannetus, in the sixteenth +century, declares it to be a mortal +sin to resist the Empire, as the +power ordained of God.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_312" id="Footnote_312" href="#FNanchor_312"><span class="label">[312]</span></a> + Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini +(afterwards Pope Pius II), <i lang="la">De Ortu +et Authoritate Imperii Romani</i>. Cf. +Gerlach Buxtorff, <i lang="la">Dissertatio ad +Auream Bullam</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_313" id="Footnote_313" href="#FNanchor_313"><span class="label">[313]</span></a> + It has hitherto been the common +opinion that the <i>De Monarchia</i> +was written in the view of +Henry's expedition. But latterly +weighty reasons have been advanced +for believing that its date must be +placed some years later.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_314" id="Footnote_314" href="#FNanchor_314"><span class="label">[314]</span></a> + Suggesting the celestial hierarchies of Dionysius the Areopagite.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_315" id="Footnote_315" href="#FNanchor_315"><span class="label">[315]</span></a> + Quoting Aristotle's <i>Politics</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_316" id="Footnote_316" href="#FNanchor_316"><span class="label">[316]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Non enim cives propter consules +nec gens propter regem, sed e +converso consules propter cives, rex +propter gentem.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_317" id="Footnote_317" href="#FNanchor_317"><span class="label">[317]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Reges et principes in hoc +unico concordantes, ut adversentur +Domino suo et uncto suo Romano +Principi,'</span> having quoted <span lang="la">'Quare +fremuerunt gentes.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_318" id="Footnote_318" href="#FNanchor_318"><span class="label">[318]</span></a> + Especially in the opportune +death of Alexander the Great.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_319" id="Footnote_319" href="#FNanchor_319"><span class="label">[319]</span></a> + Cic., <i>De Off.</i>, ii. <span lang="la">'Ita ut illud +patrocinium orbis terrarum potius +quam imperium poterat nominari.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_320" id="Footnote_320" href="#FNanchor_320"><span class="label">[320]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Si Pilati imperium non de +iure fuit, peccatum in Christo non +fuit adeo punitum.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_321" id="Footnote_321" href="#FNanchor_321"><span class="label">[321]</span></a> + There is a curious seal of the +Emperor Otto IV (figured in J. M. +Heineccius, <i lang="la">De veteribus Germanorum +atque aliarum nationum sigillis</i>), +on which the sun and moon +are represented over the head of the +Emperor. Heineccius says he cannot +explain it, but there seems to be no +reason why we should not take the +device as typifying the accord of the +spiritual and temporal powers which +was brought about at the accession +of Otto, the Guelfic leader, and the +favoured candidate of Pope Innocent +III.</p> + +<p class="footnote">The analogy between the lights +of heaven and the princes of earth +is one which mediæval writers are +very fond of. It seems to have +originated with Gregory VII.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_322" id="Footnote_322" href="#FNanchor_322"><span class="label">[322]</span></a> + Typifying the spiritual and +temporal powers. Dante meets this +by distinguishing the homage paid +to Christ from that which his Vicar +can rightfully demand.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_323" id="Footnote_323" href="#FNanchor_323"><span class="label">[323]</span></a> + Hist. Eccl. l. ix. c. 6: <span class="greek" title="ton de + phanai, hôs ouch hekôn tade epicheirei, + alla tis synechôs enochlôn auton + biazetai, kai epitattei tên Rhômên + porthein">τὸν δὲ + φάναι, ὡς οὐχ ἑκὼν τάδε ἐπιχειρεῖ, + ἀλλά τις συνεχῶς ἐνοχλῶν αὐτὸν + βιάζεται, καὶ ἐπιτάττει τὴν Ῥώμην + πορθεῖν</span>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_324" id="Footnote_324" href="#FNanchor_324"><span class="label">[324]</span></a> + See the two Lives of St. Adalbert +in Pertz, <i>M. G. H.</i>, iv., evidently +compiled soon after his +death.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_325" id="Footnote_325" href="#FNanchor_325"><span class="label">[325]</span></a> + Another letter of Petrarch's +to John Colonna, written immediately +after his arrival in the city, +deserves to be quoted, it is so like +what a stranger would now write +off after his first day in Rome:—<span lang="la">'In +præsens nihil est quod inchoare +ausim, miraculo rerum tantarum +et stuporis mole obrutus ... +præsentia vero, mirum dictu, nihil +imminuit sed auxit omnia: vere +maior fuit Roma maioresque sunt +reliquiæ quam rebar: iam non +orbem ab hac urbe domitum sed +tam sero domitum miror. Vale.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_326" id="Footnote_326" href="#FNanchor_326"><span class="label">[326]</span></a> + The idea of the continuance +of the sway of Rome under a new +character is one which mediæval +writers delight to illustrate. In +<a href="#noteD">Appendix, Note D</a>, there is quoted +as a specimen a poem upon Rome, +by Hildebert (bishop of Le Mans, +and afterwards archbishop of +Tours), written in the beginning +of the twelfth century.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_327" id="Footnote_327" href="#FNanchor_327"><span class="label">[327]</span></a> + In writing this chapter I have +derived much assistance from the +admirable work of Ferdinand Gregorovius, +<span lang="de"><i>Geschichte der Stadt Rom +im Mittelalter</i></span>. Unfortunately no +English translation of it exists; but +I am informed by the author that +one is likely ere long to appear.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_328" id="Footnote_328" href="#FNanchor_328"><span class="label">[328]</span></a> + Republican forms of some sort +had existed before Arnold's arrival, +but we hear the name of no other +leader mentioned; and doubtless it +was by him chiefly that the spirit +of hostility to the clerical power +was infused into the minds of the +Romans.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_329" id="Footnote_329" href="#FNanchor_329"><span class="label">[329]</span></a> + The series of papal coins is +interrupted (with one or two slight +exceptions) from <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 984 (not long +after the time of Alberic) to <span class="s08">A.D.</span> +1304. In their place we meet with +various coins struck by the municipal +authorities, some of which +bear on the obverse the head of +the Apostle Peter, with the legend +Roman. Pricipe: on the reverse +the head of the Apostle Paul, +legend, Senat. Popul. Q. R. Gregorovius, +<i lang="la">ut supra</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_330" id="Footnote_330" href="#FNanchor_330"><span class="label">[330]</span></a> + Rienzi called himself Augustus +as well as tribune; <span lang="it">'tribuno Augusto +de Roma.'</span> (He pretended, +or his friends pretended for him—it +was at any rate believed—that +he was an illegitimate son of the +Emperor Henry the Seventh.) He +cited, on his appointment, the Pope +and cardinals to appear before the +people of Rome and give an account +of their conduct; and after them +the Emperor. <span lang="it">'Ancora citao lo +Bavaro (Lewis the Fourth). Puoi +citao li elettori de lo imperio in +Alemagna, e disse "Voglio vedere +che rascione haco nella elettione," +che trovasse scritto che passato +alcuno tempo la elettione recadeva +a li Romani.'</span>—<i>Vita di Cola di +Rienzi</i>, c. xxvi (written by a contemporary). +I give the spelling as +it stands in Muratori's edition.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_331" id="Footnote_331" href="#FNanchor_331"><span class="label">[331]</span></a> + The Germans called this hill, +which is the highest in or near +Rome, conspicuous from a beautiful +group of stone-pines upon +its brow, Mons Gaudii; the origin +of the Italian name, Monte +Mario, is not known, unless it be, +as some think, a corruption of +Mons Malus.</p> + +<p class="footnote">It was on this hill that Otto the +Third hanged Crescentius and his +followers.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_332" id="Footnote_332" href="#FNanchor_332"><span class="label">[332]</span></a> + I quote this from the <i lang="la">Ordo +Romanus</i> as it stands in Muratori's +third Dissertation in the <i lang="la">Antiquitates +Italiæ medii ævi</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_333" id="Footnote_333" href="#FNanchor_333"><span class="label">[333]</span></a> + Great stress was laid on one +part of the procedure,—the holding +by the Emperor of the Pope's +stirrup for him to mount, and the +leading of his palfrey for some +distance. Frederick Barbarossa's +omission of this mark of respect +when Pope Hadrian IV met him on +his way to Rome, had nearly caused +a breach between the two potentates, +Hadrian absolutely refusing +the kiss of peace until Frederick +should have gone through the form, +which he was at last forced to do in +a somewhat ignominious way.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_334" id="Footnote_334" href="#FNanchor_334"><span class="label">[334]</span></a> + A remarkable speech of expostulation +made by Otto III to the +Roman people (after one of their +revolts) from the tower of his house +on the Aventine has been preserved +to us. It begins thus: <span lang="la">'Vosne +estis mei Romani? Propter vos +quidem meam patriam, propinquos +quoque reliqui; amore vestro Saxones +et cunctos Theotiscos, sanguinem +meum, proieci; vos in remotas +partes imperii nostri adduxi, quo +patres vestri cum orbem ditione premerent +numquam pedem posuerunt; +scilicet ut nomen vestrum et gloriam +ad fines usque dilatarem; vos filios +adoptavi: vos cunctis prætuli.'</span>—<i>Vita +S. Bernwardi</i>; in Pertz, <i>M. G. +H.</i>, t. iv.</p> + +<p class="footnote">(It is from this form 'Theotiscus' +that the Italian 'Tedesco' seems to +have been derived.)</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_335" id="Footnote_335" href="#FNanchor_335"><span class="label">[335]</span></a> + The Leonine city, so called +from Pope Leo IV, lay between +the Vatican and St. Peter's and the +river.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_336" id="Footnote_336" href="#FNanchor_336"><span class="label">[336]</span></a> + It would seem that Otto was +deceived, and that in reality they are +the bones of St. Paulinus of Nola.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_337" id="Footnote_337" href="#FNanchor_337"><span class="label">[337]</span></a> + The only other of the Teutonic +Emperors buried in Italy were, so +far as I know, Lewis the Second +(whose tomb, with an inscription +commemorating his exploits, is built +into the wall of the north aisle of +the famous church of S. Ambrose at +Milan), Henry the Sixth and Frederick +the Second, who lie at Palermo, +Conrad IV, buried at Foggia, and +Henry the Seventh, whose sarcophagus +may be seen in the Campo +Santo of Pisa, a city always conspicuous +for her zeal on the imperial +side.</p> + +<p class="footnote">Six Emperors lie buried at Speyer, +three or four at Prague, two at +Aachen, two at Bamberg, one at +Innsbruck, one at Magdeburg, one +at Quedlinburg, two at Munich, +and most of the later ones at +Vienna.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_338" id="Footnote_338" href="#FNanchor_338"><span class="label">[338]</span></a> + See <a href="#Footnote_198">note s, p. 178</a>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_339" id="Footnote_339" href="#FNanchor_339"><span class="label">[339]</span></a> + See <a href="#Page_117">p. 117</a>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_340" id="Footnote_340" href="#FNanchor_340"><span class="label">[340]</span></a> + These highly curious frescoes +are in the chapel of St. Sylvester +attached to the very ancient church +of Quattro Santi on the Cœlian +hill, and are supposed to have been +executed in the time of Pope +Innocent III. They represent scenes +in the life of the Saint, more particularly +the making of the famous +donation to him by Constantine, +who submissively holds the bridle +of his palfrey.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_341" id="Footnote_341" href="#FNanchor_341"><span class="label">[341]</span></a> + The last imperial coronation, +that of Charles the Fifth, took place +in the church of St. Petronius at +Bologna, Pope Clement VII being +unwilling to receive Charles in +Rome. It is a grand church, but +the choir, where the ceremony took +place, seems to have been 'restored,' +that is to say modernized, since +Charles' time.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_342" id="Footnote_342" href="#FNanchor_342"><span class="label">[342]</span></a> + The name of Cenci is a very +old one at Rome: it is supposed to +be an abbreviation of Crescentius. +We hear in the eleventh century of +a certain Cencius, who on one occasion +made Gregory VII prisoner.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_343" id="Footnote_343" href="#FNanchor_343"><span class="label">[343]</span></a> + Thus in the church of San +Lorenzo without the walls there +are several pointed windows, now +bricked up; and similar ones may +be seen in the church of Ara Cœli +on the summit of the Capitol. So +in the apse of St. John Lateran +there are three or four windows of +Gothic form: and in its cloister, as +well as in that of St. Paul without +the walls, a great deal of beautiful +Lombard work. The elegant porch +of the church of Sant' Antonio +Abate is Lombard. In the apse of +the church of San Giovanni e Paolo +on the Cœlian hill there is an external +arcade exactly like those of +the Duomo at Pisa. Nor are these +the only instances.</p> + +<p class="footnote">The ruined chapel attached to +the fortress of the Caetani family—the +family to which Boniface the +Eighth belonged, and whose head +is now the first of the Roman nobility—is +a pretty little building, +more like northern Gothic than +anything within the walls of Rome. +It stands upon the Appian Way, +opposite the tomb of Cæcilia Metella, +which the Caetani used as a +stronghold.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_344" id="Footnote_344" href="#FNanchor_344"><span class="label">[344]</span></a> + A good deal of the mischief +done by Robert Guiscard, from +which the parts of the city lying +beyond the Coliseum towards the +river and St. John Lateran never +recovered, is attributed to the Saracenic +troops in his service. Saracen +pirates are said to have once before +sacked Rome. Genseric was not +a heathen, but he was a furious +Arian, which, as far as respect to +the churches of the orthodox went, +was nearly the same thing. He is +supposed to have carried off the +seven-branched candlestick and +other vessels of the Temple, which +Titus had brought from Jerusalem +to Rome.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_345" id="Footnote_345" href="#FNanchor_345"><span class="label">[345]</span></a> + We are told that one cause of +the ferocity of the German part of +the army of Charles was their anger +at the ruinous condition of the imperial +palace.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_346" id="Footnote_346" href="#FNanchor_346"><span class="label">[346]</span></a> + Under the influence, partly of +this anti-pagan spirit, partly of his +own restless vanity, partly of a +passion to be doing something, Pope +Sixtus the Fifth did a great deal of +mischief in the way of destroying +or spoiling the monuments of antiquity.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_347" id="Footnote_347" href="#FNanchor_347"><span class="label">[347]</span></a> + These campaniles are generally +supposed to date from the ninth +and tenth centuries. I am informed, +however, by Mr. J. H. +Parker, of Oxford, whose antiquarian +skill is well known, that +he is led to believe by an examination +of their mouldings that few or +none, unless it be that of San +Prassede, are older than the twelfth +century.</p> + +<p class="footnote">This of course applies only to +the existing buildings. The type +of tower may be, and indeed no +doubt is, older.</p> + +<p class="footnote">Somewhat similar towers may +be observed in many parts of the +Italian Alps, especially in the wonderful +mountain land north of +Venice, where such towers are of +all dates from the eleventh or +twelfth down to the nineteenth +century, the ancient type having in +these remote valleys been adhered +to because the builder had no other +models before him. In the valley +of Cimolais I have seen such a campanile +in course of erection, precisely +similar to others in the neighbouring +villages some eight centuries +old.</p> + +<p class="footnote">The very curious round towers +of Ravenna, some four or five of +which are still standing, seem to +have originally had similar windows, +though these have been all, or nearly +all, stopped up. The Roman towers +are all square.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_348" id="Footnote_348" href="#FNanchor_348"><span class="label">[348]</span></a> + The Palatine hill seems to have +been then, as it is for the most part +now, a waste of stupendous ruins. +In the great imperial palace upon +its northern and eastern sides was +the residence of an official of the +Eastern court in the beginning of +the eighth century. In the time of +Charles, some seventy years later, +this palace was no longer habitable.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_349" id="Footnote_349" href="#FNanchor_349"><span class="label">[349]</span></a> + Such as we see it in the later and lesser churches of basilica form.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_350" id="Footnote_350" href="#FNanchor_350"><span class="label">[350]</span></a> + It was thus that most of the +earlier Teutonic Emperors, and +notably Charles and Otto, professed +to have obtained the crown; +although practically it was partly a +matter of conquest and partly of +private arrangement with the Pope. +In later times, the seven Germanic +princes were recognized as the +legally qualified electoral body, but +their appearance on the stage was +a result of the confusion of the +German kingdom with the Roman +Empire, and in strictness they had +nothing to do with the Roman +crown at all. The right to bestow +it could only—on principle—belong +to some Roman authority, and +those who felt the difficulty were +driven to suppose a formal cession +of their privilege by the Roman +people to the seven electors. See +<a href="#Page_227">p. 227</a> <i>supra</i>: and cf. Matthew +Villani (iv. 77), <span lang="it">'Il popolo Romano, +non da se, ma la chiesa per lui, +concedette la elezione degli Imperadori +a sette principi della +Magna.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_351" id="Footnote_351" href="#FNanchor_351"><span class="label">[351]</span></a> + That which Dante, Arnold of +Brescia, and the rest really have in +common with the modern Italian +'party of movement' is their hostility +to the temporal power of the +Popes.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_352" id="Footnote_352" href="#FNanchor_352"><span class="label">[352]</span></a> + See Dean Stanley's <i>Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church</i>, +Lecture II.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_353" id="Footnote_353" href="#FNanchor_353"><span class="label">[353]</span></a> + It is not without interest to +observe that the council of Basel +shewed signs of reciprocating imperial +care by claiming those very +rights over the Empire to which +the Popes were accustomed to pretend.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_354" id="Footnote_354" href="#FNanchor_354"><span class="label">[354]</span></a> + The councils of Basel and +Florence were not recognized from +first to last by all Europe, as was the +council of Constance. When the +assembly of Trent met, the great +religious schism had already made a +general council, in the true sense of +the word, impossible.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_355" id="Footnote_355" href="#FNanchor_355"><span class="label">[355]</span></a> + <span lang="it">'E pero venendo gl'imperadori +della Magna col supremo +titolo, e volendo col senno e colla +forza della Magna reggiere gli +Italiani, non lo fanno e non lo +possono fare.'</span>—M. Villani, iv. 77.</p> + +<p class="footnote">Matthew Villani's etymology of +the two great faction names of +Italy is worth quoting, as a fair +sample of the skill of mediævals in +such matters:—<span lang="it">'La Italia tutta e +divisa mistamente in due parti, +l'una che seguita ne' fatti del +mondo la santa chiesa—e questi +son dinominati Guelfi; cioè, guardatori +di fè. E l'altra parte seguitano +lo 'mperio o fedele o enfedele che +sia delle cose del mondo a santa +chiesa. E chiamansi Ghibellini, +quasi guida belli; cioè, guidatori +di battaglie.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_356" id="Footnote_356" href="#FNanchor_356"><span class="label">[356]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Nam quamvis Imperatorem +et regem et dominum vestrum esse +fateamini, precario tamen ille imperare +videtur: nulla ei potentia +est; tantum ei paretis quantum +vultis, vultis autem minimum.'</span>—Æneas +Sylvius to the princes of +Germany, quoted by Hippolytus a +Lapide.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_357" id="Footnote_357" href="#FNanchor_357"><span class="label">[357]</span></a> + See Ægidi, <span lang="de"><i>Der Fürstenrath +nach dem Luneviller Frieden</i></span>; a +book which throws more light than +any other with which I am acquainted +on the inner nature of the +Empire.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_358" id="Footnote_358" href="#FNanchor_358"><span class="label">[358]</span></a> + The two immediately preceding +Emperors, Albert II (1438-1439) +and Frederick III, father of Maximilian +(1439-1493), had been +Hapsburgs. It is nevertheless from +Maximilian that the ascendancy of +that family must be dated.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_359" id="Footnote_359" href="#FNanchor_359"><span class="label">[359]</span></a> + Reichsregiment.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_360" id="Footnote_360" href="#FNanchor_360"><span class="label">[360]</span></a> + Wenzel had encouraged the +leagues of the cities, and incurred +thereby the hatred of the nobles.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_361" id="Footnote_361" href="#FNanchor_361"><span class="label">[361]</span></a> + The Germans, like our own +ancestors, called foreign, <i>i. e.</i> non-Teutonic +nations, Welsh. Yet apparently +not all such nations, but +only those which they in some way +associated with the Roman Empire, +the Cymry of Roman Britain, +the Romanized Kelts of Gaul, the +Italians, the Roumans or Wallachs +of Transylvania and the Principalities. +It does not appear that +either the Magyars or any Slavonic +people were called by any form of +the name Welsh.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_362" id="Footnote_362" href="#FNanchor_362"><span class="label">[362]</span></a> + The German crown was received +at Aachen, the ancient +Frankish capital, where may still +be seen, in the gallery of the basilica, +the marble throne on which +the Emperors from the days of +Charles to those of Ferdinand I +were crowned. It was upon this +chair that Otto III had found the +body of Charles seated, when he +opened his tomb in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1001. +After Ferdinand I, the coronation +as well as the election took place +at Frankfort. An account of the +ceremony may be found in Goethe's +<span lang="de"><i>Wahrheit und Dichtung</i></span>. Aachen, +though it remained and indeed is +still a German town, lay in too +remote a corner of the country to +be a convenient capital, and was +moreover in dangerous proximity +to the West Franks, as stubborn +old Germans continue to call them. +As early as <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1353 we find +bishop Leopold of Bamberg complaining +that the French had arrogated +to themselves the honours of +the Frankish name, and called themselves +<span lang="la">'reges Franciæ,'</span> instead of +'<span lang="la">reges Franciæ occidentalis.'</span>—Lupoldus +Bebenburgensis, apud Schardium, +<i>Sylloge Tractatuum</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_363" id="Footnote_363" href="#FNanchor_363"><span class="label">[363]</span></a> + Erwählter Kaiser. See <a href="#noteC">Appendix, +Note C</a>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_364" id="Footnote_364" href="#FNanchor_364"><span class="label">[364]</span></a> + Romanorum rex (after Henry +II) till the coronation at Rome.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_365" id="Footnote_365" href="#FNanchor_365"><span class="label">[365]</span></a> + But the Emperor was only one +of many claimants to this kingdom; +they multiplied as the prospect of +regaining it died away.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_366" id="Footnote_366" href="#FNanchor_366"><span class="label">[366]</span></a> + The latter does not occur, even +in English books, till comparatively +recent times. English writers of +the seventeenth century always call +him 'The Emperor,' pure and simple, +just as they invariably say +'the French king.' But the phrase +<span lang="fr">'Empereur d'Almayne'</span> may be +found in very early French writers.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_367" id="Footnote_367" href="#FNanchor_367"><span class="label">[367]</span></a> + See Moser, <span lang="de"><i>Römische Kayser</i></span>; +Goldast's and other collections of +imperial edicts and proclamations.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_368" id="Footnote_368" href="#FNanchor_368"><span class="label">[368]</span></a> + The so-called <span lang="de">'Wahlcapitulation.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_369" id="Footnote_369" href="#FNanchor_369"><span class="label">[369]</span></a> + The electors long refused to +elect Charles, dreading his great +hereditary power, and were at last +induced to do so only by their +overmastering fear of the Turks.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_370" id="Footnote_370" href="#FNanchor_370"><span class="label">[370]</span></a> + Nearly all the Hapsburgs seem +to have wanted that sort of genial +heartiness which, apt as it is to be +stifled by education in the purple, +has nevertheless been possessed by +several other royal lines, greatly +contributing to their vitality; as for +instance by more than one prince +of the houses of Brunswick and +Hohenzollern.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_371" id="Footnote_371" href="#FNanchor_371"><span class="label">[371]</span></a> + See this brought out with great +force in the very interesting work +of Padre Tosti, <span lang="it"><i>Prolegomeni alla +Storia Universale della Chiesa</i></span>, from +which I quote one passage, which +bears directly on the matter in +hand: <span lang="it">'Il grido della riforma clericale +aveva un eco terribile in tutta +la compagnia civile dei popoli: +essa percuoteva le cime del laicale +potere, e rimbalzava per tutta la +gerarchia sociale. Se l'imperadore +Sigismondo nel concilio di Costanza +non avesse fiutate queste consequenze +nella eresia di Hus e di +Girolamo di Praga, forse non avrebbe +con tanto zelo mandati alle +fiamme que' novatori. Rotto da +Lutero il vincolo di suggezione al +Papa ed ai preti in fatti di religione, +avvenne che anche quello +che sommetteva il vassallo al barone, +il barone al imperadore si +allentasse. Il popolo con la Bibbia +in mano era prete, vescovo, e papa; +e se prima contristato della prepotenza +di chi gli soprastava, ricorreva +al successore di San Pietro, +ora ricorreva a se stesso, avendogli +commesse Fra Martino le chiavi +del regno dei Cieli.'</span>—vol. ii. pp. +398, 9.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_372" id="Footnote_372" href="#FNanchor_372"><span class="label">[372]</span></a> + It was not till the end of the +eleventh century that transubstantiation +was definitely established as +a dogma.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_373" id="Footnote_373" href="#FNanchor_373"><span class="label">[373]</span></a> + See the passages quoted in <a href="#Footnote_113">note m, p. 98</a>; and <a href="#Footnote_132">note g, p. 110</a>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_374" id="Footnote_374" href="#FNanchor_374"><span class="label">[374]</span></a> + Henry VIII of England when +he rebelled against the Pope called +himself King of Ireland (his predecessors +had used only the title +<span lang="la">'Dominus Hiberniæ'</span>) without asking +the Emperor's permission, in +order to shew that he repudiated +the temporal as well as the spiritual +dominion of Rome.</p> + +<p class="footnote">So the Statute of Appeals is careful +to deny and reject the authority +of 'other foreign potentates,' meaning, +no doubt, the Emperor as well +as the Pope.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_375" id="Footnote_375" href="#FNanchor_375"><span class="label">[375]</span></a> + Matthias, brother of Rudolf II, reigned from 1612 till 1619.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_376" id="Footnote_376" href="#FNanchor_376"><span class="label">[376]</span></a> + <i lang="la">De Ratione Status in Imperio nostro Romano-Germanico</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_377" id="Footnote_377" href="#FNanchor_377"><span class="label">[377]</span></a> + Even then the Roman pontiffs +had lapsed into that scolding, anile +tone (so unlike the fiery brevity of +Hildebrand, or the stern precision +of Innocent III) which is now +seldom absent from their public +utterances. Pope Innocent the +Tenth pronounces the provisions +of the treaty, <span lang="la">'ipso iure nulla, +irrita, invalida, iniqua, iniusta, +damnata, reprobata, inania, viribusque +et effectu vacua, omnino +fuisse, esse, et perpetuo fore.'</span> In +spite of which they were observed.</p> + +<p class="footnote">This bull may be found in vol. +xvii. of the <i>Bullarium</i>. It bears +date Nov. 20th, <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1648.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_378" id="Footnote_378" href="#FNanchor_378"><span class="label">[378]</span></a> + The Imperial Chamber (Kammergericht) +continued, with frequent +and long interruptions, to +sit while the Empire lasted. But +its slowness and formality passed +that of any other legal body the +world has yet seen, and it had +no power to enforce its sentences. +The Aulic council was little more +efficient, and was generally disliked +as the tool of imperial intrigue.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_379" id="Footnote_379" href="#FNanchor_379"><span class="label">[379]</span></a> + The <span lang="la">'matricula'</span> specifying the +quota of each state to the imperial +army could not be any longer employed.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_380" id="Footnote_380" href="#FNanchor_380"><span class="label">[380]</span></a> + <span lang="de"><i>Erbfeind des heiligen Reichs.</i></span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_381" id="Footnote_381" href="#FNanchor_381"><span class="label">[381]</span></a> + Only the envoys of the several states were present at Utrecht in +1713.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_382" id="Footnote_382" href="#FNanchor_382"><span class="label">[382]</span></a> + Quoted by Ludwig Haüsser, <span lang="de"><i>Deutsche Geschichte</i></span>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_383" id="Footnote_383" href="#FNanchor_383"><span class="label">[383]</span></a> + The distinction is well expressed by the German <span lang="de">'Reich'</span> and +<span lang="de">'Kaiserthum,'</span> to which we have unfortunately no terms to correspond.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_384" id="Footnote_384" href="#FNanchor_384"><span class="label">[384]</span></a> + So the Elector of Saxony proposed +in 1532 that Albert II, +Frederick III, and Maximilian +having been all of one house, +Charles V's successor should be +chosen from some other.—Moser, +<span lang="de"><i>Römische Kayser</i></span>. See the various +attempts of France in Moser. The +coronation engagements (<span lang="de">Wahlcapitulation</span>) +of every Emperor +bound him not to attempt to make +the throne hereditary in his family.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_385" id="Footnote_385" href="#FNanchor_385"><span class="label">[385]</span></a> + In 1658 France offered to subsidize +the Elector of Bavaria if he +would become Emperor.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_386" id="Footnote_386" href="#FNanchor_386"><span class="label">[386]</span></a> + Whether an Evangelical was +eligible for the office of Emperor +was a question often debated, but +never actually raised by the candidature +of any but a Roman Catholic +prince. The <span lang="la">'exacta æqualitas'</span> +conceded by the Peace of Westphalia +might appear to include so +important a privilege. But when +we consider that the peculiar relation +in which the Emperor stood to +the Holy Roman Church was one +which no heretic could hold, and +that the coronation oaths could not +have been taken by, nor the coronation +ceremonies (among which +was a sort of ordination) performed +upon a Protestant, the conclusion +must be unfavourable to the claims +of any but a Catholic.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_387" id="Footnote_387" href="#FNanchor_387"><span class="label">[387]</span></a> +</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + <div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poem"> + <p class="o1">'The bold Bavarian, in a luckless hour,</p> +<p>Tries the dread summits of Cæsarian power.</p> +<p>With unexpected legions bursts away,</p> +<p>And sees defenceless realms receive his sway....</p> +<p>The baffled prince in honour's flattering bloom</p> +<p>Of hasty greatness finds the fatal doom;</p> +<p>His foes' derision and his subjects' blame,</p> +<p>And steals to death from anguish and from shame.'</p> +<p class="i10"><span class="smcap">Johnson</span>, <i>Vanity of Human Wishes</i>.</p> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_388" id="Footnote_388" href="#FNanchor_388"><span class="label">[388]</span></a> + The following nine reasons for +the long continuance of the Empire +in the House of Hapsburg are given +by Pfeffinger (<i lang="la">Vitriarius Illustratus</i>), +writing early in the eighteenth century:—</p> + +<ul class="fn"> +<li>1. The great power of Austria.</li> + +<li>2. Her wealth, now that the Empire was so poor.</li> + +<li>3. The majority of Catholics among the electors.</li> + +<li>4. Her fortunate matrimonial alliances.</li> + +<li>5. Her moderation.</li> + +<li>6. The memory of benefits conferred by her.</li> + +<li>7. The example of evils that had followed a departure from +the blood of former Cæsars.</li> + +<li>8. The fear of the confusion that would ensue if she were +deprived of the crown.</li> + +<li>9. Her own eagerness to have it.</li> +</ul> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_389" id="Footnote_389" href="#FNanchor_389"><span class="label">[389]</span></a> + The Pope undertook a journey +to Vienna to mollify Joseph, and +met with a sufficiently cold reception. +When he saw the famous +minister Kaunitz and gave him his +hand to kiss, Kaunitz took it and +shook it.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_390" id="Footnote_390" href="#FNanchor_390"><span class="label">[390]</span></a> + 'You are in your own house: +be the master.'</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_391" id="Footnote_391" href="#FNanchor_391"><span class="label">[391]</span></a> + Joseph II was foiled in his +attempt to assert them.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_392" id="Footnote_392" href="#FNanchor_392"><span class="label">[392]</span></a> + Goethe spent some time in +studying law at Wetzlar among +those who practised in the Kammergericht.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_393" id="Footnote_393" href="#FNanchor_393"><span class="label">[393]</span></a> + Cf. Pütter, <i>Historical Developement +of the Political Constitution of +the German Empire</i>, vol. iii.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_394" id="Footnote_394" href="#FNanchor_394"><span class="label">[394]</span></a> + Frederick the Great said of +the Diet, <span lang="de">'Es ist ein Schattenbild, +eine Versammlung aus Publizisten +die mehr mit Formalien als mit +Sachen sich beschäftigen, und, wie +Hofhunde, den Mond anbellen.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_395" id="Footnote_395" href="#FNanchor_395"><span class="label">[395]</span></a> + Cf. Haüsser, <span lang="de"><i>Deutsche Geschichte</i></span>; +Introduction.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_396" id="Footnote_396" href="#FNanchor_396"><span class="label">[396]</span></a> + Quoted by Haüsser.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_397" id="Footnote_397" href="#FNanchor_397"><span class="label">[397]</span></a> + Rotteck and Welcker, <span lang="de"><i>Staats +Lexikon</i></span>, s. v. <span lang="de">'Deutsches Reich.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_398" id="Footnote_398" href="#FNanchor_398"><span class="label">[398]</span></a> + <i lang="de">Deutschlands Erwartungen +vom Fürstenbunde</i>, quoted in the +<span lang="de"><i>Staats Lexikon</i></span>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_399" id="Footnote_399" href="#FNanchor_399"><span class="label">[399]</span></a> + <span lang="de"><i>Wahrheit und Dichtung</i></span>, book i. +The <span lang="de">Römer Saal</span> is still one of the +sights of Frankfort. The portraits, +however, which one now sees in it, +seem to be all or nearly all of them +modern; and few have any merit +as works of art.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_400" id="Footnote_400" href="#FNanchor_400"><span class="label">[400]</span></a> + <i lang="la">Jordanis Chronica</i>, ap. Schardium, +<i lang="la">Sylloge Tractatuum</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_401" id="Footnote_401" href="#FNanchor_401"><span class="label">[401]</span></a> + In an address by Napoleon to +the Senate in 1804, bearing date +10th Frimaire (1st Dec.), are the +words, <span lang="fr">'Mes descendans conserveront +longtemps ce trône, le premier +de l'univers.'</span> Answering a deputation +from the department of the +Lippe, Aug. 8th, 1811, <span lang="fr">'La Providence, +qui a voulu que je rétablisse +le trône de Charlemagne, vous a +fait naturellement rentrer, avec la +Hollande et les villes anséatiques, +dans le sein de l'Empire.'</span>—<i>Œuvres +de Napoléon</i>, tom. v. p. 521.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><span lang="fr">'Pour le Pape, je suis Charlemagne, +parce que, comme Charlemagne, +je réunis la couronne de +France à celle des Lombards, et +que mon Empire confine avec +l'Orient.'</span> (Quoted by Lanfrey, <i>Vie +de Napoleon</i>, iii. 417.)</p> + +<p class="footnote"><span lang="fr">'Votre Sainteté est souveraine +de Rome, mais j'en suis l'Empereur.'</span> +(Letter of Napoleon to Pope +Pius, Feb. 13th, 1806. Lanfrey.)</p> + +<p class="footnote"><span lang="fr">'Dites bien,'</span> says Napoleon to +Cardinal Fesch, '<span lang="fr">que je suis Charlemagne, +leur Empereur</span> [of the Papal +Court] <span lang="fr">que je dois être traité de +même. Je fais connaitre au Pape +mes intentions en peu de mots, s'il +n'y acquiesce pas, je le réduirai à +la même condition qu'il était avant +Charlemagne.'</span> (Lanfrey, <span lang="fr"><i>Vie de +Napoleon</i></span>, iii. 420.)</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_402" id="Footnote_402" href="#FNanchor_402"><span class="label">[402]</span></a> + Napoleon said on one occasion, +<span lang="fr">'Je n'ai pas succédé a Louis +Quatorze, mais à Charlemagne.'</span>—Bourrienne, +<span lang="fr"><i>Vie de Napoléon</i></span>, iv. +In 1804, shortly before he was +crowned, he had the imperial insignia +of Charles brought from the +old Frankish capital, and exhibited +them in a jeweller's shop in Paris, +along with those which had just +been made for his own coronation;—(Bourrienne, +<i lang="la">ut supra</i>.) Somewhat +in the same spirit in which he +displayed the Bayeux tapestry, in +order to incite his subjects to the +conquest of England.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_403" id="Footnote_403" href="#FNanchor_403"><span class="label">[403]</span></a> + <span lang="fr">'Je n'ai pu concilier ces grands +interêts</span> (of political order and the +spiritual authority of the Pope) <span lang="fr">qu'en +annulant les donations des Empereurs +Français, mes predecesseurs, +et en réunissant les états romains à +la France.'</span>—Proclamation issued +in 1809: <i>Œuvres</i>, iv.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_404" id="Footnote_404" href="#FNanchor_404"><span class="label">[404]</span></a> + See <a href="#noteC">Appendix, Note C</a>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_405" id="Footnote_405" href="#FNanchor_405"><span class="label">[405]</span></a> + Pope Pius VII wrote to the +First Consul, <span lang="la">'Carissime in Christo +Fili noster ... tam perspecta sunt +nobis tuæ voluntatis studia erga nos, +ut <i>quotiescunque</i> ope aliqua in rebus +nostris indigemus, eam a te fidenter +petere non dubitare debeamus.'</span>—Quoted +by Ægidi.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_406" id="Footnote_406" href="#FNanchor_406"><span class="label">[406]</span></a> + Let us place side by side the +letters of Hadrian to Charles in the +<i lang="la">Codex Carolinus</i>, and the following +preamble to the Concordat of <span class="s08">A.D.</span> +1801, between the First Consul +and the Pope (which I quote from +the <i lang="la">Bullarium Romanum</i>), and +mark the changes of a thousand +years.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><span lang="la">'Gubernium reipublicæ [Gallicæ] +recognoscit religionem Catholicam +Apostolicam Romanam eam esse +religionem quam longe maxima pars +civium Gallicæ reipublicæ profitetur.</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><span lang="la">'Summus pontifex pari modo +recognoscit eandem religionem +maximam utilitatem maximumque +decus percepisse et hoc quoque +tempore præstolari ex catholico +cultu in Gallia constituto, necnon +ex peculiari eius professione quam +faciunt reipublicæ consules.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_407" id="Footnote_407" href="#FNanchor_407"><span class="label">[407]</span></a> + Cf. Heeren, <i>Political System</i>, +vol. iii. 273.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_408" id="Footnote_408" href="#FNanchor_408"><span class="label">[408]</span></a> + He had arch-chancellors, arch-treasurers, +and so forth. The +Legion of Honour, which was +thought important enough to be +mentioned in the coronation oath, +was meant to be something like +the mediæval orders of knighthood: +whose connexion with the Empire +has already been mentioned.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_409" id="Footnote_409" href="#FNanchor_409"><span class="label">[409]</span></a> + Napoleon's feelings towards +Germany may be gathered from +the phrase he once used, <span lang="fr">'Il faut +depayser l'Allemagne.'</span></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_410" id="Footnote_410" href="#FNanchor_410"><span class="label">[410]</span></a> + Thus in documents issued by +the Emperor during these two years +he is styled 'Roman Emperor Elect, +Hereditary Emperor of Austria' +<span lang="de">(erwählter Römischer Kaiser, Erbkaiser +von Oesterreich)</span>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_411" id="Footnote_411" href="#FNanchor_411"><span class="label">[411]</span></a> + This Act of Confederation of +the Rhine (<span lang="de">Rheinbund</span>) is printed +in Koch's <span lang="fr"><i>Traités</i></span> (continued by +Schöll), vol. viii., and Meyer's <i lang="la">Corpus +Iuris Confœderationis Germanicæ</i>, +vol. i. It has every appearance of +being a translation from the French, +and was no doubt originally drawn +up in that language. Napoleon is +called in one place <span lang="de">'Der nämliche +Monarch, dessen Absichten sich +stets mit den wahren Interessen +Deutschlands übereinstimmend gezeigt +haben.'</span> The phrase 'Roman +Empire' does not occur: we hear +only of the 'German Empire,' +'body of German states' (<span lang="de">Staatskörper</span>), +and so forth. This Confederation +of the Rhine was eventually +joined by every German +State except Austria, Prussia, Electoral +Hesse, and Brunswick.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_412" id="Footnote_412" href="#FNanchor_412"><span class="label">[412]</span></a> + <span lang="fr"><i>Histoire des Traités</i></span>, vol. viii. +The original may be found in +Meyer's <i lang="la">Corpus Iuris Confœderationis +Germanicæ</i>, vol. i. p. 70. It +is a document in no way remarkable, +except from the ludicrous resemblance +which its language suggests +to the circular in which a +tradesman, announcing the dissolution +of an old partnership, solicits, +and hopes by close attention to +merit, a continuance of his customers' +patronage to his business, +which will henceforth be carried on +under the name of, &c., &c.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_413" id="Footnote_413" href="#FNanchor_413"><span class="label">[413]</span></a> + Koch (Schöll), <span lang="fr"><i>Histoire des +Traités</i></span>, vol. xi. p. 257, sqq.; +Haüsser, <span lang="de"><i>Deutsche Geschichte</i></span>, vol. +iv.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_414" id="Footnote_414" href="#FNanchor_414"><span class="label">[414]</span></a> + Great Britain had refused in +1806 to recognize the dissolution +of the Empire. And it may indeed +be maintained that in point +of law the Empire was never extinguished +at all, but lives on as +a disembodied spirit to this day. +For it is clear that, technically +speaking, the abdication of a sovereign +can destroy only his own +rights, and does not dissolve the +state over which he presides.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_415" id="Footnote_415" href="#FNanchor_415"><span class="label">[415]</span></a> + <span lang="fr">'Les états d'Allemagne seront +independans et unis par un lien +federatif.'</span>—<span lang="fr"><i>Histoire des Traités</i></span>, xi. +p. 257.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_416" id="Footnote_416" href="#FNanchor_416"><span class="label">[416]</span></a> + The late king of Prussia was +actually elected Emperor by the +revolutionary Diet at Frankfort in +1848. He refused the crown.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_417" id="Footnote_417" href="#FNanchor_417"><span class="label">[417]</span></a> + [Since the above was written +(in <span class="s08">A.D.</span> 1865) sudden and momentous +changes have been effected +in Germany by the war of 1866; +the Prussian kingdom has been enlarged +by the annexation of Hanover, +Hessen-Cassel, Nassau, and +Frankfort; the establishment of the +North German Confederation has +brought all the states north of the +Main under Prussian control; while +even the potentates of the south +have virtually accepted the hegemony +of the house of Hohenzollern. +It was the author's intention to +have added here a chapter examining +these changes by the light of +the past history of Germany and +the Empire, and tracing out the +causes to which the success of +Prussia is to be ascribed. But +at this moment (July 15th, 1870) +the French Emperor declares war +against Prussia, and there rises to +meet the challenge an united German +people,—united for the time, +at least, by the folly of the enemy +who has so long plotted for and +profited by its disunion. Whatever +the result of the struggle may be, +it is almost certain to alter still +further the internal constitution of +Germany; and there is therefore +little use in discussing the existing +system, and tracing the progress +hitherto of a development which, +if not suddenly arrested, is likely +to be greatly accelerated by the +events which we see passing.]</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_418" id="Footnote_418" href="#FNanchor_418"><span class="label">[418]</span></a> + See Louis Napoleon's letter to General Forey, explaining the object +of the expedition to Mexico.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_419" id="Footnote_419" href="#FNanchor_419"><span class="label">[419]</span></a> + One may also compare the retention +of the office of consul at +Rome till the time of Justinian: +indeed it even survived his formal +abolition. The relinquishment of +the title 'King of Great Britain, +France, and Ireland,' seriously distressed +many excellent persons.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_420" id="Footnote_420" href="#FNanchor_420"><span class="label">[420]</span></a> + I speak, of course, of the Papacy +as an autocratic power claiming a +more than spiritual authority.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_421" id="Footnote_421" href="#FNanchor_421"><span class="label">[421]</span></a> + <span lang="la">'Ipsa enim ecclesia charior +Deo est quam cœlum. Non enim +propter cœlum ecclesia, sed e converso +propter ecclesiam cœlum.'</span> +From the tract entitled 'A Letter of +the four Universities to Wenzel and +Urban VIII,' quoted in an earlier +chapter.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_422" id="Footnote_422" href="#FNanchor_422"><span class="label">[422]</span></a> + Von Raumer, <i>Geschichte der Hohenstaufen</i>, v.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_423" id="Footnote_423" href="#FNanchor_423"><span class="label">[423]</span></a> + Meaning thereby not the citizens +of Rome in her republican +days, but the Italo-Hellenic subjects +of the Roman Empire.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_424" id="Footnote_424" href="#FNanchor_424"><span class="label">[424]</span></a> + Take, among many instances, +those of the preface to Giesebrecht, +<span lang="de"><i>Die Deutsche Kaiserzeit</i></span>; and Rotteck +and Welcker's <span lang="de"><i>Staats Lexikon</i></span>. +The German newspapers are indeed +sufficient illustration.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_425" id="Footnote_425" href="#FNanchor_425"><span class="label">[425]</span></a> + See especially Von Sybel, <span lang="de"><i>Die +Deutsche Nation und das Kaiserreich</i></span>; +and the answers of Ficker +and Von Wydenbrugk.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_426" id="Footnote_426" href="#FNanchor_426"><span class="label">[426]</span></a> + Modified of course by the canon law, and not superseding the feudal +law of land.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_427" id="Footnote_427" href="#FNanchor_427"><span class="label">[427]</span></a> + Mommsen, <span lang="de"><i>Römische Geschichte</i></span>, iii. <i>sub. fin.</i></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_428" id="Footnote_428" href="#FNanchor_428"><span class="label">[428]</span></a> + Waitz (<span lang="de"><i>Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte</i></span>) +says that the phrase +<span lang="la">'semper Augustus'</span> may be found +in the times of the Carolingians, +but not in official documents.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_429" id="Footnote_429" href="#FNanchor_429"><span class="label">[429]</span></a> + There is some reason to think +that towards the end of the Empire +people had begun to fancy that +'erwählter' did not mean 'elect,' +but 'elective.' Cf. <a href="#Footnote_410">note m, p. 362</a>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_430" id="Footnote_430" href="#FNanchor_430"><span class="label">[430]</span></a> + These expressions seem to have +been intended to distinguish the +kingdom of the Eastern or Germanic +Franks from that of the +Western or Gallicized Franks +(Francigenæ), which having been +for some time <span lang="la">'regnum Francorum +Occidentalium,'</span> grew at last to be +simply <span lang="la">'regnum Franciæ,'</span> the East +Frankish kingdom being swallowed +up in the Empire.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_431" id="Footnote_431" href="#FNanchor_431"><span class="label">[431]</span></a> + It is right to remark that +what is stated here can be taken +as only generally and probably +true: so great are the discrepancies +among even the most careful +writers on the subject, and so +numerous the forgeries of a later +age, which are to be found among +the genuine documents of the +early Empire. Goldast's <i>Collections</i>, +for instance, are full of +forgeries and anachronisms. Detailed +information may be found +in Pfeffinger, Moser, and Pütter, +and in the host of writers to whom +they refer.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_432" id="Footnote_432" href="#FNanchor_432"><span class="label">[432]</span></a> + We in England may be thought +to have made some slight movement +in the same direction by calling +the united great council of the +Three Kingdoms the Imperial Parliament.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_433" id="Footnote_433" href="#FNanchor_433"><span class="label">[433]</span></a> + Although to be sure the Burgundian +dominions had all passed +from the Emperor to France, the +kingdom of Sardinia, and the Swiss +Confederation.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_434" id="Footnote_434" href="#FNanchor_434"><span class="label">[434]</span></a> + Nevertheless, Otto II was +crowned Emperor, and reigned for +some time along with his father, +under the title of 'Co-Imperator.' +So Lothar I was associated in the +Empire with Lewis the Pious, as +Lewis himself had been crowned +in the lifetime of Charles. Many +analogies to the practice of the +Romano-Germanic Empire in this +respect might be adduced from the +history of the old Roman, as well +as of the Byzantine Empire.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_435" id="Footnote_435" href="#FNanchor_435"><span class="label">[435]</span></a> + Maximilian had obtained this +title, 'Emperor Elect,' from the +Pope. Ferdinand took it as of +right, and his successors followed +the example.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_436" id="Footnote_436" href="#FNanchor_436"><span class="label">[436]</span></a> + See <a href="#Footnote_324">note d, p. 270</a>.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Holy Roman Empire, by James Bryce + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE *** + +***** This file should be named 44101-h.htm or 44101-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/1/0/44101/ + +Produced by Melissa McDaniel, Stephen Rowland, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Holy Roman Empire + +Author: James Bryce + +Release Date: November 4, 2013 [EBook #44101] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE *** + + + + +Produced by Melissa McDaniel, Stephen Rowland, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have + been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. + + + + + THE + HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE + + BY + JAMES BRYCE, D.C.L. + + _FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE + and + PROFESSOR OF CIVIL LAW IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD_ + + + THIRD EDITION REVISED + + + London + MACMILLAN AND CO. + 1871 + + + + + OXFORD: + By T. Combe, M.A., E. B. Gardner, and E. Pickard Hall, + PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. + + +The object of this treatise is not so much to give a narrative history +of the countries included in the Romano-Germanic Empire--Italy during +the middle ages, Germany from the ninth century to the nineteenth--as +to describe the Holy Empire itself as an institution or system, the +wonderful offspring of a body of beliefs and traditions which have +almost wholly passed away from the world. Such a description, however, +would not be intelligible without some account of the great events +which accompanied the growth and decay of imperial power; and it has +therefore appeared best to give the book the form rather of a +narrative than of a dissertation; and to combine with an exposition of +what may be called the theory of the Empire an outline of the +political history of Germany, as well as some notices of the affairs +of mediaeval Italy. To make the succession of events clearer, a +Chronological List of Emperors and Popes has been prefixed[1]. + +The present edition has been carefully revised and corrected +throughout; and a good many additions have been made to both text and +notes. + + LINCOLN'S INN, + August 11, 1870. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] The author has in preparation, and hopes before long to complete +and publish, a set of chronological tables which may be made to serve +as a sort of skeleton history of mediaeval Germany and Italy. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. + Introductory. + + + CHAPTER II. + The Roman Empire before the Invasion of the Barbarians. + + The Empire in the Second Century 5 + Obliteration of National distinctions 6 + Rise of Christianity 10 + Its Alliance with the State 10 + Its Influence on the Idea of an Imperial Nationality 13 + + + CHAPTER III. + The Barbarian Invasions. + + Relations between the Primitive Germans and the Romans 15 + Their Feelings towards Rome and her Empire 16 + Belief in its Eternity 20 + Extinction by Odoacer of the Western branch of the Empire 26 + Theodoric the Ostrogothic King 27 + Gradual Dissolution of the Empire 30 + Permanence of the Roman Religion and the Roman Law 31 + + + CHAPTER IV. + Restoration of the Empire in the West. + + The Franks 34 + Italy under Greeks and Lombards 37 + The Iconoclastic Schism 38 + Alliance of the Popes with the Frankish Kings 39 + The Frankish Conquest of Italy 41 + Adventures and Plans of Pope Leo III 43 + Coronation of Charles the Great 48 + + + CHAPTER V. + Empire and Policy of Charles. + + Import of the Coronation at Rome 52 + Accounts given in the Annals of the time 53 + Question as to the Intentions of Charles 58 + Legal Effect of the Coronation 62 + Position of Charles towards the Church 64 + Towards his German Subjects 67 + Towards the other Races of Europe 70 + General View of his Character and Policy 72 + + + CHAPTER VI. + Carolingian and Italian Emperors. + + Reign of Lewis I 76 + Dissolution of the Carolingian Empire 78 + Beginnings of the German Kingdom 79 + Italian Emperors 80 + Otto the Saxon King 84 + Coronation of Otto at Rome 87 + + + CHAPTER VII. + Theory of the Mediaeval Empire. + + The World Monarchy and the World Religion 91 + Unity of the Christian Church 94 + Influence of the Doctrine of Realism 97 + The Popes as heirs to the Roman Monarchy 99 + Character of the revived Roman Empire 102 + Respective Functions of the Pope and the Emperor 104 + Proofs and Illustrations 109 + Interpretations of Prophecy 112 + Two remarkable Pictures 116 + + + CHAPTER VIII. + The Roman Empire and the German Kingdom. + + The German or East Frankish Monarchy 122 + Feudality in Germany 123 + Reciprocal Influence of the Roman and Teutonic Elements on + the Character of the Empire 127 + + + CHAPTER IX. + Saxon and Franconian Emperors. + + Adventures of Otto the Great in Rome 134 + Trial and Deposition of Pope John XII 135 + Position of Otto in Italy 139 + His European Policy 140 + Comparison of his Empire with the Carolingian 144 + Character and Projects of the Emperor Otto III 146 + The Emperors Henry II and Conrad II 150 + The Emperor Henry III 151 + + + CHAPTER X. + Struggle of the Empire and the Papacy. + + Origin and Progress of Papal Power 153 + Relations of the Popes with the early Emperors 155 + Quarrel of Henry IV and Gregory VII 159 + Gregory's Ideas 160 + Concordat of Worms 163 + General Results of the Contest 164 + + + CHAPTER XI. + The Emperors in Italy: Frederick Barbarossa. + + Frederick and the Papacy 167 + Revival of the Study of the Roman Law 172 + Arnold of Brescia and the Roman Republicans 174 + Frederick's Struggle with the Lombard Cities 175 + His Policy as German King 178 + + + CHAPTER XII. + Imperial Titles and Pretensions. + + Territorial Limits of the Empire--Its Claims of Jurisdiction + over other Countries 182 + Hungary 183 + Poland 184 + Denmark 184 + France 185 + Sweden 185 + Spain 185 + England 186 + Scotland 187 + Naples and Sicily 188 + Venice 188 + The East 189 + Rivalry of the Teutonic and Byzantine Emperors 191 + The Four Crowns 193 + Origin and Meaning of the title 'Holy Empire' 199 + + + CHAPTER XIII. + Fall of the Hohenstaufen. + + Reign of Henry VI 205 + Contest of Philip and Otto IV 206 + Character and Career of the Emperor Frederick II 207 + Destruction of Imperial Authority in Italy 211 + The Great Interregnum 212 + Rudolf of Hapsburg 213 + Change in the Character of the Empire 214 + Haughty Demeanour of the Popes 217 + + + CHAPTER XIV. + The Germanic Constitution--the Seven Electors. + + Germany in the Fourteenth Century 222 + Reign of the Emperor Charles IV 225 + Origin and History of the System of Election, and of the + Electoral Body 225 + The Golden Bull 230 + Remarks on the Elective Monarchy of Germany 233 + Results of Charles IV's Policy 236 + + + CHAPTER XV. + The Empire as an International Power. + + Revival of Learning 240 + Beginnings of Political Thought 241 + Desire for an International Power 242 + Theory of the Emperor's Functions as Monarch of Europe 244 + Illustrations 249 + Relations of the Empire and the New Learning 251 + The Men of Letters--Petrarch, Dante 254 + The Jurists 256 + Passion for Antiquity in the Middle Ages: its Causes 258 + The Emperor Henry VII in Italy 262 + The _De Monarchia_ of Dante 264 + + + CHAPTER XVI. + The City of Rome in the Middle Ages. + + Rapid Decline of the City after the Gothic Wars 273 + Her Condition in the Dark Ages 274 + Republican Revival of the Twelfth Century 276 + Character and Ideas of Nicholas Rienzi 278 + Social State of Mediaeval Rome 280 + Visits of the Teutonic Emperors 282 + Revolts against them 284 + Existing Traces of their Presence in Rome 286 + Want of Mediaeval, and especially of Gothic Buildings, in + Modern Rome 289 + Causes of this; Ravages of Enemies and Citizens 291 + Modern Restorations 292 + Surviving Features of truly Mediaeval Architecture--the + Bell-towers 294 + The Roman Church and the Roman City 296 + Rome since the Revolution 299 + + + CHAPTER XVII. + The Renaissance: Change in the Character of the Empire. + + Weakness of Germany 302 + Loss of Imperial Territories 303 + Gradual Change in the Germanic Constitution 307 + Beginning of the Predominance of the Hapsburgs 310 + The Discovery of America 311 + The Renaissance and its Effects on the Empire 311 + Projects of Constitutional Reform 313 + Changes of Title 316 + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + The Reformation and its Effects upon the Empire. + + Accession of Charles V 319 + His Attitude towards the Reformation 321 + Issue of his Attempts at Coercion 322 + Spirit and Essence of the Religious Movement 325 + Its Influence on the Doctrine of the Visible Church 327 + How far it promoted Civil and Religious Liberty 329 + Its Effect upon the Mediaeval Theory of the Empire 332 + Upon the Position of the Emperor in Europe 333 + Dissensions in Germany 334 + The Thirty Years' War 335 + + + CHAPTER XIX. + The Peace of Westphalia: Last Stage in the Decline + of the Empire. + + Political Import of the Peace of Westphalia 337 + Hippolytus a Lapide and his Book 339 + Changes in the Germanic Constitution 340 + Narrowed Bounds of the Empire 341 + Condition of Germany after the Peace 342 + The Balance of Power 345 + The Hapsburg Emperors and their Policy 348 + The Emperor Charles VII 351 + The Empire in its last Phase 352 + Feelings of the German People 354 + + + CHAPTER XX. + Fall of the Empire. + + The Emperor Francis II 356 + Napoleon as the Representative of the Carolingians 357 + The French Empire 360 + Napoleon's German Policy 361 + The Confederation of the Rhine 362 + End of the Empire 363 + The German Confederation 364 + + + CHAPTER XXI. + Conclusion: General Summary. + + Causes of the Perpetuation of the Name of Rome 366 + Parallel instances: Claims now made to represent the Roman + Empire 367 + Parallel afforded by the History of the Papacy 369 + In how far was the Empire really Roman 374 + Imperialism: Ancient and Modern 375 + Essential Principles of the Mediaeval Empire 377 + Influence of the Imperial System in Germany 378 + The Claim of Modern Austria to represent the Mediaeval Empire 381 + Results of the Influence of the Empire upon Europe 383 + Upon Modern Jurisprudence 383 + Upon the Development of the Ecclesiastical Power 384 + Struggle of the Empire with three Hostile Principles 388 + Its Relations, Past and Present, to the Nationalities + of Europe 390 + Conclusion: Difficulties caused by the Nature of the + Subject 392 + + + APPENDIX. + + NOTE A. + On the Burgundies 395 + + NOTE B. + On the Relations to the Empire of the Kingdom of Denmark + and the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein 398 + + NOTE C. + On certain Imperial Titles and Ceremonies 400 + + NOTE D. + Hildebert's Lines contrasting the Past and Present of Rome 406 + + + INDEX 407 + + + + + DATES OF + SEVERAL IMPORTANT EVENTS + IN THE HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE. + + + B.C. + + Battle of Pharsalia 48 + + A.D. + + Council of Nicaea 325 + + End of the separate Western Empire 476 + + Revolt of the Italians from the Iconoclastic Emperors 728 + + Coronation of Charles the Great 800 + + End of the Carolingian Empire 888 + + Coronation of Otto the Great 962 + + Final Union of Italy to the Empire 1014 + + Quarrel between Henry IV and Gregory VII 1076 + + The First Crusade 1096 + + Battle of Legnano 1176 + + Death of Frederick II 1250 + + League of the three Forest Cantons of Switzerland 1308 + + Career of Rienzi 1347-1354 + + The Golden Bull 1356 + + Council of Constance 1415 + + Extinction of the Eastern Empire 1453 + + Discovery of America 1492 + + Luther at the Diet of Worms 1521 + + Beginning of the Thirty Years' War 1618 + + Peace of Westphalia 1648 + + Prussia recognized as a Kingdom 1701 + + End of the House of Hapsburg 1742 + + Seven Years' War 1756-1763 + + Peace of Luneville 1801 + + Formation of the German Confederation 1815 + + Establishment of the North German Confederation 1866 + + + + + CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE + OF + EMPERORS AND POPES. + + + A. D. B. C. + Augustus. 27 + A. D. + Tiberius. 14 + Caligula. 37 + Claudius. 41 + 42 St. Peter, (according + to Jerome). + Nero. 54 + 67 Linus, (according to + Jerome, Irenaeus, + Eusebius). + 68 Clement, (according Galba, Otho, Vitellius, + to Tertullian and Vespasian. 68 + Rufinus). + 78 Anacletus (?). + Titus. 79 + Domitian. 81 + 91 Clement, (according + to later writers). + Nerva. 96 + Trajan. 98 + 100 Evaristus (?). + 109 Alexander (?). + Hadrian. 117 + 119 Sixtus I. + 129 Telesphorus. + Antoninus Pius. 138 + 139 Hyginus. + 143 Pius I. + 157 Anicetus. + Marcus Aurelius. 161 + 168 Soter. + 177 Eleutherius. + Commodus. 180 + Pertinax. 190 + Didius Julianus. 191 + Niger. 192 + 193 Victor (?). Septimius Severus. 193 + 202 Zephyrinus (?). + Caracalla, Geta, + Diadumenian. 211 + Opilius Macrinus. 217 + Elagabalus. 218 + 219 Calixtus I. + Alexander Severus. 222 + 223 Urban I. + 230 Pontianus. + 235 Anterius or Anteros. Maximin. 235 + 236 Fabianus. + The two Gordians, Maximus + Pupienus, Balbinus. 237 + Gordian the Younger. 238 + Philip. 244 + Decius. 249 + 251 Cornelius. Gallus. 251 + 252 Lucius I. Volusian. 252 + 253 Stephen I. AEmilian, Valerian, + Gallienus. 253 + 257 Sixtus II. + 259 Dionysius. + Claudius II. 268 + 269 Felix. + Aurelian. 270 + 275 Eutychianus. Tacitus. 275 + Probus. 276 + Carus. 282 + 283 Caius. + Carinus, Numerian, + Diocletian. 284 + Maximian, joint Emperor + with Diocletian. 286 + 296 Marcellinus. [305(?) + 304 Vacancy. Constantius, Galerius. 304(?) + Licinius. or 307] + 308 Marcellus I. Maximin. 308 + Constantine, Galerius, + Licinius, Maximin, + Maxentius, and Maximian + reigning jointly. 309 + 310 Eusebius. + 311 Melchiades. + 314 Sylvester I. + Constantine (the Great) + alone. 323 + 336 Marcus I. + 337 Julius I. Constantine II, + Constantius II, + Constans. 337 + Magnentius. 350 + 352 Liberius. + Constantius alone. 353 + 356 Felix (Anti-pope). + Julian. 361 + Jovian. 363 + Valens and Valentinian I. 364 + 366 Damasus I. + Gratian and Valentinian I. 367 + Valentinian II and + Gratian. 375 + Theodosius. 379 + 384 Siricius. + Arcadius (in the East), + Honorius (in the West). 395 + 398 Anastasius I. + 402 Innocent I. + Theodosius II. (E) 408 + 417 Zosimus. + 418 Boniface I. + 418 Eulalius (Anti-pope). + 422 Celestine I. + Valentinian III. (W) 424 + 432 Sixtus III. + 440 Leo I (the Great). + Marcian. (E) 450 + Maximus, Avitus. (W) 455 + Majorian. (W) 455 + Leo I. (E) 457 + 461 Hilarius. Severus. (W) 461 + Vacancy. (W) 465 + Anthemius. (W) 467 + 468 Simplicius. + Olybrius. (W) 472 + Glycerius. (W) 473 + Julius Nepos. (W) 474 + Leo II, Zeno, Basiliscus + (all E.) 474 + Romulus Augustulus. (W) 475 + (End of the Western Line + in Romulus Augustus. 476) + (Henceforth, till A.D. 800, + Emperors reigning at + 483 Felix III[2]. Constantinople). + Anastasius I. 491 + 492 Gelasius I. + 496 Anastasius II. + 498 Symmachus. + 498 Laurentius (Anti-pope). + 514 Hormisdas. + Justin I. 518 + 523 John I. + 526 Felix IV. + Justinian. 527 + 530 Boniface II. + 530 Dioscorus (Anti-pope). + 532 John II. + 535 Agapetus I. + 536 Silverius. + 537 Vigilius. + 555 Pelagius I. + 560 John III. + Justin II. 565 + 574 Benedict I. + 578 Pelagius II. Tiberius II. 578 + Maurice. 582 + 590 Gregory I (the Great). + Phocas. 602 + 604 Sabinianus. + 607 Boniface III. + 607 Boniface IV. + Heraclius. 610 + 615 Deus dedit. + 618 Boniface V. + 625 Honorius I. + 638 Severinus. + 640 John IV. + Constantine III, + Heracleonas, + Constans II. 641 + 642 Theodorus I. + 649 Martin I. + 654 Eugenius I. + 657 Vitalianus. + Constantine IV (Pogonatus). 668 + 672 Adeodatus. + 676 Domnus or Donus I. + 678 Agatho. + 682 Leo II. + 683(?) Benedict II. + 685 John V. Justinian II. 685 + 685(?) Conon. + 687 Sergius I. + 687 Paschal (Anti-pope). + 687 Theodorus (Anti-pope). + Leontius. 694 + Tiberius. 697 + 701 John VI. + 705 John VII. Justinian II restored. 705 + 708 Sisinnius. + 708 Constantine. + Philippicus Bardanes. 711 + Anastasius II. 713 + 715 Gregory II. + Theodosius III. 716 + Leo III (the Isaurian). 718 + 731 Gregory III. + 741 Zacharias. Constantine V + (Copronymus). 741 + 752 Stephen (II). + 752 Stephen II (or III). + 757 Paul I. + 767 Constantine (Anti-pope). + 768 Stephen III (IV). + 772 Hadrian I. + Leo IV. 775 + Constantine VI. 780 + 795 Leo III. + Deposition of Constantine + VI by Irene. 797 + Charles I (the Great). 800 + (Following henceforth the + new Western line). + Lewis I (the Pious). 814 + 816 Stephen IV. + 817 Paschal I. + 824 Eugenius II. + 827 Valentinus. + 827 Gregory IV. + Lothar I. 840 + 844 Sergius II. + 847 Leo IV. + 855 Benedict III. Lewis II. 855 + 855 Anastasius (Anti-pope). + 858 Nicholas I. + 867 Hadrian II. + 872 John VIII. + Charles II (the Bald). 875 + Charles III (the Fat). 881 + 882 Martin II. + 884 Hadrian III. + 885 Stephen V. + 891 Formosus. Guido. 891 + Lambert. 894 + 896 Boniface VI. Arnulf. 896 + 896 Stephen VI. + 897 Romanus. + 897 Theodore II. + 898 John IX. + Lewis (the Child).[+] 899 + 900 Benedict IV. + Lewis III (of Provence). 901 + 903 Leo V. + 903 Christopher. + 904 Sergius III. + 911 Anastasius III. + Conrad I.[+] 912(?) + 913 Lando. + 914 John X. + Berengar. 915 + Henry I (the Fowler).[+] 918 + 928 Leo VI. + 929 Stephen VII. + 931 John XI. + 936 Leo VII. Otto I (the Great).[+] 936 + 939 Stephen VIII. + 941 Martin III. + 946 Agapetus II. + 955 John XII. + Otto I, crowned at Rome. 962 + 963 Leo VIII. + 964 Benedict V (Anti-Pope?). + 965 John XIII. + 972 Benedict VI. + Otto II. 973 + 974 Boniface VII (Anti-pope?). + 974 Domnus II (?). + 974 Benedict VII. + 983 John XIV. Otto III 983 + 985 John XV. + 996 Gregory V. + 996 John XVI (Anti-pope). + 999 Sylvester II. + Henry II (the Saint). 1002 + 1003 John XVII. + 1003 John XVIII. + 1009 Sergius IV. + 1012 Benedict VIII. + 1024 John XIX. Conrad II (the Salic). 1024 + 1033 Benedict IX. + Henry III. 1039 + 1044 Sylvester (Anti-pope). + 1045( Gregory VI. + 1046 Clement II. + 1048 Damasus II. + 1048 Leo IX. + 1054 Victor II. + Henry IV. 1056 + 1057 Stephen IX. + 1058 Benedict X. + 1059 Nicholas II. + 1061 Alexander II. + 1073 Gregory VII (Hildebrand). + 1080 (Clement, Anti-pope). + 1086 Victor III. + 1087 Urban II. + 1099 Paschal II. + Henry V. 1106 + 1118 Gelasius II. + 1118 Gregory, (Anti-pope). + 1119 Calixtus II. + 1121 (Celestine, Anti-pope). + 1124 Honorius II. + Lothar II (the Saxon). 1125 + 1130 Innocent II. + (Anacletus, Anti-pope). + 1138 Victor (Anti-pope). [*]Conrad III. 1138 + 1143 Celestine II. + 1144 Lucius II. + 1145 Eugenius III. + Frederick I (Barbarossa). 1152 + 1153 Anastasius IV. + 1154 Hadrian IV. + 1159 Alexander III. + 1159 (Victor, Anti-pope). + 1164 (Paschal, Anti-pope). + 1168 (Calixtus, Anti-pope). + 1181 Lucius III. + 1185 Urban III. + 1187 Gregory VIII. + 1187 Clement III. + Henry VI. 1190 + 1191 Celestine III. + 1198 Innocent III. [*]Philip, Otto IV + (rivals). 1198 + Otto IV. 1208 + Frederick II. 1212 + 1216 Honorius III. + 1227 Gregory IX. + 1241 Celestine IV. + 1241 Vacancy. + 1243 Innocent IV. + [*]Conrad IV, [*]William, + (rivals). 1250 + 1254 Alexander IV. Interregnum. 1254 + [*]Richard (earl of + Cornwall). + [*]Alfonso (king of + Castile), (rivals). 1257 + 1261 Urban IV. + 1265 Clement IV. + 1269 Vacancy. + 1271 Gregory X. + [*]Rudolf I (of Hapsburg). 1272 + 1276 Innocent V. + 1276 Hadrian V. + 1277 John XX or XXI. + 1277 Nicholas I + 1281 Martin IV. + 1285 Honorius IV. + 1289 Nicholas IV. + 1292 Vacancy. [*]Adolf (of Nassau). 1292 + 1294 Celestine V. + 1294 Boniface VIII. + [*]Albert I. 1298 + 1303 Benedict XI. + 1305 Clement V. + Henry VII. 1308 + 1314 Vacancy. Lewis IV. 1315 + (Frederick of Austria, + rival). + 1316 John XXI or XXII. + 1334 Benedict XII. + 1342 Clement VI. + Charles IV. 1347 + 1352 Innocent VI. (Guenther of Schwartzburg, + rival). + 1362 Urban V. + 1370 Gregory XI. + 1378 Urban VI, + Clement VII [*]Wenzel. 1378 + (Anti-pope). + 1389 Boniface IX. + 1394 Benedict (Anti-pope). + [*]Rupert. 1400 + 1404 Innocent VII. + 1406 Gregory XII. + 1409 Alexander V. + 1410 John XXII or Sigismund. 1410 + XXIII. (Jobst of Moravia, rival). + + 1417 Martin V. + 1431 Eugene IV. + [*]Albert II. 1438 + 1439 Felix V (Anti-pope). + Frederick III. 1440 + 1447 Nicholas V. + 1455 Calixtus IV. + 1458 Pius II. + 1464 Paul II. + 1471 Sixtus IV. + 1484 Innocent VIII. + 1493 Alexander VI. [*]Maximilian I. 1493 + 1503 Pius III. + 1503 Julius II. + 1513 Leo X. + Charles V.[3] 1519 + 1522 Hadrian VI. + 1523 Clement VII. + 1534 Paul III. + 1550 Julius III. + 1555 Marcellus II. + 1555 Paul IV. + [*]Ferdinand I. 1558 + 1559 Pius IV. + [*]Maximilian II. 1564 + 1566 Pius V. + 1572 Gregory XIII. + [*]Rudolf II. 1576 + 1585 Sixtus V. + 1590 Urban VII. + 1590 Gregory XIV. + 1591 Innocent IX. + 1592 Clement VIII. + 1604 Leo XI. + 1604 Paul V. + [*]Matthias. 1612 + [*]Ferdinand II. 1619 + 1621 Gregory XV. + 1623 Urban VIII. + [*]Ferdinand III. 1637 + 1644 Innocent X. + 1655 Alexander VII. + [*]Leopold I. 1658 + 1667 Clement IX. + 1670 Clement X. + 1676 Innocent XI. + 1689 Alexander VIII. + 1691 Innocent XII. + 1700 Clement XI. + [*]Joseph I. 1705 + [*]Charles VI. 1711 + 1720 Innocent XIII. + 1724 Benedict XIII. + 1740 Benedict XIV. + [*]Charles VII. 1742 + [*]Francis I. 1745 + 1758 Clement XII. + [*]Joseph II. 1765 + 1769 Clement XIII. + 1775 Pius VI. + [*]Leopold II. 1790 + [*]Francis II. 1792 + 1800 Pius VII. + Abdication of Francis II. 1806 + 1823 Leo XII. + 1829 Pius VIII. + 1831 Gregory XVI. + 1846 Pius IX. + +[*] Those marked with an asterisk were never actually crowned at Rome. +[+] The names marked with a + are those of German kings who never made any +claim to the imperial title. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Reckoning the Anti-pope Felix (A.D. 356) as Felix II. + +[3] Crowned Emperor, but at Bologna, not at Rome. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +Of those who in August, 1806, read in the English newspapers that the +Emperor Francis II had announced to the Diet his resignation of the +imperial crown, there were probably few who reflected that the oldest +political institution in the world had come to an end. Yet it was so. +The Empire which a note issued by a diplomatist on the banks of the +Danube extinguished, was the same which the crafty nephew of Julius +had won for himself, against the powers of the East, beneath the +cliffs of Actium; and which had preserved almost unaltered, through +eighteen centuries of time, and through the greatest changes in +extent, in power, in character, a title and pretensions from which all +meaning had long since departed. Nothing else so directly linked the +old world to the new--nothing else displayed so many strange contrasts +of the present and the past, and summed up in those contrasts so much +of European history. From the days of Constantine till far down into +the middle ages it was, conjointly with the Papacy, the recognised +centre and head of Christendom, exercising over the minds of men an +influence such as its material strength could never have commanded. It +is of this influence and of the causes that gave it power rather than +of the external history of the Empire, that the following pages are +designed to treat. That history is indeed full of interest and +brilliance, of grand characters and striking situations. But it is a +subject too vast for any single canvas. Without a minuteness of detail +sufficient to make its scenes dramatic and give us a lively sympathy +with the actors, a narrative history can have little value and still +less charm. But to trace with any minuteness the career of the Empire, +would be to write the history of Christendom from the fifth century to +the twelfth, of Germany and Italy from the twelfth to the nineteenth; +while even a narrative of more restricted scope, which should attempt +to disengage from a general account of the affairs of those countries +the events that properly belong to imperial history, could hardly be +compressed within reasonable limits. It is therefore better, declining +so great a task, to attempt one simpler and more practicable though +not necessarily inferior in interest; to speak less of events than of +principles, and endeavour to describe the Empire not as a State but as +an Institution, an institution created by and embodying a wonderful +system of ideas. In pursuance of such a plan, the forms which the +Empire took in the several stages of its growth and decline must be +briefly sketched. The characters and acts of the great men who +founded, guided, and overthrew it must from time to time be touched +upon. But the chief aim of the treatise will be to dwell more fully on +the inner nature of the Empire, as the most signal instance of the +fusion of Roman and Teutonic elements in modern civilization: to shew +how such a combination was possible; how Charles and Otto were led to +revive the imperial title in the West; how far during the reigns of +their successors it preserved the memory of its origin, and influenced +the European commonwealth of nations. + +Strictly speaking, it is from the year 800 A.D., when a King of the +Franks was crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III, that the +beginning of the Holy Roman Empire must be dated. But in history there +is nothing isolated, and just as to explain a modern Act of Parliament +or a modern conveyance of lands we must go back to the feudal customs +of the thirteenth century, so among the institutions of the Middle +Ages there is scarcely one which can be understood until it is traced +up either to classical or to primitive Teutonic antiquity. Such a mode +of inquiry is most of all needful in the case of the Holy Empire, +itself no more than a tradition, a fancied revival of departed +glories. And thus, in order to make it clear out of what elements the +imperial system was formed, we might be required to scrutinize the +antiquities of the Christian Church; to survey the constitution of +Rome in the days when Rome was no more than the first of the Latin +cities; nay, to travel back yet further to that Jewish theocratic +polity whose influence on the minds of the mediaeval priesthood was +necessarily so profound. Practically, however, it may suffice to begin +by glancing at the condition of the Roman world in the third and +fourth centuries of the Christian era. We shall then see the old +Empire with its scheme of absolutism fully matured; we shall mark how +the new religion, rising in the midst of a hostile power, ends by +embracing and transforming it; and we shall be in a position to +understand what impression the whole huge fabric of secular and +ecclesiastical government which Roman and Christian had piled up made +upon the barbarian tribes who pressed into the charmed circle of the +ancient civilization. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE ROMAN EMPIRE BEFORE THE INVASIONS OF THE BARBARIANS. + + +[Sidenote: The Roman Empire in the second century.] + +[Sidenote: Obliteration of national distinctions.] + +[Sidenote: The Capital.] + +That ostentation of humility which the subtle policy of Augustus had +conceived, and the jealous hypocrisy of Tiberius maintained, was +gradually dropped by their successors, till despotism became at last +recognised in principle as the government of the Roman Empire. With an +aristocracy decayed, a populace degraded, an army no longer recruited +from Italy, the semblance of liberty that yet survived might be swept +away with impunity. Republican forms had never been known in the +provinces at all, and the aspect which the imperial administration had +originally assumed there, soon reacted on its position in the capital. +Earlier rulers had disguised their supremacy by making a slavish +senate the instrument of their more cruel or arbitrary acts. As time +went on, even this veil was withdrawn; and in the age of Septimius +Severus, the Emperor stood forth to the whole Roman world as the +single centre and source of power and political action. The warlike +character of the Roman state was preserved in his title of General; +his provincial lieutenants were military governors; and a more +terrible enforcement of the theory was found in his dependence on the +army, at once the origin and support of all authority. But, as he +united in himself every function of government, his sovereignty was +civil as well as military. Laws emanated from him; all officials acted +under his commission; the sanctity of his person bordered on divinity. +This increased concentration of power was mainly required by the +necessities of frontier defence, for within there was more decay than +disaffection. Few troops were quartered through the country: few +fortresses checked the march of armies in the struggles which placed +Vespasian and Severus on the throne. The distant crash of war from the +Rhine or the Euphrates was scarcely heard or heeded in the profound +quiet of the Mediterranean coasts, where, with piracy, fleets had +disappeared. No quarrels of race or religion disturbed that calm, for +all national distinctions were becoming merged in the idea of a common +Empire. The gradual extension of Roman citizenship through the +_coloniae_, the working of the equalized and equalizing Roman law, the +even pressure of the government on all subjects, the movement of +population caused by commerce and the slave traffic, were steadily +assimilating the various peoples. Emperors who were for the most part +natives of the provinces cared little to cherish Italy or conciliate +Rome: it was their policy to keep open for every subject a career by +whose freedom they had themselves risen to greatness, and to recruit +the senate from the most illustrious families in the cities of Gaul, +Spain, and Asia. The edict by which Caracalla extended to all natives +of the Roman world the rights of Roman citizenship, though prompted by +no motives of kindness, proved in the end a boon. Annihilating legal +distinctions, it completed the work which trade and literature and +toleration to all beliefs but one were already performing, and left, +so far as we can tell, only two nations still cherishing a national +feeling. The Jew was kept apart by his religion: the Greek boasted his +original intellectual superiority. Speculative philosophy lent her aid +to this general assimilation. Stoicism, with its doctrine of a +universal system of nature, made minor distinctions between man and +man seem insignificant: and by its teachers the idea of +cosmopolitanism was for the first time proclaimed. Alexandrian +Neo-Platonism, uniting the tenets of many schools, first bringing the +mysticism of the East into connection with the logical philosophies of +Greece, had opened up a new ground of agreement or controversy for the +minds of all the world. Yet Rome's commanding position was scarcely +shaken. Her actual power was indeed confined within narrow limits. +Rarely were her senate and people permitted to choose the sovereign: +more rarely still could they control his policy; neither law nor +custom raised them above other subjects, or accorded to them any +advantage in the career of civil or military ambition. As in time past +Rome had sacrificed domestic freedom that she might be the mistress of +others, so now to be universal, she, the conqueror, had descended to +the level of the conquered. But the sacrifice had not wanted its +reward. From her came the laws and the language that had overspread +the world: at her feet the nations laid the offerings of their labour: +she was the head of the Empire and of civilization, and in riches, +fame, and splendour far outshone as well the cities of that time as +the fabled glories of Babylon or Persepolis. + +[Sidenote: Diocletian and Constantine.] + +Scarcely had these slowly working influences brought about this unity, +when other influences began to threaten it. New foes assailed the +frontiers; while the loosening of the structure within was shewn by +the long struggles for power which followed the death or deposition of +each successive emperor. In the period of anarchy after the fall of +Valerian, generals were raised by their armies in every part of the +Empire, and ruled great provinces as monarchs apart, owning no +allegiance to the possessor of the capital. + +The founding of the kingdoms of modern Europe might have been +anticipated by two hundred years, had the barbarians been bolder, or +had there not arisen in Diocletian a prince active and politic enough +to bind up the fragments before they had lost all cohesion, meeting +altered conditions by new remedies. By dividing and localizing +authority, he confessed that the weaker heart could no longer make its +pulsations felt to the body's extremities. He parcelled out the +supreme power among four persons, and then sought to give it a +factitious strength, by surrounding it with an oriental pomp which his +earlier predecessors would have scorned. The sovereign's person became +more sacred, and was removed further from the subject by the +interposition of a host of officials. The prerogative of Rome was +menaced by the rivalry of Nicomedia, and the nearer greatness of +Milan. Constantine trod in the same path, extending the system of +titles and functionaries, separating the civil from the military, +placing counts and dukes along the frontiers and in the cities, making +the household larger, its etiquette stricter, its offices more +important, though to a Roman eye degraded by their attachment to the +monarch's person. The crown became, for the first time, the fountain +of honour. These changes brought little good. Heavier taxation +depressed the aristocracy[4]: population decreased, agriculture +withered, serfdom spread: it was found more difficult to raise native +troops and to pay any troops whatever. The removal of the seat of +power to Byzantium, if it prolonged the life of a part of the Empire, +shook it as a whole, by making the separation of East and West +inevitable. By it Rome's self-abnegation that she might Romanize the +world, was completed; for though the new capital preserved her name, +and followed her customs and precedents, yet now the imperial sway +ceased to be connected with the city which had created it. Thus did +the idea of Roman monarchy become more universal; for, having lost its +local centre, it subsisted no longer historically, but, so to speak, +naturally, as a part of an order of things which a change in external +conditions seemed incapable of disturbing. Henceforth the Empire would +be unaffected by the disasters of the city. And though, after the +partition of the Empire had been confirmed by Valentinian, and finally +settled on the death of Theodosius, the seat of the Western government +was removed first to Milan and then to Ravenna, neither event +destroyed Rome's prestige, nor the notion of a single imperial +nationality common to all her subjects. The Syrian, the Pannonian, the +Briton, the Spaniard, still called himself a Roman[5]. + +[Sidenote: Christianity.] + +[Sidenote: Its alliance with the State.] + +For that nationality was now beginning to be supported by a new and +vigorous power. The Emperors had indeed opposed it as disloyal and +revolutionary: had more than once put forth their whole strength to +root it out. But the unity of the Empire, and the ease of +communication through its parts, had favoured the spread of +Christianity: persecution had scattered the seeds more widely, had +forced on it a firm organization, had given it martyr-heroes and a +history. When Constantine, partly perhaps from a genuine moral +sympathy, yet doubtless far more in the well-grounded belief that he +had more to gain from the zealous sympathy of its professors than he +could lose by the aversion of those who still cultivated a languid +paganism, took Christianity to be the religion of the Empire, it was +already a great political force, able, and not more able than willing, +to repay him by aid and submission. Yet the league was struck in no +mere mercenary spirit, for the league was inevitable. Of the evils and +dangers incident to the system then founded, there was as yet no +experience: of that antagonism between Church and State which to a +modern appears so natural, there was not even an idea. Among the Jews, +the State had rested upon religion; among the Romans, religion had +been an integral part of the political constitution, a matter far more +of national or tribal or family feeling than of personal[6]. Both in +Israel and at Rome the mingling of religious with civic patriotism had +been harmonious, giving strength and elasticity to the whole body +politic. So perfect a union was now no longer possible in the Roman +Empire, for the new faith had already a governing body of her own in +those rulers and teachers whom the growth of sacramentalism, and of +sacerdotalism its necessary consequence, was making every day more +powerful, and marking off more sharply from the mass of the Christian +people. Since therefore the ecclesiastical organization could not be +identical with the civil, it became its counterpart. Suddenly called +from danger and ignominy to the seat of power, and finding her +inexperience perplexed by a sphere of action vast and varied, the +Church was compelled to frame herself upon the model of the secular +administration. Where her own machinery was defective, as in the case +of doctrinal disputes affecting the whole Christian world, she sought +the interposition of the sovereign; in all else she strove not to sink +in, but to reproduce for herself the imperial system. And just as with +the extension of the Empire all the independent rights of districts, +towns, or tribes had disappeared, so now the primitive freedom and +diversity of individual Christians and local Churches, already +circumscribed by the frequent struggles against heresy, was finally +overborne by the idea of one visible catholic Church, uniform in faith +and ritual; uniform too in her relation to the civil power and the +increasingly oligarchical character of her government. Thus, under the +combined force of doctrinal theory and practical needs, there shaped +itself a hierarchy of patriarchs, metropolitans, and bishops, their +jurisdiction, although still chiefly spiritual, enforced by the laws +of the State, their provinces and dioceses usually corresponding to +the administrative divisions of the Empire. As no patriarch yet +enjoyed more than an honorary supremacy, the head of the Church--so +far as she could be said to have a head--was virtually the Emperor +himself. The inchoate right to intermeddle in religious affairs which +he derived from the office of Pontifex Maximus was readily admitted; +and the clergy, preaching the duty of passive obedience now as it had +been preached in the days of Nero and Diocletian[7], were well pleased +to see him preside in councils, issue edicts against heresy, and +testify even by arbitrary measures his zeal for the advancement of the +faith and the overthrow of pagan rites. But though the tone of the +Church remained humble, her strength waxed greater, nor were occasions +wanting which revealed the future that was in store for her. The +resistance and final triumph of Athanasius proved that the new society +could put forth a power of opinion such as had never been known +before: the abasement of Theodosius the Emperor before Ambrose the +Archbishop admitted the supremacy of spiritual authority. In the +decrepitude of old institutions, in the barrenness of literature and +the feebleness of art, it was to the Church that the life and feelings +of the people sought more and more to attach themselves; and when in +the fifth century the horizon grew black with clouds of ruin, those +who watched with despair or apathy the approach of irresistible foes, +fled for comfort to the shrine of a religion which even those foes +revered. + +[Sidenote: It embraces and preserves the imperial idea.] + +But that which we are above all concerned to remark here is, that this +church system, demanding a more rigid uniformity in doctrine and +organization, making more and more vital the notion of a visible body +of worshippers united by participation in the same sacraments, +maintained and propagated afresh the feeling of a single Roman people +throughout the world. Christianity as well as civilization became +conterminous with the Roman Empire[8]. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] According to the vicious financial system that prevailed, the +_curiales_ in each city were required to collect the taxes, and when +there was a deficit, to supply it from their own property. + +[5] See the eloquent passage of Claudian, _In secundum consulatum +Stilichonis_, 129, _sqq._, from which the following lines are taken +(150-60):-- + + 'Haec est in gremio victos quae sola recepit, + Humanumque genus communi nomine fovit, + Matris, non dominae, ritu; civesque vocavit + Quos domuit, nexuque pio longinqua revinxit. + Hujus pacificis debemus moribus omnes + Quod veluti patriis regionibus utitur hospes: + Quod sedem mutare licet: quod cernere Thulen + Lusus, et horrendos quondam penetrare recessus: + Quod bibimus passim Rhodanum, potamus Oronten, + Quod cuncti gens una sumus. Nec terminus unquam + Romanae ditionis erit.' + +[6] In the Roman jurisprudence, _ius sacrum_ is a branch of _ius +publicum_. + +[7] Tertullian, writing circ. A.D. 200, says: 'Sed quid ego amplius de +religione atque pietate Christiana in imperatorem quem necesse est +suspiciamus ut eum quem Dominus noster elegerit. Et merito dixerim, +noster est magis Caesar, ut a nostro Deo constitutus.'--_Apologet._ +cap. 34. + +[8] See the book of Optatus, bishop of Milevis, _Contra Donatistas_. +'Non enim respublica est in ecclesia, sed ecclesia in republica, id +est, in imperio Romano, cum super imperatorem non sit nisi solus +Deus:' (p. 999 of vol. ii. of Migne's _Patrologiae Cursus completus_.) +The treatise of Optatus is full of interest, as shewing the growth of +the idea of the visible Church, and of the primacy of Peter's chair, +as constituting its centre and representing its unity. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS. + + +[Sidenote: The Barbarians.] + +[Sidenote: Admitted to Roman titles and honours.] + +Upon a world so constituted did the barbarians of the North descend. +From the dawn of history they shew as a dim background to the warmth +and light of the Mediterranean coast, changing little while kingdoms +rise and fall in the South: only thought on when some hungry swarm +comes down to pillage or to settle. It is always as foes that they are +known. The Romans never forgot the invasion of Brennus; and their +fears, renewed by the irruption of the Cimbri and Teutones, could not +let them rest till the extension of the frontier to the Rhine and the +Danube removed Italy from immediate danger. A little more perseverance +under Tiberius, or again under Hadrian, would probably have reduced +all Germany as far as the Baltic and the Oder. But the politic or +jealous advice of Augustus[9] was followed, and it was only along the +frontiers that Roman arts and culture affected the Teutonic races. +Commerce was brisk; Roman envoys penetrated the forests to the courts +of rude chieftains; adventurous barbarians entered the provinces, +sometimes to admire, oftener, like the brother of Arminius[10], to +take service under the Roman flag, and rise to a distinction in the +legion which some feud denied them at home. This was found even more +convenient by the hirer than by the employed; till by degrees +barbarian mercenaries came to form the largest, or at least the most +effective, part of the Roman armies. The body-guard of Augustus had +been so composed; the praetorians were generally selected from the +bravest frontier troops, most of them German; the practice could not +but increase with the extinction of the free peasantry, the growth of +villenage, and the effeminacy of all classes. Emperors who were, like +Maximin, themselves foreigners, encouraged a system by whose means +they had risen, and whose advantages they knew. After Constantine, the +barbarians form the majority of the troops; after Theodosius, a Roman +is the exception. The soldiers of the Eastern Empire in the time of +Arcadius are almost all Goths, vast bodies of whom had been settled in +the provinces; while in the West, Stilicho[11] can oppose Rhodogast +only by summoning the German auxiliaries from the frontiers. Along +with this practice there had grown up another, which did still more to +make the barbarians feel themselves members of the Roman state. +Whatever the pride of the old republic might assert, the maxim of the +Empire had always been that birth and race should exclude no subject +from any post which his abilities deserved. This principle, which had +removed all obstacles from the path of the Spaniard Trajan, the +Pannonian Maximin, the Numidian Philip, was afterwards extended to the +conferring of honour and power on persons who did not even profess to +have passed through the grades of Roman service, but remained leaders +of their own tribes. Ariovistus had been soothed by the title of +Friend of the Roman People; in the third century the insignia of the +consulship[12] were conferred on a Herulian chief: Crocus and his +Alemanni entered as an independent body into the service of Rome; +along the Rhine whole tribes received, under the name of Laeti, lands +within the provinces on condition of military service; and the foreign +aid which the Sarmatian had proffered to Vespasian against his rival, +and Marcus Aurelius had indignantly rejected in the war with Cassius, +became the usual, at last the sole support of the Empire, in civil as +well as in external strife. + +Thus in many ways was the old antagonism broken down--Romans admitting +barbarians to rank and office, barbarians catching something of the +manners and culture of their neighbours. And thus when the final +movement came, and the Teutonic tribes slowly established themselves +through the provinces, they entered not as savage strangers, but as +colonists knowing something of the system into which they came, and +not unwilling to be considered its members; despising the degenerate +provincials who struck no blow in their own defence, but full of +respect for the majestic power which had for so many centuries +confronted and instructed them. + +[Sidenote: Their feelings towards the Roman Empire.] + +Great during all these ages, but greatest when they were actually +traversing and settling in the Empire, must have been the impression +which its elaborate machinery of government and mature civilization +made upon the minds of the Northern invaders. With arms whose +fabrication they had learned from their foes, these dwellers in the +forest conquered well-tilled fields, and entered towns whose busy +workshops, marts stored with the productions of distant countries, and +palaces rich in monuments of art, equally roused their wonder. To the +beauty of statuary or painting they might often be blind, but the +rudest mind must have been awed by the massive piles with which vanity +or devotion, or the passion for amusement, had adorned Milan and +Verona, Arles, Treves, and Bordeaux. A deeper awe would strike them as +they gazed on the crowding worshippers and stately ceremonial of +Christianity, most unlike their own rude sacrifices. The exclamation +of the Goth Athanaric, when led into the market-place of +Constantinople, may stand for the feelings of his nation: 'Without +doubt the Emperor is a God upon earth, and he who attacks him is +guilty of his own blood[13].' + +[Sidenote: Their desire to preserve its institutions.] + +The social and political system, with its cultivated language and +literature, into which they came, would impress fewer of the +conquerors, but by those few would be admired beyond all else. Its +regular organization supplied what they most needed and could least +construct for themselves, and hence it was that the greatest among +them were the most desirous to preserve it. The Mongol Attila +excepted, there is among these terrible hosts no destroyer; the wish +of each leader is to maintain the existing order, to spare life, to +respect every work of skill and labour, above all to perpetuate the +methods of Roman administration, and rule the people as the deputy or +successor of their Emperor. Titles conferred by him were the highest +honours they knew: they were also the only means of acquiring +something like a legal claim to the obedience of the subject, and of +turning a patriarchal or military chieftainship into the regular sway +of an hereditary monarch. Civilis had long since endeavoured to govern +his Batavians as a Roman general[14]. Alaric became master-general of +the armies of Illyricum. Clovis exulted in the consulship; his son +Theodebert received Provence, the conquest of his own battle-axe, as +the gift of Justinian. Sigismund the Burgundian king, created count +and patrician by the Emperor Anastasius, professed the deepest +gratitude and the firmest faith to that Eastern court which was +absolutely powerless to help or to hurt him. 'My people is yours,' he +writes, 'and to rule them delights me less than to serve you; the +hereditary devotion of my race to Rome has made us account those the +highest honours which your military titles convey; we have always +preferred what an Emperor gave to all that our ancestors could +bequeath. In ruling our nation we hold ourselves but your lieutenants: +you, whose divinely-appointed sway no barrier bounds, whose blessed +beams shine from the Bosphorus into distant Gaul, employ us to +administer the remoter regions of your Empire: your world is our +fatherland[15].' A contemporary historian has recorded the remarkable +disclosure of his own thoughts and purposes, made by one of the ablest +of the barbarian chieftains, Athaulf the Visigoth, the brother-in-law +and successor of Alaric. 'It was at first my wish to destroy the Roman +name, and erect in its place a Gothic empire, taking to myself the +place and the powers of Caesar Augustus. But when experience taught me +that the untameable barbarism of the Goths would not suffer them to +live beneath the sway of law, and that the abolition of the +institutions on which the state rested would involve the ruin of the +state itself, I chose the glory of renewing and maintaining by Gothic +strength the fame of Rome, desiring to go down to posterity as the +restorer of that Roman power which it was beyond my power to replace. +Wherefore I avoid war and strive for peace[16].' + +Historians have remarked how valuable must have been the skill of +Roman officials to princes who from leaders of tribes were become +rulers of wide lands; and in particular how indispensable the aid of +the Christian bishops, the intellectual aristocracy of their new +subjects, whose advice could alone guide their policy and conciliate +the vanquished. Not only is this true; it is but a small part of the +truth; one form of that manifold and overpowering influence which the +old system exercised over its foes not less than its own children. For +it is hardly too much to say that the thought of antagonism to the +Empire and the wish to extinguish it never crossed the mind of the +barbarians[17]. The conception of that Empire was too universal, too +august, too enduring. It was everywhere around them, and they could +remember no time when it had not been so. It had no association of +people or place whose fall could seem to involve that of the whole +fabric; it had that connection with the Christian Church which made it +all-embracing and venerable. + +[Sidenote: The belief in its eternity.] + +There were especially two ideas whereon it rested, and from which it +obtained a peculiar strength and a peculiar direction. The one was the +belief that as the dominion of Rome was universal, so must it be +eternal. Nothing like it had been seen before. The empire of Alexander +had lasted a short lifetime; and within its wide compass were included +many arid wastes, and many tracts where none but the roving savage had +ever set foot. That of the Italian city had for fourteen generations +embraced all the most wealthy and populous regions of the civilized +world, and had laid the foundations of its power so deep that they +seemed destined to last for ever. If Rome moved slowly for a time, her +foot was always planted firmly: the ease and swiftness of her later +conquests proved the solidity of the earlier; and to her, more justly +than to his own city, might the boast of the Athenian historian be +applied: that she advanced farthest in prosperity, and in adversity +drew back the least. From the end of the republican period her poets, +her orators, her jurists, ceased not to repeat the claim of +world-dominion, and confidently predict its eternity[18]. The proud +belief of his countrymen which Virgil had expressed-- + + 'His ego nec metas rerum, nec tempora pono: + Imperium sine fine dedi'-- + +was shared by the early Christians when they prayed for the +persecuting power whose fall would bring Antichrist upon earth. +Lactantius writes: 'When Rome the head of the world shall have fallen, +who can doubt that the end is come of human things, aye, of the earth +itself. She, she alone is the state by which all things are upheld +even until now; wherefore let us make prayers and supplications to the +God of heaven, if indeed his decrees and his purposes can be delayed, +that that hateful tyrant come not sooner than we look for, he for whom +are reserved fearful deeds, who shall pluck out that eye in whose +extinction the world itself shall perish[19].' With the triumph of +Christianity this belief had found a new basis. For as the Empire had +decayed, the Church had grown stronger; and now while the one, +trembling at the approach of the destroyer, saw province after +province torn away, the other, rising in stately youth, prepared to +fill her place and govern in her name, and in doing so, to adopt and +sanctify and propagate anew the notion of a universal and unending +state. + +[Sidenote: Sanctity of the imperial name.] + +The second chief element in this conception was the association of +such a state with one irresponsible governor, the Emperor. The hatred +to the name of King, which their earliest political struggles had left +in the Romans, by obliging their ruler to take a new and strange +title, marked him off from all the other sovereigns of the world. To +the provincials especially he became an awful impersonation of the +great machine of government which moved above and around them. It was +not merely that he was, like a modern king, the centre of power and +the dispenser of honour: his pre-eminence, broken by no comparison +with other princes, by the ascending ranks of no aristocracy, had in +it something almost supernatural. The right of legislation had become +vested in him alone: the decrees of the people, and resolutions of the +senate, and edicts of the magistrates were, during the last three +centuries, replaced by imperial constitutions; his domestic council, +the consistory, was the supreme court of appeal; his interposition, +like that of some terrestrial Providence, was invoked, and legally +provided so to be, to reverse or overleap the ordinary rules of +law[20]. From the time of Julius and Augustus his person had been +hallowed by the office of chief pontiff[21] and the tribunician power; +to swear by his head was considered the most solemn of all oaths[22]; +his effigy was sacred[23], even on a coin; to him or to his Genius +temples were erected and divine honours paid while he lived[24]; and +when, as it was expressed, he ceased to be among men, the title of +Divus was accorded to him, after a solemn consecration[25]. In the +confused multiplicity of mythologies, the worship of the Emperor was +the only worship common to the whole Roman world, and was therefore +that usually proposed as a test to the Christians on their trial. +Under the new religion the form of adoration vanished, the sentiment +of reverence remained: the right to control Church as well as State, +admitted at Nicaea, and habitually exercised by the sovereigns of +Constantinople, made the Emperor hardly less essential to the new +conception of a world-wide Christian monarchy than he had been to the +military despotism of old. These considerations explain why the men of +the fifth century, clinging to preconceived ideas, refused to believe +in that dissolution of the Empire which they saw with their own eyes. +Because it could not die, it lived. And there was in the slowness of +the change and its external aspect, as well as in the fortunes of the +capital, something to favour the illusion. The Roman name was shared +by every subject; the Roman city was no longer the seat of government, +nor did her capture extinguish the imperial power, for the maxim was +now accepted, Where the Emperor is, there is Rome[26]. But her +continued existence, not permanently occupied by any conqueror, +striking the nations with an awe which the history or the external +splendours of Constantinople, Milan, or Ravenna could nowise inspire, +was an ever new assertion of the endurance of the Roman race and +dominion. Dishonoured and defenceless, the spell of her name was still +strong enough to arrest the conqueror in the moment of triumph. The +irresistible impulse that drew Alaric was one of glory or revenge, not +of destruction: the Hun turned back from Aquileia with a vague fear +upon him: the Ostrogoth adorned and protected his splendid prize. + +[Sidenote: Last days of the Western Empire.] + +[Sidenote: Its extinction by Odoacer, A.D. 476.] + +In the history of the last days of the Western Empire, two points +deserve special remark: its continued union with the Eastern branch, +and the way in which its ideal dignity was respected while its +representatives were despised. After Stilicho's death, and Alaric's +invasion, its fall was a question of time. While one by one the +provinces were abandoned by the central government, left either to be +occupied by invading tribes or to maintain a precarious independence, +like Britain and Armorica[27], by means of municipal unions, Italy lay +at the mercy of the barbarian auxiliaries and was governed by their +leaders. The degenerate line of Theodosius might have seemed to reign +by hereditary right, but after their extinction in Valentinian III +each phantom Emperor--Maximus, Avitus, Majorian, Anthemius, +Olybrius--received the purple from the haughty Ricimer, general of the +troops, only to be stripped of it when he presumed to forget his +dependence. Though the division between Arcadius and Honorius had +definitely severed the two realms for administrative purposes, they +were still supposed to constitute a single Empire, and the rulers of +the East interfered more than once to raise to the Western throne +princes they could not protect upon it. Ricimer's insolence quailed +before the shadowy grandeur of the imperial title: his ambition, and +Gundobald his successor's, were bounded by the name of patrician. The +bolder genius of Odoacer[28], general of the barbarian auxiliaries, +resolved to abolish an empty pageant, and extinguish the title and +office of Emperor of the West. Yet over him too the spell had power; +and as the Gaulish warrior had gazed on the silent majesty of the +senate in a deserted city, so the Herulian revered the power before +which the world had bowed, and though there was no force to check or +to affright him, shrank from grasping in his own barbarian hand the +sceptre of the Caesars. When, at Odoacer's bidding, Romulus Augustulus, +the boy whom a whim of fate had chosen to be the last native Caesar of +Rome, had formally announced his resignation to the senate, a +deputation from that body proceeded to the Eastern court to lay the +insignia of royalty at the feet of the Eastern Emperor Zeno. The West, +they declared, no longer required an Emperor of its own; one monarch +sufficed for the world; Odoacer was qualified by his wisdom and +courage to be the protector of their state, and upon him Zeno was +entreated to confer the title of patrician and the administration of +the Italian provinces[29]. The Emperor granted what he could not +refuse, and Odoacer, taking the title of King[30], continued the +consular office, respected the civil and ecclesiastical institutions +of his subjects, and ruled for fourteen years as the nominal vicar of +the Eastern Emperor. There was thus legally no extinction of the +Western Empire at all, but only a reunion of East and West. In form, +and to some extent also in the belief of men, things now reverted to +their state during the first two centuries of the Empire, save that +Byzantium instead of Rome was the centre of the civil government. The +joint tenancy which had been conceived by Diocletian, carried further +by Constantine, renewed under Valentinian I and again at the death of +Theodosius, had come to an end; once more did a single Emperor sway +the sceptre of the world, and head an undivided Catholic Church[31]. +To those who lived at the time, this year (476 A.D.) was no such epoch +as it has since become, nor was any impression made on men's minds +commensurate with the real significance of the event. For though it +did not destroy the Empire in idea, nor wholly even in fact, its +consequences were from the first great. It hastened the development of +a Latin as opposed to Greek and Oriental forms of Christianity: it +emancipated the Popes: it gave a new character to the projects and +government of the Teutonic rulers of the West. But the importance of +remembering its formal aspect to those who witnessed it will be felt +as we approach the era when the Empire was revived by Charles the +Frank. + +[Sidenote: Odoacer.] + +[Sidenote: Theodoric.] + +[Sidenote: Italy reconquered, by Justinian.] + +Odoacer's monarchy was not more oppressive than those of his +neighbours in Gaul, Spain, and Africa. But the mercenary _foederati_ +who supported it were a loose swarm of predatory tribes: themselves +without cohesion, they could take no firm root in Italy. During the +eighteen years of his reign no progress seems to have been made +towards the re-organization of society; and the first real attempt to +blend the peoples and maintain the traditions of Roman wisdom in the +hands of a new and vigorous race was reserved for a more famous +chieftain, the greatest of all the barbarian conquerors, the +forerunner of the first barbarian Emperor, Theodoric the Ostrogoth. +The aim of his reign, though he professed allegiance to the Eastern +court which had favoured his invasion[32], was the establishment of a +national monarchy in Italy. Brought up as a hostage in the court of +Byzantium, he learnt to know the advantages of an orderly and +cultivated society and the principles by which it must be maintained; +called in early manhood to roam as a warrior-chief over the plains of +the Danube, he acquired along with the arts of command a sense of the +superiority of his own people in valour and energy and truth. When the +defeat and death of Odoacer had left the peninsula at his mercy, he +sought no further conquest, easy as it would have been to tear away +new provinces from the Eastern realm, but strove only to preserve and +strengthen the ancient polity of Rome, to breathe into her decaying +institutions the spirit of a fresh life, and without endangering the +military supremacy of his own Goths, to conciliate by indulgence and +gradually raise to the level of their masters the degenerate +population of Italy. The Gothic nation appears from the first less +cruel in war and more prudent in council than any of their Germanic +brethren[33]: all that was most noble among them shone forth now in +the rule of the greatest of the Amali. From his palace at Verona[34], +commemorated in the song of the Nibelungs, he issued equal laws for +Roman and Goth, and bade the intruder, if he must occupy part of the +lands, at least respect the goods and the person of his +fellow-subject. Jurisprudence and administration remained in native +hands: two annual consuls, one named by Theodoric, the other by the +Eastern monarch, presented an image of the ancient state; and while +agriculture and the arts revived in the provinces, Rome herself +celebrated the visits of a master who provided for the wants of her +people and preserved with care the monuments of her former splendour. +With peace and plenty men's minds took hope, and the study of letters +revived. The last gleam of classical literature gilds the reign of the +barbarian. By the consolidation of the two races under one wise +government, Italy might have been spared six hundred years of gloom +and degradation. It was not so to be. Theodoric was tolerant, but +toleration was itself a crime in the eyes of his orthodox subjects: +the Arian Goths were and remained strangers and enemies among the +Catholic Italians. Scarcely had the sceptre passed from the hands of +Theodoric to his unworthy offspring, when Justinian, who had viewed +with jealousy the greatness of his nominal lieutenant, determined to +assert his dormant rights over Italy; its people welcomed Belisarius +as a deliverer, and in the struggle that followed the race and name of +the Ostrogoths perished for ever. Thus again reunited in fact, as it +had been all the while united in name, to the Roman Empire, the +peninsula was divided into counties and dukedoms, and obeyed the +exarch of Ravenna, viceroy of the Byzantine court, till the arrival of +the Lombards in A.D. 568 drove him from some districts, and left him +only a feeble authority in the rest. + +[Sidenote: The Transalpine provinces.] + +Beyond the Alps, though the Roman population had now ceased to seek +help from the Eastern court, the Empire's rights still subsisted in +theory, and were never legally extinguished. As has been said, they +were admitted by the conquerors themselves: by Athaulf, when he +reigned in Aquitaine as the vicar of Honorius, and recovered Spain +from the Suevi to restore it to its ancient masters; by the Visigothic +kings of Spain, when they permitted the Mediterranean cities to send +tribute to Byzantium; by Clovis, when, after the representatives of +the old government, Syagrius and the Armorican cities, had been +overpowered or absorbed, he received with delight from the Eastern +emperor Anastasius the grant of a Roman dignity to confirm his +possession. Arrayed like a Fabius or Valerius in the consul's +embroidered robe, the Sicambrian chieftain rode through the streets of +Tours, while the shout of the provincials hailed him Augustus[35]. +They already obeyed him, but his power was now legalised in their +eyes, and it was not without a melancholy pride that they saw the +terrible conqueror himself yield to the spell of the Roman name, and +do homage to the enduring majesty of their legitimate sovereign[36]. + +[Sidenote: Lingering influences of Rome.] + +[Sidenote: Religion.] + +Yet the severed limbs of the Empire forgot by degrees their original +unity. As in the breaking up of the old society, which we trace from +the sixth to the eighth century, rudeness and ignorance grew apace, as +language and manners were changed by the infiltration of Teutonic +settlers, as men's thoughts and hopes and interests were narrowed by +isolation from their fellows, as the organization of the Roman +province and the Germanic tribe alike dissolved into a chaos whence +the new order began to shape itself, dimly and doubtfully as yet, the +memory of the old Empire, its symmetry, its sway, its civilization, +must needs wane and fade. It might have perished altogether but for +the two enduring witnesses Rome had left--her Church and her Law. The +barbarians had at first associated Christianity with the Romans from +whom they learned it: the Romans had used it as their only bulwark +against oppression. The hierarchy were the natural leaders of the +people, and the necessary councillors of the king. Their power grew +with the extinction of civil government and the spread of +superstition; and when the Frank found it too valuable to be abandoned +to the vanquished people, he insensibly acquired the feelings and +policy of the order he entered. + +[Sidenote: Jurisprudence.] + +As the Empire fell to pieces, and the new kingdoms which the +conquerors had founded themselves began to dissolve, the Church clung +more closely to her unity of faith and discipline, the common bond of +all Christian men. That unity must have a centre, that centre was +Rome. A succession of able and zealous pontiffs extended her influence +(the sanctity and the writings of Gregory the Great were famous +through all the West): never occupied by barbarians, she retained her +peculiar character and customs, and laid the foundations of a power +over men's souls more durable than that which she had lost over their +bodies[37]. Only second in importance to this influence was that which +was exercised by the permanence of the old law, and of its creature +the municipality. The barbarian invaders retained the customs of their +ancestors, characteristic memorials of a rude people, as we see them +in the Salic law or in the ordinances of Ina and Alfred. But the +subject population and the clergy continued to be governed by that +elaborate system which the genius and labour of many generations had +raised to be the most lasting monument of Roman greatness. + +The civil law had maintained itself in Spain and Southern Gaul, nor +was it utterly forgotten even in the North, in Britain, on the borders +of Germany. Revised editions of the Theodosian code were issued by the +Visigothic and Burgundian princes. For some centuries it was the +patrimony of the subject population everywhere, and in Aquitaine and +Italy has outlived feudalism. The presumption in later times was that +all men were to be judged by it who could not be proved to be subject +to some other[38]. Its phrases, its forms, its courts, its subtlety +and precision, all recalled the strong and refined society which had +produced it. Other motives, as well as those of kindness to their +subjects, made the new kings favour it; for it exalted their +prerogative, and the submission enjoined by it on one class of their +subjects soon came to be demanded from the other, by their own laws +the equals of the prince. Considering attentively how many of the old +institutions continued to subsist, and studying the feelings of that +time, as they are faintly preserved in its scanty records, it seems +hardly too much to say that in the eighth century the Roman Empire +still existed in the West: existed in men's minds as a power weakened, +delegated, suspended, but not destroyed. + +It is easy for those who read the history of an age in the light of +those that followed it, to perceive that in this men erred; that the +tendency of events was wholly different; that society had entered on a +new phase, wherein every change did more to localize authority and +strengthen the aristocratic principle at the expense of the despotic. +We can see that other forms of life, more full of promise for the +distant future, had already begun to shew themselves: they--with no +type of power or beauty, but that which had filled the imagination of +their forefathers, and now loomed on them grander than ever through +the mist of centuries--mistook, as it has been said of Rienzi in later +days, memories for hopes, and sighed only for the renewal of its +strength. Events were at hand by which these hopes seemed destined to +be gratified. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] 'Addiderat consilium coercendi intra terminos imperii.'--Tac. +_Ann._ i. 2. + +[10] Tac. _Ann._ ii. 9. + +[11] Stilicho, the bulwark of the Empire, seems to have been himself a +Vandal by extraction. + +[12] Of course not the consulship itself, but the _ornamenta +consularia_. + +[13] Jornandes, _De Rebus Geticis_, cap. 28. + +[14] Tac. _Hist._ i. and iv. + +[15] 'Vester quidem est populus meus sed me plus servire vobis quam +illi praeesse delectat. Traxit istud a proavis generis mei apud vos +decessoresque vestros semper animo Romana devotio, ut illa nobis magis +claritas putaretur, quam vestra per militiae titulos porrigeret +celsitudo: cunctisque auctoribus meis semper magis ambitum est quod a +principibus sumerent quam quod a patribus attulissent. Cumque gentem +nostram videamur regere, non aliud nos quam milites vestros credimus +ordinari.... Per nos administratis remotarum spatia regionum: patria +nostra vester orbis est. Tangit Galliam suam lumen orientis, et radius +qui illis partibus oriri creditur, hic refulget. Dominationem vobis +divinitus praestitam obex nulla concludit, nec ullis provinciarum +terminis diffusio felicium sceptrorum limitatur. Salvo divinitatis +honore sit dictum.'--Letter printed among the works of Avitus, Bishop +of Vienne. (Migne's _Patrologia_, vol. lix. p. 285.) + +This letter, as its style shews, is the composition not of Sigismund +himself, but of Avitus, writing on Sigismund's behalf. But this makes +it scarcely less valuable evidence of the feelings of the time. + +[16] 'Referre solitus est (_sc._ Ataulphus) se in primis ardenter +inhiasse: ut obliterato Romanorum nomine Romanum omne solum Gothorum +imperium et faceret et vocaret: essetque, ut vulgariter loquar, Gothia +quod Romania fuisset; fieretque nunc Ataulphus quod quondam Caesar +Augustus. At ubi multa experientia probavisset, neque Gothos ullo modo +parere legibus posse propter effrenatam barbariem, neque reipublicae +interdici leges oportere sine quibus respublica non est respublica; +elegisse se saltem, ut gloriam sibi de restituendo in integrum +augendoque Romano nomine Gothorum viribus quaereret, habereturque apud +posteros Romanae restitutionis auctor postquam esse non potuerat +immutator. Ob hoc abstinere a bello, ob hoc inhiare paci +nitebatur.'--Orosius, vii. 43. + +[17] Athaulf formed only to abandon it. + +[18] See, among other passages, Varro, _De lingua Latina_, iv. 34; +Cic., _Pro Domo_, 33; and in the _Corpus Iuris Civilis_, Dig. i. 5, +17; l. 1, 33; xiv. 2, 9; quoted by AEgidi, _Der Fuerstenrath nach dem +Luneviller Frieden_. The phrase 'urbs aeterna' appears in a novel +issued by Valentinian III. + +Tertullian speaks of Rome as 'civitas sacrosancta.' + +[19] Lact. _Divin. Instit._ vii. 25: 'Etiam res ipsa declarat lapsum +ruinamque rerum brevi fore: nisi quod incolumi urbe Roma nihil +istiusmodi videtur esse metuendum. At vero cum caput illud orbis +occident, et [Greek:rhyme] esse coeperit quod Sibyllae fore aiunt, quis +dubitet venisse iam finem rebus humanis, orbique terrarum? Illa, illa +est civitas quae adhuc sustentat omnia, precandusque nobis et adorandus +est Deus coeli si tamen statuta eius et placita differri possunt, +ne citius quam putemus tyrannus ille abominabilis veniat qui tantum +facinus moliatur, ac lumen illud effodiat cuius interitu mundus ipse +lapsurus est.' + +Cf. Tertull. _Apolog._ cap. xxxii: 'Est et alia maior necessitas nobis +orandi pro imperatoribus, etiam pro omni statu imperii rebusque +Romanis, qui vim maximam universo orbi imminentem ipsamque clausulam +saeculi acerbitates horrendas comminantem Romani imperii commeatu +scimus retardari.' Also the same writer, _Ad Scapulam_, cap. ii: +'Christianus sciens imperatorem a Deo suo constitui, necesse est ut +ipsum diligat et revereatur et honoret et salvum velit cum toto Romano +imperio quousque saeculum stabit: tamdiu enim stabit.' So too the +author--now usually supposed to be Hilary the Deacon--of the +Commentary on the Pauline Epistles ascribed to S. Ambrose: 'Non prius +veniet Dominus quam regni Romani defectio fiat, et appareat +antichristus qui interficiet sanctos, reddita Romanis libertate, sub +suo tamen nomine.'--Ad II Thess. ii. 4, 7. + +[20] For example, by the 'restitutio natalium,' and the 'adrogatio per +rescriptum principis,' or, as it is expressed, 'per sacrum oraculum.' + +[21] Even the Christian Emperors took the title of Pontifex Maximus, +till Gratian refused it: [Greek: athemiston einai Christiano to schema +nomisas].--Zosimus, lib. iv. cap. 36. + +[22] 'Maiore formidine et callidiore timiditate Caesarem observatis quam +ipsum ex Olympo Iovem, et merito, si sciatis.... Citius denique apud +vos per omnes Deos quam per unum genium Caesaris peieratur.'--Tertull. +_Apolog._ c. xxviii. + +Cf. Zos. v. 51: [Greek: ei men gar pros ton theon tetychekei didomenos +horkos, en an hos eikos paridein endidontas te tou theou philanthropia +ten epi te asebeia syngnomen. epei de kata ten tou basileos +omomokesan kephales, ouk einai themiton autois eis ton tosouton horkon +examartein.] + +[23] Tac. _Ann._ i. 73; iii. 38, etc. + +[24] It is curious that this should have begun in the first years of +the Empire. See, among other passages that might be cited from the +Augustan poets, Virg. _Georg._ i. 42; iv. 462; Hor. _Od._ iii. 3, 11; +Ovid, _Epp. ex Ponto_, iv. 9. 105. + +[25] Hence Vespasian's dying jest, 'Ut puto, deus fio.' + +[26] [Greek: hopou an ho basileus e, ekei he Rhome.]--Herodian. + +[27] If the accounts we find of the Armorican republic can be trusted. + +[28] Odoacer or Odovaker, as it seems his name ought to be written, is +usually, but incorrectly, described as a King of the Heruli, who led +his people into Italy and overthrew the Empire of the West; others +call him King of the Rugii, or Skyrri, or Turcilingi. The truth seems +to be that he was not a king at all, but the son of a Skyrrian +chieftain (Edecon, known as one of the envoys whom Attila sent to +Constantinople), whose personal merits made him chosen by the +barbarian auxiliaries to be their leader. The Skyrri were a small +tribe, apparently akin to the more powerful Heruli, whose name is +often extended to them. + +[29] [Greek: Augoustos ho Orestou huios akousas Zenona palin ten +basileian anakektesthai tes heo ... enankase ten boulen aposteilai +presbeian Zenoni semainousan hos idias men autois basileias ou deoi, +koinos de apochresei monos on autokrator ep' amphoterois tois perasi. +ton mentoi Odoachon hyp' auton probeblesthai hikanon onta sozein +ta par' autois pragmata politiken echon noun kai synesin homou kai +machimon. kai deisthai tou Zenonos patrikiou te auto aposteilai axian +kai ten ton Italon touto epheinai dioikesin]--Malchus ap. Photium in +_Corp. Hist. Byzant._ + +[30] Not king of Italy, as is often said. The barbarian kings did not +for several centuries employ territorial titles; the title 'king of +France,' for instance, was first used by Henry IV. Jornandes tells us +that Odoacer never so much as assumed the insignia of royalty. + +[31] Sismondi, _Histoire de la Chute de l'Empire Occidentale_. + +[32] 'Nil deest nobis imperio vestro famulantibus.'--Theodoric to +Zeno: Jornandes, _De Rebus Geticis_, cap. 57. + +[33] 'Unde et paene omnibus barbaris Gothi sapientiores exstiterunt +Graecisque paene consimiles.'--Jorn. cap. 5. + +[34] Theodoric (Thiodorich) seems to have resided usually at Ravenna, +where he died and was buried; a remarkable building which tradition +points out as his tomb stands a little way out of the town, near the +railway station, but the porphyry sarcophagus, in which his body is +supposed to have lain, has been removed thence, and may be seen built +up into the wall of the building called his palace, situated close to +the church of Sant' Apollinare, and not far from the tomb of Dante. +There does not appear to be any sufficient authority for attributing +this building to Ostrogothic times; it is very different from the +representation of Theodoric's palace which we have in the contemporary +mosaics of Sant' Apollinare in urbe. + +In the German legends, however, Theodoric is always the prince of +Verona (Dietrich von Berne), no doubt because that city was better +known to the Teutonic nations, and because it was thither that he +moved his court when transalpine affairs required his attention. His +castle there stood in the old town on the left bank of the Adige, on +the height now occupied by the citadel; it is doubtful whether any +traces of it remain, for the old foundations which we now see may have +belonged to the fortress erected by Gian Galeazzo Visconti in the +fourteenth century. + +[35] 'Igitur Chlodovechus ab imperatore Anastasio codicillos de +consulatu accepit, et in basilica beati Martini tunica blatea indutus +est et chlamyde, imponens vertici diadema ... et ab ea die tanquam +consul aut (=et) Augustus est vocitatus.'--Gregory of Tours, ii. 58. + +[36] Sir F. Palgrave (_English Commonwealth_) considers this grant as +equivalent to a formal ratification of Clovis' rule in Gaul. Hallam +rates its importance lower (_Middle Ages_, note iii. to chap. i.). +Taken in connection with the grant of south-eastern Gaul to Theodebert +by Justinian, it may fairly be held to shew that the influence of the +Empire was still felt in these distant provinces. + +[37] Even so early as the middle of the fifth century, S. Leo the +Great could say to the Roman people, 'Isti (sc. Petrus et Paulus) sunt +qui te ad hanc gloriam provexerunt ut gens sancta, populus electus, +civitas sacerdotalis et regia, per sacram B. Petri sedem caput orbis +effecta latius praesideres religione divina quam dominatione +terrena.'--_Sermon on the feast of SS. Peter and Paul._ (Opp. _ap._ +Migne tom. i. p. 336.) + +[38] 'Ius Romanum est adhuc in viridi observantia et eo iure +praesumitur quilibet vivere nisi adversum probetur.'--Maranta, quoted +by Marquard Freher. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +RESTORATION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. + + +It was towards Rome as their ecclesiastical capital that the thoughts +and hopes of the men of the sixth and seventh centuries were +constantly directed. Yet not from Rome, feeble and corrupt, nor on the +exhausted soil of Italy, was the deliverer to arise. Just when, as we +may suppose, the vision of a renewal of imperial authority in the +Western provinces was beginning to vanish away, there appeared in the +furthest corner of Europe, sprung of a race but lately brought within +the pale of civilization, a line of chieftains devoted to the service +of the Holy See, and among them one whose power, good fortune, and +heroic character pointed him out as worthy of a dignity to which +doctrine and tradition had attached a sanctity almost divine. + +[Sidenote: The Franks.] + +[Sidenote: A.D. 486.] + +Of the new monarchies that had risen on the ruins of Rome, that of the +Franks was by far the greatest. In the third century they appear, with +Saxons, Alemanni, and Thuringians, as one of the greatest German tribe +leagues. The Sicambri (for it seems probable that this famous race was +a chief source of the Frankish nation) had now laid aside their former +hostility to Rome, and her future representatives were thenceforth, +with few intervals, her faithful allies. Many of their chiefs rose to +high place: Malarich receives from Jovian the charge of the Western +provinces; Bauto and Mellobaudes figure in the days of Theodosius and +his sons; Meroveus (if Meroveus be a real name) fights under Aetius +against Attila in the great battle of Chalons; his countrymen +endeavour in vain to save Gaul from the Suevi and Burgundians. Not +till the Empire was evidently helpless did they claim a share of the +booty; then Clovis, or Chlodovech, chief of the Salian tribe, leaving +his kindred the Ripuarians in their seats on the lower Rhine, advances +from Flanders to wrest Gaul from the barbarian nations which had +entered it some sixty years before. Few conquerors have had a career +of more unbroken success. By the defeat of the Roman governor Syagrius +he was left master of the northern provinces: the Burgundian kingdom +in the valley of the Rhone was in no long time reduced to dependence: +last of all, the Visigothic power was overthrown in one great battle, +and Aquitaine added to the dominions of Clovis. Nor were the Frankish +arms less prosperous on the other side of the Rhine. The victory of +Tolbiac led to the submission of the Alemanni: their allies the +Bavarians followed, and when the Thuringian power had been broken by +Theodorich I (son of Clovis), the Frankish league embraced all the +tribes of western and southern Germany. The state thus formed, +stretching from the Bay of Biscay to the Inn and the Ems, was of +course in no sense a French, that is to say, a Gallic monarchy. Nor, +although the widest and strongest empire that had yet been founded by +a Teutonic race, was it, under the Merovingian kings, a united kingdom +at all, but rather a congeries of principalities, held together by the +predominance of a single nation and a single family, who ruled in Gaul +as masters over a subject race, and in Germany exercised a sort of +hegemony among kindred and scarcely inferior tribes. But towards the +middle of the eighth century a change began. Under the rule of Pipin +of Herstal and his son Charles Martel, mayors of the palace to the +last feeble Merovingians, the Austrasian Franks in the lower Rhineland +became acknowledged heads of the nation, and were able, while +establishing a firmer government at home, to direct its whole strength +in projects of foreign ambition. The form those projects took arose +from a circumstance which has not yet been mentioned. It was not +solely or even chiefly to their own valour that the Franks owed their +past greatness and the yet loftier future which awaited them, it was +to the friendship of the clergy and the favour of the Apostolic See. +The other Teutonic nations, Goths, Vandals, Burgundians, Suevians, +Lombards, had been most of them converted by Arian missionaries who +proceeded from the Roman Empire during the short period when Arian +doctrines were in the ascendant. The Franks, who were among the latest +converts, were Catholics from the first, and gladly accepted the +clergy as their teachers and allies. Thus it was that while the +hostility of their orthodox subjects destroyed the Vandal kingdom in +Africa and the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy, the eager sympathy of the +priesthood enabled the Franks to vanquish their Burgundian and +Visigothic enemies, and made it comparatively easy for them to blend +with the Roman population in the provinces. They had done good service +against the Saracens of Spain; they had aided the English Boniface in +his mission to the heathen of Germany[39]; and at length, as the most +powerful among Catholic nations, they attracted the eyes of the +ecclesiastical head of the West, now sorely bested by domestic foes. + +[Sidenote: Italy: the Lombards.] + +[Sidenote: The Popes.] + +Since the invasion of Alboin, Italy had groaned under a complication +of evils. The Lombards who had entered along with that chief in A.D. +568 had settled in considerable numbers in the valley of the Po, and +founded the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento, leaving the rest of the +country to be governed by the exarch of Ravenna as viceroy of the +Eastern crown. This subjection was, however, little better than +nominal. Although too few to occupy the whole peninsula, the invaders +were yet strong enough to harass every part of it by inroads which met +with no resistance from a population unused to arms, and without the +spirit to use them in self-defence. More cruel and repulsive, if we +may believe the evidence of their enemies, than any other of the +Northern tribes, the Lombards were certainly singular in their +aversion to the clergy, never admitting them to the national councils. +Tormented by their repeated attacks, Rome sought help in vain from +Byzantium, whose forces, scarce able to repel from their walls the +Avars and Saracens, could give no support to the distant exarch of +Ravenna. The Popes were the Emperor's subjects; they awaited his +confirmation, like other bishops; they had more than once been the +victims of his anger[40]. But as the city became more accustomed in +independence, and the Pope rose to a predominance, real if not yet +legal, his tone grew bolder than that of the Eastern patriarchs. In +the controversies that had raged in the Church, he had had the wisdom +or good fortune to espouse (though not always from the first) the +orthodox side: it was now by another quarrel of religion that his +deliverance from an unwelcome yoke was accomplished[41]. + +[Sidenote: Iconoclastic controversy.] + +[Sidenote: The Popes appeal to the Franks.] + +[Sidenote: Pipin patrician of the Romans, A.D. 754.] + +The Emperor Leo, born among the Isaurian mountains, where a purer +faith may yet have lingered, and stung by the Mohammedan taunt of +idolatry, determined to abolish the worship of images, which seemed +fast obscuring the more spiritual part of Christianity. An attempt +sufficient to cause tumults among the submissive Greeks, excited in +Italy a fiercer commotion. The populace rose with one heart in defence +of what had become to them more than a symbol: the exarch was slain: +the Pope, though unwilling to sever himself from the lawful head and +protector of the Church, must yet excommunicate the prince whom he +could not reclaim from so hateful a heresy. Liudprand, king of the +Lombards, improved his opportunity: falling on the exarchate as the +champion of images, on Rome as the minister of the Greek Emperor, he +overran the one, and all but succeeded in capturing the other. The +Pope escaped for the moment, but saw his peril; placed between a +heretic and a robber, he turned his gaze beyond the Alps, to a +Catholic chief who had just achieved a signal deliverance for +Christendom on the field of Poitiers. Gregory II had already opened +communications with Charles Martel, mayor of the palace, and virtual +ruler of the Frankish realm[42]. As the crisis becomes more pressing, +Gregory III finds in the same quarter his only hope, and appeals to +him, in urgent letters, to haste to the succour of Holy Church[43]. +Some accounts add that Charles was offered, in the name of the Roman +people, the office of consul and patrician. It is at least certain +that here begins the connection of the old imperial seat with the +rising German power: here first the pontiff leads a political +movement, and shakes off the ties that bound him to his legitimate +sovereign. Charles died before he could obey the call; but his son +Pipin (surnamed the Short) made good use of the new friendship with +Rome. He was the third of his family who had ruled the Franks with a +monarch's full power: it seemed time to abolish the pageant of +Merovingian royalty; yet a departure from the ancient line might shock +the feelings of the people. A course was taken whose dangers no one +then foresaw: the Holy See, now for the first time invoked as an +international power, pronounced the deposition of Childeric, and gave +to the royal office of his successor Pipin a sanctity hitherto +unknown; adding to the old Frankish election, which consisted in +raising the chief on a shield amid the clash of arms, the Roman diadem +and the Hebrew rite of anointing. The compact between the chair of +Peter and the Teutonic throne was hardly sealed, when the latter was +summoned to discharge its share of the duties. Twice did Aistulf the +Lombard assail Rome, twice did Pipin descend to the rescue: the second +time at the bidding of a letter written in the name of St. Peter +himself[44]. Aistulf could make no resistance; and the Frank bestowed +on the Papal chair all that belonged to the exarchate in North Italy, +receiving as the meed of his services the title of Patrician[45]. + +[Sidenote: Import of this title.] + +As a foreshadowing of the higher dignity that was to follow, this +title requires a passing notice. Introduced by Constantine at a time +when its original meaning had been long forgotten, it was designed to +be, and for awhile remained, the name not of an office but of a rank, +the highest after those of emperor and consul. As such, it was usually +conferred upon provincial governors of the first class, and in time +also upon barbarian potentates whose vanity the Roman court might wish +to flatter. Thus Odoacer, Theodoric, the Burgundian king Sigismund, +Clovis himself, had all received it from the Eastern emperor; so too +in still later times it was given to Saracenic and Bulgarian +princes[46]. In the sixth and seventh centuries an invariable practice +seems to have attached it to the Byzantine viceroys of Italy, and +thus, as we may conjecture, a natural confusion of ideas had made men +take it to be, in some sense, an official title, conveying an +extensive though undefined authority, and implying in particular the +duty of overseeing the Church and promoting her temporal interests. It +was doubtless with such a meaning that the Romans and their bishop +bestowed it upon the Frankish kings, acting quite without legal right, +for it could emanate from the emperor alone, but choosing it as the +title which bound its possessor to render to the Church support and +defence against her Lombard foes. Hence the phrase is always +'_Patricius Romanorum_;' not, as in former times, '_Patricius_' alone: +hence it is usually associated with the terms '_defensor_' and +'_protector_.' And since 'defence' implies a corresponding measure of +obedience on the part of those who profit by it, there must have been +conceded to the new patrician more or less of the positive authority +in Rome, although not such as to extinguish the supremacy of the +Emperor. + +[Sidenote: Extinction of the Lombard kingdom by Charles king of the +Franks.] + +[Sidenote: A.D. 774.] + +So long indeed as the Franks were separated by a hostile kingdom from +their new allies, this control remained little better than nominal. +But when on Pipin's death the restless Lombards again took up arms and +menaced the possessions of the Church, Pipin's son Charles or +Charlemagne swept down like a whirlwind from the Alps at the call of +Pope Hadrian, seized king Desiderius in his capital, assumed himself +the Lombard crown, and made northern Italy thenceforward an integral +part of the Frankish empire. Proceeding to Rome at the head of his +victorious army, the first of a long line of Teutonic kings who were +to find her love more deadly than her hate, he was received by Hadrian +with distinguished honours, and welcomed by the people as their leader +and deliverer. Yet even then, whether out of policy or from that +sentiment of reverence to which his ambitious mind did not refuse to +bow, he was moderate in claims of jurisdiction, he yielded to the +pontiff the place of honour in processions, and renewed, although in +the guise of a lord and conqueror, the gift of the Exarchate and +Pentapolis, which Pipin had made to the Roman Church twenty years +before. + +[Sidenote: Charles and Hadrian.] + +It is with a strange sense, half of sadness, half of amusement, that +in watching the progress of this grand historical drama, we recognise +the meaner motives by which its chief actors were influenced. The +Frankish king and the Roman pontiff were for the time the two most +powerful forces that urged the movement of the world, leading it on by +swift steps to a mighty crisis of its fate, themselves guided, as it +might well seem, by the purest zeal for its spiritual welfare. Their +words and acts, their whole character and bearing in the sight of +expectant Christendom, were worthy of men destined to leave an +indelible impress on their own and many succeeding ages. Nevertheless +in them too appears the undercurrent of vulgar human desires and +passions. The lofty and fervent mind of Charles was not free from the +stirrings of personal ambition: yet these may be excused, if not +defended, as almost inseparable from an intense and restless genius, +which, be it never so unselfish in its ends, must in pursuing them fix +upon everything its grasp and raise out of everything its monument. +The policy of the Popes was prompted by motives less noble. Ever since +the extinction of the Western Empire had emancipated the +ecclesiastical potentate from secular control, the first and most +abiding object of his schemes and prayers had been the acquisition of +territorial wealth in the neighbourhood of his capital. He had indeed +a sort of justification--for Rome, a city with neither trade nor +industry, was crowded with poor, for whom it devolved on the bishop to +provide. Yet the pursuit was one which could not fail to pervert the +purposes of the Popes and give a sinister character to all they did. +It was this fear for the lands of the Church far more than for +religion or the safety of the city--neither of which were really +endangered by the Lombard attacks--that had prompted their passionate +appeals to Charles Martel and Pipin; it was now the well-grounded hope +of having these possessions confirmed and extended by Pipin's greater +son that made the Roman ecclesiastics so forward in his cause. And it +was the same lust after worldly wealth and pomp, mingled with the +dawning prospect of an independent principality, that now began to +seduce them into a long course of guile and intrigue. For this is +probably the very time, although the exact date cannot be established, +to which must be assigned the extraordinary forgery of the Donation of +Constantine, whereby it was pretended that power over Italy and the +whole West had been granted by the first Christian Emperor to Pope +Sylvester and his successors in the Chair of the Apostle. + +[Sidenote: Accession of Pope Leo III, A.D. 796.] + +For the next twenty-four years Italy remained quiet. The government of +Rome was carried on in the name of the Patrician Charles, although it +does not appear that he sent thither any official representative; +while at the same time both the city and the exarchate continued to +admit the nominal supremacy of the Eastern Emperor, employing the +years of his reign to date documents. In A.D. 796, Leo the Third +succeeded Pope Hadrian, and signalized his devotion to the Frankish +throne by sending to Charles the banner of the city and the keys of +the holiest of all Rome's shrines, the confession of St. Peter, asking +that some officer should be deputed to the city to receive from the +people their oath of allegiance to the Patrician. He had soon need to +seek the Patrician's help for himself. In A.D. 798 a sedition broke +out: the Pope, going in solemn procession from the Lateran to the +church of S. Lorenzo in Lucina, was attacked by a band of armed men, +headed by two officials of his court, nephews of his predecessor; was +wounded and left for dead, and with difficulty succeeded in escaping +to Spoleto, whence he fled northward into the Frankish lands. Charles +had led his army against the revolted Saxons: thither Leo following +overtook him at Paderborn in Westphalia. The king received with +respect his spiritual father, entertained and conferred with him for +some time, and at length sent him back to Rome under the escort of +Angilbert, one of his trustiest ministers; promising to follow ere +long in person. After some months peace was restored in Saxony, and in +the autumn of 799 Charles descended from the Alps once more, while Leo +revolved deeply the great scheme for whose accomplishment the time was +now ripe. + +[Sidenote: Belief in the Roman Empire not extinct.] + +[Sidenote: Motives of the Pope.] + +Three hundred and twenty-four years had passed since the last Caesar of +the West resigned his power into the hands of the senate, and left to +his Eastern brother the sole headship of the Roman world. To the +latter Italy had from that time been nominally subject; but it was +only during one brief interval between the death of Totila the last +Ostrogothic king and the descent of Alboin the first Lombard, that his +power had been really effective. In the further provinces, Gaul, +Spain, Britain, it was only a memory. But the idea of a Roman Empire +as a necessary part of the world's order had not vanished: it had been +admitted by those who seemed to be destroying it; it had been +cherished by the Church; was still recalled by laws and customs; was +dear to the subject populations, who fondly looked back to the days +when slavery was at least mitigated by peace and order. We have seen +the Teuton endeavouring everywhere to identify himself with the system +he overthrew. As Goths, Burgundians, and Franks sought the title of +consul or patrician, as the Lombard kings when they renounced their +Arianism styled themselves Flavii, so even in distant England the +fierce Saxon and Anglian conquerors used the names of Roman dignities, +and before long began to call themselves _imperatores_ and _basileis_ +of Britain. Within the last century and a half the rise of +Mohammedanism[47] had brought out the common Christianity of Europe +into a fuller relief. The false prophet had left one religion, one +Empire, one Commander of the faithful: the Christian commonwealth +needed more than ever an efficient head and centre. Such leadership it +could nowise find in the Court of the Bosphorus, growing ever feebler +and more alien to the West. The name of 'respublica,' permanent at the +elder Rome, had never been applied to the Eastern Empire. Its +government was from the first half Greek, half Asiatic; and had now +drifted away from its ancient traditions into the forms of an Oriental +despotism. Claudian had already sneered at 'Greek Quirites[48]:' the +general use, since Heraclius's reign, of the Greek tongue, and the +difference of manners and usages, made the taunt now more deserved. +The Pope had no reason to wish well to the Byzantine princes, who +while insulting his weakness had given him no help against the savage +Lombards, and who for nearly seventy years[49] had been contaminated +by a heresy the more odious that it touched not speculative points of +doctrine but the most familiar usages of worship. In North Italy their +power was extinct: no pontiff since Zacharias had asked their +confirmation of his election: nay, the appointment of the intruding +Frank to the patriciate, an office which it belonged to the Emperor to +confer, was of itself an act of rebellion. Nevertheless their rights +subsisted: they were still, and while they retained the imperial name, +must so long continue, titular sovereigns of the Roman city. Nor could +the spiritual head of Christendom dispense with the temporal: without +the Roman Empire there could not be a Roman, nor by necessary +consequence a Catholic and Apostolic Church[50]. For, as will be shewn +more fully hereafter, men could not separate in fact what was +indissoluble in thought: Christianity must stand or fall along with +the great Christian state: they were but two names for the same thing. +Thus urged, the Pope took a step which some among his predecessors are +said to have already contemplated[51], and towards which the events of +the last fifty years had pointed. The moment was opportune. The +widowed empress Irene, equally famous for her beauty, her talents, and +her crimes, had deposed and blinded her son Constantine VI: a woman, +an usurper, almost a parricide, sullied the throne of the world. By +what right, it might well be asked, did the factions of Byzantium +impose a master on the original seat of empire? It was time to provide +better for the most august of human offices: an election at Rome was +as valid as at Constantinople--the possessor of the real power should +also be clothed with the outward dignity. Nor could it be doubted +where that possessor was to be found. The Frank had been always +faithful to Rome: his baptism was the enlistment of a new barbarian +auxiliary. His services against Arian heretics and Lombard marauders, +against the Saracen of Spain and the Avar of Pannonia, had earned him +the title of Champion of the Faith and Defender of the Holy See. He +was now unquestioned lord of Western Europe, whose subject nations, +Keltic and Teutonic, were eager to be called by his name and to +imitate his customs[52]. In Charles, the hero who united under one +sceptre so many races, who ruled all as the vicegerent of God, the +pontiff might well see--as later ages saw--the new golden head of a +second image[53], erected on the ruins of that whose mingled iron and +clay seemed crumbling to nothingness behind the impregnable bulwarks +of Constantinople. + +[Sidenote: Coronation of Charles at Rome, A.D. 800.] + +At length the Frankish host entered Rome. The Pope's cause was heard; +his innocence, already vindicated by a miracle, was pronounced by the +Patrician in full synod; his accusers condemned in his stead. Charles +remained in the city for some weeks; and on Christmas-day, A.D. +800[54], he heard mass in the basilica of St. Peter. On the spot where +now the gigantic dome of Bramante and Michael Angelo towers over the +buildings of the modern city, the spot which tradition had hallowed as +that of the Apostle's martyrdom, Constantine the Great had erected the +oldest and stateliest temple of Christian Rome. Nothing could be less +like than was this basilica to those northern cathedrals, shadowy, +fantastic, irregular, crowded with pillars, fringed all round by +clustering shrines and chapels, which are to most of us the types of +mediaeval architecture. In its plan and decorations, in the spacious +sunny hall, the roof plain as that of a Greek temple, the long rows of +Corinthian columns, the vivid mosaics on its walls, in its brightness, +its sternness, its simplicity, it had preserved every feature of Roman +art, and had remained a perfect expression of the Roman character[55]. +Out of the transept, a flight of steps led up to the high altar +underneath and just beyond the great arch, the arch of triumph as it +was called: behind in the semicircular apse sat the clergy, rising +tier above tier around its walls; in the midst, high above the rest, +and looking down past the altar over the multitude, was placed the +bishop's throne[56], itself the curule chair of some forgotten +magistrate[57]. From that chair the Pope now rose, as the reading of +the Gospel ended, advanced to where Charles--who had exchanged his +simple Frankish dress for the sandals and the chlamys of a Roman +patrician[58]--knelt in prayer by the high altar, and as in the sight +of all he placed upon the brow of the barbarian chieftain the diadem +of the Caesars, then bent in obeisance before him, the church rang to +the shout of the multitude, again free, again the lords and centre of +the world, 'Karolo Augusto a Deo coronato magno et pacifico imperatori +vita et victoria[59].' In that shout, echoed by the Franks without, +was pronounced the union, so long in preparation, so mighty in its +consequences, of the Roman and the Teuton, of the memories and the +civilization of the South with the fresh energy of the North, and from +that moment modern history begins. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[39] 'Denique gens Francorum multos et foecundissimos fructus Domino +attulit, non solum credendo, sed et alios salutifere convertendo,' +says the emperor Lewis II in A.D. 871. + +[40] Martin, as in earlier times Sylverius. + +[41] A singular account of the origin of the separation of the Greeks +and Latins occurs in the treatise of Radulfus de Columna (Ralph +Colonna, or, as some think, de Coloumelle), _De translatione Imperii +Romani_ (circ. 1300). 'The tyranny of Heraclius,' says he, 'provoked a +revolt of the Eastern nations. They could not be reduced, because the +Greeks at the same time began to disobey the Roman Pontiff, receding, +like Jeroboam, from the true faith. Others among these schismatics +(apparently with the view of strengthening their political revolt) +carried their heresy further and founded Mohammedanism.' Similarly, +the Franciscan Marsilius of Padua (circa 1324) says that Mohammed, 'a +rich Persian,' invented his religion to keep the East from returning +to allegiance to Rome. It is worth remarking that few, if any, of the +earlier historians (from the tenth to the fifteenth century) refer to +the Emperors of the West from Constantine to Augustulus: the very +existence of this Western line seems to have been even in the eighth +or ninth century altogether forgotten. + +[42] Anastasius, _Vitae Pontificum Romanorum_ i. _ap._ Muratori. + +[43] Letter in _Codex Carolinus_, in Muratori's _Scriptores Rerum +Italicarum_, vol. iii. (part 2nd), addressed 'Subregulo Carolo.' + +[44] Letter in _Cod. Carol._ (Mur. _R. S. I._ iii. [2.] p. 96), a +strange mixture of earnest adjurations, dexterous appeals to Frankish +pride, and long scriptural quotations: 'Declaratum quippe est quod +super omnes gentes vestra Francorum gens prona mihi Apostolo Dei Petro +exstitit, et ideo ecclesiam quam mihi Dominus tradidit vobis per manus +Vicarii mei commendavi.' + +[45] The exact date when Pipin received the title cannot be made out. +Pope Stephen's next letter (p. 96 of Mur. iii.) is addressed 'Pipino, +Carolo et Carolomanno patriciis.' And so the _Chronicon Casinense_ +(Mur. iv. 273) says it was first given to Pipin. Gibbon can hardly be +right in attributing it to Charles Martel, although one or two +documents may be quoted in which it is used of him. As one of these is +a letter of Pope Gregory II's, the explanation may be that the title +was offered or intended to be offered to him, although never accepted +by him. + +[46] The title of Patrician appears even in the remote West: it stands +in a charter of Ina the West Saxon king, and in one given by Richard +of Normandy in A.D. 1015. Ducange, _s.v._ + +[47] After the _translatio ad Francos_ of A.D. 800, the two Empires +corresponded exactly to the two Khalifates of Bagdad and Cordova. + +[48] + + 'Plaudentem cerne senatum + Et Byzantinos proceres, Graiosque Quirites.' + _In Eutrop._ ii. 135. + +[49] Several Emperors during this period had been patrons of images, +as was Irene at the moment of which I write: the stain nevertheless +adhered to their government as a whole. + +[50] I should not have thought it necessary to explain that the +sentence in the text is meant simply to state what were (so far as can +be made out) the sentiments and notions of the ninth century, if a +writer in the _Tablet_ (reviewing a former edition) had not understood +it as an expression of the author's own belief. + +To a modern eye there is of course no necessary connection between the +Roman Empire and a catholic and apostolic Church; in fact, the two +things seem rather, such has been the impression made on us by the +long struggle of church and state, in their nature mutually +antagonistic. The interest of history lies not least in this, that it +shews us how men have at different times entertained wholly different +notions respecting the relation to one another of the same ideas or +the same institutions. + +[51] Monachus Sangallensis, _De Gestis Karoli_; in Pertz, _Monumenta +Germaniae Historica_. + +[52] Monachus Sangallensis; _ut supra_. So Pope Gregory the Great two +centuries earlier: 'Quanto caeteros homines regia dignitas antecedit, +tanto caeterarum gentium regna regni Francorum culmen excellit.' Ep. v. +6. + +[53] Alciatus, _De Formula imperii Romani_. + +[54] Or rather, according to the then prevailing practice of beginning +the year from Christmas-day, A.D. 801. + +[55] An elaborate description of old St. Peter's may be found in +Bunsen's and Platner's _Beschreibung der Stadt Rom_; with which +compare Bunsen's work on the Basilicas of Rome. + +[56] The primitive custom was for the bishop to sit in the centre of +the apse, at the central point of the east end of the church (or, as +it would be more correct to say, the end furthest from the door) just +as the judge had done in those law courts on the model of which the +first basilicas were constructed. This arrangement may still be seen +in some of the churches of Rome, as well as elsewhere in Italy; +nowhere better than in the churches of Ravenna, particularly the +beautiful one of Sant' Apollinare in Classe, and in the cathedral of +Torcello, near Venice. + +[57] On this chair were represented the labours of Hercules and the +signs of the zodiac. It is believed at Rome to be the veritable chair +of the Apostle himself, and whatever may be thought of such an +antiquity as this, it can be satisfactorily traced back to the third +or fourth century of Christianity. (The story that it is inscribed +with verses from the Koran is, I believe, without foundation.) It is +now enclosed in a gorgeous casing of gilded wood (some say, of +bronze), and placed aloft at the extremity of St. Peter's, just over +the spot where a bishop's chair would in the old arrangement of the +basilica have stood. The sarcophagus in which Charles himself lay, +till the French scattered his bones abroad, had carved on it the rape +of Proserpine. It may still be seen in the gallery of the basilica at +Aachen. + +[58] Eginhard, _Vita Karoli_. + +[59] The coronation scene is described in all the annals of the time, +to which it is therefore needless to refer more particularly. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +EMPIRE AND POLICY OF CHARLES. + + +The coronation of Charles is not only the central event of the Middle +Ages, it is also one of those very few events of which, taking them +singly, it may be said that if they had not happened, the history of +the world would have been different. In one sense indeed it has +scarcely a parallel. The assassins of Julius Caesar thought that they +had saved Rome from monarchy, but monarchy came inevitable in the next +generation. The conversion of Constantine changed the face of the +world, but Christianity was spreading fast, and its ultimate triumph +was only a question of time. Had Columbus never spread his sails, the +secret of the western sea would yet have been pierced by some later +voyager: had Charles V broken his safe-conduct to Luther, the voice +silenced at Wittenberg would have been taken up by echoes elsewhere. +But if the Roman Empire had not been restored in the West in the +person of Charles, it would never have been restored at all, and the +inexhaustible train of consequences for good and for evil that +followed could not have been. Why this was so may be seen by examining +the history of the next two centuries. In that day, as through all the +Dark and Middle Ages, two forces were striving for the mastery. The +one was the instinct of separation, disorder, anarchy, caused by the +ungoverned impulses and barbarous ignorance of the great bulk of +mankind; the other was that passionate longing of the better minds for +a formal unity of government, which had its historical basis in the +memories of the old Roman Empire, and its most constant expression in +the devotion to a visible and catholic Church. The former tendency, as +everything shews, was, in politics at least, the stronger, but the +latter, used and stimulated by an extraordinary genius like Charles, +achieved in the year 800 a victory whose results were never to be +lost. When the hero was gone, the returning wave of anarchy and +barbarism swept up violent as ever, yet it could not wholly obliterate +the past: the Empire, maimed and shattered though it was, had struck +its roots too deep to be overthrown by force, and when it perished at +last, perished from inner decay. It was just because men felt that no +one less than Charles could have won such a triumph over the evils of +the time, by framing and establishing a gigantic scheme of government, +that the excitement and hope and joy which the coronation evoked were +so intense. Their best evidence is perhaps to be found not in the +records of that time itself, but in the cries of lamentation that +broke forth when the Empire began to dissolve towards the close of the +ninth century, in the marvellous legends which attached themselves to +the name of Charles the Emperor, a hero of whom any exploit was +credible[60], in the devout admiration wherewith his German successors +looked back to, and strove in all things to imitate, their all but +superhuman prototype. + +[Sidenote: Import of the coronation.] + +As the event of A.D. 800 made an unparalleled impression on those who +lived at the time, so has it engaged the attention of men in +succeeding ages, has been viewed in the most opposite lights, and +become the theme of interminable controversies. It is better to look +at it simply as it appeared to the men who witnessed it. Here, as in +so many other cases, may be seen the errors into which jurists have +been led by the want of historical feeling. In rude and unsettled +states of society men respect forms and obey facts, while careless of +rules and principles. In England, for example, in the eleventh and +twelfth centuries, it signified very little whether an aspirant to the +throne was next lawful heir, but it signified a great deal whether he +had been duly crowned and was supported by a strong party. Regarding +the matter thus, it is not hard to see why those who judged the actors +of A.D. 800 as they would have judged their contemporaries should have +misunderstood the nature of that which then came to pass. Baronius and +Bellarmine, Spanheim and Conring, are advocates bound to prove a +thesis, and therefore believing it; nor does either party find any +lack of plausible arguments[61]. But civilian and canonist alike +proceed upon strict legal principles, and no such principles can be +found in the case, or applied to it. Neither the instances cited by +the Cardinal from the Old Testament of the power of priests to set up +and pull down princes, nor those which shew the earlier Emperors +controlling the bishops of Rome, really meet the question. Leo acted +not as having alone the right to transfer the crown; the practice of +hereditary succession and the theory of popular election would have +equally excluded such a claim; he was the spokesman of the popular +will, which, identifying itself with the sacerdotal power, hated the +Greeks and was grateful to the Franks. Yet he was also something more. +The act, as it specially affected his interests, was mainly his work, +and without him would never have been brought about at all. It was +natural that a confusion of his secular functions as leader, and his +spiritual as consecrating priest, should lay the foundation of the +right claimed afterwards of raising and deposing monarchs at the will +of Christ's vicar. The Emperor was passive throughout; he did not, as +in Lombardy, appear as a conqueror, but was received by the Pope and +the people as a friend and ally. Rome no doubt became his capital, but +it had already obeyed him as Patrician, and the greatest fact that +stood out to posterity from the whole transaction was that the crown +was bestowed, was at least imposed, by the hands of the pontiff. He +seemed the trustee and depositary of the imperial authority[62]. + +[Sidenote: Contemporary accounts.] + +The best way of shewing the thoughts and motives of those concerned in +the transaction is to transcribe the narratives of three contemporary, +or almost contemporary annalists, two of them German and one Italian. +The Annals of Lauresheim say:-- + +'And because the name of Emperor had now ceased among the Greeks, and +their Empire was possessed by a woman, it then seemed both to Leo the +Pope himself, and to all the holy fathers who were present in the +selfsame council, as well as to the rest of the Christian people, that +they ought to take to be Emperor Charles king of the Franks, who held +Rome herself, where the Caesars had always been wont to sit, and all +the other regions which he ruled through Italy and Gaul and Germany; +and inasmuch as God had given all these lands into his hand, it seemed +right that with the help of God and at the prayer of the whole +Christian people he should have the name of Emperor also. Whose +petition king Charles willed not to refuse, but submitting himself +with all humility to God, and at the prayer of the priests and of the +whole Christian people, on the day of the nativity of our Lord Jesus +Christ he took on himself the name of Emperor, being consecrated by +the lord Pope Leo[63].' + +Very similar in substance is the account of the Chronicle of Moissac +(ad ann. 801):-- + +'Now when the king upon the most holy day of the Lord's birth was +rising to the mass after praying before the confession of the blessed +Peter the Apostle, Leo the Pope, with the consent of all the bishops +and priests and of the senate of the Franks and likewise of the +Romans, set a golden crown upon his head, the Roman people also +shouting aloud. And when the people had made an end of chanting the +Laudes, he was adored by the Pope after the manner of the emperors of +old. For this also was done by the will of God. For while the said +Emperor abode at Rome certain men were brought unto him, who said that +the name of Emperor had ceased among the Greeks, and that among them +the Empire was held by a woman called Irene, who had by guile laid +hold on her son the Emperor, and put out his eyes, and taken the +Empire to herself, as it is written of Athaliah in the Book of the +Kings; which when Leo the Pope and all the assembly of the bishops and +priests and abbots heard, and the senate of the Franks and all the +elders of the Romans, they took counsel with the rest of the Christian +people, that they should name Charles king of the Franks to be +Emperor, seeing that he held Rome the mother of empire where the +Caesars and Emperors were always used to sit; and that the heathen +might not mock the Christians if the name of Emperor should have +ceased among the Christians[64].' + +These two accounts are both from a German source: that which follows +is Roman, written probably within some fifty or sixty years of the +event. It is taken from the Life of Leo III in the _Vitae Pontificum +Romanorum_, compiled by Anastasius the papal librarian. + +'After these things came the day of the birth of our Lord Jesus +Christ, and all men were again gathered together in the aforesaid +basilica of the blessed Peter the Apostle: and then the gracious and +venerable pontiff did with his own hands crown Charles with a very +precious crown. Then all the faithful people of Rome, seeing the +defence that he gave and the love that he bare to the holy Roman +Church and her Vicar, did by the will of God and of the blessed Peter, +the keeper of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, cry with one accord +with a loud voice, 'To Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned of +God, the great and peacegiving Emperor, be life and victory.' While +he, before the holy confession of the blessed Peter the Apostle, was +invoking divers saints, it was proclaimed thrice, and he was chosen by +all to be Emperor of the Romans. Thereon the most holy pontiff +anointed Charles with holy oil, and likewise his most excellent son to +be king, upon the very day of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ; and +when the mass was finished, then after the mass the most serene lord +Emperor offered gifts[65].' + +[Sidenote: Impression which they convey.] + +[Sidenote: Later theories respecting the coronation.] + +In these three accounts there is no serious discrepancy as to the +facts, although the Italian priest, as is natural, heightens the +importance of the part played by the Pope, while the Germans are too +anxious to rationalize the event, talking of a synod of the clergy, a +consultation of the people, and a formal request to Charles, which the +silence of Eginhard, as well as the other circumstances of the case, +forbid us to accept as literally true. Similarly Anastasius passes +over the adoration rendered by the Pope to the Emperor, upon which +most of the Frankish records insist in a way which puts it beyond +doubt. But the impression which the three narratives leave is +essentially the same. They all shew how little the transaction can be +made to wear a strictly legal character. The Frankish king does not of +his own might seize the crown, but rather receives it as coming +naturally to him, as the legitimate consequence of the authority he +already enjoyed. The Pope bestows the crown, not in virtue of any +right of his own as head of the Church: he is merely the instrument of +God's providence, which has unmistakeably pointed out Charles as the +proper person to defend and lead the Christian commonwealth. The Roman +people do not formally elect and appoint, but by their applause accept +the chief who is presented to them. The act is conceived of as +directly ordered by the Divine Providence which has brought about a +state of things that admits of but one issue, an issue which king, +priest, and people have only to recognise and obey; their personal +ambitions, passions, intrigues, sinking and vanishing in reverential +awe at what seems the immediate interposition of Heaven. And as the +result is desired by all parties alike, they do not think of inquiring +into one another's rights, but take their momentary harmony to be +natural and necessary, never dreaming of the difficulties and +conflicts which were to arise out of what seemed then so simple. And +it was just because everything was thus left undetermined, resting not +on express stipulation but rather on a sort of mutual understanding, a +sympathy of beliefs and wishes which augured no evil, that the event +admitted of being afterwards represented in so many different lights. +Four centuries later, when Papacy and Empire had been forced into the +mortal struggle by which the fate of both was decided, three distinct +theories regarding the coronation of Charles will be found advocated +by three different parties, all of them plausible, all of them to some +extent misleading. The Swabian Emperors held the crown to have been +won by their great predecessor as the prize of conquest, and drew the +conclusion that the citizens and bishop of Rome had no rights as +against themselves. The patriotic party among the Romans, appealing to +the early history of the Empire, declared that by nothing but the +voice of their senate and people could an Emperor be lawfully created, +he being only their chief magistrate, the temporary depositary of +their authority. The Popes pointed to the indisputable fact that Leo +imposed the crown, and argued that as God's earthly vicar it was then +his, and must always continue to be their right to give to whomsoever +they would an office which was created to be the handmaid of their +own. Of these three it was the last view that eventually prevailed, +yet to an impartial eye it cannot claim, any more than do the two +others, to contain the whole truth. Charles did not conquer, nor the +Pope give, nor the people elect. As the act was unprecedented so was +it illegal; it was a revolt of the ancient Western capital against a +daughter who had become a mistress; an exercise of the sacred right of +insurrection, justified by the weakness and wickedness of the +Byzantine princes, hallowed to the eyes of the world by the sanction +of Christ's representative, but founded upon no law, nor competent to +create any for the future. + +[Sidenote: Was the coronation a surprise?] + +It is an interesting and somewhat perplexing question, how far the +coronation scene, an act as imposing in its circumstances as it was +momentous in its results, was prearranged among the parties. Eginhard +tells us that Charles was accustomed to declare that he would not, +even on so high a festival, have entered the church had he known of +the Pope's intention. Even if the monarch had uttered, the secretary +would hardly have recorded a falsehood long after the motive that +might have prompted it had disappeared. Of the existence of that +motive which has been most commonly assumed, a fear of the discontent +of the Franks who might think their liberties endangered, little or no +proof can be brought from the records of the time, wherein the nation +is represented as exulting in the new dignity of their chief as an +accession of grandeur to themselves. Nor can we suppose that Charles's +disavowal was meant to soothe the offended pride of the Byzantine +princes, from whom he had nothing to fear, and who were none the more +likely to recognise his dignity, if they should believe it to be not +of his own seeking. Yet it is hard to suppose the whole affair a +surprise; for it was the goal towards which the policy of the Frankish +kings had for many years pointed, and Charles himself, in sending +before him to Rome many of the spiritual and temporal magnates of his +realm, in summoning thither his son Pipin from the war against the +Lombards of Benevento, had shewn that he expected some more than +ordinary result from this journey to the imperial city. Alcuin +moreover, Alcuin of York, the prime minister of Charles in matters +religious and literary, appears from one of his extant letters to have +sent as a Christmas gift to his royal pupil a carefully corrected and +superbly adorned copy of the Scriptures, with the words 'ad splendorem +imperialis potentiae.' This has commonly been taken for conclusive +evidence that the plan had been settled beforehand, and such it would +be were there not some reasons for giving the letter an earlier date, +and looking upon the word 'imperialis' as a mere magniloquent +flourish[66]. More weight is therefore to be laid upon the arguments +supplied by the nature of the case itself. The Pope, whatever his +confidence in the sympathy of the people, would never have ventured on +so momentous a step until previous conferences had assured him of the +feelings of the king, nor could an act for which the assembly were +evidently prepared have been kept a secret. Nevertheless, the +declaration of Charles himself can neither be evaded nor set down to +mere dissimulation. It is more just to him, and on the whole more +reasonable, to suppose that Leo, having satisfied himself of the +wishes of the Roman clergy and people as well as of the Frankish +magnates, resolved to seize an occasion and place so eminently +favourable to his long-cherished plan, while Charles, carried away by +the enthusiasm of the moment and seeing in the pontiff the prophet and +instrument of the divine will, accepted a dignity which he might have +wished to receive at some later time or in some other way. If, +therefore, any positive conclusion be adopted, it would seem to be +that Charles, although he had probably given a more or less vague +consent to the project, was surprised and disconcerted by a sudden +fulfilment which interrupted his own carefully studied designs. And +although a deed which changed the history of the world was in any case +no accident, it may well have worn to the Frankish and Roman +spectators the air of a surprise. For there were no preparations +apparent in the church; the king was not, like his Teutonic successors +in aftertime, led in procession to the pontifical throne: suddenly, at +the very moment when he rose from the sacred hollow where he had knelt +among the ever-burning lamps before the holiest of Christian +relics--the body of the prince of the Apostles--the hands of that +Apostle's representative placed upon his head the crown of glory and +poured upon him the oil of sanctification. There was something in this +to thrill the beholders with the awe of a divine presence, and make +them hail him whom that presence seemed almost visibly to consecrate, +the 'pious and peace-giving Emperor, crowned of God.' + +[Sidenote: Theories of the motives of Charles.] + +The reluctance of Charles to assume the imperial title is ascribed by +Eginhard to a fear of the jealous hostility of the Greeks, who could +not only deny his claim to it, but might disturb by their intrigues +his dominions in Italy. Accepting this statement, the problem remains, +how is this reluctance to be reconciled with those acts of his which +clearly shew him aiming at the Roman crown? An ingenious and probable, +if not certain solution, is suggested by a recent historian[67], who +argues from a minute examination of the previous policy of Charles, +that while it was the great object of his reign to obtain the crown of +the world, he foresaw at the same time the opposition of the Eastern +Court, and the want of legality from which his title would in +consequence suffer. He was therefore bent on getting from the +Byzantines, if possible, a transference of their crown; if not, at +least a recognition of his own: and he appears to have hoped to win +this by the negotiations which had been for some time kept on foot +with the Empress Irene. Just at this moment came the coronation by +Pope Leo, interrupting these deep-laid schemes, irritating the Eastern +Court, and forcing Charles into the position of a rival who could not +with dignity adopt a soothing or submissive tone. Nevertheless, he +seems not even then to have abandoned the hope of obtaining a peaceful +recognition. Irene's crimes did not prevent him, if we may credit +Theophanes[68], from seeking her hand in marriage. And when the +project of thus uniting the East and West in a single Empire, baffled +for a time by the opposition of her minister AEtius, was rendered +impossible by her subsequent dethronement and exile, he did not +abandon the policy of conciliation until a surly acquiescence in +rather than admission of his dignity had been won from the Byzantine +sovereigns Michael and Nicephorus[69]. + +[Sidenote: Defect in the title of the Teutonic Emperors.] + +Whether, supposing Leo to have been less precipitate, a cession of the +crown, or an acknowledgment of the right of the Romans to confer it, +could ever have been obtained by Charles is perhaps more than +doubtful. But it is clear that he judged rightly in rating its +importance high, for the want of it was the great blemish in his own +and his successors' dignity. To shew how this was so, reference must +be made to the events of A.D. 476. Both the extinction of the Western +Empire in that year and its revival in A.D. 800 have been very +generally misunderstood in modern times, and although the mistake is +not, in a certain sense, of practical importance, yet it tends to +confuse history and to blind us to the ideas of the people who acted +on both occasions. When Odoacer compelled the abdication of Romulus +Augustulus, he did not abolish the Western Empire as a separate power, +but caused it to be reunited with or sink into the Eastern, so that +from that time there was, as there had been before Diocletian, a +single undivided Roman Empire. In A.D. 800 the very memory of the +separate Western Empire, as it had stood from the death of Theodosius +till Odoacer, had, so far as appears, been long since lost, and +neither Leo nor Charles nor any one among their advisers dreamt of +reviving it. They too, like their predecessors, held the Roman Empire +to be one and indivisible, and proposed by the coronation of the +Frankish king not to proclaim a severance of the East and West, but to +reverse the act of Constantine, and make Old Rome again the civil as +well as the ecclesiastical capital of the Empire that bore her name. +Their deed was in its essence illegal, but they sought to give it +every semblance of legality: they professed and partly believed that +they were not revolting against a reigning sovereign, but legitimately +filling up the place of the deposed Constantine the Sixth; the people +of the imperial city exercising their ancient right of choice, their +bishop his right of consecration. + +Their purpose was but half accomplished. They could create but they +could not destroy: they set up an Emperor of their own, whose +representatives thenceforward ruled the West, but Constantinople +retained her sovereigns as of yore; and Christendom saw henceforth two +imperial lines, not as in the time before A.D. 476, the conjoint heads +of a single realm, but rivals and enemies, each denouncing the other +as an impostor, each professing to be the only true and lawful head of +the Christian Church and people. Although therefore we must in +practice speak during the next seven centuries (down till A.D. 1453, +when Constantinople fell before the Mohammedan) of an Eastern and a +Western Empire, the phrase is in strictness incorrect, and was one +which either court ought to have repudiated. The Byzantines always did +repudiate it; the Latins usually; although, yielding to facts, they +sometimes condescended to employ it themselves. But their theory was +always the same. Charles was held to be the legitimate successor, not +of Romulus Augustulus, but of Basil, Heraclius, Justinian, Arcadius, +and all the Eastern line; and hence it is that in all the annals of +the time and of many succeeding centuries, the name of Constantine VI, +the sixty-seventh in order from Augustus, is followed without a break +by that of Charles, the sixty-eighth. + +[Sidenote: Government of Charles as Emperor.] + +[Sidenote: His authority in matters ecclesiastical.] + +The maintenance of an imperial line among the Greeks was a continuing +protest against the validity of Charles's title. But from their enmity +he had little to fear, and in the eyes of the world he seemed to step +into their place, adding the traditional dignity which had been theirs +to the power that he already enjoyed. North Italy and Rome ceased for +ever to own the supremacy of Byzantium; and while the Eastern princes +paid a shameful tribute to the Mussulman, the Frankish Emperor--as the +recognised head of Christendom--received from the patriarch of +Jerusalem the keys of the Holy Sepulchre and the banner of Calvary; +the gift of the Sepulchre itself, says Eginhard, from Aaron king of +the Persians[70]. Out of this peaceful intercourse with the great +Khalif the romancers created a crusade. Within his own dominions his +sway assumed a more sacred character. Already had his unwearied and +comprehensive activity made him throughout his reign an ecclesiastical +no less than a civil ruler, summoning and sitting in councils, +examining and appointing bishops, settling by capitularies the +smallest points of church discipline and polity. A synod held at +Frankfort in A.D. 794 condemned the decrees of the second council of +Nicaea, which had been approved by Pope Hadrian, censured in violent +terms the conduct of the Byzantine rulers in suggesting them, and +without excluding images from churches, altogether forbade them to be +worshipped or even venerated. Not only did Charles preside in and +direct the deliberations of this synod, although legates from the Pope +were present--he also caused a treatise to be drawn up stating and +urging its conclusions; he pressed Hadrian to declare Constantine VI a +heretic for enouncing doctrines to which Hadrian had himself +consented. There are letters of his extant in which he lectures Pope +Leo in a tone of easy superiority, admonishes him to obey the holy +canons, and bids him pray earnestly for the success of the efforts +which it is the monarch's duty to make for the subjugation of pagans +and the establishment of sound doctrine throughout the Church. Nay, +subsequent Popes themselves[71] admitted and applauded the despotic +superintendence of matters spiritual which he was wont to exercise, +and which led some one to give him playfully a title that had once +been applied to the Pope himself, 'Episcopus episcoporum.' + +[Sidenote: The imperial office in its ecclesiastical relations.] + +[Sidenote: Capitulary of A.D. 802.] + +Acting and speaking thus when merely king, it may be thought that +Charles needed no further title to justify his power. The inference is +in truth rather the converse of this. Upon what he had done already +the imperial title must necessarily follow: the attitude of protection +and control which he held towards the Church and the Holy See +belonged, according to the ideas of the time, especially and only to +an Emperor. Therefore his coronation was the fitting completion and +legitimation of his authority, sanctifying rather than increasing it. +We have, however, one remarkable witness to the importance that was +attached to the imperial name, and the enhancement which he conceived +his office to have received from it. In a great assembly held at +Aachen, A.D. 802, the lately-crowned Emperor revised the laws of all +the races that obeyed him, endeavouring to harmonize and correct them, +and issued a capitulary singular in subject and tone[72]. All persons +within his dominions, as well ecclesiastical as civil, who have +already sworn allegiance to him as king, are thereby commanded to +swear to him afresh as Caesar; and all who have never yet sworn, down +to the age of twelve, shall now take the same oath. 'At the same time +it shall be publicly explained to all what is the force and meaning of +this oath, and how much more it includes than a mere promise of +fidelity to the monarch's person. Firstly, it binds those who swear it +to live, each and every one of them, according to his strength and +knowledge, in the holy service of God; since the lord Emperor cannot +extend over all his care and discipline. Secondly, it binds them +neither by force nor fraud to seize or molest any of the goods or +servants of his crown. Thirdly, to do no violence nor treason towards +the holy Church, or to widows, or orphans, or strangers, seeing that +the lord Emperor has been appointed, after the Lord and his saints, +the protector and defender of all such.' Then in similar fashion +purity of life is prescribed to the monks; homicide, the neglect of +hospitality, and other offences are denounced, the notions of sin and +crime being intermingled and almost identified in a way to which no +parallel can be found, unless it be in the Mosaic code. There God, the +invisible object of worship, is also, though almost incidentally, the +judge and political ruler of Israel; here the whole cycle of social +and moral duty is deduced from the obligation of obedience to the +visible autocratic head of the Christian state. + +In most of Charles's words and deeds, nor less distinctly in the +writings of his adviser Alcuin, may be discerned the working of the +same theocratic ideas. Among his intimate friends he chose to be +called by the name of David, exercising in reality all the powers of +the Jewish king; presiding over this kingdom of God upon earth rather +as a second Constantine or Theodosius than in the spirit and +traditions of the Julii or the Flavii. Among his measures there are +two which in particular recall the first Christian Emperor. As +Constantine founds so Charles erects on a firmer basis the connection +of Church and State. Bishops and abbots are as essential a part of +rising feudalism as counts and dukes. Their benefices are held under +the same conditions of fealty and the service in war of their vassal +tenants, not of the spiritual person himself: they have similar rights +of jurisdiction, and are subject alike to the imperial _missi_. The +monarch tries often to restrict the clergy, as persons, to spiritual +duties; quells the insubordination of the monasteries; endeavours to +bring the seculars into a monastic life by instituting and regulating +chapters. But after granting wealth and power, the attempt was vain; +his strong hand withdrawn, they laughed at control. Again, it was by +him first that the payment of tithes, for which the priesthood had +long been pleading, was made compulsory in Western Europe, and the +support of the ministers of religion entrusted to the laws of the +state. + +[Sidenote: Influence of the imperial title in Germany and Gaul.] + +[Sidenote: Action of Charles on Europe.] + +In civil affairs also Charles acquired, with the imperial title, a new +position. Later jurists labour to distinguish his power as Roman +Emperor from that which he held already as king of the Franks and +their subject allies: they insist that his coronation gave him the +capital only, that it is absurd to talk of a Roman Empire in regions +whither the eagles had never flown[73]. In such expressions there +seems to lurk either confusion or misconception. It was not the actual +government of the city that Charles obtained in A.D. 800: that his +father had already held as Patrician and he had constantly exercised +in the same capacity: it was far more than the titular sovereignty of +Rome which had hitherto been supposed to be vested in the Byzantine +princes: it was nothing less than the headship of the world, believed +to appertain of right to the lawful Roman Emperor, whether he reigned +on the Bosphorus, the Tiber, or the Rhine. As that headship, although +never denied, had been in abeyance in the West for several centuries, +its bestowal on the king of so vast a realm was a change of the first +moment, for it made the coronation not merely a transference of the +seat of Empire, but a renewal of the Empire itself, a bringing back of +it from faith to sight, from the world of belief and theory to the +world of fact and reality. And since the powers it gave were +autocratic and unlimited, it must swallow up all minor claims and +dignities: the rights of Charles the Frankish king were merged in +those of Charles the successor of Augustus, the lord of the world. +That his imperial authority was theoretically irrespective of place is +clear from his own words and acts, and from all the monuments of that +time. He would not, indeed, have dreamed of treating the free Franks +as Justinian had treated his half-Oriental subjects, nor would the +warriors who followed his standard have brooked such an attempt. Yet +even to German eyes his position must have been altered by the halo of +vague splendour which now surrounded him; for all, even the Saxon and +the Slave, had heard of Rome's glories, and revered the name of Caesar. +And in his effort to weld discordant elements into one body, to +introduce regular gradations of authority, to control the Teutonic +tendency to localization by his _missi_--officials commissioned to +traverse each some part of his dominions, reporting on and redressing +the evils they found--and by his own oft-repeated personal progresses, +Charles was guided by the traditions of the old Empire. His sway is +the revival of order and culture, fusing the West into a compact +whole, whose parts are never thenceforward to lose the marks of their +connection and their half-Roman character, gathering up all that is +left in Europe of spirit and wealth and knowledge, and hurling it with +the new force of Christianity on the infidel of the South and the +masses of untamed barbarism to the North and East. Ruling the world by +the gift of God, and the transmitted rights of the Romans and their +Caesar whom God had chosen to conquer it, he renews the original +aggressive movement of the Empire: the civilized world has subdued her +invader[74], and now arms him against savagery and heathendom. Hence +the wars, not more of the sword than of the cross, against Saxons, +Avars, Slaves, Danes, Spanish Arabs, where monasteries are fortresses +and baptism the badge of submission. The overthrow of the +Irminsul[75], in the first Saxon campaign[76], sums up the changes of +seven centuries. The Romanized Teuton destroys the monument of his +country's freedom, for it is also the emblem of paganism and +barbarism. The work of Arminius is undone by his successor. + +[Sidenote: His position as Frankish king.] + +This, however, is not the only side from which Charles's policy and +character may be regarded. If the unity of the Church and the shadow +of imperial prerogative was one pillar of his power, the other was the +Frankish nation. The Empire was still military, though in a sense +strangely different from that of Julius or Severus. The warlike Franks +had permeated Western Europe; their primacy was admitted by the +kindred tribes of Lombards, Bavarians, Thuringians, Alemannians, and +Burgundians; the Slavic peoples on the borders trembled and paid +tribute; Alfonso of Asturias found in the Emperor a protector against +the infidel foe. His influence, if not his exerted power, crossed the +ocean: the kings of the Scots sent gifts and called him lord[77]: the +restoration of Eardulf to Northumbria, still more of Egbert to Wessex, +might furnish a better ground for the claim of suzerainty than many to +which his successors had afterwards recourse. As it was by Frankish +arms that this predominance in Europe which the imperial title adorned +and legalized had been won, so was the government of Charles Roman in +semblance rather than in fact. It was not by restoring the effete +mechanism of the old Empire, but by his own vigorous personal action +and that of his great officers, that he strove to administer and +reform. With every effort for a strong central government, there is no +despotism; each nation retains its laws, its hereditary chiefs, its +free popular assemblies. The conditions granted to the Saxons after +such cruel warfare, conditions so favourable that in the next century +their dukes hold the foremost place in Germany, shew how little he +desired to make the Franks a dominant caste. + +[Sidenote: General results of his Empire.] + +He repeats the attempt of Theodoric to breathe a Teutonic spirit into +Roman forms. The conception was magnificent; great results followed +its partial execution. Two causes forbade success. The one was the +ecclesiastical, especially the Papal power, apparently subject to the +temporal, but with a strong and undefined prerogative which only +waited the occasion to trample on what it had helped to raise. The +Pope might take away the crown he had bestowed, and turn against the +Emperor the Church which now obeyed him. The other was to be found in +the discordance of the component parts of the Empire. The nations were +not ripe for settled life or extensive schemes of polity; the +differences of race, language, manners, over vast and thinly-peopled +lands baffled every attempt to maintain their connection: and when +once the spell of the great mind was withdrawn, the mutually repellent +forces began to work, and the mass dissolved into that chaos out of +which it had been formed. Nevertheless, the parts separated not as +they met, but having all of them undergone influences which continued +to act when political connection had ceased. For the work of +Charles--a genius pre-eminently creative--was not lost in the anarchy +that followed: rather are we to regard his reign as the beginning of a +new era, or as laying the foundations whereon men continued for many +generations to build. + +[Sidenote: Personal habits and sympathies.] + +No claim can be more groundless than that which the modern French, the +sons of the Latinized Kelt, set up to the Teutonic Charles. At Rome he +might assume the chlamys and the sandals, but at the head of his +Frankish host he strictly adhered to the customs of his country, and +was beloved by his people as the very ideal of their own character and +habits[78]. Of strength and stature almost superhuman, in swimming and +hunting unsurpassed, steadfast and terrible in fight, to his friends +gentle and condescending, he was a Roman, much less a Gaul, in nothing +but his culture and his width of view, otherwise a Teuton. The centre +of his realm was the Rhine; his capitals Aachen[79] and +Engilenheim[80]; his army Frankish; his sympathies as they are shewn +in the gathering of the old hero-lays[81], the composition of a German +grammar, the ordinance against confining prayer to the three +languages,--Hebrew, Greek, and Latin,--were all for the race from +which he sprang, and whose advance, represented by the victory of +Austrasia, the true Frankish fatherland, over Neustria and Aquitaine, +spread a second Germanic wave over the conquered countries. + +[Sidenote: His Empire and character generally.] + +There were in his Empire, as in his own mind, two elements; those two +from the union and mutual action and reaction of which modern +civilization has arisen. These vast domains, reaching from the Ebro to +the Carpathian mountains, from the Eyder to the Liris, were all the +conquests of the Frankish sword, and were still governed almost +exclusively by viceroys and officers of Frankish blood. But the +conception of the Empire, that which made it a State and not a mere +mass of subject tribes like those great Eastern dominions which rise +and perish in a lifetime, the realms of Sesostris, or Attila, or +Timur, was inherited from an older and a grander system, was not +Teutonic but Roman--Roman in its ordered rule, in its uniformity and +precision, in its endeavour to subject the individual to the +system--Roman in its effort to realize a certain limited and human +perfection, whose very completeness shall exclude the hope of further +progress. And the bond, too, by which the Empire was held together was +Roman in its origin, although Roman in a sense which would have +surprised Trajan or Severus, could it have been foretold them. The +ecclesiastical body was already organized and centralized, and it was +in his rule over the ecclesiastical body that the secret of Charles's +power lay. Every Christian--Frank, Gaul, or Italian--owed loyalty to +the head and defender of his religion: the unity of the Empire was a +reflection of the unity of the Church. + +Into a general view of the government and policy of Charles it is not +possible here to enter. Yet his legislation, his assemblies, his +administrative system, his magnificent works, recalling the projects +of Alexander and Caesar[82], the zeal for education and literature +which he shewed in the collection of manuscripts, the founding of +schools, the gathering of eminent men from all quarters around him, +cannot be appreciated apart from his position as restorer of the Roman +Empire. Like all the foremost men of our race, Charles was all great +things in one, and was so great just because the workings of his +genius were so harmonious. He was not a mere barbarian warrior any +more than he was an astute diplomatist; there is none of all his +qualities which would not be forced out of its place were we to +characterize him chiefly by it. Comparisons between famous men of +different ages are generally as worthless as they are easy: the +circumstances among which Charles lived do not permit us to institute +a minute parallel between his greatness and that of those two to whom +it is the modern fashion to compare him, nor to say whether he was or +could have become as profound a politician as Caesar, as skilful a +commander as Napoleon[83]. But neither to the Roman nor to the +Corsican was he inferior in that one quality by which both he and they +chiefly impress our imaginations--that intense, vivid, unresting +energy which swept him over Europe in campaign after campaign, which +sought a field for its workings in theology, science, literature, no +less than in politics and war. As it was this wondrous activity that +made him the conqueror of Europe, so was it by the variety of his +culture that he became her civilizer. From him, in whose wide deep +mind the whole mediaeval theory of the world and human life mirrored +itself, did mediaeval society take the form and impress which it +retained for centuries, and the traces whereof are among us and upon +us to this day. + +The great Emperor was buried at Aachen, in that basilica which it had +been the delight of his later years to erect and adorn with the +treasures of ancient art. His tomb under the dome--where now we see an +enormous slab, with the words 'Carolo Magno'--was inscribed, '_Magnus +atque Orthodoxus Imperator_[84].' Poets, fostered by his own zeal, +sang of him who had given to the Franks the sway of Romulus[85]. The +gorgeous drapery of romance gradually wreathed itself round his name, +till by canonization as a saint he received the highest glory the +world or the Church could confer. For the Roman Church claimed then, +as she claims still, the privilege which humanity in one form or +another seems scarce able to deny itself, of raising to honours almost +divine its great departed; and as in pagan times temples had risen to +a deified Emperor, so churches were dedicated to St. Charlemagne. +Between Sanctus Carolus and Divus Julius how strange an analogy and +how strange a contrast! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[60] Before the end of the tenth century we find the monk Benedict of +Soracte ascribing to Charles an expedition to Palestine, and other +marvellous exploits. The romance which passes under the name of +Archbishop Turpin is well known. All the best stories about +Charles--and some of them are very good--may be found in the book of +the Monk of St. Gall. Many refer to his dealings with the bishops, +towards whom he is described as acting like a good-humoured +schoolmaster. + +[61] Baronius, _Ann._, ad ann. 800; Bellarminus, _De translatione +imperii Romani adversus Illyricum_; Spanhemius, _De ficta translatione +imperii_; Conringius, _De imperio Romano Germanico_. + +[62] See especially Greenwood, _Cathedra Petri_, vol. iii. p. 109. + +[63] _Ann. Lauresb. ap._ Pertz, _M. G. H._ i. + +[64] _Apud_ Pertz, _M. G. H._ i. + +[65] _Vitae Pontif._ in Mur. _S. R. I._ Anastasius in reporting the +shout of the people omits the word 'Romanorum,' which the other +annalists insert after 'imperatori.' The balance of probability is +certainly in his favour. + +[66] Lorentz, _Leben Alcuins_. And cf. Doellinger, _Das Kaiserthum +Karls des Grossen und seiner Nachfolger_. + +[67] See a very learned and interesting tract entitled _Das Kaiserthum +Karls des Grossen und seiner Nachfolger_, recently published by Dr. v. +Doellinger of Munich. + +[68] [Greek: Apokrisiarioi para Karoullou kai Leontos aitoumenoi +zeuchthenai auten to Karoullo pros gamon kai henosai ta Heoa kai ta +Hesperia.]--Theoph. _Chron._ in _Corp. Scriptt. Hist. Byz._ + +[69] Their ambassadors at last saluted him by the desired title +'Laudes ei dixerunt imperatorem eum et basileum appellantes.' Eginh. +_Ann._, ad ann. 812. + +[70] Harun er Rashid; Eginh. _Vita Karoli_, c. 16. + +[71] So Pope John VIII in a document quoted by Waitz, _Deutsche +Verfassungs-geschichte_, iii. + +[72] Pertz, _M. G. H._ iii. (legg. I.) + +[73] Puetter, _Historical Development of the German Constitution_; so +too Conring, and esp. David Blondel, _Adv. Chiffletium_. + +[74] 'Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit,' is repeated in this conquest +of the Teuton by the Roman. + +[75] The notion that once prevailed that the Irminsul was the 'pillar +of Hermann,' set up on the spot of the defeat of Varus, is now +generally discredited. Some German antiquaries take the pillar to be a +rude figure of the native god Irmin; but nothing seems to be known of +this alleged deity: and it is more probable that the name Irmin is +after all merely an altered form of the Keltic word which appears in +Welsh as Hir Vaen, the long stone (_Maen_, a stone). Thus the pillar, +so far from being the monument of the great Teutonic victory, would +commemorate a pre-Teutonic race, whose name for it the invading tribes +adopted. The Rev. Dr. Scott, of Westminster, to whose kindness I am +indebted for this explanation, informs me that a rude ditty recording +the destruction of the pillar by Charles was current on the spot a few +years ago. It ran thus:-- + + 'Irmin slad Irmin + Sla Pfeifen sla Trommen + Der Kaiser wird kommen + Mit Hammer und Stangen + Wird Irmin uphangen.' + +[76] Eginhard, _Ann_. + +[77] Most probably the Scots of Ireland--Eginhard, _Vita Karoli_, cap. +16. + +[78] Eginhard, _Vita Karoli_, cap. 23. + +[79] Aix-la-Chapelle. See the lines in Pertz (_M. G. H._ ii.), +beginning,-- + + 'Urbs Aquensis, urbs regalis, + Sedes regni principalis, + Prima regum curia.' + +This city is commonly called Aken in English books of the seventeenth +century, and probably that ought to be taken as its proper English +name. That name has, however, fallen so entirely into disuse that I do +not venture to use it; and as the employment of the French name +Aix-la-Chapelle seems inevitably to produce the belief that the place +is and was, even in Charles's time, a French town, there is nothing +for it but to fall back upon the comparatively unfamiliar German name. + +[80] Engilenheim, or Ingelheim, lies near the left shore of the Rhine +between Mentz and Bingen. + +[81] Eginhard, _Vita Karoli_, cap. 29. + +[82] Eginhard, _Vita Karoli_, cap. 17. + +[83] It is not a little curious that of the three whom the modern +French have taken to be their national heroes all should have been +foreigners, and two foreign conquerors. + +[84] This basilica was built upon the model of the church of the Holy +Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and as it was the first church of any size +that had been erected in those regions for centuries past, it excited +extraordinary interest among the Franks and Gauls. In many of its +features it greatly resembles the beautiful church of San Vitale, at +Ravenna (also modelled upon that of the Holy Sepulchre) which was +begun by Theodoric, and completed under Justinian. Probably San Vitale +was used as a pattern by Charles's architects: we know that he caused +marble columns to be brought from Ravenna to deck the church at +Aachen. Over the tomb of Charles, below the central dome (to which the +Gothic choir we now see was added some centuries later), there hangs a +huge chandelier, the gift of Frederick Barbarossa. + +[85] 'Romuleum Francis praestitit imperium.'--Elegy of Ermoldus +Nigellus, in Pertz; _M. G. H._, t. i. So too Florus the Deacon,-- + + 'Huic etenim cessit etiam gens Romula genti, + Regnorumque simul mater Roma inclyta cessit: + Huius ibi princeps regni diademata sumpsit + Munere apostolico, Christi munimine fretus.' + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +CAROLINGIAN AND ITALIAN EMPERORS. + + +[Sidenote: Lewis the Pious.] + +[Sidenote: Partition of Verdun, A.D. 843.] + +Lewis the Pious[86], left by Charles's death sole heir, had been some +years before associated with his father in the Empire, and had been +crowned by his own hands in a way which, intentionally or not, +appeared to deny the need of Papal sanction. But it was soon seen that +the strength to grasp the sceptre had not passed with it. Too mild to +restrain his turbulent nobles, and thrown by over-conscientiousness +into the hands of the clergy, he had reigned few years when +dissensions broke out on all sides. Charles had wished the Empire to +continue one, under the supremacy of a single Emperor, but with its +several parts, Lombardy, Aquitaine, Austrasia, Bavaria, each a kingdom +held by a scion of the reigning house. A scheme dangerous in itself, +and rendered more so by the absence or neglect of regular rules of +succession, could with difficulty have been managed by a wise and firm +monarch. Lewis tried in vain to satisfy his sons (Lothar, Lewis, and +Charles) by dividing and redividing: they rebelled; he was deposed, +and forced by the bishops to do penance; again restored, but without +power, a tool in the hands of contending factions. On his death the +sons flew to arms, and the first of the dynastic quarrels of modern +Europe was fought out on the field of Fontenay. In the partition +treaty of Verdun which followed, the Teutonic principle of equal +division among heirs triumphed over the Roman one of the transmission +of an indivisible Empire: the practical sovereignty of all three +brothers was admitted in their respective territories, a barren +precedence only reserved to Lothar, with the imperial title which he, +as the eldest, already enjoyed. A more important result was the +separation of the Gaulish and German nationalities. Their difference +of feeling, shewn already in the support of Lewis the Pious by the +Germans against the Gallo-Franks and the Church[87], took now a +permanent shape: modern Germany proclaims the era of A.D. 843 the +beginning of her national existence, and celebrated its thousandth +anniversary twenty-seven years ago. To Charles the Bald was given +Francia Occidentalis, that is to say, Neustria and Aquitaine; to +Lothar, who as Emperor must possess the two capitals, Rome and Aachen, +a long and narrow kingdom stretching from the North Sea to the +Mediterranean, and including the northern half of Italy: Lewis +(surnamed, from his kingdom, the German) received all east of the +Rhine, Franks, Saxons, Bavarians, Austria, Carinthia, with possible +supremacies over Czechs and Moravians beyond. Throughout these regions +German was spoken; through Charles's kingdom a corrupt tongue, equally +removed from Latin and from modern French. Lothar's, being mixed and +having no national basis, was the weakest of the three, and soon +dissolved into the separate sovereignties of Italy, Burgundy, and +Lotharingia, or, as we call it, Lorraine. + +[Sidenote: End of the Carolingian Empire of the West, A.D. 888.] + +On the tangled history of the period that follows it is not possible +to do more than touch. After passing from one branch of the +Carolingian line to another[88], the imperial sceptre was at last +possessed and disgraced by Charles the Fat, who united all the +dominions of his great-grandfather. This unworthy heir could not avail +himself of recovered territory to strengthen or defend the expiring +monarchy. He was driven out of Italy in A.D. 887, and his death in 888 +has been usually taken as the date of the extinction of the +Carolingian Empire of the West. The Germans, still attached to the +ancient line, chose Arnulf, an illegitimate Carolingian, for their +king: he entered Italy and was crowned Emperor by his partizan Pope +Formosus, in 894. But Germany, divided and helpless, was in no +condition to maintain her power over the southern lands: Arnulf +retreated in haste, leaving Rome and Italy to sixty years of stormy +independence. + +That time was indeed the nadir of order and civilization. From all +sides the torrent of barbarism which Charles the Great had stemmed was +rushing down upon his empire. The Saracen wasted the Mediterranean +coasts, and sacked Rome herself. The Dane and Norseman swept the +Atlantic and the North Sea, pierced France and Germany by their +rivers, burning, slaying, carrying off into captivity: pouring through +the Straits of Gibraltar, they fell upon Provence and Italy. By land, +while Wends and Czechs and Obotrites threw off the German yoke and +threatened the borders, the wild Hungarian bands, pressing in from the +steppes of the Caspian, dashed over Germany like the flying spray of a +new wave of barbarism, and carried the terror of their battleaxes to +the Apennines and the ocean. Under such strokes the already loosened +fabric swiftly dissolved. No one thought of common defence or wide +organization: the strong built castles, the weak became their +bondsmen, or took shelter under the cowl: the governor--count, abbot, +or bishop--tightened his grasp, turned a delegated into an +independent, a personal into a territorial authority, and hardly owned +a distant and feeble suzerain. The grand vision of a universal +Christian empire was utterly lost in the isolation, the antagonism, +the increasing localization of all powers: it might seem to have been +but a passing gleam from an older and better world. + +[Sidenote: The German Kingdom.] + +[Sidenote: Henry the Fowler.] + +In Germany, the greatness of the evil worked at last its cure. When +the male line of the eastern branch of the Carolingians had ended in +Lewis (surnamed the Child), son of Arnulf, the chieftains chose and +the people accepted Conrad the Franconian, and after him Henry the +Saxon duke, both representing the female line of Charles. Henry laid +the foundations of a firm monarchy, driving back the Magyars and +Wends, recovering Lotharingia, founding towns to be centres of orderly +life and strongholds against Hungarian irruptions. He had meant to +claim at Rome his kingdom's rights, rights which Conrad's weakness had +at least asserted by the demand of tribute; but death overtook him, +and the plan was left to be fulfilled by Otto his son. + +[Sidenote: Otto the Great.] + +The Holy Roman Empire, taking the name in the sense which it commonly +bore in later centuries, as denoting the sovereignty of Germany and +Italy vested in a Germanic prince, is the creation of Otto the Great. +Substantially, it is true, as well as technically, it was a +prolongation of the Empire of Charles; and it rested (as will be shewn +in the sequel) upon ideas essentially the same as those which brought +about the coronation of A.D. 800. But a revival is always more or less +a revolution: the one hundred and fifty years that had passed since +the death of Charles had brought with them changes which made Otto's +position in Germany and Europe less commanding and less autocratic +than his predecessor's. With narrower geographical limits, his Empire +had a less plausible claim to be the heir of Rome's universal +dominion; and there were also differences in its inner character and +structure sufficient to justify us in considering Otto (as he is +usually considered by his countrymen) not a mere successor after an +interregnum, but rather a second founder of the imperial throne in the +West. + +Before Otto's descent into Italy is described, something must be said +of the condition of that country, where circumstances had again made +possible the plan of Theodoric, permitted it to become an independent +kingdom, and attached the imperial title to its sovereign. + +[Sidenote: Italian Emperors.] + +The bestowal of the purple on Charles the Great was not really that +'translation of the Empire from the Greeks to the Franks,' which it +was afterwards described as having been. It was not meant to settle +the office in one nation or one dynasty: there was but an extension of +that principle of the equality of all Romans which had made Trajan and +Maximin Emperors. The '_arcanum imperii_,' whereof Tacitus speaks, +'_posse principem alibi quam Romae fieri_[89],' had long before become +_alium quam Romanum_; and now, the names of Roman and Christian having +grown co-extensive, a barbarian chieftain was, as a Roman citizen, +eligible to the office of Roman Emperor. Treating him as such, the +people and pontiff of the capital had in the vacancy of the Eastern +throne asserted their ancient rights of election, and while attempting +to reverse the act of Constantine, had re-established the division of +Valentinian. The dignity was therefore in strictness personal to +Charles; in point of fact, and by consent, hereditarily transmissible, +just as it had formerly become in the families of Constantine and +Theodosius. To the Frankish crown or nation it was by no means legally +attached, though they might think it so; it had passed to their king +only because he was the greatest European potentate, and might equally +well pass to some stronger race, if any such appeared. Hence, when the +line of Carolingian Emperors ended in Charles the Fat, the rights of +Rome and Italy might be taken to revive, and there was nothing to +prevent the citizens from choosing whom they would. At that memorable +era (A.D. 888) the four kingdoms which this prince had united fell +asunder; West France, where Odo or Eudes then began to reign, was +never again united to Germany; East France (Germany) chose Arnulf; +Burgundy[90] split up into two principalities, in one of which +(Transjurane) Rudolf proclaimed himself king, while the other +(Cisjurane with Provence) submitted to Boso[91]; while Italy was +divided between the parties of Berengar of Friuli and Guido of +Spoleto. The former was chosen king by the estates of Lombardy; the +latter, and on his speedy death his son Lambert, was crowned Emperor +by the Pope. Arnulf's descent chased them away and vindicated the +claims of the Franks, but on his flight Italy and the anti-German +faction at Rome became again free. Berengar was made king of Italy, +and afterwards Emperor. Lewis of Burgundy, son of Boso, renounced his +fealty to Arnulf, and procured the imperial dignity, whose vain title +he retained through years of misery and exile, till A.D. 928[92]. None +of these Emperors were strong enough to rule well even in Italy; +beyond it they were not so much as recognized. The crown had become a +bauble with which unscrupulous Popes dazzled the vanity of princes +whom they summoned to their aid, and soothed the credulity of their +more honest supporters. The demoralization and confusion of Italy, the +shameless profligacy of Rome and her pontiffs during this period, were +enough to prevent a true Italian kingdom from being built up on the +basis of Roman choice and national unity. Italian indeed it can +scarcely be called, for these Emperors were still in blood and manners +Teutonic, and akin rather to their Transalpine enemies than their +Romanic subjects. But Italian it might soon have become under a +vigorous rule which should have organized it within and knit it +together to resist attacks from without. And therefore the attempt to +establish such a kingdom is remarkable, for it might have had great +consequences; might, if it had prospered, have spared Italy much +suffering and Germany endless waste of strength and blood. He who from +the summit of Milan cathedral sees across the misty plain the gleaming +turrets of its icy wall sweep in a great arc from North to West, may +well wonder that a land which nature has so severed from its +neighbours should, since history begins, have been always the victim +of their intrusive tyranny. + +[Sidenote: Adelheid Queen of Italy.] + +[Sidenote: Otto's first expedition into Italy, A.D. 951.] + +[Sidenote: Invitation sent by the Pope to Otto.] + +[Sidenote: Motives for reviving the Empire.] + +In A.D. 924 died Berengar, the last of these phantom Emperors. After +him Hugh of Burgundy, and Lothar his son, reigned as kings of Italy, +if puppets in the hands of a riotous aristocracy can be so called. +Rome was meanwhile ruled by the consul or senator Alberic[93], who had +renewed her never quite extinct republican institutions, and in the +degradation of the papacy was almost absolute in the city. Lothar +dying, his widow Adelheid[94] was sought in marriage by Adalbert son +of Berengar II, the new Italian monarch. A gleam of romance is shed on +the Empire's revival by her beauty and her adventures. Rejecting the +odious alliance, she was seized by Berengar, escaped with difficulty +from the loathsome prison where his barbarity had confined her, and +appealed to Otto the German king, the model of that knightly virtue +which was beginning to shew itself after the fierce brutality of the +last age. He listened, descended into Lombardy by the Adige valley, +espoused the injured queen, and forced Berengar to hold his kingdom as +a vassal of the East Frankish crown. That prince was turbulent and +faithless; new complaints reached ere long his liege lord, and envoys +from the Pope offered Otto the imperial title if he would re-visit and +pacify Italy. The proposal was well-timed. Men still thought, as they +had thought in the centuries before the Carolingians, that the Empire +was suspended, not extinct; and the desire to see its effective power +restored, the belief that without it the world could never be right, +might seem better grounded than it had been before the coronation of +Charles. Then the imperial name had recalled only the faint memories +of Roman majesty and order; now it was also associated with the golden +age of the first Frankish Emperor, when a single firm and just hand +had guided the state, reformed the church, repressed the excesses of +local power: when Christianity had advanced against heathendom, +civilizing as she went, fearing neither Hun nor Paynim. One annalist +tells us that Charles was elected 'lest the pagans should insult the +Christians, if the name of Emperor should have ceased among the +Christians[95].' The motive would be bitterly enforced by the +calamities of the last fifty years. In a time of disintegration, +confusion, strife, all the longings of every wiser and better soul for +unity, for peace and law, for some bond to bring Christian men and +Christian states together against the common enemy of the faith, were +but so many cries for the restoration of the Roman Empire[96]. These +were the feelings that on the field of Merseburg broke forth in the +shout of 'Henry the Emperor:' these the hopes of the Teutonic host +when after the great deliverance of the Lechfeld they greeted Otto, +conqueror of the Magyars, as 'Imperator Augustus, Pater Patriae[97].' + +[Sidenote: Condition of Italy.] + +The anarchy which an Emperor was needed to heal was at its worst in +Italy, desolated by the feuds of a crowd of petty princes. A +succession of infamous Popes, raised by means yet more infamous, the +lovers and sons of Theodora and Marozia, had disgraced the chair of +the Apostle, and though Rome herself might be lost to decency, Western +Christendom was roused to anger and alarm. Men had not yet learned to +satisfy their consciences by separating the person from the office. +The rule of Alberic had been succeeded by the wildest confusion, and +demands were raised for the renewal of that imperial authority which +all admitted in theory[98], and which nothing but the resolute +opposition of Alberic himself had prevented Otto from claiming in 951. +From the Byzantine Empire, whither Italy was more than once tempted to +turn, nothing could be hoped; its dangers from foreign enemies were +aggravated by the plots of the court and the seditions of the capital; +it was becoming more and more alienated from the West by the Photian +schism and the question regarding the Procession of the Holy Ghost, +which that quarrel had started. Germany was extending and +consolidating herself, had escaped domestic perils, and might think of +reviving ancient claims. No one could be more willing to revive them +than Otto the Great. His ardent spirit, after waging a bold and +successful struggle against the turbulent magnates of his German +realm, had engaged him in wars with the surrounding nations, and was +now captivated by the vision of a wider sway and a loftier +world-embracing dignity. Nor was the prospect which the papal offer +opened up less welcome to his people. Aachen, their capital, was the +ancestral home of the house of Pipin: their sovereign, although +himself a Saxon by race, titled himself king of the Franks, in +opposition to the Frankish rulers of the Western branch, whose +Teutonic character was disappearing among the Romans of Gaul; they +held themselves in every way the true representatives of the +Carolingian power, and accounted the period since Arnulf's death +nothing but an interregnum which had suspended but not impaired their +rights over Rome. 'For so long,' says a writer of the time, 'as there +remain kings of the Franks, so long will the dignity of the Roman +Empire not wholly perish, seeing that it will abide in its +kings[99].' The recovery of Italy was therefore to German eyes a +righteous as well as a glorious design: approved by the Teutonic +Church which had lately been negotiating with Rome on the subject of +missions to the heathen; embraced by the people, who saw in it an +accession of strength to their young kingdom. Everything smiled on +Otto's enterprise, and the connection which was destined to bring so +much strife and woe to Germany and to Italy was welcomed by the wisest +of both countries as the beginning of a better era. + +[Sidenote: Descent of Otto the Great into Italy.] + +[Sidenote: His coronation at Rome, A.D. 962.] + +Whatever were Otto's own feelings, whether or not he felt that he was +sacrificing, as modern writers have thought that he did sacrifice, the +greatness of his German kingdom to the lust of universal dominion, he +shewed no hesitation in his acts. Descending from the Alps with an +overpowering force, he was acknowledged as king of Italy at +Pavia[100]; and, having first taken an oath to protect the Holy See +and respect the liberties of the city, advanced to Rome. There, with +Adelheid his queen, he was crowned by John XII, on the day of the +Purification, the second of February, A.D. 962. The details of his +election and coronation are unfortunately still more scanty than in +the case of his great predecessor. Most of our authorities represent +the act as of the Pope's favour[101], yet it is plain that the consent +of the people was still thought an essential part of the ceremony, and +that Otto rested after all on his host of conquering Saxons. Be this +as it may, there was neither question raised nor opposition made in +Rome; the usual courtesies and promises were exchanged between Emperor +and Pope, the latter owning himself a subject, and the citizens swore +for the future to elect no pontiff without Otto's consent. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[86] Usage has established this translation of 'Hludowicus Pius,' but +'gentle' or 'kind-hearted' would better express the meaning of the +epithet. + +[87] Von Ranke discovers in this early traces of the aversion of the +Germans to the pretensions of the spiritual power.--_History of +Germany during the Reformation_: Introduction. + +[88] Singularly enough, when one thinks of modern claims, the dynasty +of France (Francia occidentalis) had the least share of it. Charles +the Bald was the only West Frankish Emperor, and reigned a very short +time. + +[89] Tac. _Hist._ i. 4. + +[90] For an account of the various applications of the name Burgundy, +see Appendix, Note A. + +[91] The accession of Boso took place in A.D. 877, eleven years before +Charles the Fat's death. But the new kingdom could not be considered +legally settled until the latter date, and its establishment is at any +rate a part of that general break-up of the great Carolingian empire +whereof A.D. 888 marks the crisis. See Appendix A at the end. + +It is a curious mark of the reverence paid to the Carolingian blood, +that Boso, a powerful and ambitious prince, seems to have chiefly +rested his claims on the fact that he was husband of Irmingard, +daughter of the Emperor Lewis II. Baron de Gingins la Sarraz quotes a +charter of his (drawn up when he seems to have doubted whether to call +himself king) which begins, 'Ego Boso Dei gratia id quod sum, et +coniux mea Irmingardis proles imperialis.' + +[92] Lewis had been surprised by Berengar at Verona, blinded, and +forced to take refuge in his own kingdom of Provence. + +[93] Alberic is called variously senator, consul, patrician, and +prince of the Romans. + +[94] Adelheid was daughter of Rudolf, king of Trans-Jurane Burgundy. +She was at this time in her nineteenth year. + +[95] _Chron. Moiss._, in Pertz; _M. G. H._ i. 305. + +[96] See especially the poem of Florus the Deacon (printed in the +Benedictine collection and in Migne), a bitter lament over the +dissolution of the Carolingian Empire. It is too long for quotation. I +give four lines here:-- + + 'Quid faciant populi quos ingens alluit Hister, + Quos Rhenus Rhodanusque rigant, Ligerisve, Padusve, + Quos omnes dudum tenuit concordia nexos, + Foedere nunc rupto divortia moesta fatigant.' + +[97] Witukind, _Annales_, in Pertz. It may, however, be doubted +whether the annalist is not here giving a very free rendering of the +triumphant cries of the German army. + +[98] Cf. esp. the '_Libellus de imperatoria potestate in urbe Roma_,' +in Pertz. + +[99] 'Licet videamus Romanorum regnum in maxima parte jam destructum, +tamen quamdiu reges Francorum duraverint qui Romanum imperium tenere +debent, dignitas Romani imperii ex toto non peribit, quia stabit in +regibus suis.'--_Liber de Antichristo_, addressed by Adso, abbot of +Moutier-en-Der, to queen Gerberga (circa A.D. 950). + +[100] From the money which Otto struck in Italy, it seems probable +that he did occasionally use the title of king of Italy or of the +Lombards. That he was crowned can hardly be considered quite certain. + +[101] 'A papa imperator ordinatur,' says Hermannus Contractus. +'Dominum Ottonem, ad hoc usque vocatum regem, non solum Romano sed et +poene totius Europae populo acclamante imperatorem consecravit +Augustum.'--_Annal. Quedlinb._, ad ann. 962. 'Benedictionem a domno +apostolico Iohanne, cuius rogatione huc venit, cum sua coniuge promeruit +imperialem ac patronus Romanae effectus est ecclesiae.'--Thietmar. +'Acclamatione totius Romani populi ab apostolico Iohanne, filio +Alberici, imperator et Augustus vocatur et ordinatur.'--Continuator +Reginonis. And similarly the other annalists. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THEORY OF THE MEDIAEVAL EMPIRE. + + +[Sidenote: Why the revival of the Empire was desired.] + +These were the events and circumstances of the time: let us now look +at the causes. The restoration of the Empire by Charles may seem to be +sufficiently accounted for by the width of his conquests, by the +peculiar connection which already subsisted between him and the Roman +Church, by his commanding personal character, by the temporary vacancy +of the Byzantine throne. The causes of its revival under Otto must be +sought deeper. Making every allowance for the favouring incidents +which have already been dwelt upon, there must have been some further +influence at work to draw him and his successors, Saxon and Frankish +kings, so far from home in pursuit of a barren crown, to lead the +Italians to accept the dominion of a stranger and a barbarian, to make +the Empire itself appear through the whole Middle Age not what it +seems now, a gorgeous anachronism, but an institution divine and +necessary, having its foundations in the very nature and order of +things. The empire of the elder Rome had been splendid in its life, +yet its judgment was written in the misery to which it had brought the +provinces, and the helplessness that had invited the attacks of the +barbarian. Now, as we at least can see, it had long been dead, and the +course of events was adverse to its revival. Its actual +representatives, the Roman people, were a turbulent rabble, sunk in a +profligacy notorious even in that guilty age. Yet not the less for all +this did men cling to the idea, and strive through long ages to stem +the irresistible time-current, fondly believing that they were +breasting it even while it was sweeping them ever faster and faster +away from the old order into a region of new thoughts, new feelings, +new forms of life. Not till the days of the Reformation was the +illusion dispelled. + +[Sidenote: Mediaeval theories.] + +The explanation is to be found in the state of the human mind during +these centuries. The Middle Ages were essentially unpolitical. Ideas +as familiar to the commonwealths of antiquity as to ourselves, ideas +of the common good as the object of the State, of the rights of the +people, of the comparative merits of different forms of government, +were to them, though sometimes carried out in fact, in their +speculative form unknown, perhaps incomprehensible. Feudalism was the +one great institution to which those times gave birth, and feudalism +was a social and a legal system, only indirectly and by consequence a +political one. Yet the human mind, so far from being idle, was in +certain directions never more active; nor was it possible for it to +remain without general conceptions regarding the relation of men to +each other in this world. Such conceptions were neither made an +expression of the actual present condition of things nor drawn from an +induction of the past; they were partly inherited from the system that +had preceded, partly evolved from the principles of that metaphysical +theology which was ripening into scholasticism[102]. Now the two great +ideas which expiring antiquity bequeathed to the ages that followed +were those of a World-Monarchy and a World-Religion. + +[Sidenote: The World-Religion.] + +Before the conquests of Rome, men, with little knowledge of each +other, with no experience of wide political union[103], had held +differences of race to be natural and irremovable barriers. Similarly, +religion appeared to them a matter purely local and national; and as +there were gods of the hills and gods of the valleys, of the land and +of the sea, so each tribe rejoiced in its peculiar deities, looking on +the natives of another country who worshipped other gods as Gentiles, +natural foes, unclean beings. Such feelings, if keenest in the East, +frequently shew themselves in the early records of Greece and Italy: +in Homer the hero who wanders over the unfruitful sea glories in +sacking the cities of the stranger[104]; the primitive Latins have the +same word for a foreigner and an enemy: the exclusive systems of +Egypt, Hindostan, China, are only more vehement expressions of the +belief which made Athenian philosophers look on a state of war between +Greeks and barbarians as natural[105], and defend slavery on the same +ground of the original diversity of the races that rule and the races +that serve. The Roman dominion giving to many nations a common speech +and law, smote this feeling on its political side; Christianity more +effectually banished it from the soul by substituting for the variety +of local pantheons the belief in one God, before whom all men are +equal[106]. + +[Sidenote: Coincides with the World-Empire.] + +It is on the religious life that nations repose. Because divinity was +divided, humanity had been divided likewise; the doctrine of the unity +of God now enforced the unity of man, who had been created in His +image[107]. The first lesson of Christianity was love, a love that was +to join in one body those whom suspicion and prejudice and pride of +race had hitherto kept apart. There was thus formed by the new +religion a community of the faithful, a Holy Empire, designed to +gather all men into its bosom, and standing opposed to the manifold +polytheisms of the older world, exactly as the universal sway of the +Caesars was contrasted with the innumerable kingdoms and republics that +had gone before it. The analogy of the two made them appear parts of +one great world-movement toward unity: the coincidence of their +boundaries, which had begun before Constantine, lasted long enough +after him to associate them indissolubly together, and make the names +of Roman and Christian convertible[108]. Oecumenical councils, where +the whole spiritual body gathered itself from every part of the +temporal realm under the presidency of the temporal head, presented +the most visible and impressive examples of their connection[109]. The +language of civil government was, throughout the West, that of the +sacred writings and of worship; the greatest mind of his generation +consoled the faithful for the fall of their earthly commonwealth Rome, +by describing to them its successor and representative, the 'city +which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God[110].' + +[Sidenote: Preservation of the unity of the Church.] + +[Sidenote: Mediaeval Theology requires One Visible Catholic Church.] + +Of these two parallel unities, that of the political and that of the +religious society, meeting in the higher unity of all Christians, +which may be indifferently called Catholicity or Romanism (since in +that day those words would have had the same meaning), that only which +had been entrusted to the keeping of the Church survived the storms of +the fifth century. Many reasons may be assigned for the firmness with +which she clung to it. Seeing one institution after another falling to +pieces around her, seeing how countries and cities were being severed +from each other by the irruption of strange tribes and the increasing +difficulty of communication, she strove to save religious fellowship +by strengthening the ecclesiastical organization, by drawing tighter +every bond of outward union. Necessities of faith were still more +powerful. Truth, it was said, is one, and as it must bind into one +body all who hold it, so it is only by continuing in that body that +they can preserve it. Thus with the growing rigidity of dogma, which +may be traced from the council of Jerusalem to the council of Trent, +there had arisen the idea of supplementing revelation by tradition as +a source of doctrine, of exalting the universal conscience and belief +above the individual, and allowing the soul to approach God only +through the universal consciousness, represented by the sacerdotal +order: principles still maintained by one branch of the Church, and +for some at least of which far weightier reasons could be assigned +then, in the paucity of written records and the blind ignorance of the +mass of the people, than any to which their modern advocates have +recourse. There was another cause yet more deeply seated, and which it +is hard adequately to describe. It was not exactly a want of faith in +the unseen, nor a shrinking fear which dared not look forth on the +universe alone: it was rather the powerlessness of the untrained mind +to realize the idea as an idea and live in it: it was the tendency to +see everything in the concrete, to turn the parable into a fact, the +doctrine into its most literal application, the symbol into the +essential ceremony; the tendency which intruded earthly Madonnas and +saints between the worshipper and the spiritual Deity, and could +satisfy its devotional feelings only by visible images even of these: +which conceived of man's aspirations and temptations as the result of +the direct action of angels and devils: which expressed the strivings +of the soul after purity by the search for the Holy Grail: which in +the Crusades sent myriads to win at Jerusalem by earthly arms the +sepulchre of Him whom they could not serve in their own spirit nor +approach by their own prayers. And therefore it was that the whole +fabric of mediaeval Christianity rested upon the idea of the Visible +Church. Such a Church could be in nowise local or limited. To +acquiesce in the establishment of National Churches would have +appeared to those men, as it must always appear when scrutinized, +contradictory to the nature of a religious body, opposed to the genius +of Christianity, defensible, when capable of defence at all, only as a +temporary resource in the presence of insuperable difficulties. Had +this plan, on which so many have dwelt with complacency in later +times, been proposed either to the primitive Church in its adversity +or to the dominant Church of the ninth century, it would have been +rejected with horror; but since there were as yet no nations, the plan +was one which did not and could not present itself. The Visible Church +was therefore the Church Universal, the whole congregation of +Christian men dispersed throughout the world. + +[Sidenote: Idea of political unity upheld by the clergy.] + +Now of the Visible Church the emblem and stay was the priesthood; and +it was by them, in whom dwelt whatever of learning and thought was +left in Europe, that the second great idea whereof mention has been +made--the belief in one universal temporal state--was preserved. As a +matter of fact, that state had perished out of the West, and it might +seem their interest to let its memory be lost. They, however, did not +so calculate their interest. So far from feeling themselves opposed to +the civil authority in the seventh and eighth centuries, as they came +to do in the twelfth and thirteenth, the clergy were fully persuaded +that its maintenance was indispensable to their own welfare. They +were, be it remembered, at first Romans themselves living by the Roman +law, using Latin as their proper tongue, and imbued with the idea of +the historical connection of the two powers. And by them chiefly was +that idea expounded and enforced for many generations, by none more +earnestly than by Alcuin of York, the adviser of Charles[111]. The +limits of those two powers had become confounded in practice: bishops +were princes, the chief ministers of the sovereign, sometimes even the +leaders of their flocks in war: kings were accustomed to summon +ecclesiastical councils, and appoint to ecclesiastical offices. + +[Sidenote: Influence of the metaphysics of the time upon the theory of +a World-State.] + +But, like the unity of the Church, the doctrine of a universal +monarchy had a theoretical as well as an historical basis, and may be +traced up to those metaphysical ideas out of which the system we call +Realism developed itself. The beginnings of philosophy in those times +were logical; and its first efforts were to distribute and classify: +system, subordination, uniformity, appeared to be that which was most +desirable in thought as in life. The search after causes became a +search after principles of classification; since simplicity and truth +were held to consist not in an analysis of thought into its elements, +nor in an observation of the process of its growth, but rather in a +sort of genealogy of notions, a statement of the relations of classes +as containing or excluding each other. These classes, genera or +species, were not themselves held to be conceptions formed by the mind +from phenomena, nor mere accidental aggregates of objects grouped +under and called by some common name; they were real things, existing +independently of the individuals who composed them, recognized rather +than created by the human mind. In this view, Humanity is an essential +quality present in all men, and making them what they are: as regards +it they are therefore not many but one, the differences between +individuals being no more than accidents. The whole truth of their +being lies in the universal property, which alone has a permanent and +independent existence. The common nature of the individuals thus +gathered into one Being is typified in its two aspects, the spiritual +and the secular, by two persons, the World-Priest and the +World-Monarch, who present on earth a similitude of the Divine unity. +For, as we have seen, it was only through its concrete and symbolic +expression that a thought could then be apprehended[112]. Although it +was to unity in religion that the clerical body was both by doctrine +and by practice attached, they found this inseparable from the +corresponding unity in politics. They saw that every act of man has a +social and public as well as a moral and personal bearing, and +concluded that the rules which directed and the powers which rewarded +or punished must be parallel and similar, not so much two powers as +different manifestations of one and the same. That the souls of all +Christian men should be guided by one hierarchy, rising through +successive grades to a supreme head, while for their deeds they were +answerable to a multitude of local, unconnected, mutually +irresponsible potentates, appeared to them necessarily opposed to the +Divine order. As they could not imagine, nor value if they had +imagined, a communion of the saints without its expression in a +visible Church, so in matters temporal they recognized no brotherhood +of spirit without the bonds of form, no universal humanity save in the +image of a universal State[113]. In this, as in so much else, the men +of the Middle Ages were the slaves of the letter, unable, with all +their aspirations, to rise out of the concrete, and prevented by the +very grandeur and boldness of their conceptions from carrying them out +in practice against the enormous obstacles that met them. + +[Sidenote: The ideal state supposed to be embodied in the Roman +Empire.] + +[Sidenote: Constantine's Donation.] + +Deep as this belief had struck its roots, it might never have risen to +maturity nor sensibly affected the progress of events, had it not +gained in the pre-existence of the monarchy of Rome a definite shape +and a definite purpose. It was chiefly by means of the Papacy that +this came to pass. When under Constantine the Christian Church was +framing her organization on the model of the state which protected +her, the bishop of the metropolis perceived and improved the analogy +between himself and the head of the civil government. The notion that +the chair of Peter was the imperial throne of the Church had dawned +upon the Popes very early in their history, and grew stronger every +century under the operation of causes already specified. Even before +the Empire of the West had fallen, St. Leo the Great could boast that +to Rome, exalted by the preaching of the chief of the Apostles to be a +holy nation, a chosen people, a priestly and royal city, there had +been appointed a spiritual dominion wider than her earthly sway[114]. +In A.D. 476 Rome ceased to be the political capital of the Western +countries, and the Papacy, inheriting no small part of the Emperor's +power, drew to herself the reverence which the name of the city still +commanded, until by the middle of the eighth, or, at latest, of the +ninth century she had perfected in theory a scheme which made her the +exact counterpart of the departed despotism, the centre of the +hierarchy, absolute mistress of the Christian world. The character of +that scheme is best set forth in the singular document, most +stupendous of all the mediaeval forgeries, which under the name of the +Donation of Constantine commanded for seven centuries the +unquestioning belief of mankind[115]. Itself a portentous falsehood, +it is the most unimpeachable evidence of the thoughts and beliefs of +the priesthood which framed it, some time between the middle of the +eighth and the middle of the tenth century. It tells how Constantine +the Great, cured of his leprosy by the prayers of Sylvester, resolved, +on the fourth day from his baptism, to forsake the ancient seat for a +new capital on the Bosphorus, lest the continuance of the secular +government should cramp the freedom of the spiritual, and how he +bestowed therewith upon the Pope and his successors the sovereignty +over Italy and the countries of the West. But this is not all, +although this is what historians, in admiration of its splendid +audacity, have chiefly dwelt upon. The edict proceeds to grant to the +Roman pontiff and his clergy a series of dignities and privileges, all +of them enjoyed by the Emperor and his senate, all of them shewing the +same desire to make the pontifical a copy of the imperial office. The +Pope is to inhabit the Lateran palace, to wear the diadem, the collar, +the purple cloak, to carry the sceptre, and to be attended by a body +of chamberlains. Similarly his clergy are to ride on white horses and +receive the honours and immunities of the senate and patricians[116]. + +[Sidenote: Interdependence of Papacy and Empire.] + +The notion which prevails throughout, that the chief of the religious +society must be in every point conformed to his prototype the chief of +the civil, is the key to all the thoughts and acts of the Roman +clergy; not less plainly seen in the details of papal ceremonial than +it is in the gigantic scheme of papal legislation. The Canon law was +intended by its authors to reproduce and rival the imperial +jurisprudence; a correspondence was traced between its divisions and +those of the Corpus Juris Civilis, and Gregory IX, who was the first +to consolidate it into a code, sought the fame and received the title +of the Justinian of the Church. But the wish of the clergy was always, +even in the weakness or hostility of the temporal power, to imitate +and rival, not to supersede it; since they held it the necessary +complement of their own, and thought the Christian people equally +imperilled by the fall of either. Hence the reluctance of Gregory II +to break with the Byzantine princes[117], and the maintenance of their +titular sovereignty till A.D. 800: hence the part which the Holy See +played in transferring the crown to Charles, the first sovereign of +the West capable of fulfilling its duties; hence the grief with which +its weakness under his successors was seen, the gladness when it +descended to Otto as representative of the Frankish kingdom. + +[Sidenote: The Roman Empire revived in a new character.] + +Up to the era of A.D. 800 there had been at Constantinople a +legitimate historical prolongation of the Roman Empire. Technically, +as we have seen, the election of Charles, after the deposition of +Constantine VI, was itself a prolongation, and maintained the old +rights and forms in their integrity. But the Pope, though he knew it +not, did far more than effect a change of dynasty when he rejected +Irene and crowned the barbarian chief. Restorations are always +delusive. As well might one hope to stop the earth's course in her +orbit as to arrest that ceaseless change and movement in human affairs +which forbids an old institution, suddenly transplanted into a new +order of things, from filling its ancient place and serving its former +ends. The dictatorship at Rome in the second Punic war was not more +unlike the dictatorships of Sulla and Caesar, nor the States-general of +Louis XIII to the assembly which his unhappy descendant convoked in +1789, than was the imperial office of Theodosius to that of Charles +the Frank; and the seal, ascribed to A.D. 800, which bears the legend +'Renovatio Romani Imperii[118],' expresses, more justly perhaps than +was intended by its author, a second birth of the Roman Empire. + +It is not, however, from Carolingian times that a proper view of this +new creation can be formed. That period was one of transition, of +fluctuation and uncertainty, in which the office, passing from one +dynasty and country to another, had not time to acquire a settled +character and claims, and was without the power that would have +enabled it to support them. From the coronation of Otto the Great a +new period begins, in which the ideas that have been described as +floating in men's minds took clearer shape, and attached to the +imperial title a body of definite rights and definite duties. It is +this new phase, the Holy Empire, that we have now to consider. + +[Sidenote: Position and functions of the Emperor.] + +[Sidenote: Correspondence and harmony of the spiritual and temporal +powers.] + +The realistic philosophy, and the needs of a time when the only notion +of civil or religious order was submission to authority, required the +World-State to be a monarchy; tradition, as well as the continuance of +certain institutions, gave the monarch the name of Roman Emperor. A +king could not be universal sovereign, for there were many kings: the +Emperor must be, for there had never been but one Emperor; he had in +older and brighter days been the actual lord of the civilized world; +the seat of his power was placed beside that of the spiritual autocrat +of Christendom[119]. His functions will be seen most clearly if we +deduce them from the leading principle of mediaeval mythology, the +exact correspondence of earth and heaven. As God, in the midst of the +celestial hierarchy, ruled blessed spirits in paradise, so the Pope, +His Vicar, raised above priests, bishops, metropolitans, reigned over +the souls of mortal men below. But as God is Lord of earth as well as +of heaven, so must he (the _Imperator coelestis_[t]) be represented by +a second earthly viceroy, the Emperor (_Imperator terrenus_[120]), +whose authority shall be of and for this present life. And as in this +present world the soul cannot act save through the body, while yet the +body is no more than an instrument and means for the soul's +manifestation, so must there be a rule and care of men's bodies as +well as of their souls, yet subordinated always to the well-being of +that which is the purer and the more enduring. It is under the emblem +of soul and body that the relation of the papal and imperial power is +presented to us throughout the Middle Ages[121]. The Pope, as God's +vicar in matters spiritual, is to lead men to eternal life; the +Emperor, as vicar in matters temporal, must so control them in their +dealings with one another that they may be able to pursue undisturbed +the spiritual life, and thereby attain the same supreme and common end +of everlasting happiness. In the view of this object his chief duty is +to maintain peace in the world, while towards the Church his position +is that of Advocate, a title borrowed from the practice adopted by +churches and monasteries of choosing some powerful baron to protect +their lands and lead their tenants in war[122]. The functions of +Advocacy are twofold: at home to make the Christian people obedient to +the priesthood, and to execute their decrees upon heretics and +sinners; abroad to propagate the faith among the heathen, not sparing +to use carnal weapons[123]. Thus does the Emperor answer in every +point to his antitype the Pope, his power being yet of a lower rank, +created on the analogy of the papal, as the papal itself had been +modelled after the elder Empire. The parallel holds good even in its +details; for just as we have seen the churchman assuming the crown and +robes of the secular prince, so now did he array the Emperor in his +own ecclesiastical vestments, the stole and the dalmatic, gave him a +clerical as well as a sacred character, removed his office from all +narrowing associations of birth or country, inaugurated him by rites +every one of which was meant to symbolize and enjoin duties in their +essence religious. Thus the Holy Roman Church and the Holy Roman +Empire are one and the same thing, in two aspects; and Catholicism, +the principle of the universal Christian society, is also Romanism; +that is, rests upon Rome as the origin and type of its universality; +manifesting itself in a mystic dualism which corresponds to the two +natures of its Founder. As divine and eternal, its head is the Pope, +to whom souls have been entrusted; as human and temporal, the Emperor, +commissioned to rule men's bodies and acts. + +[Sidenote: Union of Church and State.] + +In nature and compass the government of these two potentates is the +same, differing only in the sphere of its working; and it matters not +whether we call the Pope a spiritual Emperor or the Emperor a secular +Pope. Nor, though the one office is below the other as far as man's +life on earth is less precious than his life hereafter, is therefore, +on the older and truer theory, the imperial authority delegated by the +papal. For, as has been said already, God is represented by the Pope +not in every capacity, but only as the ruler of spirits in heaven: as +sovereign of earth, He issues His commission directly to the Emperor. +Opposition between two servants of the same King is inconceivable, +each being bound to aid and foster the other: the co-operation of both +being needed in all that concerns the welfare of Christendom at large. +This is the one perfect and self-consistent scheme of the union of +Church and State; for, taking the absolute coincidence of their limits +to be self-evident, it assumes the infallibility of their joint +government, and derives, as a corollary from that infallibility, the +duty of the civil magistrate to root out heresy and schism no less +than to punish treason and rebellion. It is also the scheme which, +granting the possibility of their harmonious action, places the two +powers in that relation which gives each of them its maximum of +strength. But by a law to which it would be hard to find exceptions, +in proportion as the State became more Christian, the Church, who to +work out her purposes had assumed worldly forms, became by the contact +worldlier, meaner, spiritually weaker; and the system which +Constantine founded amid such rejoicings, which culminated so +triumphantly in the Empire Church of the Middle Ages, has in each +succeeding generation been slowly losing ground, has seen its +brightness dimmed and its completeness marred, and sees now those who +are most zealous on behalf of its surviving institutions feebly defend +or silently desert the principle upon which all must rest. + +The complete accord of the papal and imperial powers which this +theory, as sublime as it is impracticable, requires, was attained only +at a few points in their history[124]. It was finally supplanted by +another view of their relation, which, professing to be a development +of a principle recognized as fundamental, the superior importance of +the religious life, found increasing favour in the eyes of fervent +churchmen[125]. Declaring the Pope sole representative on earth of the +Deity, it concluded that from him, and not directly from God, must the +Empire be held--held feudally, it was said by many--and it thereby +thrust down the temporal power, to be the slave instead of the sister +of the spiritual[126]. Nevertheless, the Papacy in her meridian, and +under the guidance of her greatest minds, of Hildebrand, of Alexander, +of Innocent, not seeking to abolish or absorb the civil government, +required only its obedience, and exalted its dignity against all save +herself[127]. It was reserved for Boniface VIII, whose extravagant +pretensions betrayed the decay that was already at work within, to +show himself to the crowding pilgrims at the jubilee of A.D. 1300, +seated on the throne of Constantine, arrayed with sword, and crown, +and sceptre, shouting aloud, 'I am Caesar--I am Emperor[128].' + +[Sidenote: Proofs from mediaeval documents.] + +The theory of an Emperor's place and functions thus sketched cannot be +definitely assigned to any point of time; for it was growing and +changing from the fifth century to the fifteenth. Nor need it surprise +us that we do not find in any one author a statement of the grounds +whereon it rested, since much of what seems strangest to us was then +too obvious to be formally explained. No one, however, who examines +mediaeval writings can fail to perceive, sometimes from direct words, +oftener from allusions or assumptions, that such ideas as these are +present to the minds of the authors[129]. That which it is easiest to +prove is the connection of the Empire with religion. From every +record, from chronicles and treatises, proclamations, laws, and +sermons, passages may be adduced wherein the defence and spread of the +faith, and the maintenance of concord among the Christian people, are +represented as the function to which the Empire has been set apart. +The belief expressed by Lewis II, 'Imperii dignitas non in vocabuli +voce sed in gloriosae pietatis culmine consistit[130],' appears again +in the address of the Archbishop of Mentz to Conrad II[131], as Vicar +of God; is reiterated by Frederick I[132], when he writes to the +prelates of Germany, 'On earth God has placed no more than two powers, +and as there is in heaven but one God, so is there here one Pope and +one Emperor. Divine providence has specially appointed the Roman +Empire to prevent the continuance of schism in the Church[133];' is +echoed by jurists and divines down to the days of Charles V[134]. It +was a doctrine which we shall find the friends and foes of the Holy +See equally concerned to insist on, the one to make the transference +(_translatio_) from the Greeks to the Germans appear entirely the +Pope's work, and so establish his right of overseeing or cancelling +his rival's election, the others by setting the Emperor at the head of +the Church to reduce the Pope to the place of chief bishop of his +realm[135]. His headship was dwelt upon chiefly in the two duties +already noticed. As the counterpart of the Mussulman Commander of the +Faithful, he was leader of the Church militant against her infidel +foes, was in this capacity summoned to conduct crusades, and in later +times recognized chief of the confederacies against the conquering +Ottomans. As representative of the whole Christian people, it belonged +to him to convoke General Councils, a right not without importance +even when exercised concurrently with the Pope, but far more weighty +when the object of the council was to settle a disputed election, or, +as at Constance, to depose the reigning pontiff himself. + +[Sidenote: The Coronation ceremonies.] + +No better illustrations can be desired than those to be found in the +office for the imperial coronation at Rome, too long to be transcribed +here, but well worthy of an attentive study[136]. The rites prescribed +in it are rights of consecration to a religious office: the Emperor, +besides the sword, globe, and sceptre of temporal power, receives a +ring as the symbol of his faith, is ordained a subdeacon, assists the +Pope in celebrating mass, partakes as a clerical person of the +communion in both kinds, is admitted a canon of St. Peter and St. John +Lateran. The oath to be taken by an elector begins, 'Ego N. volo regem +Romanorum in Caesarem promovendum, temporale caput populo Christiano +eligere.' The Emperor swears to cherish and defend the Holy Roman +Church and her bishop: the Pope prays after the reading of the Gospel, +'Deus qui ad praedicandum aeterni regni evangelium Imperium Romanum +praeparasti, praetende famulo tuo Imperatori nostro arma coelestia.' +Among the Emperor's official titles there occur these: 'Head of +Christendom,' 'Defender and Advocate of the Christian Church,' +'Temporal Head of the Faithful,' 'Protector of Palestine and of the +Catholic Faith[137].' + +[Sidenote: The rights of the Empire proved from the Bible.] + +Very singular are the reasonings used by which the necessity and +divine right of the Empire are proved out of the Bible. The mediaeval +theory of the relation of the civil power to the priestly was +profoundly influenced by the account in the Old Testament of the +Jewish theocracy, in which the king, though the institution of his +office was a derogation from the purity of the older system, appears +divinely chosen and commissioned, and stood in a peculiarly intimate +relation to the national religion. From the New Testament the +authority and eternity of Rome herself was established. Every passage +was seized on where submission to the powers that be is enjoined, +every instance cited where obedience had actually been rendered to +imperial officials, a special emphasis being laid on the sanction +which Christ Himself had given to Roman dominion by pacifying the +world through Augustus, by being born at the time of the taxing, by +paying tribute to Caesar, by saying to Pilate, 'Thou couldest have no +power at all against Me except it were given thee from above.' + +More attractive to the mystical spirit than these direct arguments +were those drawn from prophecy, or based on the allegorical +interpretation of Scripture. Very early in Christian history had the +belief formed itself that the Roman Empire--as the fourth beast of +Daniel's vision, as the iron legs and feet of Nebuchadnezzar's +image--was to be the world's last and universal kingdom. From Origen +and Jerome downwards it found unquestioned acceptance[138], and that +not unnaturally. For no new power had arisen to extinguish the Roman, +as the Persian monarchy had been blotted out by Alexander, as the +realms of his successors had fallen before the conquering republic +herself. Every Northern conqueror, Goth, Lombard, Burgundian, had +cherished her memory and preserved her laws; Germany had adopted even +the name of the Empire 'dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, +and diverse from all that were before it.' To these predictions, and +to many others from the Apocalypse, were added those which in the +Gospels and Epistles foretold the advent of Antichrist[139]. He was to +succeed the Roman dominion, and the Popes are more than once warned +that by weakening the Empire they are hastening the coming of the +enemy and the end of the world[140]. It is not only when groping in +the dark labyrinths of prophecy that mediaeval authors are quick in +detecting emblems, imaginative in explaining them. Men were wont in +those days to interpret Scripture in a singular fashion. Not only did +it not occur to them to ask what meaning words had to those to whom +they were originally addressed; they were quite as careless whether +the sense they discovered was one which the language used would +naturally and rationally bear to any reader at any time. No analogy +was too faint, no allegory too fanciful, to be drawn out of a simple +text; and, once propounded, the interpretation acquired in argument +all the authority of the text itself. Thus the two swords of which +Christ said, 'It is enough,' became the spiritual and temporal powers, +and the grant of the spiritual to Peter involves the supremacy of the +Papacy[141]. Thus one writer proves the eternity of Rome from the +seventy-second Psalm, 'They shall fear thee as long as the sun and +moon endure, throughout all generations;' the moon being of course, +since Gregory VII, the Roman Empire, as the sun, or greater light, is +the Popedom. Another quoting, 'Qui tenet teneat donec auferatur[142],' +with Augustine's explanation thereof[143], says, that when 'he who +letteth' is removed, tribes and provinces will rise in rebellion, and +the Empire to which God has committed the government of the human race +will be dissolved. From the miseries of his own time (he wrote under +Frederick III) he predicts that the end is near. The same spirit of +symbolism seized on the number of the electors: 'the seven lamps +burning in the unity of the sevenfold spirit which illumine the Holy +Empire[144].' Strange legends told how Romans and Germans were of one +lineage; how Peter's staff had been found on the banks of the Rhine, +the miracle signifying that a commission was issued to the Germans to +reclaim wandering sheep to the one fold. So complete does the +scriptural proof appear in the hands of mediaeval churchmen, many +holding it a mortal sin to resist the power ordained of God, that we +forget they were all the while only adapting to an existing +institution what they found written already; we begin to fancy that +the Empire was maintained, obeyed, exalted for centuries, on the +strength of words to which we attach in almost every case a wholly +different meaning. + +[Sidenote: Illustrations from Mediaeval Art.] + +It would be a task both pleasant and profitable to pass on from the +theologians to the poets and artists of the Middle Ages, and endeavour +to trace through their works the influence of the ideas which have +been expounded above. But it is one far too wide for the scope of the +present treatise; and one which would demand an acquaintance with +those works themselves such as only minute and long-continued study +could give. For even a slight knowledge enables any one to see how +much still remains to be interpreted in the imaginative literature and +in the paintings of those times, and how apt we are in glancing over a +piece of work to miss those seemingly trifling indications of the +artist's thought or belief which are all the more precious that they +are indirect or unconscious. Therefore a history of mediaeval art which +shall evolve its philosophy from its concrete forms, if it is to have +any value at all, must be minute in description as well as subtle in +method. But lest this class of illustrations should appear to have +been wholly forgotten, it may be well to mention here two paintings in +which the theory of the mediaeval empire is unmistakeably set forth. +One of them is in Rome, the other in Florence; every traveller in +Italy may examine both for himself. + +[Sidenote: Mosaic of the Lateran Palace at Rome.] + +The first of these is the famous mosaic of the Lateran triclinium, +constructed by Pope Leo III about A.D. 800, and an exact copy of +which, made by the order of Sextus V, may still be seen over against +the facade of St. John Lateran. Originally meant to adorn the state +banqueting-hall of the Popes, it is now placed in the open air, in the +finest situation in Rome, looking from the brow of a hill across the +green ridges of the Campagna to the olive-groves of Tivoli and the +glistering crags and snow-capped summits of the Umbrian and Sabine +Apennine. It represents in the centre Christ surrounded by the +Apostles, whom He is sending forth to preach the Gospel; one hand is +extended to bless, the other holds a book with the words 'Pax Vobis.' +Below and to the right Christ is depicted again, and this time +sitting: on his right hand kneels Pope Sylvester, on his left the +Emperor Constantine; to the one he gives the keys of heaven and hell, +to the other a banner surmounted by a cross. In the group on the +opposite, that is, on the left side of the arch, we see the Apostle +Peter seated, before whom in like manner kneel Pope Leo III and +Charles the Emperor; the latter wearing, like Constantine, his crown. +Peter, himself grasping the keys, gives to Leo the pallium of an +archbishop, to Charles the banner of the Christian army. The +inscription is, 'Beatus Petrus dona vitam Leoni PP et bictoriam Carulo +regi dona;' while round the arch is written, 'Gloria in excelsis Deo, +et in terra pax omnibus bonae voluntatis.' + +The order and nature of the ideas here symbolized is sufficiently +clear. First comes the revelation of the Gospel, and the divine +commission to gather all men into its fold. Next, the institution, at +the memorable era of Constantine's conversion, of the two powers by +which the Christian people is to be respectively taught and governed. +Thirdly, we are shewn the permanent Vicar of God, the Apostle who +keeps the keys of heaven and hell, re-establishing these same powers +on a new and firmer basis[145]. The badge of ecclesiastical supremacy +he gives to Leo as the spiritual head of the faithful on earth, the +banner of the Church Militant to Charles, who is to maintain her cause +against heretics and infidels. + +[Sidenote: Fresco in S. Maria Novella at Florence.] + +The second painting is of greatly later date. It is a fresco in the +chapter-house of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria Novella[146] at +Florence, usually known as the Capellone degli Spagnuoli. It has been +commonly ascribed, on Vasari's authority, to Simone Martini of Siena, +but an examination of the dates of his life seems to discredit this +view[147]. Most probably it was executed between A.D. 1340 and 1350. +It is a huge work, covering one whole wall of the chapter-house, and +filled with figures, some of which, but seemingly on no sufficient +authority, have been taken to represent eminent persons of the +time--Cimabue, Arnolfo, Boccaccio, Petrarch, Laura, and others. In it +is represented the whole scheme of man's life here and hereafter--the +Church on earth and the Church in heaven. Full in front are seated +side by side the Pope and the Emperor: on their right and left, in a +descending row, minor spiritual and temporal officials; next to the +Pope a cardinal, bishops, and doctors; next to the Emperor, the king +of France and a line of nobles and knights. Behind them appears the +Duomo of Florence as an emblem of the Visible Church, while at their +feet is a flock of sheep (the faithful) attacked by ravening wolves +(heretics and schismatics), whom a pack of spotted dogs (the +Dominicans[148]) combat and chase away. From this, the central +foreground of the picture, a path winds round and up a height to a +great gate where the Apostle sits on guard to admit true believers: +they passing through it are met by choirs of seraphs, who lead them on +through the delicious groves of Paradise. Above all, at the top of the +painting and just over the spot where his two lieutenants, Pope and +Emperor, are placed below, is the Saviour enthroned amid saints and +angels[149]. + +[Sidenote: Anti-national character of the Empire.] + +Here, too, there needs no comment. The Church Militant is the perfect +counterpart of the Church Triumphant: her chief danger is from those +who would rend the unity of her visible body, the seamless garment of +her heavenly Lord; and that devotion to His person which is the sum of +her faith and the essence of her being, must on earth be rendered to +those two lieutenants whom He has chosen to govern in His name. + +A theory, such as that which it has been attempted to explain and +illustrate, is utterly opposed to restrictions of place or person. The +idea of one Christian people, all whose members are equal in the sight +of God,--an idea so forcibly expressed in the unity of the priesthood, +where no barrier separated the successor of the Apostle from the +humblest curate,--and in the prevalence of one language for worship +and government, made the post of Emperor independent of the race, or +rank, or actual resources of its occupant. The Emperor was entitled to +the obedience of Christendom, not as hereditary chief of a victorious +tribe, or feudal lord of a portion of the earth's surface, but as +solemnly invested with an office. Not only did he excel in dignity the +kings of the earth: his power was different in its nature; and, so far +from supplanting or rivalling theirs, rose above them to become the +source and needful condition of their authority in their several +territories, the bond which joined them in one harmonious body. The +vast dominions and vigorous personal action of Charles the Great had +concealed this distinction while he reigned; under his successors the +imperial crown appeared disconnected from the direct government of the +kingdoms they had established, existing only in the form of an +undefined suzerainty, as the type of that unity without which men's +minds could not rest. It was characteristic of the Middle Ages, that +demanding the existence of an Emperor, they were careless who he was +or how he was chosen, so he had been duly inaugurated; and that they +were not shocked by the contrast between unbounded rights and actual +helplessness. At no time in the world's history has theory, pretending +all the while to control practice, been so utterly divorced from it. +Ferocious and sensual, that age worshipped humility and asceticism: +there has never been a purer ideal of love, nor a grosser profligacy +of life. + +The power of the Roman Emperor cannot as yet be called international; +though this, as we shall see, became in later times its most important +aspect; for in the tenth century national distinctions had scarcely +begun to exist. But its genius was clerical and old Roman, in nowise +territorial or Teutonic: it rested not on armed hosts or wide lands, +but upon the duty, the awe, the love of its subjects. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[102] I do not mean to say that the system of ideas which it is +endeavoured to set forth in the following pages was complete in this +particular form, either in the days of Charles or in those of Otto, or +in those of Frederick Barbarossa. It seems to have been constantly +growing and decaying from the fourth century to the sixteenth, the +relative prominence of its cardinal doctrines varying from age to age. +But, just as the painter who sees the ever-shifting lights and shades +play over the face of a wide landscape faster than his brush can place +them on the canvas, in despair at representing their exact position at +any single moment, contents himself with painting the effects that are +broadest and most permanent, and at giving rather the impression which +the scene makes on him than every detail of the scene itself, so here, +the best and indeed the only practicable course seems to be that of +setting forth in its most self-consistent form the body of ideas and +beliefs on which the Empire rested, although this form may not be +exactly that which they can be asserted to have worn in any one +century, and although the illustrations adduced may have to be taken +sometimes from earlier, sometimes from later writers. As the doctrine +of the Empire was in its essence the same during the whole Middle Age, +such a general description as is attempted here may, I venture to +hope, be found substantially true for the tenth as well as for the +fourteenth century. + +[103] Empires like the Persian did nothing to assimilate the subject +races, who retained their own laws and customs, sometimes their own +princes, and were bound only to serve in the armies and fill the +treasury of the Great King. + +[104] Od. iii. 72:-- + + [Greek: ... e mapsidios alalesthe, + hoia te leisteres, hypeir hala, toit' aloontai + psychas parthemenoi, kakon allodapoisi pherontes?] + +Cf. Od. ix. 39: and the Hymn to the Pythian Apollo, I. 274. So in II. +v. 214, [Greek: allotrios phos]. + +[105] Plato, in the beginning of the Laws, represents it as natural +between all states: [Greek: polemos physei hyparchei pros hapasas tas +poleis]. + +[106] See especially Acts xvii. 26; Gal. iii. 28; Eph. ii. 11, sqq.; +iv. 3-6; Col. iii. 11. + +[107] This is drawn out by Laurent, _Histoire du Droit des Gens_; and +AEgidi, _Der Fuerstenrath nach dem Luneviller Frieden_. + +[108] 'Romanos enim vocitant homines nostrae religionis.'--Gregory of +Tours, quoted by AEgidi, from A. F. Pott, _Essay on the Words 'Roemisch,' +'Romanisch,' 'Roman,' 'Romantisch.'_ So in the Middle Ages, [Greek: +Rhomaioi] is used to mean Christians, as opposed to [Greek: Hellenes], +heathens. + +Cf. Ducange, 'Romani olim dicti qui alias Christiani vel etiam +Catholici.' + +[109] As a reviewer in the _Tablet_ (whose courtesy it is the more +pleasant to acknowledge since his point of view is altogether opposed +to mine) has understood this passage as meaning that 'people imagined +the Christian religion was to last for ever because the Holy Roman +Empire was never to decay,' it may be worth while to say that this is +far from being the purport of the argument which this chapter was +designed to state. The converse would be nearer the truth:--'people +imagined the Holy Roman Empire was never to decay, because the +Christian religion was to last for ever.' + +The phenomen may perhaps be stated thus:--Men who were already +disposed to believe the Roman Empire to be eternal for one set of +reasons, came to believe the Christian Church to be eternal for +another and, to them, more impressive set of reasons. Seeing the two +institutions allied in fact, they took their alliance and connection +to be eternal also; and went on for centuries believing in the +necessary existence of the Roman Empire because they believed in its +necessary union with the Catholic Church. + +[110] Augustine, in the _De Civitate Dei_. His influence, great +through all the Middle Ages, was greater on no one than on +Charles.--'Delectabatur et libris sancti Augustini, praecipueque his +qui De Civitate Dei praetitulati sunt.'--Eginhard, _Vita Karoli_, cap. +24. + +[111] 'Quapropter universorum precibus fidelium optandum est, ut in +omnem gloriam vestram extendatur imperium, ut scilicet catholica fides +... veraciter in una confessione cunctorum cordibus infigatur, +quatenus summi Regis donante pietate eadem sanctae pacis et perfectae +caritatis omnes ubique regat et custodiat unitas.' Quoted by Waitz +(_Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte_, ii. 182) from an unprinted letter +of Alcuin. + +[112] A curious illustration of this tendency of mind is afforded by +the descriptions we meet with of Learning or Theology (_Studium_) as a +concrete existence, having a visible dwelling in the University of +Paris. The three great powers which rule human life, says one writer, +the Popedom, the Empire, and Learning, have been severally entrusted +to the three foremost nations of Europe: Italians, Germans, French. +'His siquidem tribus, scilicet sacerdotio imperio et studio, tanquam +tribus virtutibus, videlicet naturali vitali et scientiali, catholica +ecclesia spiritualiter mirificatur, augmentatur et regitur. His itaque +tribus, tanquam fundamento, pariete et tecto, eadem ecclesia tanquam +materialiter proficit. Et sicut ecclesia materialis uno tantum +fundamento et uno tecto eget, parietibus vero quatuor, ita imperium +quatuor habet parietes, hoc est, quatuor imperii sedes, Aquisgranum, +Arelatum, Mediolanum, Romam.'--_Jordanis Chronica_; _ap._ Schardius +_Sylloge Tractatuum_. And see Doellinger, _Die Vergangenheit und +Gegenwart der katholischen Theologie_, p. 8. + +[113] 'Una est sola respublica totius populi Christiani, ergo de +necessitate erit et unus solus princeps et rex illius reipublicae, +statutus et stabilitus ad ipsius fidei et populi Christiani +dilatationem et defensionem. Ex qua ratione concludit etiam Augustinus +(_De Civitate Dei_, lib. xix.) quod extra ecclesiam nunquam fuit nec +potuit nec poterit esse verum imperium, etsi fuerint imperatores +qualitercumque et secundum quid, non simpliciter, qui fuerunt extra +fidem Catholicam et ecclesiam.'--Engelbert (abbot of Admont in Upper +Austria), _De Ortu et Fine imperii Romani_ (circ. 1310). + +In this 'de necessitate' everything is included. + +[114] See note 37. + +[115] This is admirably brought out by AEgidi, _Der Fuerstenrath nach +dem Luneviller Frieden_. + +[116] See the original forgery (or rather the extracts which Gratian +gives from it) in the _Corpus Iuris Canonici_, _Dist._ xcvi. cc. 13, +14. 'Et sicut nostram terrenam imperialem potentiam, sic sacrosanctam +Romanam ecclesiam decrevimus veneranter honorari, et amplius quam +nostrum imperium et terrenum thronum sedem beati Petri gloriose +exaltari, tribuentes ei potestatem et gloriae dignitatem atque vigorem +et honorificentiam imperialem.... Beato Sylvestro patri nostro summo +pontifici et universali urbis Romae papae, et omnibus eius successoribus +pontificibus, qui usque in finem mundi in sede beati Petri erunt +sessuri, de praesenti contradimus palatium imperii nostri Lateranense, +deinde diadema, videlicet coronam capitis nostri, simulque phrygium, +necnon et superhumerale, verum etiam et chlamydem purpuream et tunicam +coccineam, et omnia imperialia indumenta, sed et dignitatem imperialem +praesidentium equitum, conferentes etiam et imperialia sceptra, +simulque cuncta signa atque banda et diversa ornamenta imperialia et +omnem processionem imperialis culminis et gloriam potestatis +nostrae.... Et sicut imperialis militia ornatur ita et clerum sanctae +Romanae ecclesiae ornari decernimus.... Unde ut pontificalis apex non +vilescat sed magis quam terreni imperii dignitas gloria et potentia +decoretur, ecce tam palatium nostrum quam Romanam urbem et omnes +Italiae seu occidentalium regionum provincias loca et civitates +beatissimo papae Sylvestro universali papae contradimus atque +relinquimus.... Ubi enim principatus sacerdotum et Christianae +religionis caput ab imperatore coelesti constitutum est, iustum non est +ut illic imperator terrenus habeat potestatem.' + +The practice of kissing the Pope's foot was adopted in imitation of +the old imperial court. It was afterwards revived by the German +Emperors. + +[117] Doellinger has shewn in a recent work (_Die Papst-Fabeln des +Mittelalters_) that the common belief that Gregory II excited the +revolt against Leo the Iconoclast is unfounded. + +So Anastasius, 'Ammonebat (_sc._ Gregorius Secundus) ne a fide vel +amore Romani imperii desisterent.'--_Vitae Pontif. Rom._ + +[118] Of this curious seal, a leaden one, preserved at Paris, a figure +is given upon the cover of this volume. There are very few monuments +of that age whose genuineness can be considered altogether beyond +doubt; but this seal has many respectable authorities in its favour. +See, among others, Le Blanc, _Dissertation historique sur quelques +Monnoies de Charlemagne_, Paris, 1689; J. M. Heineccius, _De Veteribus +Germanorum aliarumque nationum sigillis_, Lips. 1709; Anastasius, +_Vitae Pontificum Romanorum_, ed. Vignoli, Romae, 1752; Goetz, +_Deutschlands Kayser-Muenzen des Mittelalters_, Dresden, 1827; and the +authorities cited by Waitz, _Deutsche Verfassungs-geschichte_, iii. +179, n. 4. + +[119] 'Praeterea mirari se dilecta fraternitas tua quod non Francorum +set Romanorum imperatores nos appellemus; set scire te convenit quia +nisi Romanorum imperatores essemus, utique nec Francorum. A Romanis +enim hoc nomen et dignitatem assumpsimus, apud quos profecto primum +tantae culmen sublimitatis effulsit,' &c--_Letter of the Emperor Lewis +II to Basil the Emperor at Constantinople_, from _Chron. Salernit. +ap._ Murat. _S. R. I._ + +[120] 'Illam (_sc._ Romanam ecclesiam) solus ille fundavit, et super +petram fidei mox nascentis erexit, qui beato aeternae vitae clavigero +terreni simul et coelestis imperii iura commisit.'--_Corpus Iuris +Canonici_, _Dist._ xxii. c. 1. The expression is not uncommon in +mediaeval writers. So 'unum est imperium Patris et Filii et Spiritus +Sancti, cuius est pars ecclesia constituta in terris,' in Lewis II's +letter. + +[121] 'Merito summus Pontifex Romanus episcopus dici potest rex et +sacerdos. Si enim dominus noster Iesus Christus sic appellatur, non +videtur incongruum suum vocare successorem. Corporale et temporale ex +spirituali et perpetuo dependet, sicut corporis operatio ex virtute +animae. Sicut ergo corpus per animam habet esse virtutem et +operationem, ita et temporalis iurisdictio principum per spiritualem +Petri et successorum eius.'--St. Thomas Aquinas, _De Regimine +Principum_. + +[122] 'Nonne Romana ecclesia tenetur imperatori tanquam suo patrono, +et imperator ecclesiam fovere et defensare tanquam suus vere patronus? +certe sic.... Patronis vero concessum est ut praelatos in ecclesiis sui +patronatus eligant. Cum ergo imperator onus sentiat patronatus, ut qui +tenetur eam defendere, sentire debet honorem et emolumentum.' I quote +this from a curious document in Goldast's collection of tracts +(_Monarchia Imperii_), entitled '_Letter of the four Universities, +Paris, Oxford, Prague, and the "Romana generalitas," to the Emperor +Wenzel and Pope Urban_,' A.D. 1380. The title can scarcely be right, +but if the document is, as in all probability it is, not later than +the fifteenth century, its being misdescribed, or even its being a +forgery, does not make it less valuable as an evidence of men's ideas. + +[123] So Leo III in a charter issued on the day of Charles's +coronation: '... actum in praesentia gloriosi atque excellentissimi +filii nostri Caroli quem auctore Deo in defensionem et provectionem +sanctae universalis ecclesiae hodie Augustum sacravimus.'--Jaffe +_Regesta Pontificum Romanorum_, ad ann. 800. + +So, indeed, Theodulf of Orleans, a contemporary of Charles, ascribes +to the Emperor an almost papal authority over the Church itself:-- + + 'Coeli habet hic (_sc._ Papa) claves, proprias te iussit habere; + Tu regis ecclesiae, nam regit ille poli; + Tu regis eius opes, clerum populumque gubernas, + Hic te coelicolas ducet ad usque choros.' + In D. Bouquet, v. 415. + +[124] Perhaps at no more than three: in the time of Charles and Leo; +again under Otto III and his two Popes, Gregory V and Sylvester II; +thirdly, under Henry III; certainly never thenceforth. + +[125] _The Sachsenspiegel_ (_Speculum Saxonicum_, circ. A.D. 1240), +the great North-German law book, says, 'The Empire is held from God +alone, not from the Pope. Emperor and Pope are supreme each in what +has been entrusted to him: the Pope in what concerns the soul; the +Emperor in all that belongs to the body and to knighthood.' _The +Schwabenspiegel_, compiled half a century later, subordinates the +prince to the pontiff: 'Daz weltliche Schwert des Gerichtes daz lihet +der Babest dem Chaiser; daz geistlich ist dem Babest gesetzt daz er +damit richte.' + +[126] So Boniface VIII in the bull _Unam Sanctam_, will have but one +head for the Christian people. 'Igitur ecclesiae unius et unicae unum +corpus, unum caput, non duo capita quasi monstrum.' + +[127] St. Bernard writes to Conrad III: 'Non veniat anima mea in +consilium eorum qui dicunt vel imperio pacem et libertatem ecclesiae +vel ecclesiae prosperitatem et exaltationem imperii nocituram.' So in +the _De Consideratione_: 'Si utrumque simul habere velis, perdes +utrumque,' of the papal claim to temporal and spiritual authority, +quoted by Gieseler. + +[128] 'Sedens in solio armatus et cinctus ensem, habensque in capite +Constantini diadema, stricto dextra capulo ensis accincti, ait: +"Numquid ego summus sum pontifex? nonne ista est cathedra Petri? Nonne +possum imperii iura tutari? ego sum Caesar, ego sum imperator."'--Fr. +Pipinus (ap. Murat. _S. R. I._ ix.) l. iv. c. 47. These words, +however, are by this writer ascribed to Boniface, when receiving the +envoys of the emperor Albert I, in A.D. 1299. I have not been able to +find authority for their use at the jubilee, but give the current +story for what it is worth. + +It has been suggested that Dante may be alluding to this sword scene +in a well-known passage of the Purgatorio (xvi. l. 106):-- + + 'Soleva Roma, che 'l buon mondo feo + Duo Soli aver, che l' una e l' altra strada + Facean vedere, e del mondo e di Deo. + L' un l' altro ha spento, ed e giunta la spada + Col pastorale: e l' un coll altro insieme + Per viva forzu mal convien che vada.' + + +[129] See especially Peter de Andlo (_De Imperio Romano_); Ralph +Colonna (_De translatione Imperii Romani_); Dante (_De Monarchia_); +Engelbert (_De Ortu et Fine Imperii Romani_); Marsilius Patavinus (_De +translatione Imperii Romani_); AEneas Sylvius Piccolomini (_De Ortu et +Authoritate Imperii Romani_); Zoannetus (_De Imperio Romano atque ejus +Iurisdictione_); and the writers in Schardius's _Sylloge_, and in +Goldast's Collection of Tracts, entitled _Monarchia Imperii_. + +[130] Letter of Lewis II to Basil the Macedonian, in _Chron. +Salernit._ in Mur. _S. R. I._; also given by Baronius, _Ann. Eccl._ ad +ann. 871. + +[131] 'Ad summum dignitatis pervenisti: Vicarius es Christi.'--Wippo, +_Vita Chuonradi_ (_ap._ Pertz), c. 3. + +[132] Letter in Radewic, _ap._ Murat, _S. R. I._ + +[133] Lewis IV is styled in one of his proclamations, 'Gentis humanae, +orbis Christiani custos, urbi et orbi a Deo electus praeesse.'--Pfeffinger, +_Vitriarius Illustratus_. + +[134] In a document issued by the Diet of Speyer (A.D. 1529) the +Emperor is called 'Oberst, Vogt, und Haupt der Christenheit.' +Hieronymus Balbus, writing about the same time, puts the question +whether all Christians are subject to the Emperor in temporal things, +as they are to the Pope in spiritual, and answers it by saying, 'Cum +ambo ex eodem fonte perfluxerint et eadem semita incedant, de utroque +idem puto sentiendum.' + +[135] 'Non magis ad Papam depositio seu remotio pertinet quam ad +quoslibet regum praelatos, qui reges suos prout assolent, consecrant et +inungunt.'--_Letter of Frederick II_ (lib. i. c. 3). + +[136] _Liber Ceremonialis Romanus_, lib. i. sect. 5; with which +compare the _Coronatio Romana_ of Henry VII, in Pertz, and Muratori's +Dissertation in vol. i. of the _Antiquitates Italiae Medii AEvi_. + +[137] See Goldast, _Collection of Imperial Constitutions_; and Moser, +_Roemische Kayser_. + +[138] The abbot Engelbert (_De Ortu et Fine Imperii Romani_) quotes +Origen and Jerome to this effect, and proceeds himself to explain, +from 2 Thess. ii., how the falling away will precede the coming of +Antichrist. There will be a triple 'discessio,' of the kingdoms of the +earth from the Roman Empire, of the Church from the Apostolic See, of +the faithful from the faith. Of these, the first causes the second; +the temporal sword to punish heretics and schismatics being no longer +ready to work the will of the rulers of the Church. + +[139] A full statement of the views that prevailed in the earlier +Middle Age regarding Antichrist--as well as of the singular prophecy +of the Frankish Emperor who shall appear in the latter days, conquer +the world, and then going to Jerusalem shall lay down his crown on the +Mount of Olives and deliver over the kingdom to Christ--may be found +in the little treatise, _Vita Antichristi_, which Adso, monk and +afterwards abbot of Moutier-en-Der, compiled (cir. 950) for the +information of Queen Gerberga, wife of Louis d'Outremer. Antichrist is +to be born a Jew of the tribe of Dan (Gen. xlix. 17), 'non de episcopo +et monacha, sicut alii delirando dogmatizant, sed de immundissima +meretrice et crudelissimo nebulone. Totus in peccato concipietur, in +peccato generabitur, in peccato nascetur.' His birthplace is Babylon: +he is to be brought up in Bethsaida and Chorazin. + +Adso's book may be found printed in Migne, t. ci. p. 1290. + +[140] S. Thomas explains the prophecy in a remarkable manner, shewing +how the decline of the Empire is no argument against its fulfilment. +'Dicendum quod nondum cessavit, sed est commutatum de temporali in +spirituale, ut dicit Leo Papa in sermone de Apostolis: et ideo +discessio a Romano imperio debet intelligi non solum a temporali sed +etiam a spirituali, scilicit a fide Catholica Romanae Ecclesiae. Est +autem hoc conveniens signum nam Christus venit, quando Romanum +imperium omnibus dominabatur: ita e contra signum adventus Antichristi +est discessio ab eo.'--_Comment. ad 2 Thess._ ii. + +[141] See note 149, page 119. The Papal party sometimes insisted that +both swords were given to Peter, while the imperialists assigned the +temporal sword to John. Thus a gloss to the _Sachsenspiegel_ says, +'Dat eine svert hadde Sinte Peter, dat het nu de paves: dat andere +hadde Johannes, dat het nu de keyser.' + +[142] 2 Thess. ii. 7. + +[143] St. Augustine, however, though he states the view (applying the +passage to the Roman Empire) which was generally received in the +Middle Ages, is careful not to commit himself positively to it. + +[144] _Jordanis Chronica_ (written towards the close of the thirteenth +century). + +[145] Compare with this the words which Pope Hadrian I. had used some +twenty-three years before, of Charles as representative of +Constantine: 'Et sicut temporibus Beati Sylvestri, Romani pontificis, +a sanctae recordationis piissimo Constantino magno imperatore, per eius +largitatem sancta Dei catholica et apostolica Romana ecclesia elevata +atque exaltata est, et potestatem in his Hesperiae partibus largiri +dignatus est, ita et in his vestris felicissimis temporibus atque +nostris, sancta Dei ecclesia, id est, beati Petri apostoli germinet +atque exsultet, ut omnes gentes quae haec audierint edicere valeant, +'Domine salvum fac regem, et exaudi nos in die in qua invocaverimus +te;' quia ecce novus Christianissimus Dei Constantinus imperator his +temporibus surrexit, per quem omnia Deus sanctae suae ecclesiae beati +apostolorum principis Petri largiri dignatus est.'--_Letter XLIX of +Cod. Carol._, A.D. 777 (in Mur. _Scriptores Rerum Italicarum_). + +This letter is memorable as containing the first allusion, or what +seems an allusion, to Constantine's Donation. + +The phrase 'sancta Dei ecclesia, id est, B. Petri apostoli,' is worth +noting. + +[146] The church in which the opening scene of Boccaccio's _Decameron_ +is laid. + +[147] So Kugler (Eastlake's ed. vol. i. p. 144), and so also Messrs. +Crowe and Cavalcaselle, in their _New History of Painting in Italy_, +vol. ii. pp. 85 _sqq._ + +[148] Domini canes. Spotted because of their black-and-white raiment. + +[149] There is of course a great deal more detail in the picture, +which it does not appear necessary to describe. St. Dominic is a +conspicuous figure. + +It is worth remarking that the Emperor, who is on the Pope's left +hand, and so made slightly inferior to him while superior to every one +else, holds in his hand, instead of the usual imperial globe, a +death's head, typifying the transitory nature of his power. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE GERMAN KINGDOM. + + +[Sidenote: Union of the Roman Empire with the German kingdom.] + +This was the office which Otto the Great assumed in A.D. 962. But it +was not his only office. He was already a German king; and the new +dignity by no means superseded the old. This union in one person of +two characters, a union at first personal, then official, and which +became at last a fusion of the two into something different from +either, is the key to the whole subsequent history of Germany and the +Empire. + +[Sidenote: Germany and its monarchy.] + +Of the German kingdom little need be said, since it differs in no +essential respect from the other kingdoms of Western Europe as they +stood in the tenth century. The five or six great tribes or +tribe-leagues which composed the German nation had been first brought +together under the sceptre of the Carolingians; and, though still +retaining marks of their independent origin, were prevented from +separating by community of speech and a common pride in the great +Frankish Empire. When the line of Charles the Great ended in A.D. 911, +by the death of Lewis the Child (son of Arnulf), Conrad, duke of the +Franconians, and after him Henry (the Fowler), duke of the Saxons, was +chosen to fill the vacant throne. By his vigorous yet conciliatory +action, his upright character, his courage and good fortune in +repelling the Hungarians, Henry laid deep the foundations of royal +power: under his more famous son it rose into a stable edifice. Otto's +coronation feast at Aachen, where the great nobles of the realm did +him menial service, where Franks, Bavarians, Suabians, Thuringians, +and Lorrainers gathered round the Saxon monarch, is the inauguration +of a true Teutonic realm, which, though it called itself not German +but East Frankish, and claimed to be the lawful representative of the +Carolingian monarchy, had a constitution and a tendency in many +respects different. + +[Sidenote: Feudalism.] + +There had been under those princes a singular mixture of the old +German organization by tribes or districts (the so-called +Gauverfassung), such as we find in the earliest records, with the +method introduced by Charles of maintaining by means of officials, +some fixed, others moving from place to place, the control of the +central government. In the suspension of that government which +followed his days, there grew up a system whose seeds had been sown as +far back as the time of Clovis, a system whose essence was the +combination of the tenure of land by military service with a peculiar +personal relation between the landlord and his tenant, whereby the one +was bound to render fatherly protection, the other aid and obedience. +This is not the place for tracing the origin of feudality on Roman +soil, nor for shewing how, by a sort of contagion, it spread into +Germany, how it struck firm root in the period of comparative quiet +under Pipin and Charles, how from the hands of the latter it took the +impress which determined its ultimate form, how the weakness of his +successors allowed it to triumph everywhere. Still less would it be +possible here to examine its social and moral influence. Politically +it might be defined as the system which made the owner of a piece of +land, whether large or small, the sovereign of those who dwelt +thereon: an annexation of personal to territorial authority more +familiar to Eastern despotism than to the free races of primitive +Europe. On this principle were founded, and by it are explained, +feudal law and justice, feudal finance, feudal legislation, each +tenant holding towards his lord the position which his own tenants +held towards himself. And it is just because the relation was so +uniform, the principle so comprehensive, the ruling class so firmly +bound to its support, that feudalism has been able to lay upon society +that grasp which the struggles of more than twenty generations have +scarcely shaken off. + +[Sidenote: The feudal king.] + +[Sidenote: The nobility.] + +[Sidenote: The Germanic feudal polity generally.] + +Now by the middle of the tenth century, Germany, less fully committed +than France to feudalism's worst feature, the hopeless bondage of the +peasantry, was otherwise thoroughly feudalized. As for that equality +of all the freeborn save the sacred line which we find in the Germany +of Tacitus, there had been substituted a gradation of ranks and a +concentration of power in the hands of a landholding caste, so had the +monarch lost his ancient character as leader and judge of the people, +to become the head of a tyrannical oligarchy. He was titular lord of +the soil, could exact from his vassals service and aid in arms and +money, could dispose of vacant fiefs, could at pleasure declare war or +make peace. But all these rights he exercised far less as sovereign of +the nation than as standing in a peculiar relation to the feudal +tenants, a relation in its origin strictly personal, and whose +prominence obscured the political duties of prince and subject. And +great as these rights might become in the hands of an ambitious and +politic ruler, they were in practice limited by the corresponding +duties he owed to his vassals, and by the difficulty of enforcing them +against a powerful offender. The king was not permitted to retain in +his own hands escheated fiefs, must even grant away those he had held +before coming to the throne; he could not interfere with the +jurisdiction of his tenants in their own lands, nor prevent them from +waging war or forming leagues with each other like independent +princes. Chief among the nobles stood the dukes, who, although their +authority was now delegated, theoretically at least, instead of +independent, territorial instead of personal, retained nevertheless +much of that hold on the exclusive loyalty of their subjects which had +belonged to them as hereditary leaders of the tribe under the ancient +system. They were, with the three Rhenish archbishops, by far the +greatest subjects, often aspiring to the crown, sometimes not unable +to resist its wearer. The constant encroachments which Otto made upon +their privileges, especially through the institution of the Counts +Palatine, destroyed their ascendancy, but not their importance. It was +not till the thirteenth century that they disappeared with the rise of +the second order of nobility. That order, at this period far less +powerful, included the counts, margraves or marquises and landgraves, +originally officers of the crown, now feudal tenants; holding their +lands of the dukes, and maintaining against them the same contest +which they in turn waged with the crown. Below these came the barons +and simple knights, then the diminishing class of freemen, the +increasing one of serfs. The institutions of primitive Germany were +almost all gone; supplanted by a new system, partly the natural result +of the formation of a settled from a half-nomad society, partly +imitated from that which had arisen upon Roman soil, west of the Rhine +and south of the Alps. The army was no longer the Heerban of the whole +nation, which had been wont to follow the king on foot in distant +expeditions, but a cavalry militia of barons and their retainers, +bound to service for a short period, and rendering it unwillingly +where their own interest was not concerned. The frequent popular +assemblies, whereof under the names of the Mallum, the Placitum, the +Mayfield, we hear so much under Clovis and Charles, were now never +summoned, and the laws that had been promulgated there were, if not +abrogated, practically obsolete. No national council existed, save the +Diet in which the higher nobility, lay and clerical, met their +sovereign, sometimes to decide on foreign war, oftener to concur in +the grant of a fief or the proscription of a rebel. Every district had +its own rude local customs administered by the court of the local +lord: other law there was none, for imperial jurisprudence had in +these lately civilized countries not yet filled the place left empty +by the disuse of the barbarian codes. + +[Sidenote: The Roman Empire and the German kingdom.] + +This condition of things was indeed better than that utter confusion +which had gone before, for a principle of order had begun to group and +bind the tossing atoms; and though the union into which it drove men +was a hard and narrow one, it was something that they should have +learnt to unite themselves at all. Yet nascent feudality was but one +remove from anarchy; and the tendency to isolation and diversity +continued, despite the efforts of the Church and the Carolingian +princes, to be all-powerful in Western Europe. The German kingdom was +already a bond between the German races, and appears strong and united +when we compare it with the France of Hugh Capet, or the England of +Ethelred II; yet its history to the twelfth century is little else +than a record of disorders, revolts, civil wars, of a ceaseless +struggle on the part of the monarch to enforce his feudal rights, a +resistance by his vassals equally obstinate and more frequently +successful. What the issue of the contest might have been if Germany +had been left to take her own course is matter of speculation, though +the example of every European state except England and Norway may +incline the balance in favour of the crown. But the strife had +scarcely begun when a new influence was interposed: the German king +became Roman Emperor. No two systems can be more unlike than those +whose headship became thus vested in one person: the one centralized, +the other local; the one resting on a sublime theory, the other the +rude offspring of anarchy; the one gathering all power into the hands +of an irresponsible monarch, the other limiting his rights and +authorizing resistance to his commands; the one demanding the equality +of all citizens as creatures equal before Heaven, the other bound up +with an aristocracy the proudest, and in its gradations of rank the +most exact, that Europe had ever seen. Characters so repugnant could +not, it might be thought, meet in one person, or if they met must +strive till one swallowed up the other. It was not so. In the fusion +which began from the first, though it was for a time imperceptible, +each of the two characters gave and each lost some of its attributes: +the king became more than German, the Emperor less than Roman, till, +at the end of six centuries, the monarch in whom two 'persons' had +been united, appeared as a third different from either of the former, +and might not inappropriately be entitled 'German Emperor[150].' The +nature and progress of this change will appear in the after history of +Germany, and cannot be described here without in some measure +anticipating subsequent events. A word or two may indicate how the +process of fusion began. + +[Sidenote: Results of this union in one person.] + +It was natural that the great mass of Otto's subjects, to whom the +imperial title, dimly associated with Rome and the Pope, sounded +grander than the regal, without being known as otherwise different, +should in thought and speech confound them. The sovereign and his +ecclesiastical advisers, with far clearer views of the new office and +of the mutual relation of the two, found it impossible to separate +them in practice, and were glad to merge the lesser in the greater. +For as lord of the world, Otto was Emperor north as well as south of +the Alps. When he issued an edict, he claimed the obedience of his +Teutonic subjects in both capacities; when as Emperor he led the +armies of the gospel against the heathen, it was the standard of their +feudal superior that his armed vassals followed; when he founded +churches and appointed bishops, he acted partly as suzerain of feudal +lands, partly as protector of the faith, charged to guide the Church +in matters temporal. Thus the assumption of the imperial crown brought +to Otto as its first result an apparent increase of domestic +authority; it made his position by its historical associations more +dignified, by its religious more hallowed; it raised him higher above +his vassals and above other sovereigns; it enlarged his prerogative in +ecclesiastical affairs, and by necessary consequence gave to +ecclesiastics a more important place at court and in the +administration of government than they had enjoyed before. Great as +was the power of the bishops and abbots in all the feudal kingdoms, it +stood nowhere so high as in Germany. There the Emperor's double +position, as head both of Church and State, required the two +organizations to be exactly parallel. In the eleventh century a full +half of the land and wealth of the country, and no small part of its +military strength, was in the hands of Churchmen: their influence +predominated in the Diet; the archchancellorship of the Empire, +highest of all offices, belonged of right to the archbishop of Mentz, +as primate of Germany. It was by Otto, who in resuming the attitude +must repeat the policy of Charles, that the greatness of the clergy +was thus advanced. He is commonly said to have wished to weaken the +aristocracy by raising up rivals to them in the hierarchy. It may have +been so, and the measure was at any rate a disastrous one, for the +clergy soon approved themselves not less rebellious than those whom +they were to restrain. But in accusing Otto's judgment, historians +have often forgotten in what position he stood to the Church, and how +it behoved him, according to the doctrine received, to establish in +her an order like in all things to that which he found already +subsisting in the State. + +[Sidenote: Changes in title.] + +The style which Otto adopted shewed his desire thus to merge the king +in the Emperor[151]. Charles had called himself 'Imperator Caesar +Carolus rex Francorum invictissimus;' and again, 'Carolus serenissimus +Augustus, Pius, Felix, Romanorum gubernans Imperium, qui et per +misericordiam Dei rex Francorum atque Langobardorum.' Otto and his +first successors, who until their coronation at Rome had used the +titles of 'Rex Francorum,' or 'Rex Francorum Orientalium,' or oftener +still 'Rex' alone, discarded after it all titles save the highest of +'Imperator Augustus;' seeming thereby, though they too had been +crowned at Aachen and Milan, to claim the authority of Caesar through +all their dominions. Tracing as we are the history of a title, it is +needless to dwell on the significance of the change[152]. Charles, son +of the Ripuarian allies of Probus, had been a Frankish chieftain on +the Rhine; Otto, the Saxon, successor of the Cheruscan Arminius, would +rule his native Elbe with a power borrowed from the Tiber. + +[Sidenote: Imperial power feudalized.] + +Nevertheless, the imperial element did not in every respect +predominate over the royal. The monarch might desire to make good +against his turbulent barons the boundless prerogative which he +acquired with his new crown, but he lacked the power to do so; and +they, disputing neither the supremacy of that crown nor his right to +wear it, refused with good reason to let their own freedom be +infringed upon by any act of which they had not been the authors. So +far was Otto from embarking on so vain an enterprise, that his rule +was even more direct and more personal than that of Charles had been. +There was no scheme of mechanical government, no claim of absolutism; +there was only the resolve to make the energetic assertion of the +king's feudal rights subserve the further aims of the Emperor. What +Otto demanded he demanded as Emperor, what he received he received as +king; the singular result was that in Germany the imperial office was +itself pervaded and transformed by feudal ideas. Feudality needing, to +make its theory complete, a lord paramount of the world, from whose +grant all ownership in land must be supposed to have emanated, and +finding such a suzerain in the Emperor, constituted him liege lord of +all kings and potentates, keystone of the feudal arch, himself, as it +was expressed, 'holding' the world from God. There were not wanting +Roman institutions to which these notions could attach themselves. +Constantine, imitating the courts of the East, had made the +dignitaries of his household great officials of the State: these were +now reproduced in the cup-bearer, the seneschal, the marshal, the +chamberlain of the Empire, so soon to become its electoral princes. +The holding of land on condition of military service was Roman in its +origin: the divided ownership of feudal law found its analogies in the +Roman tenure of emphyteusis. Thus while Germany was Romanized the +Empire was feudalized, and came to be considered not the antagonist +but the perfection of an aristocratic system. And it was this +adaptation to existing political facts that enabled it afterwards to +assume an international character. Nevertheless, even while they +seemed to blend, there remained between the genius of imperialism (if +one may use a now perverted word) and that of feudalism a deep and +lasting hostility. And so the rule of Otto and his successors was in a +measure adverse to feudal polity, not from knowledge of what Roman +government had been, but from the necessities of their position, +raised as they were to an unapproachable height above their subjects, +surrounded with a halo of sanctity as protectors of the Church. Thus +were they driven to reduce local independence, and assimilate the +various races through their vast territories. It was Otto who made the +Germans, hitherto an aggregate of tribes, a single people, and welding +them into a strong political body taught them to rise through its +collective greatness to the consciousness of national life, never +thenceforth to be extinguished. + +[Sidenote: The Commons.] + +One expedient against the land-holding oligarchy which Roman +traditions as well as present needs might have suggested, it was +scarcely possible for Otto to use. He could not invoke the friendship +of the Third Estate, for as yet none existed. The Teutonic order of +freemen, which two centuries earlier had formed the bulk of the +population, was now fast disappearing, just as in England all who did +not become thanes were classed as ceorls, and from ceorls sank for the +most part, after the Conquest, into villeins. It was only in the +Alpine valleys and along the shores of the ocean that free democratic +communities maintained themselves. Town-life there was none, till +Henry the Fowler forced his forest-loving people to dwell in +fortresses that might repel the Hungarian invaders; and the burgher +class thus beginning to form was too small to be a power in the state. +But popular freedom, as it expired, bequeathed to the monarch such of +its rights as could be saved from the grasp of the nobles; and the +crown thus became what it has been wherever an aristocracy presses +upon both, the ally, though as yet the tacit ally, of the people. +More, too, than the royal could have done, did the imperial name +invite the sympathy of the commons. For in all, however ignorant of +its history, however unable to comprehend its functions, there yet +lived a feeling that it was in some mysterious way consecrated to +Christian brotherhood and equality, to peace and law, to the restraint +of the strong and the defence of the helpless. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[150] Although this was of course never his legal title. Till 1806 he +was 'Romanorum Imperator semper Augustus;' 'Roemischer Kaiser.' + +[151] Puetter, _Dissertationes de Instauratione Imperii Romani_; cf. +Goldast's _Collection of Constitutions_; and the proclamations and +other documents collected in Pertz, _M. G. H._ legg. I. + +[152] Puetter (_De Instauratione Imperii Romani_) will have it that +upon this mistake, as he calls it, of Otto's, the whole subsequent +history of the Empire turned; that if Otto had but continued to style +himself 'Francorum Rex,' Germany would have been spared all her +Italian wars. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +SAXON AND FRANCONIAN EMPERORS. + + +He who begins to read the history of the Middle Ages is alternately +amused and provoked by the seeming absurdities that meet him at every +step. He finds writers proclaiming amidst universal assent magnificent +theories which no one attempts to carry out. He sees men who are +stained with every vice full of sincere devotion to a religion which, +even when its doctrines were most obscured, never sullied the purity +of its moral teaching. He is disposed to conclude that such people +must have been either fools or hypocrites. Yet such a conclusion would +be wholly erroneous. Every one knows how little a man's actions +conform to the general maxims which he would lay down for himself, and +how many things there are which he believes without realizing: +believes sufficiently to be influenced, yet not sufficiently to be +governed by them. Now in the Middle Ages this perpetual opposition of +theory and practice was peculiarly abrupt. Men's impulses were more +violent and their conduct more reckless than is often witnessed in +modern society; while the absence of a criticizing and measuring +spirit made them surrender their minds more unreservedly than they +would now do to a complete and imposing theory. Therefore it was, that +while everyone believed in the rights of the Empire as a part of +divine truth, no one would yield to them where his own passions or +interests interfered. Resistance to God's Vicar might be and indeed +was admitted to be a deadly sin, but it was one which nobody hesitated +to commit. Hence, in order to give this unbounded imperial prerogative +any practical efficiency, it was found necessary to prop it up by the +limited but tangible authority of a feudal king. And the one spot in +Otto's empire on which feudality had never fixed its grasp, and where +therefore he was forced to rule merely as emperor, and not also as +king, was that in which he and his successors were never safe from +insult and revolt. That spot was his capital. Accordingly an account +of what befel the first Saxon emperor in Rome is a not unfitting +comment on the theory expounded above, as well as a curious episode in +the history of the Apostolic Chair. + +[Sidenote: Otto the Great in Rome.] + +After his coronation Otto had returned to North Italy, where the +partizans of Berengar and his son Adalbert still maintained themselves +in arms. Scarcely was he gone when the restless John the Twelfth, who +found too late that in seeking an ally he had given himself a master, +renounced his allegiance, opened negotiations with Berengar, and even +scrupled not to send envoys pressing the heathen Magyars to invade +Germany. The Emperor was soon informed of these plots, as well as of +the flagitious life of the pontiff, a youth of twenty-five, the most +profligate if not the most guilty of all who have worn the tiara. But +he affected to despise them, saying, with a sort of unconscious irony, +'He is a boy, the example of good men may reform him.' When, however, +Otto returned with a strong force, he found the city gates shut, and a +party within furious against him. John the Twelfth was not only Pope, +but as the heir of Alberic, the head of a strong faction among the +nobles, and a sort of temporal prince in the city. But neither he nor +they had courage enough to stand a siege: John fled into the Campagna +to join Adalbert, and Otto entering convoked a synod in St. Peter's. +Himself presiding as temporal head of the Church, he began by +inquiring into the character and manners of the Pope. At once a +tempest of accusations burst forth from the assembled clergy. +Liudprand, a credible although a hostile witness, gives us a long list +of them:--'Peter, cardinal-priest, rose and witnessed that he had seen +the Pope celebrate mass and not himself communicate. John, bishop of +Narnia, and John, cardinal-deacon, declared that they had seen him +ordain a deacon in a stable, neglecting the proper formalities. They +said further that he had defiled by shameless acts of vice the +pontifical palace; that he had openly diverted himself with hunting; +had put out the eyes of his spiritual father Benedict; had set fire to +houses; had girt himself with a sword, and put on a helmet and +hauberk. All present, laymen as well as priests, cried out that he had +drunk to the devil's health; that in throwing the dice he had invoked +the help of Jupiter, Venus, and other demons; that he had celebrated +matins at uncanonical hours, and had not fortified himself by making +the sign of the cross. After these things the Emperor, who could not +speak Latin, since the Romans could not understand his native, that is +to say, the Saxon tongue, bade Liudprand bishop of Cremona interpret +for him, and adjured the council to declare whether the charges they +had brought were true, or sprang only of malice and envy. Then all the +clergy and people cried with a loud voice, 'If John the Pope hath not +committed all the crimes which Benedict the deacon hath read over, and +even greater crimes than these, then may the chief of the Apostles, +the blessed Peter, who by his word closes heaven to the unworthy and +opens it to the just, never absolve us from our sins, but may we be +bound by the chain of anathema, and on the last day may we stand on +the left hand along with those who have said to the Lord God, "Depart +from us, for we will not know Thy ways."' + +The solemnity of this answer seems to have satisfied Otto and the +council: a letter was despatched to John, couched in respectful terms, +recounting the charges brought against him, and asking him to appear +to clear himself by his own oath and that of a sufficient number of +compurgators. John's reply was short and pithy. + +'John the bishop, the servant of the servants of God, to all the +bishops. We have heard tell that you wish to set up another Pope: if +you do this, by Almighty God I excommunicate you, so that you may not +have power to perform mass or to ordain no one[153].' + +[Sidenote: Deposition of John XII.] + +To this Otto and the synod replied by a letter of humorous +expostulation, begging the Pope to reform both his morals and his +Latin. But the messenger who bore it could not find John: he had +repeated what seems to have been thought his most heinous sin, by +going into the country with his bow and arrows; and after a search had +been made in vain, the synod resolved to take a decisive step. Otto, +who still led their deliberations, demanded the condemnation of the +Pope; the assembly deposed him by acclamation, 'because of his +reprobate life,' and having obtained the Emperor's consent, proceeded +in an equally hasty manner to raise Leo, the chief secretary and a +layman, to the chair of the Apostle. + +[Sidenote: Revolt of the Romans.] + +Otto might seem to have now reached a position loftier and firmer than +that of any of his predecessors. Within little more than a year from +his arrival in Rome, he had exercised powers greater than those of +Charles himself, ordering the dethronement of one pontiff and the +installation of another, forcing a reluctant people to bend themselves +to his will. The submission involved in his oath to protect the Holy +See was more than compensated by the oath of allegiance to his crown +which the Pope and the Romans had taken, and by their solemn +engagement not to elect nor ordain any future pontiff without the +Emperor's consent[154]. But he had yet to learn what this obedience +and these oaths were worth. The Romans had eagerly joined in the +expulsion of John; they soon began to regret him. They were mortified +to see their streets filled by a foreign soldiery, the habitual +licence of their manners sternly repressed, their most cherished +privilege, the right of choosing the universal bishop, grasped by the +strong hand of a master who used it for purposes in which they did not +sympathize. In a fickle and turbulent people, disaffection quickly +turned to rebellion. One night, Otto's troops being most of them +dispersed in their quarters at a distance, the Romans rose in arms, +blocked up the Tiber bridges, and fell furiously upon the Emperor and +his creature the new Pope. Superior valour and constancy triumphed +over numbers, and the Romans were overthrown with terrible slaughter; +yet this lesson did not prevent them from revolting a second time, +after Otto's departure in pursuit of Adalbert. John the Twelfth +returned to the city, and when his pontifical career was speedily +closed by the sword of an injured husband[155], the people chose a new +Pope in defiance of the Emperor and his nominee. Otto again subdued +and again forgave them, but when they rebelled for a third time, in +A.D. 966, he resolved to shew them what imperial supremacy meant. +Thirteen leaders, among them the twelve tribunes, were executed, the +consuls were banished, republican forms entirely suppressed, the +government of the city entrusted to Pope Leo as viceroy. He, too, must +not presume on the sacredness of his person to set up any claims to +independence. Otto regarded the pontiff as no more than the first of +his subjects, the creature of his own will, the depositary of an +authority which must be exercised according to the discretion of his +sovereign. The citizens yielded to the Emperor an absolute veto on +papal elections in A.D. 963. Otto obtained from his nominee, Leo VIII, +a confirmation of this privilege, which it was afterwards supposed +that Hadrian I had granted to Charles, in a decree which may yet be +read in the collections of the canon law[156]. The vigorous exercise +of such a power might be expected to reform as well as to restrain the +apostolic see; and it was for this purpose, and in noble honesty, that +the Teutonic sovereigns employed it. But the fortunes of Otto in the +city are a type of those which his successors were destined to +experience. Notwithstanding their clear rights and the momentary +enthusiasm with which they were greeted in Rome, not all the efforts +of Emperor after Emperor could gain any firm hold on the capital they +were so proud of. Visiting it only once or twice in their reigns, they +must be supported among a fickle populace by a large army of +strangers, which melted away with terrible rapidity under the sun of +Italy amid the deadly hollows of the Campagna[157]. Rome soon resumed +her turbulent independence. + +[Sidenote: Otto's rule in Italy.] + +Causes partly the same prevented the Saxon princes from gaining a firm +footing throughout Italy. Since Charles the Bald had bartered away for +the crown all that made it worth having, no Emperor had exercised +substantial authority there. The _missi dominici_ had ceased to +traverse the country; the local governors had thrown off control, a +crowd of petty potentates had established principalities by +aggressions on their weaker neighbours. Only in the dominions of great +nobles, like the marquises of Tuscany and Spoleto, and in some of the +cities where the supremacy of the bishop was paving the way for a +republican system, could traces of political order be found, or the +arts of peace flourish. Otto, who, though he came as a conqueror, +ruled legitimately as Italian king, found his feudal vassals less +submissive than in Germany. While actually present he succeeded by +progresses and edicts, and stern justice, in doing something to still +the turmoil; on his departure Italy relapsed into that disorganization +for which her natural features are not less answerable than the +mixture of her races. Yet it was at this era, when the confusion was +wildest, that there appeared the first rudiments of an Italian +nationality, based partly on geographical position, partly on the use +of a common language and the slow growth of peculiar customs and modes +of thought. But though already jealous of the Tedescan, national +feeling was still very far from disputing his sway. Pope, princes, and +cities bowed to Otto as king and Emperor; nor did he bethink himself +of crushing while it was weak a sentiment whose development threatened +the existence of his empire. Holding Italy equally for his own with +Germany, and ruling both on the same principles, he was content to +keep it a separate kingdom, neither changing its institutions nor +sending Saxons, as Charles had sent Franks, to represent his +government[158]. + +[Sidenote: Otto's foreign policy.] + +[Sidenote: Towards Byzantium.] + +The lofty claims which Otto acquired with the Roman crown urged him to +resume the plans of foreign conquest which had lain neglected since +the days of Charles: the growing vigour of the Teutonic people, now +definitely separating themselves from surrounding races (this is the +era of the Marks--Brandenburg, Meissen, Schleswig), placed in his +hands a force to execute those plans which his predecessors had +wanted. In this, as in his other enterprises, the great Emperor was +active, wise, successful. Retaining the extreme south of Italy, and +unwilling to confess the loss of Rome, the Greeks had not ceased to +annoy her German masters by intrigue, and might now, under the +vigorous leadership of Nicephorus and Tzimiskes, hope again to menace +them in arms. Policy, and the fascination which an ostentatiously +legitimate court exercised over the Saxon stranger, made Otto, as +Napoleon wooed Maria Louisa, seek for his heir the hand of the +princess Theophano. Liudprand's account of his embassy represents in +an amusing manner the rival pretensions of the old and new +Empires[159]. The Greeks, who fancied that with the name they +preserved the character and rights of Rome, held it almost as absurd +as it was wicked that a Frank should insult their prerogative by +reigning in Italy as Emperor. They refused him that title altogether; +and when the Pope had, in a letter addressed '_Imperatori Graecorum_,' +asked Nicephorus to gratify the wishes of the Emperor of the Romans, +the Eastern was furious. 'You are no Romans,' said he, 'but wretched +Lombards: what means this insolent Pope? with Constantine all Rome +migrated hither.' The wily bishop appeased him by abusing the Romans, +while he insinuated that Byzantium could lay no claim to their name, +and proceeded to vindicate the Francia and Saxonia of his master. +'"Roman" is the most contemptuous name we can use--it conveys the +reproach of every vice, cowardice, falsehood, avarice. But what can be +expected from the descendants of the fratricide Romulus? to his asylum +were gathered the offscourings of the nations: thence came these +[Greek: kosmokratores].' Nicephorus demanded the 'theme' or province of +Rome as the price of compliance[160]; Tzimiskes was more moderate, and +Theophano became the bride of Otto II. + +[Sidenote: Towards the West Franks.] + +Holding the two capitals of Charles the Great, Otto might vindicate +the suzerainty over the West Frankish kingdom which it had been meant +that the imperial title should carry with it. Arnulf had asserted it +by making Eudes, the first Capetian king, receive the crown as his +feudatory: Henry the Fowler had been less successful. Otto pursued the +same course, intriguing with the discontented nobles of Louis +d'Outremer, and receiving their fealty as Superior of Roman Gaul. +These pretensions, however, could have been made effective only by +arms, and the feudal militia of the tenth century was no such +instrument of conquest as the hosts of Clovis and Charles had been. +The star of the Carolingian of Laon was paling before the rising +greatness of the Parisian Capets: a Romano-Keltic nation had formed +itself, distinct in tongue from the Franks, whom it was fast +absorbing, and still less willing to submit to a Saxon stranger. +Modern France[161] dates from the accession of Hugh Capet, A.D. 987, +and the claims of the Roman Empire were never afterwards formally +admitted. + +[Sidenote: Lorraine and Burgundy.] + +Of that France, however, Aquitaine was virtually independent. +Lotharingia and Burgundy belonged to it as little as did England. The +former of these kingdoms had adhered to the West Frankish king, +Charles the Simple, against the East Frankish Conrad: but now, as +mostly German in blood and speech, threw itself into the arms of Otto, +and was thenceforth an integral part of the Empire. Burgundy, a +separate kingdom, had, by seeking from Charles the Fat a ratification +of Boso's election, by admitting, in the person of Rudolf the first +Transjurane king, the feudal superiority of Arnulf, acknowledged +itself to be dependent on the German crown. Otto governed it for +thirty years, nominally as the guardian of the young king Conrad (son +of Rudolf II). + +[Sidenote: Denmark and the Slaves.] + +[Sidenote: England.] + +Otto's conquests to the North and East approved him a worthy successor +of the first Emperor. He penetrated far into Jutland, annexed +Schleswig, made Harold the Blue-toothed his vassal. The Slavic tribes +were obliged to submit, to follow the German host in war, to allow the +free preaching of the Gospel in their borders. The Hungarians he +forced to forsake their nomad life, and delivered Europe from the fear +of Asiatic invasions by strengthening the frontier of Austria. Over +more distant lands, Spain and England, it was not possible to recover +the commanding position of Charles. Henry, as head of the Saxon name, +may have wished to unite its branches on both sides the sea[162], and +it was perhaps partly with this intent that he gained for Otto the +hand of Edith, sister of the English Athelstan. But the claim of +supremacy, if any there was, was repudiated by Edgar, when, +exaggerating the lofty style assumed by some of his predecessors, he +called himself 'Basileus and imperator of Britain[163],' thereby +seeming to pretend to a sovereignty over all the nations of the island +similar to that which the Roman Emperor claimed over the states of +Christendom. + +[Sidenote: Extent of Otto's Empire.] + +[Sidenote: Comparison between it and that of Charles.] + +This restored Empire, which professed itself a continuation of the +Carolingian, was in many respects different. It was less wide, +including, if we reckon strictly, only Germany proper and two-thirds +of Italy; or counting in subject but separate kingdoms, Burgundy, +Bohemia, Moravia, Poland, Denmark, perhaps Hungary. Its character was +less ecclesiastical. Otto exalted indeed the spiritual potentates of +his realm, and was earnest in spreading Christianity among the +heathen: he was master of the Pope and Defender of the Holy Roman +Church. But religion held a less important place in his mind and his +administration: he made fewer wars for its sake, held no councils, and +did not, like his predecessor, criticize the discourses of bishops. It +was also less Roman. We do not know whether Otto associated with that +name anything more than the right to universal dominion and a certain +oversight of matters spiritual, nor how far he believed himself to be +treading in the steps of the Caesars. He could not speak Latin, he had +few learned men around him, he cannot have possessed the varied +cultivation which had been so fruitful in the mind of Charles. +Moreover, the conditions of his time were different, and did not +permit similar attempts at wide organization. The local potentates +would have submitted to no _missi dominici_; separate laws and +jurisdictions would not have yielded to imperial capitularies; the +_placita_ at which those laws were framed or published would not have +been crowded, as of yore, by armed freemen. But what Otto could he +did, and did it to good purpose. Constantly traversing his dominions, +he introduced a peace and prosperity before unknown, and left +everywhere the impress of an heroic character. Under him the Germans +became not only a united nation, but were at once raised on a pinnacle +among European peoples as the imperial race, the possessors of Rome +and Rome's authority. While the political connection with Italy +stirred their spirit, it brought with it a knowledge and culture +hitherto unknown, and gave the newly-kindled energy an object. Germany +became in her turn the instructress of the neighbouring tribes, who +trembled at Otto's sceptre; Poland and Bohemia received from her their +arts and their learning with their religion. If the revived +Romano-Germanic Empire was less splendid than the Empire of the West +had been under Charles, it was, within narrower limits, firmer and +more lasting, since based on a social force which the other had +wanted. It perpetuated the name, the language, the literature, such as +it then was, of Rome; it extended her spiritual sway; it strove to +represent that concentration for which men cried, and became a power +to unite and civilize Europe. + +[Sidenote: Otto II, A.D. 973-983.] + +[Sidenote: Otto III, A.D. 983-1002.] + +[Sidenote: His ideas. Fascination exercised over him by the name of +Rome.] + +[Sidenote: Pope Sylvester II, A.D. 1000.] + +The time of Otto the Great has required a fuller treatment, as the era +of the Holy Empire's foundation: succeeding rulers may be more quickly +dismissed. Yet Otto III's reign cannot pass unnoticed: short, sad, +full of bright promise never fulfilled. His mother was the Greek +princess Theophano; his preceptor, the illustrious Gerbert: through +the one he felt himself connected with the old Empire, and had imbibed +the absolutism of Byzantium; by the other he had been reared in the +dream of a renovated Rome, with her memories turned to realities. To +accomplish that renovation, who so fit as he who with the vigorous +blood of the Teutonic conqueror inherited the venerable rights of +Constantinople? It was his design, now that the solemn millennial era +of the founding of Christianity had arrived, to renew the majesty of +the city and make her again the capital of a world-embracing Empire, +victorious as Trajan's, despotic as Justinian's, holy as +Constantine's. His young and visionary mind was too much dazzled by +the gorgeous fancies it created to see the world as it was: Germany +rude, Italy unquiet, Rome corrupt and faithless. In A.D. 994, at the +age of sixteen, he took from his mother's hands the reins of +government, and entered Italy to receive his crown, and quell the +turbulence of Rome. There he put to death the rebel Crescentius, in +whom modern enthusiasm has seen a patriotic republican, who, reviving +the institutions of Alberic, had ruled as consul or senator, sometimes +entitling himself Emperor[164]. The young monarch reclaimed, perhaps +extended, the privilege of Charles and Otto the Great, by nominating +successive pontiffs: first Bruno his cousin (Gregory V), then Gerbert, +whose name of Sylvester II recalled significantly the ally of +Constantine: Gerbert, to his contemporaries a marvel of piety and +learning, in later legend the magician who, at the price of his own +soul, purchased preferment from the Enemy, and by him was at last +carried off in the body. With the substitution of these men for the +profligate priests of Italy, began that Teutonic reform of the Papacy +which raised it from the abyss of the tenth century to the point where +Hildebrand found it. The Emperors were working the ruin of their power +by their most disinterested acts. + +[Sidenote: Schemes of Otto III: Changes of style and usage.] + +With his tutor on Peter's chair to second or direct him, Otto laboured +on his great project in a spirit almost mystic. He had an intense +religious belief in the Emperor's duties to the world--in his +proclamations he calls himself 'Servant of the Apostles,' 'Servant of +Jesus Christ[165]'--together with the ambitious antiquarianism of a +fiery imagination, kindled by the memorials of the glory and power he +represented. Even the wording of his laws witnesses to the strange +mixture of notions that filled his eager brain. 'We have ordained +this,' says an edict, 'in order that, the church of God being freely +and firmly stablished, our Empire may be advanced and the crown of our +knighthood triumph; that the power of the Roman people may be extended +and the commonwealth be restored; so may we be found worthy after +living righteously in the tabernacle of this world, to fly away from +the prison of this life and reign most righteously with the Lord.' To +exclude the claims of the Greeks he used the title '_Romanorum +Imperator_' instead of the simple '_Imperator_' of his predecessors. +His seals bear a legend resembling that used by Charles, '_Renovatio +Imperii Romanorum_;' even the 'commonwealth,' despite the results that +name had produced under Alberic and Crescentius, was to be +re-established. He built a palace on the Aventine, then the most +healthy and beautiful quarter of the city; he devised a regular +administrative system of government for his capital--naming a +patrician, a prefect, and a body of judges, who were commanded to +recognize no law but Justinian's. The formula of their appointment has +been preserved to us: in it the Emperor delivering to the judge a copy +of the code bids him 'with this code judge Rome and the Leonine city +and the whole world.' He introduced into the simple German court the +ceremonious magnificence of Byzantium, not without giving offence to +many of his followers[166]. His father's wish to draw Italy and +Germany more closely together, he followed up by giving the +chancellorship of both countries to the same churchman, by maintaining +a strong force of Germans in Italy, and by taking his Italian retinue +with him through the Transalpine lands. How far these brilliant and +far-reaching plans were capable of realization, had their author lived +to attempt it, can be but guessed at. It is reasonable to suppose that +whatever power he might have gained in the South he would have lost in +the North. Dwelling rarely in Germany, and in sympathies more a Greek +than a Teuton, he reined in the fierce barons with no such tight hand +as his grandfather had been wont to do; he neglected the schemes of +northern conquest; he released the Polish dukes from the obligation of +tribute. But all, save that those plans were his, is now no more than +conjecture, for Otto III, 'the wonder of the world,' as his own +generation called him, died childless on the threshold of manhood; the +victim, if we may trust a story of the time, of the revenge of +Stephania, widow of Crescentius, who ensnared him by her beauty, and +slew him by a lingering poison. They carried him across the Alps with +laments whose echoes sound faintly yet from the pages of monkish +chroniclers, and buried him in the choir of the basilica at Aachen +some fifty paces from the tomb of Charles beneath the central dome. +Two years had not passed since, setting out on his last journey to +Rome, he had opened that tomb, had gazed on the great Emperor, sitting +on a marble throne, robed and crowned, with the Gospel-book open +before him; and there, touching the dead hand, unclasping from the +neck its golden cross, had taken, as it were, an investiture of Empire +from his Frankish forerunner. Short as was his life and few his acts, +Otto III is in one respect more memorable than any who went before or +came after him. None save he desired to make the seven-hilled city +again the seat of dominion, reducing Germany and Lombardy and Greece +to their rightful place of subject provinces. No one else so forgot +the present to live in the light of the ancient order; no other soul +was so possessed by that fervid mysticism and that reverence for the +glories of the past, whereon rested the idea of the mediaeval Empire. + +[Sidenote: Italy independent.] + +[Sidenote: Henry II Emperor.] + +[Sidenote: Southern Italy.] + +The direct line of Otto the Great had now ended, and though the Franks +might elect and the Saxons accept Henry II[167], Italy was nowise +affected by their acts. Neither the Empire nor the Lombard kingdom +could as yet be of right claimed by the German king. Her princes +placed Ardoin, marquis of Ivrea, on the vacant throne of Pavia, moved +partly by the growing aversion to a Transalpine power, still more by +the desire of impunity under a monarch feebler than any since +Berengar. But the selfishness that had exalted Ardoin soon overthrew +him. Ere long a party among the nobles, seconded by the Pope, invited +Henry[168]; his strong army made opposition hopeless, and at Rome he +received the imperial crown, A.D. 1014. It is, perhaps, more singular +that the Transalpine kings should have clung so pertinaciously to +Italian sovereignty than that the Lombards should have so frequently +attempted to recover their independence. For the former had often +little or no hereditary claim, they were not secure in their seat at +home, they crossed a huge mountain barrier into a land of treachery +and hatred. But Rome's glittering lure was irresistible, and the +disunion of Italy promised an easy conquest. Surrounded by martial +vassals, these Emperors were generally for the moment supreme: once +their pennons had disappeared in the gorges of Tyrol, things reverted +to their former condition, and Tuscany was little more dependent than +France. In Southern Italy the Greek viceroy ruled from Bari, and Rome +was an outpost instead of the centre of Teutonic power. A curious +evidence of the wavering politics of the time is furnished by the +Annals of Benevento, the Lombard town which on the confines of the +Greek and Roman realms gave steady obedience to neither. They usually +date by and recognize the princes of Constantinople[169], seldom +mentioning the Franks, till the reign of Conrad II; after him the +Western becomes _Imperator_, the Greek, appearing more rarely, is +_Imperator Constantinopolitanus_. Assailed by the Saracens, masters +already of Sicily, these regions seemed on the eve of being lost to +Christendom, and the Romans sometimes bethought themselves of +returning under the Byzantine sceptre. As the weakness of the Greeks +in the South favoured the rise of the Norman kingdom, so did the +liberties of the northern cities shoot up in the absence of the +Emperors and the feuds of the princes. Milan, Pavia, Cremona, were +only the foremost among many populous centres of industry, some of +them self-governing, all quickly absorbing or repelling the rural +nobility, and not afraid to display by tumults their aversion to the +Germans. + +[Sidenote: Conrad II.] + +The reign of Conrad II, the first monarch of the great Franconian +line, is remarkable for the accession to the Empire of Burgundy, or, +as it is after this time more often called, the kingdom of Arles[170]. +Rudolf III, the last king, had proposed to bequeath it to Henry II, +and the states were at length persuaded to consent to its reunion to +the crown from which it had been separated, though to some extent +dependent, since the death of Lothar I (son of Lewis the Pious). On +Rudolf's death in 1032, Eudes, count of Champagne, endeavoured to +seize it, and entered the north-western districts, from which he was +dislodged by Conrad with some difficulty. Unlike Italy, it became an +integral member of the Germanic realm: its prelates and nobles sat in +imperial diets, and retained till recently the style and title of +Princes of the Holy Empire. The central government was, however, +seldom effective in these outlying territories, exposed always to the +intrigues, finally to the aggressions, of Capetian France. + +[Sidenote: Henry III.] + +[Sidenote: His reform of the Popedom.] + +[Sidenote: Henry IV, A.D. 1056-1106.] + +Under Conrad's son Henry the Third the Empire attained the meridian of +its power. At home Otto the Great's prerogative had not stood so high. +The duchies, always the chief source of fear, were allowed to remain +vacant or filled by the relatives of the monarch, who himself +retained, contrary to usual practice, those of Franconia and (for some +years) Swabia. Abbeys and sees lay entirely in his gift. Intestine +feuds were repressed by the proclamation of a public peace. Abroad, +the feudal superiority over Hungary, which Henry II had gained by +conferring the title of King with the hand of his sister Gisela, was +enforced by war, the country made almost a province, and compelled to +pay tribute. In Rome no German sovereign had ever been so absolute. A +disgraceful contest between three claimants of the papal chair had +shocked even the reckless apathy of Italy. Henry deposed them all, and +appointed their successor: he became hereditary patrician, and wore +constantly the green mantle and circlet of gold which were the badges +of that office, seeming, one might think, to find in it some further +authority than that which the imperial name conferred. The synod +passed a decree granting to Henry the right of nominating the supreme +pontiff; and the Roman priesthood, who had forfeited the respect of +the world even more by habitual simony than by the flagrant corruption +of their manners, were forced to receive German after German as their +bishop, at the bidding of a ruler so powerful, so severe, and so +pious. But Henry's encroachments alarmed his own nobles no less than +the Italians, and the reaction, which might have been dangerous to +himself, was fatal to his successor. A mere chance, as some might call +it, determined the course of history. The great Emperor died suddenly +in A.D. 1056, and a child was left at the helm, while storms were +gathering that might have demanded the wisest hand. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[153] 'Iohannes episcopus, servus servorum Dei, omnibus episcopis. Nos +audivimus dicere quia vos vultis alium papam facere: si hoc facitis, +da Deum omnipotentem excommunico vos, ut non habeatis licentiam missam +celebrare aut nullum ordinare.'--Liudprand, _ut supra_. The 'da' is +curious, as shewing the progress of the change from Latin to Italian. +The answer sent by Otto and the council takes exception to the double +negative. + +[154] 'Cives fidelitatem promittunt haec addentes et firmiter iurantes +nunquam se papam electuros aut ordinaturos praeter consensum atque +electionem domini imperatoris Ottonis Caesaris Augusti filiique ipsius +Ottonis.'--Liudprand, _Gesta Ottonis_, lib. vi. + +[155] 'In timporibus adeo a dyabulo est percussus ut infra dierum octo +spacium eodem sit in vulnere mortuus,' says the chronicler, crediting +with but little of his wonted cleverness the supposed author of John's +death, who well might have desired a long life for so useful a +servant. + +He adds a detail too characteristic of the time to be omitted--'Sed +eucharistiae viaticum, ipsius instinctu qui eum percusserat, non +percepit.' + +[156] _Corpus Iuris Canonici_, Dist. lxiii., '_In synodo_.' A decree +which is probably substantially genuine, although the form in which we +have it is evidently of later date. + +[157] Cf. St. Peter Damiani's lines-- + + 'Roma vorax hominum domat ardua colla virorum, + Roma ferax febrium necis est uberrima frugum, + Romanae febres stabili sunt iure fideles.' + +[158] There was a separate chancellor for Italy, as afterwards for the +kingdom of Burgundy. + +[159] Liudprand, _Legatio Constantinopolitana_. + +[160] 'Sancti imperii nostri olim servos principes, Beneventanum +scilicet, tradat,' &c. The epithet is worth noticing. + +[161] Liudprand calls the Eastern Franks 'Franci Teutonici' to +distinguish them from the Romanized Franks of Gaul or 'Francigenae,' as +they were frequently called. The name 'Frank' seems even so early as +the tenth century to have been used in the East as a general name for +the Western peoples of Europe. Liudprand says that the Greek Emperor +included 'sub Francorum nomine tam Latinos quam Teutonicos.' Probably +this use dates from the time of Charles. + +[162] Conring, _De Finibus Imperii_. + +[163] Basileus was a favourite title of the English kings before the +Conquest. Titles like this used in these early English charters prove, +it need hardly be said, absolutely nothing as to the real existence of +any rights or powers of the English king beyond his own borders. What +they do prove (over and above the taste for florid rhetoric in the +royal clerks) is the impression produced by the imperial style, and by +the idea of the emperor's throne as supported by the thrones of kings +and other lesser potentates. + +[164] The coins of Crescentius are said to exhibit the insignia of the +old Empire.--Palgrave, _Normandy and England_, i. 715. But probably +some at least of them are forgeries. + +[165] Proclamation in Pertz, _M. G. H._ ii. + +[166] 'Imperator antiquam Romanorum consuetudinem iam ex magna parte +deletam suis cupiens renovare temporibus multa faciebat quae diversi +diverse sentiebant.'--Thietmar, _Chron._ ix.; ap. Pertz, _M. G. H._ t. +iii. + +[167] _Annales Quedlinb._, ad ann. 1002. + +[168] Henry had already entered Italy in 1004. + +[169] _Annales Beneventani_, in Pertz, _M. G. H._ + +[170] See Appendix, Note A. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +STRUGGLE OF THE EMPIRE AND THE PAPACY. + + +Reformed by the Emperors and their Teutonic nominees, the Papacy had +resumed in the middle of the eleventh century the schemes of polity +shadowed forth by Nicholas I, and which the degradation of the last +age had only suspended. Under the guidance of her greatest mind, +Hildebrand, the archdeacon of Rome, she now advanced to their +completion, and proclaimed that war of the ecclesiastical power +against the civil power in the person of the Emperor, which became the +centre of the subsequent history of both. While the nature of the +struggle cannot be understood without a glance at their previous +connection, the vastness of the subject warns one from the attempt to +draw even its outlines, and restricts our view to those relations of +Popedom and Empire which arise directly out of their respective +positions as heads spiritual and temporal of the universal Christian +state. + +[Sidenote: Growth of the Papal power.] + +[Sidenote: Relations of the Papacy and the Empire.] + +The eagerness of Christianity in the age immediately following her +political establishment to purchase by submission the support of the +civil power, has been already remarked. The change from independence +to supremacy was gradual. The tale we smile at, how Constantine, +healed of his leprosy, granted the West to bishop Sylvester, and +retired to Byzantium that no secular prince might interfere with the +jurisdiction or profane the neighbourhood of Peter's chair, worked +great effects through the belief it commanded for many centuries. Nay +more, its groundwork was true. It was the removal of the seat of +government from the Tiber to the Bosphorus that made the Pope the +greatest personage in the city, and in the prostration after Alaric's +invasion he was seen to be so. Henceforth he alone was a permanent and +effective, though still unacknowledged power, as truly superior to the +revived senate and consuls of the phantom republic as Augustus and +Tiberius had been to the faint continuance of their earlier +prototypes. Pope Leo the First asserted the universal jurisdiction of +his see[171], and his persevering successors slowly enthralled Italy, +Illyricum, Gaul, Spain, Africa, dexterously confounding their +undoubted metropolitan and patriarchal rights with those of oecumenical +bishop, in which they were finally merged. By his writings and the +fame of his personal sanctity, by the conversion of England and the +introduction of an impressive ritual, Gregory the Great did more than +any other pontiff to advance Rome's ecclesiastical authority. Yet his +tone to Maurice of Constantinople was deferential, to Phocas +adulatory; his successors were not consecrated till confirmed by the +Emperor or the Exarch; one of them was dragged in chains to the +Bosphorus, and banished thence to Scythia. When the iconoclastic +controversy and the intervention of Pipin broke the allegiance of the +Popes to the East, the Franks, as patricians and Emperors, seemed to +step into the position which Byzantium had lost[172]. At Charles's +coronation, says the Saxon poet, + + 'Et summus eundem + Praesul adoravit, sicut mos debitus olim + Principibus fuit antiquis.' + +[Sidenote: Temporal power of the Popes.] + +Their relations were, however, no longer the same. If the Frank +vaunted conquest, the priest spoke only of free gift. What Christendom +saw was that Charles was crowned by the Pope's hands, and undertook as +his principal duty the protection and advancement of the Holy Roman +Church. The circumstances of Otto the Great's coronation gave an even +more favourable opening to sacerdotal claims, for it was a Pope who +summoned him to Rome and a Pope who received from him an oath of +fidelity and aid. In the conflict of three powers, the Emperor, the +pontiff, and the people--represented by their senate and consuls, or +by the demagogue of the hour--the most steady, prudent, and +far-sighted was sure eventually to prevail. The Popedom had no +minorities, as yet few disputed successions, few revolts within its +own army--the host of churchmen through Europe. Boniface's conversion +of Germany under its direct sanction, gave it a hold on the rising +hierarchy of the greatest European state; the extension of the rule of +Charles and Otto diffused in the same measure its emissaries and +pretensions. The first disputes turned on the right of the prince to +confirm the elected pontiff, which was afterwards supposed to have +been granted by Hadrian I to Charles, in the decree quoted as +'_Hadrianus Papa_[173].' This '_ius eligendi et ordinandi summum +pontificem_,' which Lewis I appears as yielding by the '_Ego +Ludovicus_[174],' was claimed by the Carolingians whenever they felt +themselves strong enough, and having fallen into desuetude in the +troublous times of the Italian Emperors, was formally renewed to Otto +the Great by his nominee Leo VIII. We have seen it used, and used in +the purest spirit, by Otto himself, by his grandson Otto III, last of +all, and most despotically, by Henry III. Along with it there had +grown up a bold counter-assumption of the Papal chair to be itself the +source of the imperial dignity. In submitting to a fresh coronation, +Lewis the Pious admitted the invalidity of his former self-performed +one: Charles the Bald did not scout the arrogant declaration of John +VIII[175], that to him alone the Emperor owed his crown; and the +council of Pavia[176], when it chose him king of Italy, repeated the +assertion. Subsequent Popes knew better than to apply to the chiefs of +Saxon and Franconian chivalry language which the feeble Neustrian had +not resented; but the precedent remained, the weapon was only hid +behind the pontifical robe to be flashed out with effect when the +moment should come. There were also two other great steps which papal +power had taken. By the invention and adoption of the False Decretals +it had provided itself with a legal system suited to any emergency, +and which gave it unlimited authority through the Christian world in +causes spiritual and over persons ecclesiastical. Canonistical +ingenuity found it easy in one way or another to make this include all +causes and persons whatsoever: for crime is always and wrong is often +sin, nor can aught be anywhere done which may not affect the clergy. +On the gift of Pipin and Charles, repeated and confirmed by Lewis I, +Charles II, Otto I and III, and now made to rest on the more venerable +authority of the first Christian Emperor, it could found claims to the +sovereignty of Rome, Tuscany, and all else that had belonged to the +exarchate. Indefinite in their terms, these grants were never meant by +the donors to convey full dominion over the districts--that belonged +to the head of the Empire--but only as in the case of other church +estates, a perpetual usufruct or _dominium utile_. They were, in fact, +mere endowments. Nor had the gifts been ever actually reduced into +possession: the Pope had been hitherto the victim, not the lord, of +the neighbouring barons. They were not, however, denied, and might be +made a formidable engine of attack: appealing to them, the Pope could +brand his opponents as unjust and impious; and could summon nobles and +cities to defend him as their liege lord, just as, with no better +original right, he invoked the help of the Norman conquerors of Naples +and Sicily. + +The attitude of the Roman Church to the imperial power at Henry the +Third's death was externally respectful. The right of a German king to +the crown of the city was undoubted, and the Pope was his lawful +subject. Hitherto the initiative in reform had come from the civil +magistrate. But the secret of the pontiff's strength lay in this: he, +and he alone, could confer the crown, and had therefore the right of +imposing conditions on its recipient. Frequent interregna had weakened +the claim of the Transalpine monarch and prevented his power from +taking firm root; his title was never by law hereditary: the holy +Church had before sought and might again seek a defender elsewhere. +And since the need of such defence had originated this transference of +the Empire from the Greeks to the Franks, since to render it was the +Emperor's chief function, it was surely the Pope's duty as well as his +right to see that the candidate was capable of fulfilling his task, to +degrade him if he rejected or misperformed it. + +[Sidenote: Hildebrandine reforms.] + +The first step was to remove a blemish in the constitution of the +Church, by fixing a regular body to choose the supreme pontiff. This +Nicholas II did in A.D. 1059, feebly reserving the rights of Henry IV +and his successors. Then the reforming spirit, kindled by the abuses +and depravity of the last century, advanced apace. It had two main +objects: the enforcement of celibacy, especially on the secular +clergy, who enjoyed in this respect considerable freedom, and the +extinction of simony. In the former, the Emperors and a large part of +the laity were not unwilling to join: the latter no one dared to +defend in theory. But when Gregory VII declared that it was sin for +the ecclesiastic to receive his benefice under conditions from a +layman, and so condemned the whole system of feudal investitures to +the clergy, he aimed a deadly blow at all secular authority. Half of +the land and wealth of Germany was in the hands of bishops and abbots, +who would now be freed from the monarch's control to pass under that +of the Pope. In such a state of things government itself would be +impossible. + +[Sidenote: Henry IV and Gregory VII.] + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1077.] + +Henry and Gregory already mistrusted each other: after this decree war +was inevitable. The Pope cited his opponent to appear and be judged at +Rome for his vices and misgovernment. The Emperor[177] replied by +convoking a synod, which deposed and insulted Gregory. At once the +dauntless monk pronounced Henry excommunicate, and fixed a day on +which, if still unrepentant, he should cease to reign. Supported by +his own princes, the monarch might have defied a mandate backed by no +external force; but the Saxons, never contented since the first place +had passed from their own dukes to the Franconians, only waited the +signal to burst into a new revolt, whilst through all Germany the +Emperor's tyranny and irregularities of life had sown the seeds of +disaffection. Shunned, betrayed, threatened, he rushed into what +seemed the only course left, and Canosa saw Europe's mightiest prince, +titular lord of the world, a suppliant before the successor of the +Apostle. Henry soon found that his humiliation had not served him; +driven back into opposition, he defied Gregory anew, set up an +anti-pope, overthrew the rival whom his rebellious subjects had +raised, and maintained to the end of his sad and chequered life a +power often depressed but never destroyed. Nevertheless had all other +humiliation been spared, that one scene in the yard of the Countess +Matilda's castle, an imperial penitent standing barefoot and +woollen-frocked on the snow three days and nights, till the priest who +sat within should admit and absolve him, was enough to mark a decisive +change, and inflict an irretrievable disgrace on the crown so abased. +Its wearer could no more, with the same lofty confidence, claim to be +the highest power on earth, created by and answerable to God alone. +Gregory had extorted the recognition of that absolute superiority of +the spiritual dominion which he was wont to assert so sternly; +proclaiming that to the Pope, as God's vicar, all mankind are subject, +and all rulers responsible: so that he, the giver of the crown, may +also excommunicate and depose. Writing to William the Conqueror, he +says[178]: 'For as for the beauty of this world, that it may be at +different seasons perceived by fleshly eyes, God hath disposed the sun +and the moon, lights that outshine all others; so lest the creature +whom His goodness hath formed after His own image in this world should +be drawn astray into fatal dangers, He hath provided in the apostolic +and royal dignities the means of ruling it through divers offices.... +If I, therefore, am to answer for thee on the dreadful day of judgment +before the just Judge who cannot lie, the creator of every creature, +bethink thee whether I must not very diligently provide for thy +salvation, and whether, for thine own safety, thou oughtest not +without delay to obey me, that so thou mayest possess the land of the +living.' + +Gregory was not the inventor nor the first propounder of these +doctrines; they had been long before a part of mediaeval Christianity, +interwoven with its most vital doctrines. But he was the first who +dared to apply them to the world as he found it. His was that rarest +and grandest of gifts, an intellectual courage and power of +imaginative belief which, when it has convinced itself of aught, +accepts it fully with all its consequences, and shrinks not from +acting at once upon it. A perilous gift, as the melancholy end of his +own career proved, for men were found less ready than he had thought +them to follow out with unswerving consistency like his the principles +which all acknowledged. But it was the very suddenness and boldness of +his policy that secured the ultimate triumph of his cause, awing men's +minds and making that seem realized which had been till then a vague +theory. His premises once admitted,--and no one dreamt of denying +them,--the reasonings by which he established the superiority of +spiritual to temporal jurisdiction were unassailable. With his +authority, in whose hands are the keys of heaven and hell, whose word +can bestow eternal bliss or plunge in everlasting misery, no other +earthly authority can compete or interfere: if his power extends into +the infinite, how much more must he be supreme over things finite? It +was thus that Gregory and his successors were wont to argue: the +wonder is, not that they were obeyed, but that they were not obeyed +more implicitly. In the second sentence of excommunication which +Gregory passed upon Henry the Fourth are these words:-- + +'Come now, I beseech you, O most holy and blessed Fathers and Princes, +Peter and Paul, that all the world may understand and know that if ye +are able to bind and to loose in heaven, ye are likewise able on +earth, according to the merits of each man, to give and to take away +empires, kingdoms, princedoms, marquisates, duchies, countships, and +the possessions of all men. For if ye judge spiritual things, what +must we believe to be your power over worldly things? and if ye judge +the angels who rule over all proud princes, what can ye not do to +their slaves?' + +[Sidenote: Results of the struggle.] + +Doctrines such as these do indeed strike equally at all temporal +governments, nor were the Innocents and Bonifaces of later days slow +to apply them so. On the Empire, however, the blow fell first and +heaviest. As when Alaric entered Rome, the spell of ages was broken, +Christendom saw her greatest and most venerable institution +dishonoured and helpless; allegiance was no longer undivided, for who +could presume to fix in each case the limits of the civil and +ecclesiastical jurisdictions? The potentates of Europe beheld in the +Papacy a force which, if dangerous to themselves, could be made to +repel the pretensions and baffle the designs of the strongest and +haughtiest among them. Italy learned how to meet the Teutonic +conqueror by gaining the papal sanction for the leagues of her cities. +The German princes, anxious to narrow the prerogative of their head, +were the natural allies of his enemy, whose spiritual thunders, more +terrible than their own lances, could enable them to depose an +aspiring monarch, or extort from him any concessions they desired. +Their altered tone is marked by the promise they required from Rudolf +of Swabia, whom they set up as a rival to Henry, that he would not +endeavour to make the throne hereditary. + +[Sidenote: Concordat of Worms, A.D. 1122.] + +It is not possible here to dwell on the details of the great struggle +of the Investitures, rich as it is in the interest of adventure and +character, momentous as were its results for the future. A word or two +must suffice to describe the conclusion, not indeed of the whole +drama, which was to extend over centuries, but of what may be called +its first act. Even that act lasted beyond the lives of the original +performers. Gregory the Seventh passed away at Salerno in A.D. 1087, +exclaiming with his last breath 'I have loved justice and hated +iniquity, therefore I die in exile.' Nineteen years later, in A.D. +1106, Henry IV died, dethroned by an unnatural son whom the hatred of +a relentless pontiff had raised in rebellion against him. But that +son, the emperor Henry the Fifth, so far from conceding the points in +dispute, proved an antagonist more ruthless and not less able than his +father. He claimed for his crown all the rights over ecclesiastics +that his predecessors had ever enjoyed, and when at his coronation in +Rome, A.D. 1112, Pope Paschal II refused to complete the rite until he +should have yielded, Henry seized both Pope and cardinals and +compelled them by a rigorous imprisonment to consent to a treaty which +he dictated. Once set free, the Pope, as was natural, disavowed his +extorted concessions, and the struggle was protracted for ten years +longer, until nearly half a century had elapsed from the first quarrel +between Gregory VII and Henry IV. The Concordat of Worms, concluded in +A.D. 1122, was in form a compromise, designed to spare either party +the humiliation of defeat. Yet the Papacy remained master of the +field. The Emperor retained but one-half of those rights of +investiture which had formerly been his. He could never resume the +position of Henry III; his wishes or intrigues might influence the +proceedings of a chapter, his oath bound him from open interference. +He had entered the strife in the fulness of dignity; he came out of it +with tarnished glory and shattered power. His wars had been hitherto +carried on with foreign foes, or at worst with a single rebel noble; +now his steadiest ally was turned into his fiercest assailant, and had +enlisted against him half his court, half the magnates of his realm. +At any moment his sceptre might be shivered in his hand by the bolt of +anathema, and a host of enemies spring up from every convent and +cathedral. + +[Sidenote: The Crusades.] + +Two other results of this great conflict ought not to pass unnoticed. +The Emperor was alienated from the Church at the most unfortunate of +all moments, the era of the Crusades. To conduct a great religious war +against the enemies of the faith, to head the church militant in her +carnal as the Popes were accustomed to do in her spiritual strife, +this was the very purpose for which an Emperor had been called into +being; and it was indeed in these wars, more particularly in the first +three of them, that the ideal of a Christian commonwealth which the +theory of the mediaeval Empire proclaimed, was once for all and never +again realized by the combined action of the great nations of Europe. +Had such an opportunity fallen to the lot of Henry III, he might have +used it to win back a supremacy hardly inferior to that which had +belonged to the first Carolingians. But Henry IV's proscription +excluded him from all share in an enterprise which he must otherwise +have led--nay, more, committed it to the guidance of his foes. The +religious feeling which the Crusades evoked--a feeling which became +the origin of the great orders of chivalry, and somewhat later of the +two great orders of mendicant friars--turned wholly against the +opponent of ecclesiastical claims, and was made to work the will of +the Holy See, which had blessed and organized the project. A century +and a half later the Pope did not scruple to preach a crusade against +the Emperor himself. + +Again: it was now that the first seeds were sown of that fear and +hatred wherewith the German people never thenceforth ceased to regard +the encroaching Romish court. Branded by the Church and forsaken by +the nobles, Henry IV retained the affections of the faithful burghers +of Worms and Liege. It soon became the test of Teutonic patriotism to +resist Italian priestcraft. + +[Sidenote: Limitations of imperial prerogative.] + +[Sidenote: Lothar II, 1125-1138.] + +[Sidenote: Conrad III, 1138-1152.] + +The changes in the internal constitution of Germany which the long +anarchy of Henry IV's reign had produced are seen when the nature of +the prerogative as it stood at the accession of Conrad II, the first +Franconian Emperor, is compared with its state at Henry V's death. All +fiefs are now hereditary, and when vacant can be granted afresh only +by consent of the States; the jurisdiction of the crown is less wide; +the idea is beginning to make progress that the most essential part of +the Empire is not its supreme head but the commonwealth of princes and +barons. The greatest triumph of these feudal magnates is in the +establishment of the elective principle, which when confirmed by the +three free elections of Lothar II, Conrad III, and Frederick I, passes +into an undoubted law. The Prince-Electors are mentioned in A.D. 1156 +as a distinct and important body[179]. The clergy, too, whom the +policy of Otto the Great and Henry II had raised, are now not less +dangerous than the dukes, whose power it was hoped they would balance; +possibly more so, since protected by their sacred character and their +allegiance to the Pope, while able at the same time to command the +arms of their countless vassals. Nor were the two succeeding Emperors +the men to retrieve those disasters. The Saxon Lothar the Second is +the willing minion of the Pope; performs at his coronation a menial +service unknown before, and takes a more stringent oath to defend the +Holy See, that he may purchase its support against the Swabian faction +in his own dominions. Conrad the Third, the first Emperor of the great +house of Hohenstaufen[180], represents the anti-papal party; but +domestic troubles and an unfortunate crusade prevented him from +effecting anything in Italy. He never even entered Rome to receive the +crown. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[171] 'Roma per sedem Beati Petri caput orbis effecta.'--See note _i_, +p. 32. + +[172] 'Claves tibi _ad regnum_ dimisimus.'--Pope Stephen to Charles +Martel, in _Codex Carolinus_, ap. Muratori, _S. R. I._ iii. Some, +however, prefer to read 'ad rogum.' + +[173] _Corpus Iuris Canonici_, Dist. lxiii. c. 22. + +[174] Dist. lxiii. c. 30. This decree is, however, in all probability +spurious. + +[175] 'Nos elegimus merito et approbavimus una cum annisu et voto +patrum amplique senatus et gentis togatae,' &c., ap. Baron. _Ann. +Eccl._, ad ann. 876. + +[176] 'Divina vos pietas B. principum apostolorum Petri et Pauli +interventione per vicarium ipsorum dominum Ioannem summum pontificem +... ad imperiale culmen S. Spiritus iudicio provexit.'--_Concil. +Ticinense_, in Mur., _S. R. I._ ii. + +[177] Strictly speaking, Henry was at this time only king of the +Romans: he was not crowned Emperor at Rome till 1084. + +[178] Letter of Gregory VII to William I, A.D. 1080. I quote from +Migne, t. cxlviii. p. 568. + +[179] 'Gradum statim post Principes Electores.'--Frederick I's +Privilege of Austria, in Pertz, _M. G. H._ legg. ii. + +[180] Hohenstaufen is a castle in what is now the kingdom of +Wuertemberg, about four miles from the Goeppingen station of the railway +from Stuttgart to Ulm. It stands, or rather stood, on the summit of a +steep and lofty conical hill, commanding a boundless view over the +great limestone plateau of the Rauhe Alp, the eastern declivities of +the Schwartzwald, and the bare and tedious plains of western Bavaria. +Of the castle itself, destroyed in the Peasants' War, there remain +only fragments of the wall-foundations: in a rude chapel lying on the +hill slope below are some strange half-obliterated frescoes; over the +arch of the door is inscribed 'Hic transibat Caesar.' Frederick +Barbarossa had another famous palace at Kaiserslautern, a small town +in the Palatinate, on the railway from Mannheim to Treves, lying in a +wide valley at the western foot of the Hardt mountains. It was +destroyed by the French and a house of correction has been built upon +its site; but in a brewery hard by may be seen some of the huge +low-browed arches of its lower story. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE EMPERORS IN ITALY: FREDERICK BARBAROSSA. + + +[Sidenote: Frederick of Hohenstaufen, 1152-1189.] + +The reign of Frederick the First, better known under his Italian +surname Barbarossa, is the most brilliant in the annals of the Empire. +Its territory had been wider under Charles, its strength perhaps +greater under Henry the Third, but it never appeared in such pervading +vivid activity, never shone with such lustre of chivalry, as under the +prince whom his countrymen have taken to be one of their national +heroes, and who is still, as the half-mythic type of Teutonic +character, honoured by picture and statue, in song and in legend, +through the breadth of the German lands. The reverential fondness of +his annalists and the whole tenour of his life go far to justify this +admiration, and dispose us to believe that nobler motives were joined +with personal ambition in urging him to assert so haughtily and carry +out so harshly those imperial rights in which he had such unbounded +confidence. Under his guidance the Transalpine power made its greatest +effort to subdue the two antagonists which then threatened and were +fated in the end to destroy it--Italian nationality and the Papacy. + +[Sidenote: His relations to the Popedom.] + +Even before Gregory VII's time it might have been predicted that two +such potentates as the Emperor and the Pope, closely bound together, +yet each with pretensions wide and undefined, must ere long come into +collision. The boldness of that great pontiff in enforcing, the +unflinching firmness of his successors in maintaining, the supremacy +of clerical authority, inspired their supporters with a zeal and +courage which more than compensated the advantages of the Emperor in +defending rights he had long enjoyed. On both sides the hatred was +soon very bitter. But even had men's passions permitted a +reconciliation, it would have been found difficult to bring into +harmony adverse principles, each irresistible, mutually destructive. +As the spiritual power, in itself purer, since exercised over the soul +and directed to the highest of all ends, eternal felicity, was +entitled to the obedience of all, laymen as well as clergy; so the +spiritual person, to whom, according to the view then universally +accepted, there had been imparted by ordination a mysterious sanctity, +could not without sin be subject to the lay magistrate, be installed +by him in office, be judged in his court, and render to him any +compulsory service. Yet it was no less true that civil government was +indispensable to the peace and advancement of society; and while it +continued to subsist, another jurisdiction could not be suffered to +interfere with its workings, nor one-half of the people be altogether +removed from its control. Thus the Emperor and the Pope were forced +into hostility as champions of opposite systems, however fully each +might admit the strength of his adversary's position, however bitterly +he might bewail the violence of his own partisans. There had also +arisen other causes of quarrel, less respectable but not less +dangerous. The pontiff demanded and the monarch refused the lands +which the Countess Matilda of Tuscany had bequeathed to the Holy See; +Frederick claiming them as feudal suzerain, the Pope eager by their +means to carry out those schemes of temporal dominion which +Constantine's donation sanctioned, and Lothar's seeming renunciation +of the sovereignty of Rome had done much to encourage. As feudal +superior of the Norman kings of Naples and Sicily, as protector of the +towns and barons of North Italy who feared the German yoke, the +successor of Peter wore already the air of an independent potentate. + +[Sidenote: Contest with Hadrian IV.] + +No man was less likely than Frederick to submit to these +encroachments. He was a sort of imperialist Hildebrand, strenuously +proclaiming the immediate dependence of his office on God's gift, and +holding it every whit as sacred as his rival's. On his first journey +to Rome, he refused to hold the Pope's stirrup[181], as Lothar had +done, till Pope Hadrian the Fourth's threat that he would withhold the +crown enforced compliance. Complaints arising not long after on some +other ground, the Pope exhorted Frederick by letter to shew himself +worthy of the kindness of his mother the Roman Church, who had given +him the imperial crown, and would confer on him, if dutiful, benefits +still greater. This word benefits--_beneficia_--understood in its +usual legal sense of 'fief,' and taken in connection with the picture +which had been set up at Rome to commemorate Lothar's homage, provoked +angry shouts from the nobles assembled in diet at Besancon; and when +the legate answered, 'From whom, then, if not from our Lord the Pope, +does your king hold the Empire?' his life was not safe from their +fury. On this occasion Frederick's vigour and the remonstrances of the +Transalpine prelates obliged Hadrian to explain away the obnoxious +word, and remove the picture. Soon after the quarrel was renewed by +other causes, and came to centre itself round the Pope's demand that +Rome should be left entirely to his government. Frederick, in reply, +appeals to the civil law, and closes with the words, 'Since by the +ordination of God I both am called and am Emperor of the Romans, in +nothing but name shall I appear to be ruler if the control of the +Roman city be wrested from my hands.' That such a claim should need +assertion marks the change since Henry III; how much more that it +could not be enforced. Hadrian's tone rises into defiance; he mingles +the threat of excommunication with references to the time when the +Germans had not yet the Empire. 'What were the Franks till Zacharias +welcomed Pipin? What is the Teutonic king now till consecrated at Rome +by holy hands? The chair of Peter has given, and can withdraw its +gifts.' + +[Sidenote: With Pope Alexander III.] + +The schism that followed Hadrian's death produced a second and more +momentous conflict. Frederick, as head of Christendom, proposed to +summon the bishops of Europe to a general council, over which he +should preside, like Justinian or Heraclius. Quoting the favourite +text of the two swords, 'On earth,' he continues, 'God has placed no +more than two powers: above there is but one God, so here one Pope and +one Emperor. The Divine Providence has specially appointed the Roman +Empire as a remedy against continued schism[182].' The plan failed; +and Frederick adopted the candidate whom his own faction had chosen, +while the rival claimant, Alexander III, appealed, with a confidence +which the issue justified, to the support of sound churchmen +throughout Europe. The keen and long doubtful strife of twenty years +that followed, while apparently a dispute between rival Popes, was in +substance an effort by the secular monarch to recover his command of +the priesthood; not less truly so than that contemporaneous conflict +of the English Henry II and St. Thomas of Canterbury, with which it +was constantly involved. Unsupported, not all Alexander's genius and +resolution could have saved him: by the aid of the Lombard cities, +whose league he had counselled and hallowed, and of the fevers of +Rome, by which the conquering German host was suddenly annihilated, he +won a triumph the more signal, that it was over a prince so wise and +so pious as Frederick. At Venice, who, inaccessible by her position, +maintained a sedulous neutrality, claiming to be independent of the +Empire, yet seldom led into war by sympathy with the Popes, the two +powers whose strife had roused all Europe were induced to meet by the +mediation of the doge Sebastian Ziani. Three slabs of red marble in +the porch of St. Mark's point out the spot where Frederick knelt in +sudden awe, and the Pope with tears of joy raised him, and gave the +kiss of peace. A later legend, to which poetry and painting have given +an undeserved currency[183], tells how the pontiff set his foot on the +neck of the prostrate king, with the words, 'The lion and the dragon +shalt thou trample under feet[184].' It needed not this exaggeration +to enhance the significance of that scene, even more full of meaning +for the future than it was solemn and affecting to the Venetian crowd +that thronged the church and the piazza. For it was the renunciation +by the mightiest prince of his time of the project to which his life +had been devoted: it was the abandonment by the secular power of a +contest in which it had twice been vanquished, and which it could not +renew under more favourable conditions. + +[Sidenote: Revival of the study of the civil law.] + +Authority maintained so long against the successor of Peter would be +far from indulgent to rebellious subjects. For it was in this light +that the Lombard cities appeared to a monarch bent on reviving all the +rights his predecessors had enjoyed: nay, all that the law of ancient +Rome gave her absolute ruler. It would be wrong to speak of a +re-discovery of the civil law. That system had never perished from +Gaul and Italy, had been the groundwork of some codes, and the whole +substance, modified only by the changes in society, of many others. +The Church excepted, no agent did so much to keep alive the memory of +Roman institutions. The twelfth century now beheld the study +cultivated with a surprising increase of knowledge and ardour, +expended chiefly upon the Pandects. First in Italy and the schools of +the South, then in Paris and Oxford, they were expounded, commented +on, extolled as the perfection of human wisdom, the sole, true, and +eternal law. Vast as has been the labour and thought expended from +that time to this in the elucidation of the civil law, the most +competent authorities declare that in acuteness, in subtlety, in all +those branches of learning which can subsist without help from +historical criticism, these so-called Glossatores have been seldom +equalled and never surpassed by their successors. The teachers of the +canon law, who had not as yet become the rivals of the civilian, and +were accustomed to recur to his books where their own were silent, +spread through Europe the fame and influence of the Roman +jurisprudence; while its own professors were led both by their feeling +and their interest to give to all its maxims the greatest weight and +the fullest application. Men just emerging from barbarism, with minds +unaccustomed to create and blindly submissive to authority, viewed +written texts with an awe to us incomprehensible. All that the most +servile jurists of Rome had ever ascribed to their despotic princes +was directly transferred to the Caesarean majesty who inherited their +name. He was 'Lord of the world,' absolute master of the lives and +property of all his subjects, that is, of all men; the sole fountain +of legislation, the embodiment of right and justice. These doctrines, +which the great Bolognese jurists, Bulgarus, Martinus, Hugolinus, and +others who constantly surrounded Frederick, taught and applied, as +matter of course, to a Teutonic, a feudal king, were by the rest of +the world not denied, were accepted in fervent faith by his German and +Italian partisans. 'To the Emperor belongs the protection of the whole +world,' says bishop Otto of Freysing. 'The Emperor is a living law +upon earth[185].' To Frederick, at Roncaglia, the archbishop of Milan +speaks for the assembled magnates of Lombardy: 'Do and ordain +whatsoever thou wilt, thy will is law; as it is written, "Quicquid +principi placuit legis habet vigorem, cum populus ei et in eum omne +suum imperium et potestatem concesserit[186]." The Hohenstaufen +himself was not slow to accept these magnificent ascriptions of +dignity, and though modestly professing his wish to govern according +to law rather than override the law, was doubtless roused by them to a +more vehement assertion of a prerogative so hallowed by age and by +what seemed a divine ordinance. + +[Sidenote: Frederick in Italy.] + +[Sidenote: Rome under Arnold of Brescia.] + +That assertion was most loudly called for in Italy. The Emperors might +appear to consider it a conquered country without privileges to be +respected, for they did not summon its princes to the German diets, +and overawed its own assemblies at Pavia or Roncaglia by the +Transalpine host that followed them. Its crown, too, was theirs +whenever they crossed the Alps to claim it, while the elections on the +banks of the Rhine might be adorned but could not be influenced by the +presence of barons from the southern kingdom[187]. In practice, +however, the imperial power stood lower in Italy than in Germany, for +it had been from the first intermittent, depending on the personal +vigour and present armed support of each invader. The theoretic +sovereignty of the Emperor-king was nowise disputed: in the cities +toll and tax were of right his: he could issue edicts at the Diet, and +require the tenants in chief to appear with their vassals. But the +revival of a control never exercised since Henry IV's time, was felt +as an intolerable hardship by the great Lombard cities, proud of +riches and population equal to that of the duchies of Germany or the +kingdoms of the North, and accustomed for more than a century to a +turbulent independence. For republicanism and popular freedom +Frederick had little sympathy. At Rome the fervent Arnold of Brescia +had repeated, but with far different thoughts and hopes, the part of +Crescentius[188]. The city had thrown off the yoke of its bishop, and +a commonwealth under consuls and senate professed to emulate the +spirit while it renewed the forms of the primitive republic. Its +leaders had written to Conrad III[189], asking him to help them to +restore the Empire to its position under Constantine and Justinian; +but the German, warned by St. Bernard, had preferred the friendship of +the Pope. Filled with a vain conceit of their own importance, they +repeated their offers to Frederick when he sought the crown from +Hadrian the Fourth. A deputation, after dwelling in highflown language +on the dignity of the Roman people, and their kindness in bestowing +the sceptre on him, a Swabian and a stranger, proceeded, in a manner +hardly consistent, to demand a largess ere he should enter the city. +Frederick's anger did not hear them to the end: 'Is this your Roman +wisdom? Who are ye that usurp the name of Roman dignities? Your +honours and your authority are yours no longer; with us are consuls, +senate, soldiers. It was not you who chose us, but Charles and Otto +that rescued you from the Greek and the Lombard, and conquered by +their own might the imperial crown. That Frankish might is still the +same: wrench, if you can, the club from Hercules. It is not for the +people to give laws to the prince, but to obey his mandate[190].' This +was Frederick's version of the 'Translation of the Empire[191].' + +[Sidenote: The Lombard Cities.] + +He who had been so stern to his own capital was not likely to deal +more gently with the rebels of Milan and Tortona. In the contest by +which Frederick is chiefly known to history, he is commonly painted as +the foreign tyrant, the forerunner of the Austrian oppressor[192], +crushing under the hoofs of his cavalry the home of freedom and +industry. Such a view is unjust to a great man and his cause. To the +despot liberty is always licence; yet Frederick was the advocate of +admitted claims; the aggressions of Milan threatened her neighbours; +the refusal, where no actual oppression was alleged, to admit his +officers and allow his regalian rights, seemed a wanton breach of +oaths and engagements, treason against God no less than himself[193]. +Nevertheless our sympathy must go with the cities, in whose victory we +recognize the triumph of freedom and civilization. Their resistance +was at first probably a mere aversion to unused control, and to the +enforcement of imposts less offensive in former days than now, and by +long dereliction apparently obsolete[194]. Republican principles were +not avowed, nor Italian nationality appealed to. But the progress of +the conflict developed new motives and feelings, and gave them clearer +notions of what they fought for. As the Emperor's antagonist, the Pope +was their natural ally: he blessed their arms, and called on the +barons of Romagna and Tuscany for aid; he made 'The Church' ere long +their watchword, and helped them to conclude that league of mutual +support by means whereof the party of the Italian Guelfs was formed. +Another cry, too, began to be heard, hardly less inspiriting than the +last, the cry of freedom and municipal self-government--freedom little +understood and terribly abused, self-government which the cities who +claimed it for themselves refused to their subject allies, yet both of +them, through their divine power of stimulating effort and quickening +sympathy, as much nobler than the harsh and sterile system of a feudal +monarchy as the citizen of republican Athens rose above the slavish +Asiatic or the brutal Macedonian. Nor was the fact that Italians were +resisting a Transalpine invader without its effect; there was as yet +no distinct national feeling, for half Lombardy, towns as well as +rural nobles, fought under Frederick; but events made the cause of +liberty always more clearly the cause of patriotism, and increased +that fear and hate of the Tedescan for which Italy has had such bitter +justification. + +[Sidenote: Temporary success of Frederick.] + +The Emperor was for a time successful: Tortona was taken, Milan razed +to the ground, her name apparently lost: greater obstacles had been +overcome, and a fuller authority was now exercised than in the days of +the Ottos or the Henrys. The glories of the first Frankish conqueror +were triumphantly recalled, and Frederick was compared by his admirers +to the hero whose canonization he had procured, and whom he strove in +all things to imitate[195]. 'He was esteemed,' says one, 'second only +to Charles in piety and justice.' 'We ordain this,' says a decree: 'Ut +ad Caroli imitationem ius ecclesiarum statum reipublicae et legum +integritatem per totum imperium nostrum servaremus[196].' But the hold +the name of Charles had on the minds of the people, and the way in +which he had become, so to speak, an eponym of Empire, has better +witnesses than grave documents. A rhyming poet sings[197]:-- + + 'Quanta sit potentia vel laus Friderici + Cum sit patens omnibus, non est opus dici; + Qui rebelles lancea fodiens ultrici + Repraesentat Karolum dextera victrici.' + +The diet at Roncaglia was a chorus of gratulations over the +re-establishment of order by the destruction of the dens of unruly +burghers. + +[Sidenote: Victory of the Lombard league.] + +This fair sky was soon clouded. From her quenchless ashes uprose +Milan; Cremona, scorning old jealousies, helped to rebuild what she +had destroyed, and the confederates, committed to an all but hopeless +strife, clung faithfully together till on the field of Legnano the +Empire's banner went down before the carroccio[198] of the free city. +Times were changed since Aistulf and Desiderius trembled at the +distant tramp of the Frankish hosts. A new nation had arisen, slowly +reared through suffering into strength, now at last by heroic deeds +conscious of itself. The power of Charles had overleaped boundaries of +nature and language that were too strong for his successor, and that +grew henceforth ever firmer, till they made the Empire itself a +delusive name. Frederick, though harsh in war, and now balked of his +most cherished hopes, could honestly accept a state of things it was +beyond his power to change: he signed cheerfully and kept dutifully +the peace of Constance, which left him little but a titular supremacy +over the Lombard towns. + +[Sidenote: Frederick as German king.] + +At home no Emperor since Henry III had been so much respected and so +generally prosperous. Uniting in his person the Saxon and Swabian +families, he healed the long feud of Welf and Waiblingen: his prelates +were faithful to him, even against Rome: no turbulent rebel disturbed +the public peace. Germany was proud of a hero who maintained her +dignity so well abroad, and he crowned a glorious life with a happy +death, leading the van of Christian chivalry against the Mussulman. +Frederick, the greatest of the Crusaders, is the noblest type of +mediaeval character in many of its shadows, in all its lights. + +[Sidenote: The German cities.] + +Legal in form, in practice sometimes almost absolute, the government +of Germany was, like that of other feudal kingdoms, restrained chiefly +by the difficulty of coercing refractory vassals. All depended on the +monarch's character, and one so vigorous and popular as Frederick +could generally lead the majority with him and terrify the rest. A +false impression of the real strength of his prerogative might be +formed from the readiness with which he was obeyed. He repaired the +finances of the kingdom, controlled the dukes, introduced a more +splendid ceremonial, endeavoured to exalt the central power by +multiplying the nobles of the second rank, afterwards the 'college of +princes,' and by trying to substitute the civil law and Lombard feudal +code for the old Teutonic customs, different in every province. If not +successful in this project, he fared better with another. Since Henry +the Fowler's day towns had been growing up through Southern and +Western Germany, especially where rivers offered facilities for trade. +Cologne, Treves, Mentz, Worms, Speyer, Nuernberg, Ulm, Regensburg, +Augsburg, were already considerable cities, not afraid to beard their +lord or their bishop, and promising before long to counterbalance the +power of the territorial oligarchy. Policy or instinct led Frederick +to attach them to the throne, enfranchising many, granting, with +municipal institutions, an independent jurisdiction, conferring +various exemptions and privileges; while receiving in turn their +good-will and loyal aid, in money always, in men when need should +come. His immediate successors trode in his steps, and thus there +arose in the state a third order, the firmest bulwark, had it been +rightly used, of imperial authority; an order whose members, the Free +Cities, were through many ages the centres of German intellect and +freedom, the only haven from the storms of civil war, the surest hope +of future peace and union. In them national congresses to this day +sometimes meet: from them aspiring spirits strive to diffuse those +ideas of Germanic unity and self-government, which they alone have +kept alive. Out of so many flourishing commonwealths, four[199] have +been spared by foreign conquerors and faithless princes. To the +primitive order of German freemen, scarcely existing out of the towns, +except in Swabia and Switzerland, Frederick further commended himself +by allowing them to be admitted to knighthood, by restraining the +licence of the nobles, imposing a public peace, making justice in +every way more accessible and impartial. To the south-west of the +green plain that girdles in the rock of Salzburg, the gigantic mass of +the Untersberg frowns over the road which winds up a long defile to +the glen and lake of Berchtesgaden. There, far up among its limestone +crags, in a spot scarcely accessible to human foot, the peasants of +the valley point out to the traveller the black mouth of a cavern, and +tell him that within Barbarossa lies amid his knights in an enchanted +sleep[200], waiting the hour when the ravens shall cease to hover +round the peak, and the pear-tree blossom in the valley, to descend +with his Crusaders and bring back to Germany the golden age of peace +and strength and unity. Often in the evil days that followed the fall +of Frederick's house, often when tyranny seemed unendurable and +anarchy endless, men thought on that cavern, and sighed for the day +when the long sleep of the just Emperor should be broken, and his +shield be hung aloft again as of old in the camp's midst, a sign of +help to the poor and the oppressed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[181] A great deal of importance seems to have been attached to this +symbolic act of courtesy. See Art. I of the Sachsenspiegel. + +[182] Letter to the German bishops in Radewic; Mur., _S. R. I._, t. +vi. p. 833. + +[183] A picture in the great hall of the ducal palace (the Sala del +Maggio Consiglio) represents the scene. See Rogers' Italy. + +[184] Psalm xci. + +[185] Document of 1230, quoted by Von Raumer, v. p. 81. + +[186] Speech of archbishop of Milan, in Radewic; Mur. vi. + +[187] Frederick's election (at Frankfort) was made 'non sine quibusdam +Italiae baronibus.'--Otto Fris. i. But this was the exception. + +[188] See also _post_, Chapter XVI. + +[189] 'Senatus Populusque Romanus urbis et orbis totius domino +Conrado.' + +[190] Otto of Freysing. + +[191] Later in his reign, Frederick condescended to negotiate with +these Roman magistrates against a hostile Pope, and entered into a +sort of treaty by which they were declared exempt from all +jurisdiction but his own. + +[192] See the first note to Shelley's _Hellas_. Sismondi is mainly +answerable for this conception of Barbarossa's position. + +[193] They say rebelliously, says Frederick, 'Nolumus hunc regnare +super nos ... at nos maluimus honestam mortem quam ut,' &c.--Letter in +Pertz. _M. G. H._ legg. ii. + +[194] + + 'De tributo Caesaris nemo cogitabat; + Omnes erant Caesares, nemo censum dabat; + Civitas Ambrosii, velut Troia, stabat, + Deos parum, homines minus formidabat.' + +Poems relating to the Emperor Frederick of Hohenstaufen, published by +Grimm. + +[195] Charles the Great was canonized by Frederick's anti-pope and +confirmed afterwards. + +[196] _Acta Concil. Hartzhem._ iii., quoted by Von Raumer, ii. 6. + +[197] Poems relating to Frederick I, _ut supra_. + +[198] The carroccio was a waggon with a flagstaff planted on it, which +served the Lombards for a rallying-point in battle. + +[199] Luebeck, Hamburg, Bremen, and Frankfort. + +[Since this was first written Frankfort has been annexed by Prussia, +and her three surviving sisters have, by their entrance into the North +German confederation, lost something of their independence.] + +[200] The legend is one which appears under various forms in many +countries. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +IMPERIAL TITLES AND PRETENSIONS. + + +The era of the Hohenstaufen is perhaps the fittest point at which to +turn aside from the narrative history of the Empire to speak shortly +of the legal position which it professed to hold to the rest of +Europe, as well as of certain duties and observances which throw a +light upon the system it embodied. This is not indeed the era of its +greatest power: that was already past. Nor is it conspicuously the era +when its ideal dignity stood highest: for that remained scarcely +impaired till three centuries had passed away. But it was under the +Hohenstaufen, owing partly to the splendid abilities of the princes of +that famous line, partly to the suddenly-gained ascendancy of the +Roman law, that the actual power and the theoretical influence of the +Empire most fully coincided. There can therefore be no better +opportunity for noticing the titles and claims by which it announced +itself the representative of Rome's universal dominion, and for +collecting the various instances in which they were (either before or +after Frederick's time) more or less admitted by the other states of +Europe. + +The territories over which Barbarossa would have declared his +jurisdiction to extend may be classed under four heads:-- + +First, the German lands, in which, and in which alone, the Emperor +was, up till the death of Frederick the Second, effective sovereign. + +Second, the non-German districts of the Holy Empire, where the Emperor +was acknowledged as sole monarch, but in practice little regarded. + +Third, certain outlying countries, owing allegiance to the Empire, but +governed by kings of their own. + +Fourth, the other states of Europe, whose rulers, while in most cases +admitting the superior rank of the Emperor, were virtually independent +of him. + +[Sidenote: Limits of the Empire.] + +Thus within the actual boundaries of the Holy Empire were included +only districts coming under the first and second of the above classes, +i.e. Germany, the northern half of Italy, and the kingdom of Burgundy +or Arles--that is to say, Provence, Dauphine, the Free County of +Burgundy (Franche Comte), and Western Switzerland. Lorraine, Alsace, +and a portion of Flanders were of course parts of Germany. To the +north-east, Bohemia and the Slavic principalities in Mecklenburg and +Pomerania were as yet not integral parts of its body, but rather +dependent outliers. Beyond the march of Brandenburg, from the Oder to +the Vistula, dwelt pagan Lithuanians or Prussians[201], free till the +establishment among them of the Teutonic knights. + +[Sidenote: Hungary.] + +Hungary had owed a doubtful allegiance since the days of Otto I. +Gregory VII had claimed it as a fief of the Holy See; Frederick wished +to reduce it completely to subjection, but could not overcome the +reluctance of his nobles. After Frederick II, by whom it was recovered +from the Mongol hordes, no imperial claims were made for so many years +that at last they became obsolete, and were confessed to be so by the +Constitution of Augsburg, A.D. 1566[202]. + +[Sidenote: Poland.] + +Under Duke Misico, Poland had submitted to Otto the Great, and +continued, with occasional revolts, to obey the Empire, till the +beginning of the Great Interregnum (as it is called) in 1254. Its duke +was present at the election of Richard, A.D. 1258. Thereafter +Primislas called himself king, in token of emancipation, and the +country became independent, though some of its provinces were long +afterwards reunited to the German state. Silesia, originally Polish, +was attached to Bohemia by Charles IV, and so became part of the +Empire; Posen and Galicia were seized by Prussia and Austria, A.D. +1772. Down to her partition in that year, the constitution of Poland +remained a copy of that which had existed in the German kingdom in the +twelfth century[203]. + +[Sidenote: Denmark.] + +Lewis the Pious had received the homage of the Danish king Harold, on +his baptism at Mentz, A.D. 826; Otto the Great's victories over Harold +Blue Tooth made the country regularly subject, and added the march of +Schleswig to the immediate territory of the Empire: but the boundary +soon receded to the Eyder, on whose banks might be seen the +inscription,-- + + 'Eidora Romani terminus imperii.' + +King Peter[204] attended at Frederick I's coronation, to do homage, +and receive from the Emperor, as suzerain, his own crown. Since the +Interregnum Denmark has been always free[205]. + +[Sidenote: France.] + +Otto the Great was the last Emperor whose suzerainty the French kings +had admitted; nor were Henry VI and Otto IV successful in their +attempts to enforce it. Boniface VIII, in his quarrel with Philip the +Fair, offered the French throne, which he had pronounced vacant, to +Albert I; but the wary Hapsburg declined the dangerous prize. The +precedence, however, which the Germans continued to assert, irritated +Gallic pride, and led to more than one contest. Blondel denies the +Empire any claim to the Roman name; and in A.D. 1648 the French envoys +at Muenster refused for some time to admit what no other European state +disputed. Till recent times the title of the Archbishop of Treves, +'Archicancellarius per Galliam atque regnum Arelatense,' preserved the +memory of an obsolete supremacy which the constant aggressions of +France might seem to have reversed. + +[Sidenote: Sweden.] + +No reliance can be placed on the author who tells us that Sweden was +granted by Frederick I to Waldemar the Dane[206]; the fact is +improbable, and we do not hear that such pretensions were ever put +forth before or after. + +[Sidenote: Spain.] + +Nor does it appear that authority was ever exercised by any Emperor in +Spain. Nevertheless the choice of Alfonso X by a section of the German +electors, in A.D. 1258, may be construed to imply that the Spanish +kings were members of the Empire. And when, A.D. 1053, Ferdinand the +Great of Castile had, in the pride of his victories over the Moors, +assumed the title of 'Hispaniae Imperator,' the remonstrance of Henry +III declared the rights of Rome over the Western provinces indelible, +and the Spaniard, though protesting his independence, was forced to +resign the usurped dignity[207]. + +[Sidenote: England.] + +No act of sovereignty is recorded to have been done by any of the +Emperors in England, though as heirs of Rome they might be thought to +have better rights over it than over Poland or Denmark[208]. There +was, however, a vague notion that the English, like other kingdoms, +must depend on the Empire: a notion which appears in Conrad III's +letter to John of Constantinople[209]; and which was countenanced by +the submissive tone in which Frederick I was addressed by the +Plantagenet Henry II[210]. English independence was still more +compromised in the next reign, when Richard I, according to Hoveden, +'Consilio matris suae deposuit se de regno Angliae et tradidit illud +imperatori (Henrico VIto) sicut universorum domino.' But as Richard +was at the same time invested with the kingdom of Arles by Henry VI, +his homage may have been for that fief only; and it was probably in +that capacity that he voted, as a prince of the Empire, at the +election of Frederick II. The case finds a parallel in the claims of +England over the Scottish king, doubtful, to say the least, as regards +the domestic realm of the latter, certain as regards Cumbria, which he +had long held from the Southern crown[211]. But Germany had no Edward +I. Henry VI is said at his death to have released Richard from his +submission (this too may be compared with Richard's release to the +Scottish William the Lion), and Edward II declared, 'regnum Angliae ab +omni subiectione imperiali esse liberrimum[212].' Yet the idea +survived: the Emperor Lewis the Bavarian, when he named Edward III his +vicar in the great French war, demanded, though in vain, that the +English monarch should kiss his feet[213]. Sigismund[214], visiting +Henry V at London, before the meeting of the council of Constance, was +met by the Duke of Gloucester, who, riding into the water to the ship +where the Emperor sat, required him, at the sword's point, to declare +that he did not come purposing to infringe on the king's authority in +the realm of England[215]. One curious pretension of the imperial +crown called forth many protests. It was declared by civilians and +canonists that no public notary could have any standing, or attach any +legality to the documents he drew, unless he had received his diploma +from the Emperor or the Pope. A strenuous denial of a doctrine so +injurious was issued by the parliament of Scotland under James +III[216]. + +[Sidenote: Naples.] + +The kingdom of Naples and Sicily, although of course claimed as a part +of the Empire, was under the Norman dynasty (A.D. 1060-1189) not +merely independent, but the most dangerous enemy of the German power +in Italy. Henry VI, the son and successor of Barbarossa, obtained +possession of it by marrying Constantia the last heiress of the Norman +kings. But both he and Frederick II treated it as a separate +patrimonial state, instead of incorporating it with their more +northerly dominions. After the death of Conradin, the last of the +Hohenstaufen, it passed away to an Angevin, then to an Aragonese +dynasty, continuing under both to maintain itself independent of the +Empire, nor ever again, except under Charles V, united to the Germanic +crown. + +[Sidenote: Venice.] + +One spot in Italy there was whose singular felicity of situation +enabled her through long centuries of obscurity and weakness, slowly +ripening into strength, to maintain her freedom unstained by any +submission to the Frankish and Germanic Emperors. Venice glories in +deducing her origin from the fugitives who escaped from Aquileia in +the days of Attila: it is at least probable that her population never +received an intermixture of Teutonic settlers, and continued during +the ages of Lombard and Frankish rule in Italy to regard the Byzantine +sovereigns as the representatives of their ancient masters. In the +tenth century, when summoned to submit by Otto, they had said, 'We +wish to be the servants of the Emperors of the Romans' (the +Constantinopolitan), and though they overthrew this very Eastern +throne in A.D. 1204, the pretext had served its turn, and had aided +them in defying or evading the demands of obedience made by the +Teutonic princes. Alone of all the Italian republics, Venice never, +down to her extinction by France and Austria in A.D. 1796, recognized +within her walls any secular authority save her own. + +[Sidenote: The East.] + +The kings of Cyprus and Armenia sent to Henry VI to confess themselves +his vassals and ask his help. Over remote Eastern lands, where +Frankish foot had never trod, Frederick Barbarossa asserted the +indestructible rights of Rome, mistress of the world. A letter to +Saladin, amusing from its absolute identification of his own Empire +with that which had sent Crassus to perish in Parthia, and had blushed +to see Mark Antony 'consulum nostrum'[217] at the feet of Cleopatra, +is preserved by Hoveden: it bids the Soldan withdraw at once from the +dominions of Rome, else will she, with her new Teutonic defenders, of +whom a pompous list follows, drive him from them with all her ancient +might. + +[Sidenote: The Byzantine Emperors.] + +[Sidenote: Rivalry of the two Empires.] + +Unwilling as were the great kingdoms of Western Europe to admit the +territorial supremacy of the Emperor, the proudest among them never +refused, until the end of the Middle Ages, to recognize his precedence +and address him in a tone of respectful deference. Very different was +the attitude of the Byzantine princes, who denied his claim to be an +Emperor at all. The separate existence of the Eastern Church and +Empire was not only, as has been said above, a blemish in the title of +the Teutonic sovereigns; it was a continuing and successful protest +against the whole system of an Empire Church of Christendom, centering +in Rome, ruled by the successor of Peter and the successor of +Augustus. Instead of the one Pope and one Emperor whom mediaeval theory +presented as the sole earthly representatives of the invisible head of +the Church, the world saw itself distracted by the interminable feud +of rivals, each of whom had much to allege on his behalf. It was easy +for the Latins to call the Easterns schismatics and their Emperor an +usurper, but practically it was impossible to dethrone him or reduce +them to obedience: while even in controversy no one could treat the +pretensions of communities who had been the first to embrace +Christianity and retained so many of its most ancient forms, with the +contempt which would have been felt for any Western sectaries. +Seriously, however, as the hostile position of the Greeks seems to us +to affect the claims of the Teutonic Empire, calling in question its +legitimacy and marring its pretended universality, those who lived at +the time seem to have troubled themselves little about it, finding +themselves in practice seldom confronted by the difficulties it +raised. The great mass of the people knew of the Greeks not even by +name; of those who did, the most thought of them only as perverse +rebels, Samaritans who refused to worship at Jerusalem, and were +little better than infidels. The few ecclesiastics of superior +knowledge and insight had their minds preoccupied by the established +theory, and accepted it with too intense a belief to suffer anything +else to come into collision with it: they do not seem to have even +apprehended all that was involved in this one defect. Nor, what is +still stranger, in all the attacks made upon the claims of the +Teutonic Empire, whether by its Papal or its French antagonists, do we +find the rival title of the Greek sovereigns adduced in argument +against it. Nevertheless, the Eastern Church was then, as she is to +this day, a thorn in the side of the Papacy; and the Eastern Emperors, +so far from uniting for the good of Christendom with their Western +brethren, felt towards them a bitter though not unnatural jealousy, +lost no opportunity of intriguing for their evil, and never ceased to +deny their right to the imperial name. The coronation of Charles was +in their eyes an act of unholy rebellion; his successors were +barbarian intruders, ignorant of the laws and usages of the ancient +state, and with no claim to the Roman name except that which the +favour of an insolent pontiff might confer. The Greeks had themselves +long since ceased to use the Latin tongue, and were indeed become more +than half Orientals in character and manners. But they still continued +to call themselves Romans, and preserved most of the titles and +ceremonies which had existed in the time of Constantine or Justinian. +They were weak, although by no means so weak as modern historians have +been till lately wont to paint them, and the weaker they grew the +higher rose their conceit, and the more did they plume themselves upon +the uninterrupted legitimacy of their crown, and the ceremonial +splendour wherewith custom had surrounded its wearer. It gratified +their spite to pervert insultingly the titles of the Frankish princes. +Basil the Macedonian reproached Lewis II with presuming to use the +name of 'Basileus,' to which Lewis retorted that he was as good an +emperor as Basil himself, but that, anyhow, _Basileus_ was only the +Greek for _rex_, and need not mean 'Emperor' at all. Nicephorus would +not call Otto I anything but 'King of the Lombards[218],' Conrad III +was addressed by Calo-Johannes as 'amice imperii mei Rex[219];' Isaac +Angelus had the impudence to style Frederick I 'chief prince of +Alemannia[220].' The great Emperor, half-resentful, half-contemptuous, +told the envoys that he was 'Romanorum imperator,' and bade their +master call himself 'Romaniorum' from his Thracian province. Though +these ebullitions were the most conclusive proof of their weakness, +the Byzantine rulers sometimes planned the recovery of their former +capital, and seemed not unlikely to succeed under the leadership of +the conquering Manuel Comnenus. He invited Alexander III, then in the +heat of his strife with Frederick, to return to the embrace of his +rightful sovereign, but the prudent pontiff and his synod courteously +declined[221]. The Greeks were, however, too unstable and too much +alienated from Latin feeling to have held Rome, could they even have +seduced her allegiance. A few years later they were themselves the +victims of the French and Venetian crusaders. + +[Sidenote: Dignities and titles.] + +[Sidenote: The four crowns.] + +Though Otto the Great and his successors had dropped all titles save +their highest (the tedious lists of imperial dignities were happily +not yet in being), they did not therefore endeavour to unite their +several kingdoms, but continued to go through four distinct +coronations at the four capitals of their Empire[222]. These are +concisely given in the verses of Godfrey of Viterbo, a notary of +Frederick's household[223]:-- + + 'Primus Aquisgrani locus est, post haec Arelati, + Inde Modoetiae regali sede locari + Post solet Italiae summa corona dari: + Caesar Romano cum vult diademate fungi + Debet apostolicis manibus reverenter inungi.' + +By the crowning at Aachen, the old Frankish capital, the monarch +became 'king;' formerly 'king of the Franks,' or, 'king of the Eastern +Franks;' now, since Henry II's time, 'king of the Romans, always +Augustus.' At Monza, (or, more rarely, at Milan) in later times, at +Pavia in earlier times, he became king of Italy, or of the +Lombards[224]; at Rome he received the double crown of the Roman +Empire, 'double,' says Godfrey, as 'urbis et orbis:'-- + + 'Hoc quicunque tenet, summus in orbe sedet;' + +though others hold that, uniting the mitre to the crown, it typifies +spiritual as well as secular authority. The crown of Burgundy[225] or +the kingdom of Arles, first gained by Conrad II, was a much less +splendid matter, and carried with it little effective power. Most +Emperors never assumed it at all, Frederick I not till late in life, +when an interval of leisure left him nothing better to do. These four +crowns[226] furnish matter of endless discussion to the old writers; +they tell us that the Roman was golden, the German silver, the Italian +iron, the metal corresponding to the dignity of each realm[227]. +Others say that that of Aachen is iron, and the Italian silver, and +give elaborate reasons why it should be so[228]. There seems to be no +doubt that the allegory created the fact, and that all three crowns +were of gold, though in that of Italy there was and is inserted a +piece of iron, a nail, it was believed, of the true Cross. + +[Sidenote: Meaning of the four coronations.] + +Why, it may well be asked, seeing that the Roman crown made the +Emperor ruler of the whole habitable globe, was it thought necessary +for him to add to it minor dignities which might be supposed to have +been already included in it? The reason seems to be that the imperial +office was conceived of as something different in kind from the regal, +and as carrying with it not the immediate government of any particular +kingdom, but a general suzerainty over and right of controlling all. +Of this a pertinent illustration is afforded by an anecdote told of +Frederick Barbarossa. Happening once to inquire of the famous jurists +who surrounded him whether it was really true that he was 'lord of the +world,' one of them simply assented, another, Bulgarus, answered, 'Not +as respects ownership.' In this dictum, which is evidently conformable +to the philosophical theory of the Empire, we have a pointed +distinction drawn between feudal sovereignty, which supposes the +prince original owner of the soil of his whole kingdom, and imperial +sovereignty, which is irrespective of place, and exercised not over +things but over men, as God's rational creatures. But the Emperor, as +has been said already, was also the East Frankish king, uniting in +himself, to use the legal phrase, two wholly distinct 'persons,' and +hence he might acquire more direct and practically useful rights over +a portion of his dominions by being crowned king of that portion, just +as a feudal monarch was often duke or count of lordships whereof he +was already feudal superior; or, to take a better illustration, just +as a bishop may hold livings in his own diocese. That the Emperors, +while continuing to be crowned at Milan and Aachen, did not call +themselves kings of the Lombards and of the Franks, was probably +merely because these titles seemed insignificant compared to that of +Roman Emperor. + +[Sidenote: 'Emperor' not assumed till the Roman coronation.] + +[Sidenote: Origin and results of this practice.] + +In this supreme title, as has been said, all lesser honours were blent +and lost, but custom or prejudice forbade the German king to assume it +till actually crowned at Rome by the Pope[229]. Matters of phrase and +title are never unimportant, least of all in an age ignorant and +superstitiously antiquarian: and this restriction had the most +important consequences. The first barbarian kings had been +tribe-chiefs; and when they claimed a dominion which was universal, +yet in a sense territorial, they could not separate their title from +the spot which it was their boast to possess, and by virtue of whose +name they ruled. 'Rome,' says the biographer of St. Adalbert, 'seeing +that she both is and is called the head of the world and the mistress +of cities, is alone able to give to kings imperial power, and since +she cherishes in her bosom the body of the Prince of the Apostles, she +ought of right to appoint the Prince of the whole earth[230].' The +crown was therefore too sacred to be conferred by any one but the +supreme Pontiff, or in any city less august than the ancient capital. +Had it become hereditary in any family, Lothar I's, for instance, or +Otto's, this feeling might have worn off; as it was, each successive +transfer, to Guido, to Otto, to Henry II, to Conrad the Salic, +strengthened it. The force of custom, tradition, precedent, is +incalculable when checked neither by written rules nor free +discussion. What sheer assertion will do is shewn by the success of a +forgery so gross as the Isidorian decretals. No arguments are needed +to discredit the alleged decree of Pope Benedict VIII[231], which +prohibited the German prince from taking the name or office of Emperor +till approved and consecrated by the pontiff, but a doctrine so +favourable to papal pretensions was sure not to want advocacy; Hadrian +IV proclaims it in the broadest terms, and through the efforts of the +clergy and the spell of reverence in the Teutonic princes, it passed +into an unquestioned belief. That none ventured to use the title till +the Pope conferred it, made it seem in some manner to depend on his +will, enabled him to exact conditions from every candidate, and gave a +colour to his pretended suzerainty. Since by feudal theory every +honour and estate is held from some superior, and since the divine +commission has been without doubt issued directly to the Pope, must +not the whole earth be his fief, and he the lord paramount, to whom +even the Emperor is a vassal? This argument, which derived +considerable plausibility from the rivalry between the Emperor and +other monarchs, as compared with the universal and undisputed[232] +authority of the Pope, was a favourite with the high sacerdotal party: +first distinctly advanced by Hadrian IV, when he set up the +picture[233] representing Lothar's homage, which had so irritated the +followers of Barbarossa, though it had already been hinted at in +Gregory VII's gift of the crown to Rudolf of Suabia, with the line,-- + + 'Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rudolfo.' + +Nor was it only by putting him at the pontiff's mercy that this +dependence of the imperial name on a coronation in the city injured +the German sovereign[234]. With strange inconsistency it was not +pretended that the Emperor's rights were any narrower before he +received the rite: he could summon synods, confirm papal elections, +exercise jurisdiction over the citizens: his claim of the crown itself +could not, at least till the times of the Gregorys and the Innocents, +be positively denied. For no one thought of contesting the right of +the German nation to the Empire, or the authority of the electoral +princes, strangers though they were, to give Rome and Italy a master. +The republican followers of Arnold of Brescia might murmur, but they +could not dispute the truth of the proud lines in which the poet who +sang the glories of Barbarossa[235], describes the result of the +conquest of Charles the Great:-- + + 'Ex quo Romanum nostra virtute redemptum + Hostibus expulsis, ad nos iustissimus ordo + Transtulit imperium, Romani gloria regni + Nos penes est. Quemcunque sibi Germania regem + Praeficit, hunc dives summisso vertice Roma + Suscipit, et verso Tiberim regit ordine Rhenus.' + +But the real strength of the Teutonic kingdom was wasted in the +pursuit of a glittering toy: once in his reign each Emperor undertook +a long and dangerous expedition, and dissipated in an inglorious and +ever to be repeated strife the forces that might have achieved +conquest elsewhere, or made him feared and obeyed at home. + +[Sidenote: The title 'Holy Empire.'] + +At this epoch appears another title, of which more must be said. To +the accustomed 'Roman Empire' Frederick Barbarossa adds the epithet of +'Holy.' Of its earlier origin, under Conrad II (the Salic), which some +have supposed[236], there is no documentary trace, though there is +also no proof to the contrary[237]. So far as is known it occurs first +in the famous Privilege of Austria, granted by Frederick in the fourth +year of his reign, the second of his empire, 'terram Austriae quae +clypeus et cor sacri imperii esse dinoscitur[238]:' then afterwards, +in other manifestos of his reign; for example, in a letter to Isaac +Angelus of Byzantium[239], and in the summons to the princes to help +him against Milan: 'Quia ... urbis et orbis gubernacula tenemus ... +sacro imperio et divae reipublicae consulere debemus[240];' where the +second phrase is a synonym explanatory of the first. Used occasionally +by Henry VI and Frederick II, it is more frequent under their +successors, William, Richard, Rudolf, till after Charles IV's time it +becomes habitual, for the last few centuries indispensable. Regarding +the origin of so singular a title many theories have been advanced. +Some declared it a perpetuation of the court style of Rome and +Byzantium, which attached sanctity to the person of the monarch: thus +David Blondel, contending for the honour of France, calls it a mere +epithet of the Emperor, applied by confusion to his government[241]. +Others saw in it a religious meaning, referring to Daniel's prophecy, +or to the fact that the Empire was contemporary with Christianity, or +to Christ's birth under it[242]. Strong churchmen derived it from the +dependence of the imperial crown on the Pope. There were not wanting +persons to maintain that it meant nothing more than great or splendid. +We need not, however, be in any great doubt as to its true meaning and +purport. The ascription of sacredness to the person, the palace, the +letters, and so forth, of the sovereign, so common in the later ages +of Rome, had been partly retained in the German court. Liudprand calls +Otto 'imperator sanctissimus[243].' Still this sanctity, which the +Greeks above all others lavished on their princes, is something +personal, is nothing more than the divinity that always hedges a king. +Far more intimate and peculiar was the relation of the revived Roman +Empire to the church and religion. As has been said already, it was +neither more nor less than the visible Church, seen on its secular +side, the Christian society organized as a state under a form divinely +appointed, and therefore the name 'Holy Roman Empire' was the needful +and rightful counterpart to that of 'Holy Catholic Church.' Such had +long been the belief, and so the title might have had its origin as +far back as the tenth or ninth century, might even have emanated from +Charles himself. Alcuin in one of his letters uses the phrase +'imperium Christianum.' But there was a further reason for its +introduction at this particular epoch. Ever since Hildebrand had +claimed for the priesthood exclusive sanctity and supreme +jurisdiction, the papal party had not ceased to speak of the civil +power as being, compared with that of their own chief, merely secular, +earthly, profane. It may be conjectured that to meet this reproach, no +less injurious than insulting, Frederick or his advisers began to use +in public documents the expression 'Holy Empire;' thereby wishing to +assert the divine institution and religious duties of the office he +held. Previous Emperors had called themselves 'Catholici,' +'Christiani,' 'ecclesiae defensores[244];' now their State itself is +consecrated an earthly theocracy. 'Deus Romanum imperium adversus +schisma ecclesiae praeparavit[245],' writes Frederick to the English +Henry II. The theory was one which the best and greatest Emperors, +Charles, Otto the Great, Henry III, had most striven to carry out; it +continued to be zealously upheld when it had long ceased to be +practicable. In the proclamations of mediaeval kings there is a +constant dwelling on their Divine commission. Power in an age of +violence sought to justify while it enforced its commands, to make +brute force less brutal by appeals to a higher sanction. This is seen +nowhere more than in the style of the German sovereigns: they delight +in the phrases 'maiestas sacrosancta[246],' 'imperator divina +ordinante providentia,' 'divina pietate,' 'per misericordiam Dei;' +many of which were preserved till, like those used now by other +European kings, like our own 'Defender of the Faith,' they had become +at last more grotesque than solemn. The Emperor Joseph II, at the end +of the eighteenth century, was 'Advocate of the Christian Church,' +'Vicar of Christ,' 'Imperial head of the faithful,' 'Leader of the +Christian army,' 'Protector of Palestine, of general councils, of the +Catholic faith[247].' + +The title, if it added little to the power, yet certainly seems to +have increased the dignity of the Empire, and by consequence the +jealousy of other states, of France especially. This did not, however, +go so far as to prevent its recognition by the Pope and the French +king[248], and after the sixteenth century it would have been a breach +of diplomatic courtesy to omit it. Nor have imitators been +wanting[249]: witness such titles as 'Most Christian king,' 'Catholic +king,' 'Defender of the Faith[250].' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[201] 'Pruzzi,' says the biographer of St. Adalbert, 'quorum Deus est +venter et avaritia iuncta cum morte.'--_M. G. H._ t. iv. + +It is curious that this non-Teutonic people should have given their +name to the great German kingdom of the present. + +[202] Conring, _De Finibus Imperii_. It is hardly necessary to observe +that the connection of Hungary with the Hapsburgs is of comparatively +recent origin, and of a purely dynastic nature. The position of the +archdukes of Austria as kings of Hungary had nothing to do legally +with the fact that many of them were also chosen Emperors, although +practically their possession of the imperial crown had greatly aided +them in grasping and retaining the thrones of Hungary and Bohemia. + +[203] Cf. Pfeffel, _Abrege Chronologique_. + +[204] Letter of Frederick I to Otto of Freising, prefixed to the +latter's History. This king is also called Sweyn. + +[205] See Appendix, Note B. + +[206] Albertus Stadensis apud Conringium, _De Finibus Imperii_. + +[207] There is an allusion to this in the poems of the Cid. Arthur +Duck, _De Usu et Authoritate Iuris Civilis_, quotes the view of some +among the older jurists, that Spain having been, as far as the Romans +were concerned, a _res derelicta_, recovered by the Spaniards +themselves from the Moors, and thus acquired by _occupatio_, ought not +to be subject to the Emperors. + +[208] One of the greatest of English kings appears performing an act +of courtesy to the Emperor which was probably construed into an +acknowledgment of his own inferior position. Describing the Roman +coronation of the Emperor Conrad II, Wippo (c. 16) tells us 'His ita +peractis in duorum regum praesentia Ruodolfi regis Burgundiae et +Chnutonis regis Anglorum divino officio finito imperator duorum regum +medius ad cubiculum suum honorifice ductus est.' + +[209] Letter in Otto Fris. i.: 'Nobis submittuntur Francia et +Hispania, Anglia et Dania.' + +[210] Letter in Radewic says, 'Regnum nostrum vobis exponimus.... +Vobis imperandi cedat auctoritas, nobis non deerit voluntas +obsequendi.' + +[211] The alleged instances of homage by the Scots to the Saxon and +early Norman kings are almost all complicated in some such way. They +had once held also the earldom of Huntingdon from the English crown, +and some have supposed (but on no sufficient grounds) that homage was +also done by them for Lothian. + +[212] Selden, _Titles of Honour_, part i. chap. ii. + +[213] Edward refused upon the ground that he was '_rex inunctus_.' + +[214] Sigismund had shortly before given great offence in France by +dubbing knights. + +[215] Sigismund answered, 'Nihil se contra superioritatem regis +praetexere.' + +[216] Selden, _Titles of Honour_, part i. chap. ii. Nevertheless, +notaries in Scotland, as elsewhere, continued for a long time to style +themselves 'Ego M. auctoritate imperiali (or papali) notarius.' + +[217] It is not necessary to prove this letter to have been the +composition of Frederick or his ministers. If it be (as it doubtless +is) contemporary, it is equally to the purpose as an evidence of the +feelings and ideas of the age. As a reviewer of a former edition of +this book has questioned its authenticity, I may mention that it is to +be found not only in Hoveden, but also in the 'Itinerarium regis +Ricardi,' in Ralph de Diceto, and in the 'Chronicon Terrae Sanctae.' +[See Mr. Stubbs' edition of Hoveden, vol. ii. p. 356.] + +[218] Liutprand, _Legatio Constantinopolitana_. Nicephorus says, 'Vis +maius scandalum quam quod se imperatorem vocat.' + +[219] Otto of Freising, i. + +[220] 'Isaachius a Deo constitutus Imperator, sacratissimus, +excellentissimus, potentissimus, moderator Romanorum, Angelus totius +orbis, heres coronae magni Constantini, dilecto fratri imperii sui, +maximo principi Alemanniae.' A remarkable speech of Frederick's to the +envoys of Isaac, who had addressed a letter to him as 'Rex Alemaniae' +is preserved by Ansbert (_Historia de Expeditione Friderici +Imperatoris_):--'Dominus Imperator divina se illustrante gratia +ulterius dissimulare non valens temerarium fastum regis (_sc._ +Graecorum) et usurpantem vocabulum falsi imperatoris Romanorum, haec +inter caetera exorsus est:--"Omnibus qui sanae mentis sunt constat, quia +unus est Monarchus Imperator Romanorum, sicut et unus est pater +universitatis, pontifex videlicet Romanus; ideoque cum ego Romani +imperii sceptrum plusquam per annos XXX absque omnium regum vel +principum contradictione tranquille tenuerim et in Romana urbe a summo +pontifice imperiali benedictione unctus sim et sublimatus, quia +denique Monarchiam praedecessores mei imperatores Romanorum plusquam +per CCCC annos etiam gloriose transmiserint, utpote a Constantinopolitana +urbe ad pristinam sedem imperii, caput orbis Romam, acclamatione +Romanorum et principum imperii, auctoritate quoque summi pontificis et +S. catholicae ecclesiae translatam, propter tardum et infructuosum +Constantinopolitani imperatoris auxilium contra tyrannos ecclesiae, +mirandum est admodum cur frater meus dominus vester Constantinopolitanus +imperator usurpet inefficax sibi idem vocabulum et glorietur stulte +alieno sibi prorsus honore, cum liquido noverit me et nomine dici et +re esse Fridericum Romanorum imperatorem semper Augustum."' + +Isaac was so far moved by Frederick's indignation that in his next +letter he addressed him as 'generosissimum imperatorem Alemaniae,' and +in a third thus:-- + +'Isaakius in Christo fidelis divinitus coronatus, sublimis, potens, +excelsus, haeres coronae magni Constantini et Moderator Romeon Angelus +nobilissimo Imperatori antiquae Romae, regi Alemaniae et dilecto fratri +imperii sui, salutem,' &c., &c. (Ansbert, _ut supra_.) + +[221] Baronius, ad ann. + +[222] See Appendix, Note C. + +[223] Godefr. Viterb., _Pantheon_, in Mur., _S. R. I._, tom. vii. + +[224] Doenniges, _Deutsches Staatsrecht_, thinks that the crown of +Italy, neglected by the Ottos, and taken by Henry II, was a +recognition of the separate nationality of Italy. But Otto I seems to +have been crowned king of Italy, and Muratori (_Ant. It._ Dissert. +iii.) believes that Otto II and Otto III were likewise. + +[225] See Appendix, note A. + +[226] Some add a fifth crown, of Germany (making that of Aachen +Frankish), which they say belonged to Regensburg--Marquardus Freherus. + +[227] 'Dy erste ist tho Aken: dar kronet men mit der Yseren Krone, so +is he Konig over alle Dudesche Ryke. Dy andere tho Meylan, de is +Sulvern, so is he Here der Walen. Dy druedde is tho Rome; dy is guldin, +so is he Keyser over alle dy Werlt.'--Gloss to the _Sachsenspiegel_, +quoted by Pfeffinger. Similarly Peter de Andlo. + +[228] Cf. Gewoldus, _De Septemviratu imperii Romani_. One would expect +some ingenious allegorizer to have discovered that the crown of +Burgundy must be, and therefore is, of copper or bronze, making the +series complete, like the four ages of men in Hesiod. But I have not +been able to find any such. + +[229] Hence the numbers attached to the names of the Emperors are +often different in German and Italian writers, the latter not +reckoning Henry the Fowler nor Conrad I. So Henry III (of Germany) +calls himself 'Imperator Henricus Secundus;' and all distinguish the +years of their _regnum_ from those of the _imperium_. Cardinal +Baronius will not call Henry V anything but Henry III, not recognizing +Henry IV's coronation, because it was performed by an antipope. + +[230] Life of S. Adalbert (written at Rome early in the eleventh +century, probably by a brother of the monastery of SS. Boniface and +Alexius) in Pertz, _M. G. H._ iv. + +[231] Given by Glaber Rudolphus. It is on the face of it a most +impudent forgery: 'Ne quisquam audacter Romani Imperii sceptrum +praepostere gestare princeps appetat neve Imperator dici aut esse +valeat nisi quem Papa Romanus morum probitate aptum elegerit, eique +commiserit insigne imperiale.' + +[232] Universal and undisputed in the West, which, for practical +purposes, meant the world. The denial of the supreme jurisdiction of +Peter's chair by the eastern churches affected very slightly the +belief of Latin Christendom, just as the existence of a rival emperor +at Constantinople with at least as good a legal title as the Teutonic +Caesar, was readily forgotten or ignored by the German and Italian +subjects of the latter. + +[233] Odious especially for the inscription,-- + + 'Rex venit ante fores nullo prius urbis honore; + Post homo fit Papae, sumit quo dante coronam.'--Radewic. + +[234] Mediaeval history is full of instances of the superstitious +veneration attached to the rite of coronation (made by the Church +almost a sacrament), and to the special places where, or even utensils +with which it was performed. Everyone knows the importance in France +of Rheims and its sacred _ampulla_; so the Scottish king must be +crowned at Scone, an old seat of Pictish royalty--Robert Bruce risked +a great deal to receive his crown there; so no Hungarian coronation +was valid unless made with the crown of St. Stephen; the possession +whereof is still accounted so valuable by the Austrian court. + +Great importance seems to have been attached to the imperial globe +(Reichsapfel) which the Pope delivered to the Emperor at his +coronation. + +[235] Whether the poem which passes under the name of Gunther +Ligurinus be his work or that of some scholar in a later age is for +the present purpose indifferent. + +[236] Zedler, _Universal Lexicon_, s. v. _Reich_. + +[237] It does not occur before Frederick I's time in any of the +documents printed by Pertz; and this is the date which Boeclerus also +assigns in his treatise, _De Sacro Imperio Romano_, vindicating the +terms 'sacrum' and 'Romanum' against the aspersions of Blondel. + +[238] Pertz, _M. G. H._, tom. iv. (legum ii.) + +[239] Ibid. iv. + +[240] Radewic. _ap._ Pertz. + +[241] Blondellus adv. Chiffletium. Most of these theories are stated +by Boeclerus. Jordanes (_Chronica_) says, 'Sacri imperii quod non est +dubium sancti Spiritus ordinatione, secundum qualitatem ipsam et +exigentiam meritorum humanorum disponi.' + +[242] Marquard Freher's notes to Peter de Andlo, book i. chap. vii. + +[243] So in the song on the capture of the Emperor Lewis II by +Adalgisus of Benevento, we find the words, 'Ludhuicum comprenderunt +sancto, pio, Augusto.' (Quoted by Gregorovius, _Geschichte der Stadt +Rom im Mittelalter_, iii. p. 185.) + +[244] Goldast, _Constitutiones_. + +[245] Pertz, _M. G. H._, legg. ii. + +[246] 'Apostolic majesty' was the proper title of the king of Hungary. +The Austrian court has recently revived it. + +[247] Moser, _Roemische Kayser_. + +[248] Urban IV used the title in 1259: Francis I (of France) calls the +Empire 'sacrosanctum.' + +[249] Cf. 'Holy Russia.' + +[250] It is almost superfluous to observe that the beginning of the +title 'Holy' has nothing to do with the beginning of the Empire +itself. Essentially and substantially, the Holy Roman Empire was, as +has been shewn already, the creation of Charles the Great. Looking at +it more technically, as the monarchy, not of the whole West, like that +of Charles, but of Germany and Italy, with a claim, which was never +more than a claim, to universal sovereignty, its beginning is fixed by +most of the German writers, whose practice has been followed in the +text, at the coronation of Otto the Great. But the title was at least +one, and probably two centuries later. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +FALL OF THE HOHENSTAUFEN. + + +In the three preceding chapters the Holy Empire has been described in +what is not only the most brilliant but the most momentous period of +its history; the period of its rivalry with the Popedom for the chief +place in Christendom. For it was mainly through their relations with +the spiritual power, by their friendship and protection at first, no +less than by their subsequent hostility, that the Teutonic Emperors +influenced the development of European politics. The reform of the +Roman Church which went on during the reigns of Otto I and his +successors down to Henry III, and which was chiefly due to the efforts +of those monarchs, was the true beginning of the grand period of the +Middle Ages, the first of that long series of movements, changes, and +creations in the ecclesiastical system of Europe which was, so to +speak, the master current of history, secular as well as religious, +during the centuries which followed. The first result of Henry III's +purification of the Papacy was seen in Hildebrand's attempt to subject +all jurisdiction to that of his own chair, and in the long struggle of +the Investitures, which brought out into clear light the opposing +pretensions of the temporal and spiritual powers. Although destined in +the end to bear far other fruit, the immediate effect of this struggle +was to evoke in all classes an intense religious feeling; and, in +opening up new fields of ambition to the hierarchy, to stimulate +wonderfully their power of political organization. It was this impulse +that gave birth to the Crusades, and that enabled the Popes, stepping +forth as the rightful leaders of a religious war, to bend it to serve +their own ends: it was thus too that they struck the alliance--strange +as such an alliance seems now--with the rebellious cities of Lombardy, +and proclaimed themselves the protectors of municipal freedom. But the +third and crowning triumph of the Holy See was reserved for the +thirteenth century. In the foundation of the two great orders of +ecclesiastical knighthood, the all-powerful all-pervading Dominicans +and Franciscans, the religious fervour of the Middle Ages culminated: +in the overthrow of the only power which could pretend to vie with her +in antiquity, in sanctity, in universality, the Papacy saw herself +exalted to rule alone over the kings of the earth. Of that overthrow, +following with terrible suddenness on the days of strength and glory +which we have just been witnessing, this chapter has now to speak. + +[Sidenote: Henry VI, 1190-1197.] + +[Sidenote: Philip, 1198-1208.] + +[Sidenote: Innocent III and Otto IV.] + +[Sidenote: Otto IV, 1208 (1198)-1212.] + +It happened strangely enough that just while their ruin was preparing, +the house of Swabia gained over their ecclesiastical foes what seemed +likely to prove an advantage of the first moment. The son and +successor of Barbarossa was Henry VI, a man who had inherited all his +father's harshness with none of his father's generosity. By his +marriage with Constance, the heiress of the Norman kings, he had +become master of Naples and Sicily. Emboldened by the possession of +what had been hitherto the stronghold of his predecessors' bitterest +enemies, and able to threaten the Pope from south as well as north, +Henry conceived a scheme which might have wonderfully changed the +history of Germany and Italy. He proposed to the Teutonic magnates to +lighten their burdens by uniting these newly-acquired countries to the +Empire, to turn their feudal lands into allodial, and to make no +further demands for money on the clergy, on condition that they should +pronounce the crown hereditary in his family. Results of the highest +importance would have followed this change, which Henry advocated by +setting forth the perils of interregna, and which he doubtless meant +to be but part of an entirely new system of polity. Already so strong +in Germany, and with an absolute command of their new kingdom, the +Hohenstaufen might have dispensed with the renounced feudal services, +and built up a firm centralized system, like that which was already +beginning to develope itself in France. First, however, the Saxon +princes, then some ecclesiastics headed by Conrad of Mentz, opposed +the scheme; the pontiff retracted his consent, and Henry had to +content himself with getting his infant son Frederick the Second +chosen king of the Romans. On Henry's untimely death the election was +set aside, and the contest which followed between Otto of Brunswick +and Philip of Hohenstaufen, brother of Henry the Sixth, gave the +Popedom, now guided by the genius of Innocent the Third, an +opportunity of extending its sway at the expense of its antagonist. +The Pope moved heaven and earth on behalf of Otto, whose family had +been the constant rivals of the Hohenstaufen, and who was himself +willing to promise all that Innocent required; but Philip's personal +merits and the vast possessions of his house gave him while he lived +the ascendancy in Germany. His death by the hand of an assassin, while +it seemed to vindicate the Pope's choice, left the Swabian party +without a head, and the Papal nominee was soon recognized over the +whole Empire. But Otto IV became less submissive as he felt his throne +more secure. If he was a Guelf by birth, his acts in Italy, whither he +had gone to receive the imperial crown, were those of a Ghibeline, +anxious to reclaim the rights he had but just forsworn. The Roman +Church at last deposed and excommunicated her ungrateful son, and +Innocent rejoiced in a second successful assertion of pontifical +supremacy, when Otto was dethroned by the youthful Frederick the +Second, whom a tragic irony sent into the field of politics as the +champion of the Holy See, whose hatred was to embitter his life and +extinguish his house. + +[Sidenote: Frederick the Second, 1212-1250.] + +Upon the events of that terrific strife, for which Emperor and Pope +girded themselves up for the last time, the narrative of Frederick the +Second's career, with its romantic adventures, its sad picture of +marvellous powers lost on an age not ripe for them, blasted as by a +curse in the moment of victory, it is not necessary, were it even +possible, here to enlarge. That conflict did indeed determine the +fortunes of the German kingdom no less than of the republics of Italy, +but it was upon Italian ground that it was fought out and it is to +Italian history that its details belong. So too of Frederick himself. +Out of the long array of the Germanic successors of Charles, he is, +with Otto III, the only one who comes before us with a genius and a +frame of character that are not those of a Northern or a Teuton[251]. +There dwelt in him, it is true, all the energy and knightly valour of +his father Henry and his grandfather Barbarossa. But along with these, +and changing their direction, were other gifts, inherited perhaps from +his Italian mother and fostered by his education among the +orange-groves of Palermo--a love of luxury and beauty, an intellect +refined, subtle, philosophical. Through the mist of calumny and fable +it is but dimly that the truth of the man can be discerned, and the +outlines that appear serve to quicken rather than appease the +curiosity with which we regard one of the most extraordinary +personages in history. A sensualist, yet also a warrior and a +politician; a profound lawgiver and an impassioned poet; in his youth +fired by crusading fervour, in later life persecuting heretics while +himself accused of blasphemy and unbelief; of winning manners and +ardently beloved by his followers, but with the stain of more than one +cruel deed upon his name, he was the marvel of his own generation, and +succeeding ages looked back with awe, not unmingled with pity, upon +the inscrutable figure of the last Emperor who had braved all the +terrors of the Church and died beneath her ban, the last who had ruled +from the sands of the ocean to the shores of the Sicilian sea. But +while they pitied they condemned. The undying hatred of the Papacy +threw round his memory a lurid light; him and him alone of all the +imperial line, Dante, the worshipper of the Empire, must perforce +deliver to the flames of hell[252]. + +[Sidenote: Struggle of Frederick with the Papacy.] + +Placed as the Empire was, it was scarcely possible for its head not to +be involved in war with the constantly aggressive Popedom--aggressive +in her claims of territorial dominion in Italy as well as of +ecclesiastical jurisdiction throughout the world. But it was +Frederick's peculiar misfortune to have given the Popes a hold over +him which they well knew how to use. In a moment of youthful +enthusiasm he had taken the cross from the hands of an eloquent monk, +and his delay to fulfil the vow was branded as impious neglect. +Excommunicated by Gregory IX for not going to Palestine, he went, and +was excommunicated for going: having concluded an advantageous peace, +he sailed for Italy, and was a third time excommunicated for +returning. To Pope Gregory he was at last after a fashion reconciled, +but with the accession of Innocent IV the flame burst out afresh. Upon +the special pretexts which kindled the strife it is not worth while to +descant: the real causes were always the same, and could only be +removed by the submission of one or other combatant. Chief among them +was Frederick's possession of Sicily. Now were seen the fruits which +Barbarossa had stored up for his house when he gained for Henry his +son the hand of the Norman heiress. Naples and Sicily had been for +some two hundred years recognized as a fief of the Holy See, and the +Pope, who felt himself in danger while encircled by the powers of his +rival, was determined to use his advantage to the full and make it the +means of extinguishing imperial authority throughout Italy. But +although the struggle was far more of a territorial and political one +than that of the previous century had been, it reopened every former +source of strife, and passed into a contest between the civil and the +spiritual potentate. The old war-cries of Henry and Hildebrand, of +Barbarossa and Alexander, roused again the unquenchable hatred of +Italian factions: the pontiff asserted the transference of the Empire +as a fief, and declared that the power of Peter, symbolized by the two +keys, was temporal as well as spiritual: the Emperor appealed to law, +to the indelible rights of Caesar; and denounced his foe as the +antichrist of the New Testament, since it was God's second vicar whom +he was resisting. The one scoffed at anathema, upbraided the avarice +of the Church, and treated her soldiery, the friars, with a severity +not seldom ferocious. The other solemnly deposed a rebellious and +heretical prince, offered the imperial crown to Robert of France, to +the heir of Denmark, to Haco the Norse king; succeeded at last in +raising up rivals in Henry of Thuringia and William of Holland. Yet +throughout it is less the Teutonic Emperor who is attacked than the +Sicilian king, the unbeliever and friend of Mohammedans, the +hereditary enemy of the Church, the assailant of Lombard independence, +whose success must leave the Papacy defenceless. And as it was from +the Sicilian kingdom that the strife chiefly arose, so was the +possession of the Sicilian kingdom a source rather of weakness than of +strength, for it distracted Frederick's forces and put him in the +false position of a liegeman resisting his lawful suzerain. Truly, as +the Greek proverb says, the gifts of foes are no gifts, and bring no +profit with them. The Norman kings were more terrible in their death +than in their life: they had sometimes baffled the Teutonic Emperor; +their heritage destroyed him. + +[Sidenote: Conrad IV, 1250-1254.] + +With Frederick fell the Empire. From the ruin that overwhelmed the +greatest of its houses it emerged, living indeed, and destined to a +long life, but so shattered, crippled, and degraded, that it could +never more be to Europe and to Germany what it once had been. In the +last act of the tragedy were joined the enemy who had now blighted its +strength and the rival who was destined to insult its weakness and at +last blot out its name. The murder of Frederick's grandson Conradin--a +hero whose youth and whose chivalry might have moved the pity of any +other foe--was approved, if not suggested, by Pope Clement; it was +done by the minions of Charles of France. + +[Sidenote: Italy lost to the Empire.] + +The Lombard league had successfully resisted Frederick's armies and +the more dangerous Ghibeline nobles: their strong walls and swarming +population made defeats in the open field hardly felt; and now that +South Italy too had passed away from a German line--first to an +Angevin, afterwards to an Aragonese dynasty--it was plain that the +peninsula was irretrievably lost to the Emperors. Why, however, should +they not still be strong beyond the Alps? was their position worse +than that of England when Normandy and Aquitaine no longer obeyed a +Plantagenet? The force that had enabled them to rule so widely would +be all the greater in a narrower sphere. + +[Sidenote: Decline of imperial power in Germany.] + +[Sidenote: The Great Interregnum] + +[Sidenote: Double election, of Richard of England and Alfonso of +Castile.] + +[Sidenote: State of Germany during the Interregnum.] + +[Sidenote: Rudolf of Hapsburg, 1272-1292.] + +So indeed it might once have been, but now it was too late. The German +kingdom broke down beneath the weight of the Roman Empire. To be +universal sovereign Germany had sacrificed her own political +existence. The necessity which their projects in Italy and disputes +with the Pope laid the Emperors under of purchasing by concessions the +support of their own princes, the ease with which in their absence the +magnates could usurp, the difficulty which the monarch returning found +in resuming the privileges of his crown, the temptation to revolt and +set up pretenders to the throne which the Holy See held out, these +were the causes whose steady action laid the foundation of that +territorial independence which rose into a stable fabric at the era of +the Great Interregnum[253]. Frederick II had by two Pragmatic +Sanctions, A.D. 1220 and 1232, granted, or rather confirmed, rights +already customary, such as to give the bishops and nobles legal +sovereignty in their own towns and territories, except when the +Emperor should be present; and thus his direct jurisdiction became +restricted to his narrowed domain, and to the cities immediately +dependent on the crown. With so much less to do, an Emperor became +altogether a less necessary personage; and hence the seven magnates of +the realm, now by law or custom sole electors, were in no haste to +fill up the place of Conrad IV, whom the supporters of his father +Frederick had acknowledged. William of Holland was in the field, but +rejected by the Swabian party: on his death a new election was called +for, and at last set on foot. The archbishop of Cologne advised his +brethren to choose some one rich enough to support the dignity, not +strong enough to be feared by the electors: both requisites met in the +Plantagenet Richard, earl of Cornwall, brother of the English Henry +III. He received three, eventually four votes, came to Germany, and +was crowned at Aachen. But three of the electors, finding that his +bribe to them was lower than to the others, seceded in disgust, and +chose Alfonso X of Castile[254], who, shrewder than his competitor, +continued to watch the stars at Toledo, enjoying the splendours of his +title while troubling himself about it no further than to issue now +and then a proclamation. Meantime the condition of Germany was +frightful. The new Didius Julianus, the chosen of princes baser than +the praetorians whom they copied, had neither the character nor the +outward power and resources to make himself respected. Every floodgate +of anarchy was opened: prelates and barons extended their domains by +war: robber-knights infested the highways and the rivers: the misery +of the weak, the tyranny and violence of the strong, were such as had +not been seen for centuries. Things were even worse than under the +Saxon and Franconian Emperors; for the petty nobles who had then been +in some measure controlled by their dukes were now, after the +extinction of the great houses, left without any feudal superior. Only +in the cities was shelter or peace to be found. Those of the Rhine had +already leagued themselves for mutual defence, and maintained a +struggle in the interests of commerce and order against universal +brigandage. At last, when Richard had been some time dead, it was felt +that such things could not go on for ever: with no public law, and no +courts of justice, an Emperor, the embodiment of legal government, was +the only resource. The Pope himself, having now sufficiently improved +the weakness of his enemy, found the disorganization of Germany +beginning to tell upon his revenues, and threatened that if the +electors did not appoint an Emperor, he would. Thus urged, they chose, +in A.D. 1272, Rudolf, count of Hapsburg, founder of the house of +Austria[255]. + +[Sidenote: Change in the position of the Empire.] + +From this point there begins a new era. We have seen the Roman Empire +revived in A.D. 800, by a prince whose vast dominions gave ground to +his claim of universal monarchy; again erected, in A.D. 962, on the +narrower but firmer basis of the German kingdom. We have seen Otto the +Great and his successors during the three following centuries, a line +of monarchs of unrivalled vigour and abilities, strain every nerve to +make good the pretensions of their office against the rebels in Italy +and the ecclesiastical power. Those efforts had now failed signally +and hopelessly. Each successive Emperor had entered the strife with +resources scantier than his predecessors, each had been more +decisively vanquished by the Pope, the cities, and the princes. The +Roman Empire might, and, so far as its practical utility was +concerned, ought now to have been suffered to expire; nor could it +have ended more gloriously than with the last of the Hohenstaufen. +That it did not so expire, but lived on six hundred years more, till +it became a piece of antiquarianism hardly more venerable than +ridiculous--till, as Voltaire said, all that could be said about it +was that it was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire--was owing +partly indeed to the belief, still unshaken, that it was a necessary +part of the world's order, yet chiefly to its connection, which was by +this time indissoluble, with the German kingdom. The Germans had +confounded the two characters of their sovereign so long, and had +grown so fond of the style and pretensions of a dignity whose +possession appeared to exalt them above the other peoples of Europe, +that it was now too late for them to separate the local from the +universal monarch. If a German king was to be maintained at all, he +must be Roman Emperor; and a German king there must still be. Deeply, +nay, mortally wounded as the event proved his power to have been by +the disasters of the Empire to which it had been linked, the time was +by no means come for its extinction. In the unsettled state of +society, and the conflict of innumerable petty potentates, no force +save feudalism was able to hold society together; and its efficacy for +that purpose depended, as the anarchy of the recent interregnum +shewed, upon the presence of the recognized feudal head. + +[Sidenote: Decline of the regal power in Germany as compared with +France and England.] + +That head, however, was no longer what he had been. The relative +position of Germany and France was now exactly the reverse of that +which they had occupied two centuries earlier. Rudolf was as +conspicuously a weaker sovereign than Philip III of France, as the +Franconian Emperor Henry III had been stronger than the Capetian +Philip I. In every other state of Europe the tendency of events had +been to centralize the administration and increase the power of the +monarch, even in England not to diminish it: in Germany alone had +political union become weaker, and the independence of the princes +more confirmed. The causes of this change are not far to seek. They +all resolve themselves into this one, that the German king attempted +too much at once. The rulers of France, where manners were less rude +than in the other Transalpine lands, and where the Third Estate rose +into power more quickly, had reduced one by one the great feudataries +by whom the first Capetians had been scarcely recognized. The English +kings had annexed Wales, Cumbria, and part of Ireland, had obtained a +prerogative great if not uncontrolled, and exercised no doubtful sway +through every corner of their country. Both had won their successes by +the concentration on that single object of their whole personal +activity, and by the skilful use of every device whereby their feudal +rights, personal, judicial, and legislative, could be applied to +fetter the vassal. Meantime the German monarch, whose utmost efforts +it would have needed to tame his fierce barons and maintain order +through wide territories occupied by races unlike in dialect and +customs, had been struggling with the Lombard cities and the Normans +of South Italy, and had been for full two centuries the object of the +unrelenting enmity of the Roman pontiff. And in this latter contest, +by which more than by any other the fate of the Empire was decided, he +fought under disadvantages far greater than his brethren in England +and France. William the Conqueror had defied Hildebrand, William Rufus +had resisted Anselm; but the Emperors Henry the Fourth and Barbarossa +had to cope with prelates who were Hildebrand and Anselm in one; the +spiritual heads of Christendom as well as the primates of their +special realm, the Empire. And thus, while the ecclesiastics of +Germany were a body more formidable from their possessions than those +of any other European country, and enjoying far larger privileges, the +Emperor could not, or could with far less effect, win them over by +invoking against the Pope that national feeling which made the cry of +Gallican liberties so welcome even to the clergy of France. + +[Sidenote: Relations of the Papacy and the Empire.] + +After repeated defeats, each more crushing than the last, the imperial +power, so far from being able to look down on the papal, could not +even maintain itself on an equal footing. Against no pontiff since +Gregory VII had the monarch's right to name or confirm a pope, +undisputed in the days of the Ottos and of Henry III, been made good. +It was the turn of the Emperor to repel a similar claim of the Holy +See to the function of reviewing his own election, examining into his +merits, and rejecting him if unsound, that is to say, impatient of +priestly tyranny. A letter of Innocent III, who was the first to make +this demand in terms, was inserted by Gregory IX in his digest of the +Canon Law, the inexhaustible armoury of the churchman, and continued +to be quoted thence by every canonist till the end of the sixteenth +century[256]. It was not difficult to find grounds on which to base +such a doctrine. Gregory VII deduced it with characteristic boldness +from the power of the keys, and the superiority over all other +dignities which must needs appertain to the Pope as arbiter of eternal +weal or woe. Others took their stand on the analogy of clerical +ordination, and urged that since the Pope in consecrating the Emperor +gave him a title to the obedience of all Christian men, he must have +himself the right of approving or rejecting the candidate according to +his merits. Others again, appealing to the Old Testament, shewed how +Samuel discarded Saul and anointed David in his room, and argued that +the Pope now must have powers at least equal to those of the Hebrew +prophets. But the ascendancy of the doctrine dates from the time of +Pope Innocent III, whose ingenuity discovered for it an historical +basis. It was by the favour of the Pope, he declared, that the Empire +was taken away from the Greeks and given to the Germans in the person +of Charles[257], and the authority which Leo then exercised as God's +representative must abide thenceforth and for ever in his successors, +who can therefore at any time recall the gift, and bestow it on a +person or a nation more worthy than its present holders. This is the +famous theory of the Translation of the Empire, which plays so large a +part in controversy down till the seventeenth century[258], a theory +with plausibility enough to make it generally successful, yet one +which to an impartial eye appears far removed from the truth of the +facts[259]. Leo III did not suppose, any more than did Charles +himself, that it was by his sole pontifical authority that the crown +was given to the Frank; nor do we find such a notion put forward by +any of his successors down to the twelfth century. Gregory VII in +particular, in a remarkable letter dilating on his prerogative, +appeals to the substitution by papal interference of Pipin for the +last Merovingian king, and even goes back to cite the case of +Theodosius humbling himself before St. Ambrose, but says never a word +about this 'translatio,' excellently as it would have served his +purpose. + +Sound or unsound, however, these arguments did their work, for they +were urged skilfully and boldly, and none denied that it was by the +Pope alone that the crown could be lawfully imposed[260]. In some +instances the rights claimed were actually made good. Thus Innocent +III withstood Philip and overthrew Otto IV; thus another haughty +priest commanded the electors to choose the Landgrave of Thuringia +(A.D. 1246), and was by some of them obeyed; thus Gregory X compelled +the recognition of Rudolf. The further pretensions of the Popes to the +vicariate of the Empire during interregna the Germans never +admitted[261]. Still their place was now generally felt to be higher +than that of the monarch, and their control over the three spiritual +electors and the whole body of the clergy was far more effective than +his. A spark of national feeling was at length kindled by the +exactions and shameless subservience to France of the papal court at +Avignon[262]; and the infant democracy of industry and intelligence +represented by the cities and by the English Franciscan Occam, +supported Lewis IV in his conflict with John XXII, till even the +princes who had risen by the help of the Pope were obliged to oppose +him. The same sentiment dictated the reforms of Constance, but the +imperial power which might have floated onwards and higher on the +turning tide of popular opinion lacked men equal to the occasion: the +Hapsburg Frederick the Third, timid and superstitious, abased himself +before the Romish court, and his house has generally adhered to the +alliance then struck. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[251] I quote from the Liber Augustalis printed among Petrarch's works +the following curious description of Frederick: 'Fuit armorum +strenuus, linguarum peritus, rigorosus, luxuriosus, epicurus, nihil +curans vel credens nisi temporale: fuit malleus Romanae ecclesiae.' + +As Otto III had been called 'mirabilia mundi,' so Frederick II is +often spoken of in his own time as 'stupor mundi Fridericus.' + +[252] 'Qua entro e lo secondo Federico.'--_Inferno_, canto x. + +[253] The interregnum is by some reckoned as the two years before +Richard's election; by others, as the whole period from the death of +Frederick II or that of his son Conrad IV till Rudolf's accession in +1273. + +[254] Surnamed, from his scientific tastes, 'the Wise.' + +[255] Hapsburg is a castle in the Aargau on the banks of the Aar, and +near the line of railway from Olten to Zuerich, from a point on which a +glimpse of it may be had. 'Within the ancient walls of Vindonissa,' +says Gibbon, 'the castle of Hapsburg, the abbey of Koenigsfeld, and the +town of Bruck have successively arisen. The philosophic traveller may +compare the monuments of Roman conquests, of feudal or Austrian +tyranny, of monkish superstition, and of industrious freedom. If he be +truly a philosopher, he will applaud the merit and happiness of his +own time.' + +[256] _Corpus Iuris Canonici_, Decr. Greg. i. 6, cap. 34, +_Venerabilem_: 'Ius et authoritas examinandi personam electam in regem +et promovendam ad imperium, ad nos spectat, qui eum inungimus, +consecramus, et coronamus.' + +[257] 'Illis principibus,' writes Innocent, 'ius et potestatem +eligendi regem [Romanorum] in imperatorem postmodum promovendum +recognoscimus, ad quos de iure ac antiqua consuetudine noscitur +pertinere, praesertim quum ad eos ius et potestas huiusmodi ab +apostolica sede pervenerit, quae Romanum imperium in persona magnifici +Caroli a Graecis transtulit in Germanos.'--Decr. Greg. i. 6, cap. 34, +_Venerabilem_. + +[258] Its influence, however, as Doellinger (_Das Kaiserthum Karls des +Grossen und seiner Nachfolger_) remarks, first became great when this +letter, some forty or fifty years after Innocent wrote it, was +inserted in the digest of the canon law. + +[259] Vid. supra, pp. 52-58. + +[260] Upon this so-called 'Translation of the Empire,' many books +remain to us: many more have probably perished. A good although far +from impartial summary of the controversy may be found in Vagedes, _De +Ludibriis Aulae Romanae in transferendo Imperio Romano_. + +[261] 'Vacante imperio Romano, cum in illo ad saecularem iudicem +nequeat haberi recursus, ad summum pontificem, cui in persona B. Petri +terreni simul et coelestis imperii iura Deus ipse commisit, imperii +praedicti iurisdictio regimen et dispositio devolvitur.'--Bull _Si +fratrum_ (of John XXI, in A.D. 1316), in _Bullar. Rom._ So again: +'Attendentes quod Imperii Romani regimen cura et administratio tempore +quo illud vacare contingit ad nos pertinet, sicut dignoscitur +pertinere.' So Boniface VIII, refusing to recognize Albert I, because +he was ugly and one-eyed ('est homo monoculus et vultu sordido, non +potest esse Imperator'), and had taken a wife from the serpent brood +of Frederick II ('de sanguine viperali Friderici'), declared himself +Vicar of the Empire, and assumed the crown and sword of Constantine. + +[262] Avignon was not yet in the territory of France: it lay within +the bounds of the kingdom of Arles. But the French power was nearer +than that of the Emperor; and pontiffs many of them French by +extraction sympathized, as was natural, with princes of their own +race. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE GERMANIC CONSTITUTION: THE SEVEN ELECTORS. + + +[Sidenote: Territorial Sovereignty of the Princes.] + +[Sidenote: Adolf, 1292-1298.] + +[Sidenote: Albert I, 1298-1308.] + +[Sidenote: Henry VII, 1308-1314.] + +[Sidenote: Lewis IV, 1314-1347.] + +The reign of Frederick the Second was not less fatal to the domestic +power of the German king than to the European supremacy of the +Emperor. His two Pragmatic Sanctions had conferred rights that made +the feudal aristocracy almost independent, and the long anarchy of the +Interregnum had enabled them not only to use but to extend and fortify +their power. Rudolf of Hapsburg had striven, not wholly in vain, to +coerce their insolence, but the contest between his son Albert and +Adolf of Nassau which followed his death, the short and troubled reign +of Albert himself, the absence of Henry the Seventh in Italy, the +civil war of Lewis of Bavaria and Frederick duke of Austria, rival +claimants of the imperial throne, the difficulties in which Lewis, the +successful competitor, found himself involved with the Pope--all these +circumstances tended more and more to narrow the influence of the +crown and complete the emancipation of the turbulent nobles. They now +became virtually supreme in their own domains, enjoying full +jurisdiction, certain appeals excepted, the right of legislation, +privileges of coining money, of levying tolls and taxes: some were +without even a feudal bond to remind them of their allegiance. The +numbers of the immediate nobility--those who held directly of the +crown--had increased prodigiously by the extinction of the dukedoms of +Saxony, Franconia, and Swabia: along the Rhine the lord of a single +tower was usually a sovereign prince. The petty tyrants whose boast it +was that they owed fealty only to God and the Emperor, shewed +themselves in practice equally regardless of both powers. Pre-eminent +were the three great houses of Austria, Bavaria, and Luxemburg, this +last having acquired Bohemia, A.D. 1309; next came the electors, +already considered collectively more important than the Emperor, and +forming for themselves the first considerable principalities. +Brandenburg and the Rhenish Palatinate are strong independent states +before the end of this period: Bohemia and the three archbishoprics +almost from its beginning. + +[Sidenote: Policy of the Emperors.] + +The chief object of the magnates was to keep the monarch in his +present state of helplessness. Till the expenses which the crown +entailed were found ruinous to its wearer, their practice was to +confer it on some petty prince, such as were Rudolf and Adolf of +Nassau and Gunther of Schwartzburg, seeking when they could to keep it +from settling in one family. They bound the newly-elected to respect +all their present immunities, including those which they had just +extorted as the price of their votes; they checked all his attempts to +recover lost lands or rights: they ventured at last to depose their +anointed head, Wenzel of Bohemia. Thus fettered, the Emperor sought +only to make the most of his short tenure, using his position to +aggrandize his family and raise money by the sale of crown estates and +privileges. His individual action and personal relation to the subject +was replaced by a merely legal and formal one: he represented order +and legitimate ownership, and so far was still necessary to the +political system. But progresses through the country were abandoned: +unlike his predecessors, who had resigned their patrimony when they +assumed the sceptre, he lived mostly in his own states, often without +the Empire's bounds. Frederick III never entered it for twenty-seven +years. + +[Sidenote: Power of the cities.] + +[Sidenote: Financial distress.] + +How thoroughly the national character of the office was gone is shewn +by the repeated attempts to bestow it on foreign potentates, who could +not fill the place of a German king of the good old vigorous type. Not +to speak of Richard and Alfonso, Charles of Valois was proposed +against Henry VII, Edward III of England actually elected against +Charles IV (his parliament forbade him to accept), George Podiebrad, +king of Bohemia, against Frederick III. Sigismund was virtually a +Hungarian king. The Emperor's only hope would have been in the support +of the cities. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries they had +increased wonderfully in population, wealth, and boldness: the +Hanseatic confederacy was the mightiest power of the North, and cowed +the Scandinavian kings: the towns of Swabia and the Rhine formed great +commercial leagues, maintained regular wars against the +counter-associations of the nobility, and seemed at one time, by an +alliance with the Swiss, on the point of turning West Germany into a +federation of free municipalities. Feudalism, however, was still too +strong; the cavalry of the nobles was irresistible in the field, and +the thoughtless Wenzel let slip a golden opportunity of repairing the +losses of two centuries. After all, the Empire was perhaps past +redemption, for one fatal ailment paralyzed all its efforts. The +Empire was poor. The crown lands, which had suffered heavily under +Frederick II, were further usurped during the confusion that followed; +till at last, through the reckless prodigality of sovereigns who +sought only their immediate interest, little was left of the vast and +fertile domains along the Rhine from which the Saxon and Franconian +Emperors had drawn the chief part of their revenue. Regalian rights, +the second fiscal resource, had fared no better--tolls, customs, +mines, rights of coining, of harbouring Jews, and so forth, were +either seized or granted away: even the advowsons of churches had been +sold or mortgaged; and the imperial treasury depended mainly on an +inglorious traffic in honours and exemptions. Things were so bad under +Rudolf that the electors refused to make his son Albert king of the +Romans, declaring that, while Rudolf lived, the public revenue which +with difficulty supported one monarch, could much less maintain two at +the same time[263]. Sigismund told his Diet, 'Nihil esse imperio +spoliatius, nihil egentius, adeo ut qui sibi ex Germaniae principibus +successurus esset, qui praeter patrimonium nihil aliud habuerit, apud +eum non imperium sed potius servitium sit futurum[264].' Patritius, +the secretary of Frederick III, declared that the revenues of the +Empire scarcely covered the expenses of its ambassadors[265]. Poverty +such as these expressions point to, a poverty which became greater +after each election, not only involved the failure of the attempts +which were sometimes made to recover usurped rights[266], but put +every project of reform within or war without at the mercy of a +jealous Diet. The three orders of which that Diet consisted, electors, +princes, and cities, were mutually hostile, and by consequence +selfish; their niggardly grants did no more than keep the Empire from +dying of inanition. + +[Sidenote: Charles IV (A.D. 1347-1378), and his electoral +constitution.] + +The changes thus briefly described were in progress when Charles the +Fourth, king of Bohemia, son of that blind king John of Bohemia who +fell at Cressy, and grandson of the Emperor Henry VII, was chosen to +ascend the throne. His skilful and consistent policy aimed at settling +what he perhaps despaired of reforming, and the famous instrument +which, under the name of the Golden Bull, became the corner-stone of +the Germanic constitution, confessed and legalized the independence of +the electors and the powerlessness of the crown. The most conspicuous +defect of the existing system was the uncertainty of the elections, +followed as they usually were by a civil war. It was this which +Charles set himself to redress. + +[Sidenote: German kingdom not originally elective.] + +The kingdoms founded on the ruins of the Roman Empire by the Teutonic +invaders presented in their original form a rude combination of the +elective with the hereditary principle. One family in each tribe had, +as the offspring of the gods, an indefeasible claim to rule, but from +among the members of such a family the warriors were free to choose +the bravest or the most popular as king[267]. That the German crown +came to be purely elective, while in France, Castile, Aragon, England, +and most other European states, the principle of strict hereditary +succession established itself, was due to the failure of heirs male in +three successive dynasties; to the restless ambition of the nobles, +who, since they were not, like the French, strong enough to disregard +the royal power, did their best to weaken it; to the intrigues of the +churchmen, zealous for a method of appointment prescribed by their own +law and observed in capitular elections; to the wish of the Popes to +gain an opening for their own influence and make effective the veto +which they claimed; above all, to the conception of the imperial +office as one too holy to be, in the same manner as the regal, +transmissible by blood. Had the German, like other feudal kingdoms, +remained merely local, feudal, and national, it would without doubt +have ended by becoming a hereditary monarchy. Transformed as it was by +the Roman Empire, this could not be. The headship of the human race +being, like the Papacy, the common inheritance of all mankind, could +not be confined to any family, nor pass like a private estate by the +ordinary rules of descent. + +[Sidenote: Electoral body in primitive times.] + +The right to choose the war-chief belonged, in the earliest ages, to +the whole body of freemen. Their suffrage, which must have been very +irregularly exercised, became by degrees vested in their leaders, but +the assent of the multitude, although ensured already, was needed to +complete the ceremony. It was thus that Henry the Fowler, and St. +Henry, and Conrad the Franconian duke were chosen[268]. Though even +tradition might have commemorated what extant records place beyond a +doubt, it was commonly believed, till the end of the sixteenth +century, that the elective constitution had been established, and the +privilege of voting confined to seven persons, by a decree of Gregory +V and Otto III, which a famous jurist describes as 'lex a pontifice de +imperatorum comitiis lata, ne ius eligendi penes populum Romanum in +posterum esset[269].' St. Thomas says, 'Election ceased from the times +of Charles the Great to those of Otto III, when Pope Gregory V +established that of the seven princes, which will last as long as the +holy Roman Church, who ranks above all other powers, shall have judged +expedient for Christ's faithful people[270].' Since it tended to exalt +the papal power, this fiction was accepted, no doubt honestly +accepted, and spread abroad by the clergy. And indeed, like so many +other fictions, it had a sort of foundation in fact. The death of Otto +III, the fourth of a line of monarchs among whom son had regularly +succeeded to father, threw back the crown into the gift of the nation, +and was no doubt one of the chief causes why it did not in the end +become hereditary[271]. + +[Sidenote: Encroachments of the great nobles.] + +Thus, under the Saxon and Franconian sovereigns, the throne was +theoretically elective, the assent of the chiefs and their followers +being required, though little more likely to be refused than it was to +an English or a French king; practically hereditary, since both of +these dynasties succeeded in occupying it for four generations, the +father procuring the son's election during his own lifetime. And so it +might well have continued, had the right of choice been retained by +the whole body of the aristocracy. But at the election of Lothar II, +A.D. 1125, we find a certain small number of magnates exercising the +so-called right of praetaxation; that is to say, choosing alone the +future monarch, and then submitting him to the rest for their +approval. A supreme electoral college, once formed, had both the will +and the power to retain the crown in their own gift, and still further +exclude their inferiors from participation. So before the end of the +Hohenstaufen dynasty, two great changes had passed upon the ancient +constitution. It had become a fundamental doctrine that the Germanic +throne, unlike the thrones of other countries, was purely +elective[272]: nor could the influence and the liberal offers of Henry +VI prevail on the princes to abandon what they rightly judged the +keystone of their powers. And at the same time the right of +praetaxation had ripened into an exclusive privilege of election, +vested in a small body[273]: the assent of the rest of the nobility +being at first assumed, finally altogether dispensed with. On the +double choice of Richard and Alfonso, A.D. 1264, the only question was +as to the majority of votes in the electoral college: neither then nor +afterwards was there a word of the rights of the other princes, counts +and barons, important as their voices had been two centuries earlier. + +[Sidenote: The Seven Electors.] + +[Sidenote: Golden Bull of Charles IV, A.D. 1356.] + +The origin of that college is a matter somewhat intricate and obscure. +It is mentioned A.D. 1152, and in somewhat clearer terms in 1198, as a +distinct body; but without anything to shew who composed it. First in +A.D. 1265 does a letter of Pope Urban IV say that by immemorial custom +the right of choosing the Roman king belonged to seven persons, the +seven who had just divided their votes on Richard of Cornwall and +Alfonso of Castile. Of these seven, three, the archbishops of Mentz, +Treves, and Cologne, pastors of the richest Transalpine sees, +represented the German church: the other four ought, according to the +ancient constitution, to have been the dukes of the four nations, +Franks, Swabians, Saxons, Bavarians, to whom had also belonged the +four great offices of the imperial household. But of these dukedoms +the two first named were now extinct, and their place and power in the +state, as well as the household offices they had held, had descended +upon two principalities of more recent origin, those, namely, of the +Palatinate of the Rhine and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. The Saxon +duke, though with greatly narrowed dominions, retained his vote and +office of arch-marshal, and the claim of his Bavarian compeer would +have been equally indisputable had it not so happened that both he and +the Palsgrave of the Rhine were members of the great house of +Wittelsbach. That one family should hold two votes out of seven seemed +so dangerous to the state that it was made a ground of objection to +the Bavarian duke, and gave an opening to the pretensions of the king +of Bohemia, who, though not properly a Teutonic prince[274], might on +the score of rank and power assert himself the equal of any one of the +electors. The dispute between these rival claimants, as well as all +the rules and requisites of the election, were settled by Charles the +Fourth in the Golden Bull, thenceforward a fundamental law of the +Empire. He decided in favour of Bohemia, of which he was then king; +fixed Frankfort as the place of election; named the archbishop of +Mentz convener of the electoral college; gave to Bohemia the first, to +the Count Palatine the second place among the secular electors. A +majority of votes was in all cases to be decisive. As to each +electorate there was attached a great office, it was supposed that +this was the title by which the vote was possessed; though it was in +truth rather an effect than a cause. The three prelates were +archchancellors of Germany, Gaul and Burgundy, and Italy respectively: +Bohemia cupbearer, the Palsgrave seneschal, Saxony marshal, and +Brandenburg chamberlain[275]. + +[Sidenote: Eighth Electorate.] + +[Sidenote: Ninth Electorate.] + +These arrangements, under which disputed elections became far less +frequent, remained undisturbed till A.D. 1618, when on the breaking +out of the Thirty Years' War the Emperor Ferdinand II by an +unwarranted stretch of prerogative deprived the Palsgrave Frederick +(king of Bohemia, and husband of Elizabeth, the daughter of James I of +England) of his electoral vote, and transferred it to his own +partisan, Maximilian of Bavaria. At the peace of Westphalia the +Palsgrave was reinstated as an eighth elector, Bavaria retaining her +place. The sacred number having been once broken through, less scruple +was felt in making further changes. In A.D. 1692, the Emperor Leopold +I conferred a ninth electorate on the house of Brunswick Lueneburg, +which was then in possession of the duchy of Hanover, and succeeded to +the throne of Great Britain in 1714; and in A.D. 1708, the assent of +the Diet thereto was obtained. It was in this way that English kings +came to vote at the election of a Roman Emperor. + +It is not a little curious that the only potentate who still continues +to entitle himself Elector[276] should be one who never did (and of +course never can now) join in electing an Emperor, having been under +the arrangements of the old Empire a simple Landgrave. In A.D. 1803, +Napoleon, among other sweeping changes in the Germanic constitution, +procured the extinction of the electorates of Cologne and Treves, +annexing their territories to France, and gave the title of Elector, +as the highest after that of king, to the duke of Wuertemburg, the +Margrave of Baden, the Landgrave of Hessen-Cassel, and the archbishop +of Salzburg. Three years afterwards the Empire itself ended, and the +title became meaningless. + +As the Germanic Empire is the most conspicuous example of a monarchy +not hereditary that the world has ever seen, it may not be amiss to +consider for a moment what light its history throws upon the character +of elective monarchy in general, a contrivance which has always had, +and will probably always continue to have, seductions for a certain +class of political theorists. + +[Sidenote: Objects of an elective monarchy: how far attained in +Germany.] + +[Sidenote: Choice of the fittest.] + +First of all then it deserves to be noticed how difficult, one might +almost say impossible, it was found to maintain in practice the +elective principle. In point of law, the imperial throne was from the +tenth century to the nineteenth absolutely open to any orthodox +Christian candidate. But as a matter of fact, the competition was +confined to a few very powerful families, and there was always a +strong tendency for the crown to become hereditary in some one of +these. Thus the Franconian Emperors held it from A.D. 1024 till 1125, +the Hohenstaufen, themselves the heirs of the Franconians, for a +century or more; the house of Luxemburg (kings of Bohemia) enjoyed it +through three successive reigns, and when in the fifteenth century it +fell into the tenacious grasp of the Hapsburgs, they managed to retain +it thenceforth (with but one trifling interruption) till it vanished +out of nature altogether. Therefore the chief benefit which the scheme +of elective sovereignty seems to promise, that of putting the fittest +man in the highest place, was but seldom attained, and attained even +then rather by good fortune than design. + +[Sidenote: Restraint of the sovereign.] + +No such objection can be brought against the second ground on which an +elective system has sometimes been advocated, its operation in +moderating the power of the crown, for this was attained in the +fullest and most ruinous measure. We are reminded of the man in the +fable, who opened a sluice to water his garden, and saw his house +swept away by the furious torrent. The power of the crown was not +moderated but destroyed. Each successful candidate was forced to +purchase his title by the sacrifice of rights which had belonged to +his predecessors, and must repeat the same shameful policy later in +his reign to procure the election of his son. Feeling at the same time +that his family could not make sure of keeping the throne, he treated +it as a life-tenant is apt to treat his estate, seeking only to make +out of it the largest present profit. And the electors, aware of the +strength of their position, presumed upon it and abused it to assert +an independence such as the nobles of other countries could never have +aspired to. + +[Sidenote: Recognition of the popular will.] + +[Sidenote: Conception of the electoral function.] + +Modern political speculation supposes the method of appointing a ruler +by the votes of his subjects, as opposed to the system of hereditary +succession, to be an assertion by the people of their own will as the +ultimate fountain of authority, an acknowledgment by the prince that +he is no more than their minister and deputy. To the theory of the +Holy Empire nothing could be more repugnant. This will best appear +when the aspect of the system of election at different epochs in its +history is compared with the corresponding changes in the composition +of the electoral body which have been described as in progress from +the ninth to the fourteenth century. In very early times, the tribe +chose a war chief, who was, even if he belonged to the most noble +family, no more than the first among his peers, with a power +circumscribed by the will of his subjects. Several ages later, in the +tenth and eleventh centuries, the right of choice had passed into the +hands of the magnates, and the people were only asked to assent. In +the same measure had the relation of prince and subject taken a new +aspect. We must not expect to find, in such rude times, any very clear +apprehension of the technical quality of the process, and the throne +had indeed become for a season so nearly hereditary that the election +was often a mere matter of form. But it seems to have been regarded, +not as a delegation of authority by the nobles and people, with a +power of resumption implied, but rather as their subjection of +themselves to the monarch who enjoys, as of his own right, a wide and +ill-defined prerogative. In yet later times, when, as has been shewn +above, the assembly of the chieftains and the applauding shout of the +host had been superseded by the secret conclave of the seven electoral +princes, the strict legal view of election became fully established, +and no one was supposed to have any title to the crown except what a +majority of votes might confer upon him. Meantime, however, the +conception of the imperial office itself had been thoroughly +penetrated by religious ideas, and the fact that the sovereign did +not, like other princes, reign by hereditary right, but by the choice +of certain persons, was supposed to be an enhancement and consecration +of his dignity. The electors, to draw what may seem a subtle, but is +nevertheless a very real distinction, selected, but did not create. +They only named the person who was to receive what it was not theirs +to give. God, say the mediaeval writers, not deigning to interfere +visibly in the affairs of this world, has willed that these seven +princes of Germany should discharge the function which once belonged +to the senate and people of Rome, that of choosing his earthly viceroy +in matters temporal. But it is immediately from Himself that the +authority of this viceroy comes, and men can have no relation towards +him except that of obedience. It was in this period, therefore, when +the Emperor was in practice the mere nominee of the electors, that the +belief in this divine right stood highest, to the complete exclusion +of the mutual responsibility of feudalism, and still more of any +notion of a devolution of authority from the sovereign people. + +[Sidenote: General results of Charles IV's policy.] + +Peace and order appeared to be promoted by the institutions of Charles +IV, which removed one fruitful cause of civil war. But these seven +electoral princes acquired, with their extended privileges, a marked +and dangerous predominance in Germany. They were to enjoy full +regalian rights in their territories[277]; causes were not to be +evoked from their courts, save when justice should have been denied: +their consent was necessary to all public acts of consequence. Their +persons were held to be sacred, and the seven mystic luminaries of the +Holy Empire, typified by the seven lamps of the Apocalypse, soon +gained much of the Emperor's hold on popular reverence, as well as +that actual power which he lacked. To Charles, who viewed the German +Empire much as Rudolf had viewed the Roman, this result came not +unforeseen. He saw in his office a means of serving personal ends, and +to them, while appearing to exalt by elaborate ceremonies its ideal +dignity, he deliberately sacrificed what real strength was left. The +object which he sought steadily through life was the prosperity of the +Bohemian kingdom, and the advancement of his own house. In the Golden +Bull, whose seal bears the legend,-- + + 'Roma caput mundi regit orbis frena rotundi[278],' + +there is not a word of Rome or of Italy. To Germany he was indirectly +a benefactor, by the foundation of the University of Prague, the +mother of all her schools: otherwise her bane. He legalized anarchy, +and called it a constitution. The sums expended in obtaining the +ratification of the Golden Bull, in procuring the election of his son +Wenzel, in aggrandizing Bohemia at the expense of Germany, had been +amassed by keeping a market in which honours and exemptions, with what +lands the crown retained, were put up openly to be bid for. In Italy +the Ghibelines saw, with shame and rage, their chief hasten to Rome +with a scanty retinue, and return from it as swiftly, at the mandate +of an Avignonese Pope, halting on his route only to traffic away the +last rights of his Empire. The Guelf might cease to hate a power he +could now despise. + +Thus, alike at home and abroad, the German king had become practically +powerless by the loss of his feudal privileges, and saw the authority +that had once been his parcelled out among a crowd of greedy and +tyrannical nobles. Meantime how had it fared with the rights which he +claimed by virtue of the imperial crown? + +FOOTNOTES: + +[263] Quoted by Moser, _Roemische Kayser_, from _Chron. Hirsang._: +'Regni vires temporum iniuria nimium contritae vix uni alendo regi +sufficerent, tantum abesse ut sumptus in duos reges ferre queant.' + +[264] At Rupert's death, under whom the mischief had increased +greatly, there were, we are told, many bishops better off than the +Emperor. + +[265] 'Proventus Imperii ita minimi sunt ut legationibus vix +suppetant.'--Quoted by Moser. + +[266] Albert I tried in vain to wrest the tolls of the Rhine from the +grasp of the Rhenish electors. + +[267] The AEthelings of the line of Cerdic, among the West Saxons, and +the Bavarian Agilolfings, may thus be compared with the Achaemenids of +Persia or the heroic houses of early Greece. + +[268] Wippo, describing the election of Conrad the Franconian, says, +'Inter confinia Moguntiae et Wormatiae convenerunt cuncti primates et, +ut ita dicam, vires et viscera regni.' So Bruno says that Henry IV was +elected by the '_populus_.' So Gunther Ligurinus of Frederick I's +election:-- + + 'Acturi sacrae de successione coronae + Conveniunt proceres, totius viscera regni.' + +So Amandus, secretary of Frederick Barbarossa, in describing his +election, says, 'Multi illustres heroes ex Lombardia, Tuscia, Ianuensi +et aliis Italiae dominiis, ac maior et potior pars principum ex +Transalpino regno.'--Quoted by Mur. _Antiq._ Diss. iii. And see many +other authorities to the same effect, collected by Pfeffinger, +_Vitriarius illustratus_. + +[269] Alciatus, _De Formula Romani Imperii_. He adds that the Gauls +and Italians were incensed at the preference shewn to Germany. So too +Radulfus de Columna. + +[270] Quoted by Gewoldus, _De Septemviratu Sacri Imperii Romani_, +himself a violent advocate of Gregory's decree, though living as late +as the days of Ferdinand II. As late as A.D. 1648 we find Pope +Innocent X maintaining that the sacred number _Seven_ of the electors +was 'apostolica auctoritate olim praefinitus.' Bull _Zelo domus_ in +_Bullar. Rom._ + +[271] Sometimes we hear of a decree made by Pope Sergius IV and his +cardinals (of course equally fabulous with Otto's). So John Villani, +iv. 2. + +[272] In 1152 we read, 'Id iuris Romani Imperii apex habere dicitur ut +non per sanguinis propaginem sed per principum electionem reges +creentur.'--Otto Fris. Gulielmus Brito, writing not much later, says +(quoted by Freher),-- + + 'Est etenim talis dynastia Theutonicorum + Ut nullus regnet super illos, ni prius illum + Eligat unanimis cleri populique voluntas.' + +[273] Innocent III, during the contest between Philip and Otto IV, +speaks of 'principes ad quos principaliter spectat regis Romani +electio.' + +[274] 'Rex Bohemiae non eligit, quia non est Teutonicus,' says a writer +early in the fourteenth century. + +[275] The names and offices of the seven are concisely given in these +lines, which appear in the treatise of Marsilius of Padua, _De Imperio +Romano_:-- + + 'Moguntinensis, Trevirensis, Coloniensis, + Quilibet Imperii sit Cancellarius horum; + Et Palatinus dapifer, Dux portitor ensis, + Marchio praepositus camerae, pincerna Bohemus, + Hi statuunt dominum cunctis per saecula summum.' + +It is worth while to place beside this the first stanza of Schiller's +ballad, _Der Graf von Hapsburg_, in which the coronation feast of +Rudolf is described:-- + + 'Zu Aachen in seiner Kaiserpracht + Im alterthuemlichen Saale, + Sass Koenig Rudolphs heilige Macht + Beim festlichen Kroenungsmahle. + Die Speisen trug der Pfalzgraf des Rheins, + Es schenkte der Boehme des perlenden Weins, + Und alle die Waehler, die Sieben, + Wie der Sterne Chor um die Sonne sich stellt, + Umstanden geschaeftig den Herrscher der Welt, + Die Wuerde des Amtes zu ueben.' + +It is a poetical licence, however (as Schiller himself admits), to +bring the Bohemian there, for King Ottocar was far away at home, +mortified at his own rejection, and already meditating war. + +[276] The electoral prince (Kurfuerst) of Hessen-Cassel. His retention +of the title has this advantage, that it enables the Germans readily +to distinguish electoral Hesse (Kur-Hessen) from the Grand Duchy +(Hessen-Darmstadt) and the landgraviate (Hessen Homburg). [Since the +above was written (in 1865) this last relic of the electoral system +has passed away, the Elector of Hessen having been dethroned in 1866, +and his territories (to the great satisfaction of the inhabitants, +whom he had worried by a long course of petty tyrannies) annexed to +the Prussian kingdom, along with Hanover, Nassau, and the free city of +Frankfort. Count Bismarck, as he raises his master nearer and nearer +to the position of a Germanic Emperor, destroys one by one the +historical memorials of that elder Empire which people had learned to +associate with the Austrian house.] + +[277] Goethe, whose imagination was wonderfully attracted by the +splendours of the old Empire, has given in the second part of _Faust_ +a sort of fancy sketch of the origin of the great offices and the +territorial independence of the German princes. Two lines express +concisely the fiscal rights granted by the Emperor to the electors:-- + + 'Dann Steuer Zins und Beed, Lehn und Geleit und Zoll, + Berg-, Salz- und Muenz-regal euch angehoeren soll.' + +[278] This line is said to be as old as the time of Otto III. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE EMPIRE AS AN INTERNATIONAL POWER. + + +[Sidenote: Theory of the Roman Empire in the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries.] + +That the Roman Empire survived the seemingly mortal wound it had +received at the era of the Great Interregnum, and continued to put +forth pretensions which no one was likely to make good where the +Hohenstaufen had failed, has been attributed to its identification +with the German kingdom, in which some life was still left. But this +was far from being the only cause which saved it from extinction. It +had not ceased to be upheld in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries +by the same singular theory which had in the ninth and tenth been +strong enough to re-establish it in the West. The character of that +theory was indeed somewhat changed, for if not positively less +religious, it was less exclusively so. In the days of Charles and +Otto, the Empire, in so far as it was anything more than a tradition +from times gone by, rested solely upon the belief that with the +visible Church there must be coextensive a single Christian state +under one head and governor. But now that the Emperor's headship had +been repudiated by the Pope, and his interference in matters of +religion denounced as a repetition of the sin of Uzziah; now that the +memory of mutual injuries had kindled an unquenchable hatred between +the champions of the ecclesiastical and those of the civil power, it +was natural that the latter, while they urged, fervently as ever, the +divine sanction given to the imperial office, should at the same time +be led to seek some further basis whereon to establish its claims. +What that basis was, and how they were guided to it, will best appear +when a word or two has been said on the nature of the change that had +passed on Europe in the course of the three preceding centuries, and +the progress of the human mind during the same period. + +[Sidenote: Revival of learning and literature, A.D. 1100-1400.] + +Such has been the accumulated wealth of literature, and so rapid the +advances of science among us since the close of the Middle Ages, that +it is not now possible by any effort fully to enter into the feelings +with which the relics of antiquity were regarded by those who saw in +them their only possession. It is indeed true that modern art and +literature and philosophy have been produced by the working of new +minds upon old materials: that in thought, as in nature, we see no new +creation. But with us the old has been transformed and overlaid by the +new till its origin is forgotten: to them ancient books were the only +standard of taste, the only vehicle of truth, the only stimulus to +reflection. Hence it was that the most learned man was in those days +esteemed the greatest: hence the creative energy of an age was exactly +proportioned to its knowledge of and its reverence for the written +monuments of those that had gone before. For until they can look +forward, men must look back: till they should have reached the level +of the old civilization, the nations of mediaeval Europe must continue +to live upon its memories. Over them, as over us, the common dream of +all mankind had power; but to them, as to the ancient world, that +golden age which seems now to glimmer on the horizon of the future was +shrouded in the clouds of the past. It is to the fifteenth and +sixteenth centuries that we are accustomed to assign that new birth of +the human spirit--if it ought not rather to be called a renewal of its +strength and quickening of its sluggish life--with which the modern +time begins. And the date is well chosen, for it was then first that +the transcendently powerful influence of Greek literature began to +work upon the world. But it must not be forgotten that for a long time +previous there had been in progress a great revival of learning, and +still more of zeal for learning, which being caused by and directed +towards the literature and institutions of Rome, might fitly be called +the Roman Renaissance. The twelfth century saw this revival begin with +that passionate study of the legislation of Justinian, whose influence +on the doctrines of imperial prerogative has been noticed already. The +thirteenth witnessed the rapid spread of the scholastic philosophy, a +body of systems most alien, both in subject and manner, to anything +that had arisen among the ancients, yet one to whose development Greek +metaphysics and the theology of the Latin fathers had largely +contributed, and the spirit of whose reasonings was far more free than +the presumed orthodoxy of its conclusions suffered to appear. In the +fourteenth century there arose in Italy the first great masters of +painting and song; and the literature of the new languages, springing +into the fulness of life in the Divina Commedia, adorned not long +after by the names of Petrarch and Chaucer, assumed at once its place +as a great and ever-growing power in the affairs of men. + +[Sidenote: Growing freedom of spirit.] + +[Sidenote: Influence of thought upon the arrangements of society.] + +Now, along with the literary revival, partly caused by, partly causing +it, there had been also a wonderful stirring and uprising in the mind +of Europe. The yoke of church authority still pressed heavily on the +souls of men; yet some had been found to shake it off, and many more +murmured in secret. The tendency was one which shewed itself in +various and sometimes apparently opposite directions. The revolt of +the Albigenses, the spread of the Cathari and other so-called +heretics, the excitement created by the writings of Wickliffe and +Huss, witnessed to the fearlessness wherewith it could assail the +dominant theology. It was present, however skilfully disguised, among +those scholastic doctors who busied themselves with proving by natural +reason the dogmas of the Church: for the power which can forge fetters +can also break them. It took a form more dangerous because of a more +direct application to facts, in the attacks, so often repeated from +Arnold of Brescia downwards, upon the wealth and corruptions of the +clergy, and above all of the papal court. For the agitation was not +merely speculative. There was beginning to be a direct and rational +interest in life, a power of applying thought to practical ends, which +had not been seen before. Man's life among his fellows was no longer a +mere wild beast struggle; man's soul no more, as it had been, the +victim of ungoverned passion, whether it was awed by supernatural +terrors or captivated by examples of surpassing holiness. Manners were +still rude, and governments unsettled; but society was learning to +organize itself upon fixed principles; to recognize, however faintly, +the value of order, industry, equality; to adapt means to ends, and +conceive of the common good as the proper end of its own existence. In +a word, Politics had begun to exist, and with them there had appeared +the first of a class of persons whom friends and enemies may both, +though with different meanings, call ideal politicians; men who, +however various have been the doctrines they have held, however +impracticable many of the plans they have advanced, have been +nevertheless alike in their devotion to the highest interests of +humanity, and have frequently been derided as theorists in their own +age to be honoured as the prophets and teachers of the next. + +[Sidenote: Separation of the peoples of Europe into hostile kingdoms: +consequent need of an international power.] + +Now it was towards the Roman Empire that the hopes and sympathies of +these political speculators as well as of the jurists and poets of the +fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were constantly directed. The cause +may be gathered from the circumstances of the time. The most +remarkable event in the history of the last three hundred years had +been the formation of nationalities, each distinguished by a peculiar +language and character, and by steadily increasing differences of +habits and institutions. And as upon this national basis there had +been in most cases established strong monarchies, Europe was broken up +into disconnected bodies, and the cherished scheme of a united +Christian state appeared less likely than ever to be realized. Nor was +this all. Sometimes through race-hatred, more often by the jealousy +and ambition of their sovereigns, these countries were constantly +involved in war with one another, violating on a larger scale and with +more destructive results than in time past the peace of the religious +community; while each of them was at the same time torn within by +frequent insurrections, and desolated by long and bloody civil wars. +The new nationalities were too fully formed to allow the hope that by +their extinction a remedy might be applied to these evils. They had +grown up in spite of the Empire and the Church, and were not likely to +yield in their strength what they had won in their weakness. But it +still appeared possible to soften, if not to overcome, their +antagonism. What might not be looked for from the erection of a +presiding power common to all Europe, a power which, while it should +oversee the internal concerns of each country, not dethroning the +king, but treating him as an hereditary viceroy, should be more +especially charged to prevent strife between kingdoms, and to maintain +the public order of Europe by being not only the fountain of +international law, but also the judge in its causes and the enforcer +of its sentences? + +[Sidenote: The Popes as international Judges.] + +To such a position had the Popes aspired. They were indeed excellently +fitted for it by the respect which the sacredness of their office +commanded; by their control of the tremendous weapons of +excommunication and interdict; above all, by their exemption from +those narrowing influences of place, or blood, or personal interest, +which it would be their chiefest duty to resist in others. And there +had been pontiffs whose fearlessness and justice were worthy of their +exalted office, and whose interference was gratefully remembered by +those who found no other helpers. Nevertheless, judging the Papacy by +its conduct as a whole, it had been tried and found wanting. Even when +its throne stood firmest and its purposes were most pure, one motive +had always biassed its decisions--a partiality to the most submissive. +During the greater part of the fourteenth century it was at Avignon +the willing tool of France: in the pursuit of a temporal principality +it had mingled in and been contaminated by the unhallowed politics of +Italy; its supreme council, the college of cardinals, was distracted +by the intrigues of two bitterly hostile factions. And while the power +of the Popes had declined steadily, though silently, since the days of +Boniface the Eighth, the insolence of the great prelates and the vices +of the inferior clergy had provoked throughout Western Christendom a +reaction against the pretensions of all sacerdotal authority. As there +is no theory at first sight more attractive than that which entrusts +all government to a supreme spiritual power, which, knowing what is +best for man, shall lead him to his true good by appealing to the +highest principles of his nature, so there is no disappointment more +bitter than that of those who find that the holiest office may be +polluted by the lusts and passions of its holder; that craft and +hypocrisy lead while fanaticism follows; that here too, as in so much +else, the corruption of the best is worst. Some such disappointment +there was in Europe now, and with it a certain disposition to look +with favour on the secular power: a wish to escape from the unhealthy +atmosphere of clerical despotism to the rule of positive law, harsher, +it might be, yet surely less corrupting. Espousing the cause of the +Roman Empire as the chief opponent of priestly claims, this tendency +found it, with shrunken territory and diminished resources, fitter in +some respects for the office of an international judge and mediator +than it had been as a great national power. For though far less widely +active, it was losing that local character which was fast gathering +round the Papacy. With feudal rights no longer enforcible, and +removed, except in his patrimonial lands, from direct contact with the +subject, the Emperor was not, as heretofore, conspicuously a German +and a feudal king, and occupied an ideal position far less marred by +the incongruous accidents of birth and training, of national and +dynastic interests. + +[Sidenote: Duties attributed to the Empire by the developed theory.] + +[Sidenote: Divine right of the Emperor.] + +To that position three cardinal duties were attached. He who held it +must typify spiritual unity, must preserve peace, must be a fountain +of that by which alone among imperfect men peace is preserved and +restored, law and justice. The first of these three objects was sought +not only on religious grounds, but also from that longing for a wider +brotherhood of humanity towards which, ever since the barrier between +Jew and Gentile, Greek and barbarian, was broken down, the aspirations +of the higher minds of the world have been constantly directed. Placed +in the midst of Europe, the Emperor was to bind its tribes into one +body, reminding them of their common faith, their common blood, their +common interest in each other's welfare. And he was therefore above +all things, professing indeed to be upon earth the representative of +the Prince of Peace, bound to listen to complaints, and to redress the +injuries inflicted by sovereigns or people upon each other; to punish +offenders against the public order of Christendom; to maintain through +the world, looking down as from a serene height upon the schemes and +quarrels of meaner potentates, that supreme good without which neither +arts nor letters, nor the gentler virtues of life, can rise and +flourish. The mediaeval Empire was in its essence what the modern +despotisms that mimic it profess themselves: the Empire was +peace[279]: the oldest and noblest title of its head was 'Imperator +pacificus[280].' And that he might be the peacemaker, he must be the +expounder of justice and the author of its concrete embodiment, +positive law; chief legislator and supreme judge of appeal, like his +predecessor the compiler of the Corpus Iuris, the one and only source +of all legitimate authority. In this sense, as governor and +administrator, not as owner, is he, in the words of the jurists, Lord +of the world; not that its soil belongs to him in the same sense in +which the soil of France or England belongs to their respective kings: +he is the steward of Him who has received the heathen for his +possession and the uttermost parts of the earth for his inheritance. +It is, therefore, by him alone that the idea of pure right, acquired +not by force but by legitimate devolution from those whom God himself +had set up, is visibly expressed upon earth. To find an external and +positive basis for that idea is a problem which it has at all times +been more easy to evade than to solve, and one peculiarly distressing +to those who could neither explain the phenomena of society by +reducing it to its original principles, nor inquire historically how +its existing arrangements had grown up. Hence the attempt to represent +human government as an emanation from divine: a view from which all +the similar but far less logically consistent doctrines of divine +right which have prevailed in later times are borrowed. As has been +said already, there is not a trace of the notion that the Emperor +reigns by an hereditary right of his own or by the will of the people, +for such a theory would have seemed to the men of the middle ages an +absurd and wicked perversion of the true order. Nor do his powers come +to him from those who choose him, but from God, who uses the electoral +princes as mere instruments of nomination. Having such an origin, his +rights exist irrespective of their actual exercise, and no voluntary +abandonment, not even an express grant, can impair them. Boniface the +Eighth[281] reminds the king of France, and imperialist lawyers till +the seventeenth century repeated the claim, that he, like other +princes, is of right and must ever remain subject to the Roman +Emperor. And the sovereigns of Europe long continued to address the +Emperor in language, and yield to him a precedence, which admitted the +inferiority of their own position[282]. + +There was in this theory nothing that was absurd, though much that was +impracticable. The ideas on which it rested are still unapproached in +grandeur and simplicity, still as far in advance of the average +thought of Europe, and as unlikely to find men or nations fit to apply +them, as when they were promulgated five hundred years ago. The +practical evil which the establishment of such a universal monarchy +was intended to meet, that of wars and hardly less ruinous +preparations for war between the states of Europe, remains what it was +then. The remedy which mediaeval theory proposed has been in some +measure applied by the construction and reception of international +law; the greater difficulty of erecting a tribunal to arbitrate and +decide, with the power of enforcing its decisions, is as far from a +solution as ever. + +[Sidenote: Roman Empire why an international power.] + +It is easy to see how it was to the Roman Emperor, and to him only, +that the duties and privileges above mentioned could be attributed. +Being Roman, he was of no nation, and therefore fittest to judge +between contending states, and appease the animosities of race. His +was the imperial tongue of Rome, not only the vehicle of religion and +law, but also, since no other was understood everywhere in Europe, the +necessary medium of diplomatic intercourse. As there was no Church but +the Holy Roman Church, and he its temporal head, it was by him that +the communion of the saints in its outward form, its secular side, was +represented, and to his keeping that the sanctity of peace must be +entrusted. As direct heir of those who from Julius to Justinian had +shaped the existing law of Europe[283], he was, so to speak, legality +personified[284]; the only sovereign on earth who, being possessed of +power by an unimpeachable title, could by his grant confer upon others +rights equally valid. And as he claimed to perpetuate the greatest +political system the world had known, a system which still moves the +wonder of those who see before their eyes empires as much wider than +the Roman as they are less symmetrical, and whose vast and complex +machinery far surpassed anything the fourteenth century possessed or +could hope to establish, it was not strange that he and his government +(assuming them to be what they were entitled to be) should be taken as +the ideal of a perfect monarch and a perfect state. + +[Sidenote: Illustrations.] + +[Sidenote: Right of creating Kings.] + +Of the many applications and illustrations of these doctrines which +mediaeval documents furnish, it will suffice to adduce two or three. No +imperial privilege was prized more highly than the power of creating +kings, for there was none which raised the Emperor so much above them. +In this, as in other international concerns, the Pope soon began to +claim a jurisdiction, at first concurrent, then separate and +independent. But the older and more reasonable view assigned it, as +flowing from the possession of supreme secular authority, to the +Emperor; and it was from him that the rulers of Burgundy, Bohemia, +Hungary, perhaps Poland and Denmark, received the regal title[285]. +The prerogative was his in the same manner in which that of conferring +titles is still held to belong to the sovereign in every modern +kingdom. And so when Charles the Bold, last duke of French Burgundy, +proposed to consolidate his wide dominions into a kingdom, it was from +Frederick III that he sought permission to do so. The Emperor, +however, was greedy and suspicious, the Duke uncompliant; and when +Frederick found that terms could not be arranged between them, he +stole away suddenly, and left Charles to carry back, with +ill-concealed mortification, the crown and sceptre which he had +brought ready-made to the place of interview. + +[Sidenote: Chivalry.] + +In the same manner, as representing what was common to and valid +throughout all Europe, nobility, and more particularly knighthood, +centred in the Empire. The great Orders of Chivalry were international +institutions, whose members, having consecrated themselves a military +priesthood, had no longer any country of their own, and could +therefore be subject to no one save the Emperor and the Pope. For +knighthood was constructed on the analogy of priesthood, and knights +were conceived of as being to the world in its secular aspect exactly +what priests, and more especially the monastic orders, were to it in +its religious aspect: to the one body was given the sword of the +flesh, to the other the sword of the spirit; each was universal, each +had its autocratic head[286]. Singularly, too, were these notions +brought into harmony with the feudal polity. Caesar was lord paramount +of the world: its countries great fiefs whose kings were his tenants +in chief, the suitors of his court, owing to him homage, fealty, and +military service against the infidel. + +[Sidenote: Persons eligible as Emperors.] + +One illustration more of the way in which the empire was held to be +something of and for all mankind, cannot be omitted. Although from the +practical union of the imperial with the German throne none but +Germans were chosen to fill it[287], it remained in point of law +absolutely free from all restrictions of country or birth. In an age +of the most intense aristocratic exclusiveness, the highest office in +the world was the only secular one open to all Christians. The old +writers, after debating at length the qualifications that are or may +be desirable in an Emperor, and relating how in pagan times Gauls and +Spaniards, Moors and Pannonians, were thought worthy of the purple, +decide that two things, and no more, are required of the candidate for +Empire: he must be free-born, and he must be orthodox[288]. + +[Sidenote: The Empire and the new learning.] + +[Sidenote: The doctrine of the Empire's rights and functions never +carried out in fact.] + +It is not without a certain surprise that we see those who were +engaged in the study of ancient letters, or felt indirectly their +stimulus, embrace so fervently the cause of the Roman Empire. Still +more difficult is it to estimate the respective influence exerted by +each of the three revivals which it has been attempted to distinguish. +The spirit of the ancient world by which the men who led these +movements fancied themselves animated, was in truth a pagan, or at +least a strongly secular spirit, in many respects inconsistent with +the associations which had now gathered round the imperial office. And +this hostility did not fail to shew itself when at the beginning of +the sixteenth century, in the fulness of the Renaissance, a direct and +for the time irresistible sway was exercised by the art and literature +of Greece, when the mythology of Euripides and Ovid supplanted that +which had fired the imagination of Dante and peopled the visions of +St. Francis; when men forsook the image of the saint in the cathedral +for the statue of the nymph in the garden; when the uncouth jargon of +scholastic theology was equally distasteful to the scholars who formed +their style upon Cicero and the philosophers who drew their +inspiration from Plato. That meanwhile the admirers of antiquity did +ally themselves with the defenders of the Empire, was due partly +indeed to the false notions that were entertained regarding the early +Caesars, yet still more to the common hostility of both sects to the +Papacy. It was as successor of old Rome, and by virtue of her +traditions, that the Holy See had established so wide a dominion; yet +no sooner did Arnold of Brescia and his republicans arise, claiming +liberty in the name of the ancient constitution of the republic, than +they found in the Popes their bitterest foes, and turned for help to +the secular monarch against the clergy. With similar aversion did the +Romish court view the revived study of the ancient jurisprudence, so +soon as it became, in the hands of the school of Bologna and +afterwards of the jurists of France, a power able to assert its +independence and resist ecclesiastical pretensions. In the ninth +century, Pope Nicholas the First had himself judged in the famous case +of Teutberga, wife of Lothar, according to the civil law: in the +thirteenth, his successors[289] forbade its study, and the canonists +strove to expel it from Europe[290]. And as the current of educated +opinion among the laity was beginning, however imperceptibly at first, +to set against sacerdotal tyranny, it followed that the Empire would +find sympathy in any effort it could make to regain its lost position. +Thus the Emperors became, or might have become had they seen the +greatness of the opportunity and been strong enough to improve it, the +exponents and guides of the political movement, the pioneers, in part +at least, of the Reformation. But the revival came too late to arrest, +if not to adorn, the decline of their office. The growth of a national +sentiment in the several countries of Europe, which had already gone +too far to be arrested, and was urged on by forces far stronger than +the theories of Catholic unity which opposed it, imprinted on the +resistance to papal usurpation, and even on the instincts of political +freedom, that form of narrowly local patriotism which they still +retain. It can hardly be said that upon any occasion, except the +gathering of the council of Constance by Sigismund, did the Emperor +appear filling a truly international place. For the most part he +exerted in the politics of Europe no influence greater than that of +other princes. In actual resources he stood below the kings of France +and England, far below his vassals the Visconti of Milan[291]. Yet +this helplessness, such was men's faith or their timidity, and such +their unwillingness to make prejudice bend to facts, did not prevent +his dignity from being extolled in the most sonorous language by +writers whose imaginations were enthralled by the halo of traditional +glory which surrounded it. + +[Sidenote: Attitude of the men of letters.] + +We are thus brought back to ask, What was the connection between +imperialism and the literary revival? + +[Sidenote: Petrarch.] + +To moderns who think of the Roman Empire as the heathen persecuting +power, it is strange to find it depicted as the model of a Christian +commonwealth. It is stranger still that the study of antiquity should +have made men advocates of arbitrary power. Democratic Athens, +oligarchic Rome, suggest to us Pericles and Brutus: the moderns who +have striven to catch their spirit have been men like Algernon Sidney, +and Vergniaud, and Shelley. The explanation is the same in both +cases[292]. The ancient world was known to the earlier middle ages by +tradition, freshest for what was latest, and by the authors of the +Empire. Both presented to them the picture of a mighty despotism and a +civilization brilliant far beyond their own. Writings of the fourth +and fifth centuries, unfamiliar to us, were to them authorities as +high as Tacitus or Livy; yet Virgil and Horace too had sung the +praises of the first and wisest of the Emperors. To the enthusiasts of +poetry and law, Rome meant universal monarchy[293]; to those of +religion, her name called up the undimmed radiance of the Church under +Sylvester and Constantine. Petrarch, the apostle of the dawning +Renaissance, is excited by the least attempt to revive even the shadow +of imperial greatness: as he had hailed Rienzi, he welcomes Charles IV +into Italy, and execrates his departure. The following passage is +taken from his letter to the Roman people asking them to receive back +Rienzi:--'When was there ever such peace, such tranquillity, such +justice, such honour paid to virtue, such rewards distributed to the +good and punishments to the bad, when was ever the state so wisely +guided, as in the time when the world had obtained one head, and that +head Rome; the very time wherein God deigned to be born of a virgin +and dwell upon earth. To every single body there has been given a +head; the whole world therefore also, which is called by the poet a +great body, ought to be content with one temporal head. For every +two-headed animal is monstrous; how much more horrible and hideous a +portent must be a creature with a thousand different heads, biting and +fighting against one another! If, however, it is necessary that there +be more heads than one, it is nevertheless evident that there ought to +be one to restrain all and preside over all, that so the peace of the +whole body may abide unshaken. Assuredly both in heaven and in earth +the sovereignty of one has always been best.' + +[Sidenote: Dante.] + +His passion for the heroism of Roman conquest and the ordered peace to +which it brought the world, is the centre of Dante's political hopes: +he is no more an exiled Ghibeline, but a patriot whose fervid +imagination sees a nation arise regenerate at the touch of its +rightful lord. Italy, the spoil of so many Teutonic conquerors, is the +garden of the Empire which Henry is to redeem: Rome the mourning +widow, whom Albert is denounced for neglecting[294]. Passing through +purgatory, the poet sees Rudolf of Hapsburg seated gloomily apart, +mourning his sin in that he left unhealed the wounds of Italy[295]. In +the deepest pit of hell's ninth circle lies Lucifer, huge, +three-headed; in each mouth a sinner whom he crunches between his +teeth, in one mouth Iscariot the traitor to Christ, in the others the +two traitors to the first Emperor of Rome, Brutus and Cassius[296]. To +multiply illustrations from other parts of the poem would be an +endless task; for the idea is ever present in Dante's mind, and +displays itself in a hundred unexpected forms. Virgil himself is +selected to be the guide of the pilgrim through hell and purgatory, +not so much as being the great poet of antiquity, as because he 'was +born under Julius and lived beneath the good Augustus;' because he was +divinely charged to sing of the Empire's earliest and brightest +glories. Strange, that the shame of one age should be the glory of +another. For Virgil's melancholy panegyrics upon the destroyer of the +republic are no more like Dante's appeals to the coming saviour of +Italy than is Caesar Octavianus to Henry count of Luxemburg. + +[Sidenote: Attitude of the Jurists.] + +The visionary zeal of the man of letters was seconded by the more +sober devotion of the lawyer. Conqueror, theologian, and jurist, +Justinian is a hero greater than either Julius or Constantine, for his +enduring work bears him witness. Absolutism was the civilian's +creed[297]: the phrases 'legibus solutus,' 'lex regia,' whatever else +tended in the same direction, were taken to express the prerogative of +him whose official style of Augustus, as well as the vernacular name +of 'Kaiser,' designated the legitimate successor of the compiler of +the Corpus Juris. Since it was upon that legitimacy that his claim to +be the fountain of law rested, no pains were spared to seek out and +observe every custom and precedent by which old Rome seemed to be +connected with her representative. + +[Sidenote: Imitations of old Rome.] + +Of the many instances that might be collected, it would be tedious to +enumerate more than a few. The offices of the imperial household, +instituted by Constantine the Great, were attached to the noblest +families of Germany. The Emperor and Empress, before their coronation +at Rome, were lodged in the chambers called those of Augustus and +Livia[298]; a bare sword was borne before them by the praetorian +prefect; their processions were adorned by the standards, eagles, +wolves and dragons, which had figured in the train of Hadrian or +Theodosius[299]. The constant title of the Emperor himself, according +to the style introduced by Probus, was 'semper Augustus,' or +'perpetuus Augustus,' which erring etymology translated 'at all times +increaser of the Empire[300].' Edicts issued by a Franconian or +Swabian sovereign were inserted as Novels[301] in the Corpus Juris, in +the latest editions of which custom still allows them a place. The +_pontificatus maximus_ of his pagan predecessors was supposed to be +preserved by the admission of each Emperor as a canon of St. Peter's +at Rome and St. Mary's at Aachen[302]. Sometimes we even find him +talking of his consulship[303]. Annalists invariably number the place +of each sovereign from Augustus downwards[304]. The notion of an +uninterrupted succession, which moves the stranger's wondering smile +as he sees ranged round the magnificent Golden Hall of Augsburg the +portraits of the Caesars, laurelled, helmeted, and periwigged, from +Julius the conqueror of Gaul to Joseph the partitioner of Poland, was +to those generations not an article of faith only because its denial +was inconceivable. + +[Sidenote: Reverence for ancient forms and phrases in the Middle +Ages.] + +[Sidenote: Absence of the idea of change or progress.] + +And all this historical antiquarianism, as one might call it, which +gathers round the Empire, is but one instance, though the most +striking, of that eager wish to cling to the old forms, use the old +phrases, and preserve the old institutions to which the annals of +mediaeval Europe bear witness. It appears even in trivial expressions, +as when a monkish chronicler says of evil bishops deposed, _Tribu moti +sunt_, or talks of the 'senate and people of the Franks,' when he +means a council of chiefs surrounded by a crowd of half-naked +warriors. So throughout Europe charters and edicts were drawn up on +Roman precedents; the trade-guilds, though often traceable to a +different source, represented the old _collegia_; villenage was the +offspring of the system of _coloni_ under the later Empire. Even in +remote Britain, the Teutonic invaders used Roman ensigns, and stamped +their coins with Roman devices; called themselves 'Basileis' and +'Augusti[305].' Especially did the cities perpetuate Rome through her +most lasting boon to the conquered, municipal self-government; those +of later origin emulating in their adherence to antique style others +who, like Nismes and Cologne, Zuerich and Augsburg, could trace back +their institutions to the _coloniae_ and _municipia_ of the first +centuries. On the walls and gates of hoary Nuernberg[306] the traveller +still sees emblazoned the imperial eagle, with the words 'Senatus +populusque Norimbergensis,' and is borne in thought from the quiet +provincial town of to-day to the stirring republic of the middle ages: +thence to the Forum and the Capitol of her greater prototype. For, in +truth, through all that period which we call the Dark and Middle Ages, +men's minds were possessed by the belief that all things continued as +they were from the beginning, that no chasm never to be recrossed lay +between them and that ancient world to which they had not ceased to +look back. We who are centuries removed can see that there had passed +a great and wonderful change upon thought, and art, and literature, +and politics, and society itself: a change whose best illustration is +to be found in the process whereby there arose out of the primitive +basilica the Romanesque cathedral, and from it in turn the endless +varieties of Gothic. But so gradual was the change that each +generation felt it passing over them no more than a man feels that +perpetual transformation by which his body is renewed from year to +year; while the few who had learning enough to study antiquity through +its contemporary records, were prevented by the utter want of +criticism and of that which we call historical feeling, from seeing +how prodigious was the contrast between themselves and those whom they +admired. There is nothing more modern than the critical spirit which +dwells upon the difference between the minds of men in one age and in +another; which endeavours to make each age its own interpreter, and +judge what it did or produced by a relative standard. Such a spirit +was, before the last century or two, wholly foreign to art as well as +to metaphysics. The converse and the parallel of the fashion of +calling mediaeval offices by Roman names, and supposing them therefore +the same, is to be found in those old German pictures of the siege of +Carthage or the battle between Porus and Alexander, where in the +foreground two armies of knights, mailed and mounted, are charging +each other like Crusaders, lance, in rest, while behind, through the +smoke of cannon, loom out the Gothic spires and towers of the +beleaguered city. And thus, when we remember that the notion of +progress and development, and of change as the necessary condition +thereof, was unwelcome or unknown in mediaeval times, we may better +understand, though we do not cease to wonder, how men, never doubting +that the political system of antiquity had descended to them, modified +indeed, yet in substance the same, should have believed that the +Frank, the Saxon, and the Swabian ruled all Europe by a right which +seems to us not less fantastic than that fabled charter whereby +Alexander the Great[307] bequeathed his empire to the Slavic race for +the love of Roxolana. + +It is a part of that perpetual contradiction of which the history of +the Middle Ages is full, that this belief had hardly any influence on +practical politics. The more abjectly helpless the Emperor becomes, so +much the more sonorous is the language in which the dignity of his +crown is described. His power, we are told, is eternal, the provinces +having resumed their allegiance after the barbarian irruptions[308]; +it is incapable of diminution or injury: exemptions and grants by him, +so far as they tend to limit his own prerogative, are invalid[309]: +all Christendom is still of right subject to him, though it may +contumaciously refuse obedience[310]. The sovereigns of Europe are +solemnly warned that they are resisting the power ordained of +God[311]. No laws can bind the Emperor, though he may choose to live +according to them: no court can judge him, though he may condescend to +be sued in his own: none may presume to arraign the conduct or +question the motives of him who is answerable only to God[312]. So +writes AEneas Sylvius, while Frederick the Third, chased from his +capital by the Hungarians, is wandering from convent to convent, an +imperial beggar; while the princes, whom his subserviency to the Pope +has driven into rebellion, are offering the imperial crown to +Podiebrad the Bohemian king. + +[Sidenote: Henry VII, A.D. 1308-1313.] + +[Sidenote: Death of Henry VII.] + +But the career of Henry the Seventh in Italy is the most remarkable +illustration of the Emperor's position: and imperialist doctrines are +set forth most strikingly in the treatise which the greatest spirit of +the age wrote to herald the advent of that hero, the _De Monarchia_ of +Dante[313]. Rudolf, Adolf of Nassau, Albert of Hapsburg, none of them +crossed the Alps or attempted to aid the Italian Ghibelines who +battled away in the name of their throne. Concerned only to restore +order and aggrandize his house, and thinking apparently that nothing +more was to be made of the imperial crown, Rudolf was content never to +receive it, and purchased the Pope's goodwill by surrendering his +jurisdiction in the capital, and his claims over the bequest of the +Countess Matilda. Henry the Luxemburger ventured on a bolder course; +urged perhaps only by his lofty and chivalrous spirit, perhaps in +despair at effecting anything with his slender resources against the +princes of Germany. Crossing from his Burgundian dominions with a +scanty following of knights, and descending from the Cenis upon Turin, +he found his prerogative higher in men's belief after sixty years of +neglect than it had stood under the last Hohenstaufen. The cities of +Lombardy opened their gates; Milan decreed a vast subsidy; Guelf and +Ghibeline exiles alike were restored, and imperial vicars appointed +everywhere: supported by the Avignonese pontiff, who dreaded the +restless ambition of his French neighbour, king Philip IV, Henry had +the interdict of the Church as well as the ban of the Empire at his +command. But the illusion of success vanished as soon as men, +recovering from their first impression, began to be again governed by +their ordinary passions and interests, and not by an imaginative +reverence for the glories of the past. Tumults and revolts broke out +in Lombardy; at Rome the king of Naples held St. Peter's, and the +coronation must take place in St. John Lateran, on the southern bank +of the Tiber. The hostility of the Guelfic league, headed by the +Florentines, Guelfs even against the Pope, obliged Henry to depart +from his impartial and republican policy, and to purchase the aid of +the Ghibeline chiefs by granting them the government of cities. With +few troops, and encompassed by enemies, the heroic Emperor sustained +an unequal struggle for a year longer, till, in A.D. 1313, he sank +beneath the fevers of the deadly Tuscan summer. His German followers +believed, nor has history wholly rejected the tale, that poison was +given him by a Dominican monk, in sacramental wine. + +[Sidenote: Later Emperors in Italy.] + +Others after him descended from the Alps, but they came, like Lewis +the Fourth, Rupert, Sigismund, at the behest of a faction, which found +them useful tools for a time, then flung them away in scorn; or like +Charles the Fourth and Frederick the Third, as the humble minions of a +French or Italian priest. With Henry the Seventh ends the history of +the Empire in Italy, and Dante's book is an epitaph instead of a +prophecy. A sketch of its argument will convey a notion of the +feelings with which the noblest Ghibelines fought, as well as of the +spirit in which the Middle Age was accustomed to handle such subjects. + +[Sidenote: Dante's feelings and theories.] + +Weary of the endless strife of princes and cities, of the factions +within every city against each other, seeing municipal freedom, the +only mitigation of turbulence, vanish with the rise of domestic +tyrants, Dante raises a passionate cry for some power to still the +tempest, not to quench liberty or supersede local self-government, but +to correct and moderate them, to restore unity and peace to hapless +Italy. His reasoning is throughout closely syllogistic: he is +alternately the jurist, the theologian, the scholastic metaphysician: +the poet of the Divina Commedia is betrayed only by the compressed +energy of diction, by his clear vision of the unseen, rarely by a +glowing metaphor. + +[Sidenote: The 'De Monarchia.'] + +Monarchy is first proved to be the true and rightful form of +government. Men's objects are best attained during universal peace: +this is possible only under a monarch. And as he is the image of the +Divine unity, so man is through him made one, and brought most near to +God. There must, in every system of forces, be a 'primum mobile;' to +be perfect, every organization must have a centre, into which all is +gathered, by which all is controlled[314]. Justice is best secured by +a supreme arbiter of disputes, himself unsolicited by ambition, since +his dominion is already bounded only by ocean. Man is best and +happiest when he is most free; to be free is to exist for one's own +sake. To this grandest end does the monarch and he alone guide us; +other forms of government are perverted[315], and exist for the +benefit of some class; he seeks the good of all alike, being to that +very end appointed[316]. + +Abstract arguments are then confirmed from history. Since the world +began there has been but one period of perfect peace, and but one of +perfect monarchy, that, namely, which existed at our Lord's birth, +under the sceptre of Augustus; since then the heathen have raged, and +the kings of the earth have stood up; they have set themselves against +their Lord, and his anointed the Roman prince[317]. The universal +dominion, the need for which has been thus established, is then proved +to belong to the Romans. Justice is the will of God, a will to exalt +Rome shewn through her whole history[318]. Her virtues deserved +honour: Virgil is quoted to prove those of AEneas, who by descent and +marriage was the heir of three continents: of Asia through Assaracus +and Creusa; of Africa by Electra (mother of Dardanus and daughter of +Atlas) and Dido; of Europe by Dardanus and Lavinia. God's favour was +approved in the fall of the shields to Numa, in the miraculous +deliverance of the capital from the Gauls, in the hailstorm after +Cannae. Justice is also the advantage of the state: that advantage was +the constant object of the virtuous Cincinnatus, and the other heroes +of the republic. They conquered the world for its own good, and +therefore justly, as Cicero attests[319]; so that their sway was not +so much 'imperium' as 'patrocinium orbis terrarum.' Nature herself, +the fountain of all right, had, by their geographical position and by +the gift of a genius so vigorous, marked them out for universal +dominion:-- + + 'Excudent alii spirantia mollius aera, + Credo equidem: vivos ducent de marmore vultus; + Orabunt causas melius, coelique meatus + Describent radio, et surgentia sidera dicent: + Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento; + Hae tibi erunt artes; pacisque imponere morem, + Parcere subiectis, et debellare superbos.' + +Finally, the right of war asserted, Christ's birth, and death under +Pilate, ratified their government. For Christian doctrine requires +that the procurator should have been a lawful judge[320], which he was +not unless Tiberius was a lawful Emperor. + +The relations of the imperial and papal power are then examined, and +the passages of Scripture (tradition being rejected), to which the +advocates of the Papacy appeal, are elaborately explained away. The +argument from the sun and moon[321] does not hold, since both lights +existed before man's creation, and at a time when, as still sinless, +he needed no controlling powers. Else _accidentia_ would have preceded +_propria_ in creation. The moon, too, does not receive her being nor +all her light from the sun, but so much only as makes her more +effective. So there is no reason why the temporal should not be aided +in a corresponding measure by the spiritual authority. This difficult +text disposed of, others fall more easily; Levi and Judah, Samuel and +Saul, the incense and gold offered by the Magi[322]; the two swords, +the power of binding and loosing given to Peter. Constantine's +donation was illegal: no single Emperor nor Pope can disturb the +everlasting foundations of their respective thrones: the one had no +right to bestow, nor the other to receive, such a gift. Leo the Third +gave the Empire to Charles wrongfully: '_usurpatio iuris non facit +ius_.' It is alleged that all things of one kind are reducible to one +individual, and so all men to the Pope. But Emperor and Pope differ in +kind, and so far as they are men, are reducible only to God, on whom +the Empire immediately depends; for it existed before Peter's see, and +was recognized by Paul when he appealed to Caesar. The temporal power +of the Papacy can have been given neither by natural law, nor divine +ordinance, nor universal consent: nay, it is against its own Form and +Essence, the life of Christ, who said, 'My kingdom is not of this +world.' + +Man's nature is twofold, corruptible and incorruptible: he has +therefore two ends, active virtue on earth, and the enjoyment of the +sight of God hereafter; the one to be attained by practice conformed +to the precepts of philosophy, the other by the theological virtues. +Hence two guides are needed, the pontiff and the Emperor, the latter +of whom, in order that he may direct mankind in accordance with the +teachings of philosophy to temporal blessedness, must preserve +universal peace in the world. Thus are the two powers equally ordained +of God, and the Emperor, though supreme in all that pertains to the +secular world, is in some things dependent on the pontiff, since +earthly happiness is subordinate to eternal. 'Let Caesar, therefore, +shew towards Peter the reverence wherewith a firstborn son honours his +father, that, being illumined by the light of his paternal favour, he +may the more excellently shine forth upon the whole world, to the rule +of which he has been appointed by Him alone who is of all things, both +spiritual and temporal, the King and Governor.' So ends the treatise. + +Dante's arguments are not stranger than his omissions. No suspicion is +breathed against Constantine's donation; no proof is adduced, for no +doubt is felt, that the Empire of Henry the Seventh is the legitimate +continuation of that which had been swayed by Augustus and Justinian. +Yet Henry was a German, sprung from Rome's barbarian foes, the elected +of those who had neither part nor share in Italy and her capital. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[279] See esp. AEgidi, _Der Fuerstenrath nach dem Luneviller Frieden_, +and the passages by him quoted. + +[280] The archbishop of Mentz addresses Conrad II on his election +thus: 'Deus quum a te multa requirat tum hoc potissimum desiderat ut +facias iudicium et iustitiam et pacem patriae quae respicit ad te, ut +sis defensor ecclesiarum et clericorum, tutor viduarum et +orphanorum.'--Wippo, Vita Chuonradi, c. 3, _ap._ Pertz. So Pope Urban +IV writes to Richard: 'Ut consternatis Imperii Romani inimicis, in +pacis pulchritudine sedeat populus Christianus et requie opulenta +quiescat.' Compare also the 'Edictum de crimine laesae maiestatis' +issued by Henry VII in Italy: 'Ad reprimenda multorum facinora qui +ruptis totius debitae fidelitatis habenis adversus Romanum imperium, in +cuius tranquillitate totius orbis regularitas requiescit, hostili +animo armati conentur nedum humana, verum etiam divina praecepta, +quibus iubetur quod omnis anima Romanorum principi sit subiecta, +scelestissimis facinoribus et rebellionibus demoliri,' &c.--Pertz, _M. +G. H._, legg. ii. p. 544. + +See also a curious passage in the Life of St. Adalbert, describing the +beginning of the reign at Rome of the Emperor Otto III, and his cousin +and nominee Pope Gregory V: 'Laetantur cum primatibus minores +civitatis: cum afflicto paupere exultant agmina viduarum, quia novus +imperator dat iura populis; dat iura novus papa.' + +[281] 'Imperator est monarcha omnium regum et principum terrenorum ... +nec insurgat superbia Gallicorum quae dicat quod non recognoscit +superiorem, mentiuntur, quia de iure sunt et esse debent sub rege +Romanorum et Imperatore.'--Speech of Boniface VIII. It is curious to +compare with this the words addressed nearly five centuries earlier by +Pope John VIII to Lewis, king of Bavaria: 'Si sumpseritis Romanum +imperium, omnia regna vobis subiecta existent.' + +[282] So Alfonso, king of Naples, writes to Frederick III: 'Nos reges +omnes debemus reverentiam Imperatori, tanquam summo regi, qui est +Caput et Dux regum.'--Quoted by Pfeffinger, _Vitriarius illustratus_, +i. 379. And Francis I (of France), speaking of a proposed combined +expedition against the Turks, says, 'Caesari nihilominus principem ea +in expeditione locum non gravarer ex officio cedere.'--For a long time +no European sovereign save the Emperor ventured to use the title of +'Majesty.' The imperial chancery conceded it in 1633 to the kings of +England and Sweden; in 1641 to the king of France.--Zedler, _Universal +Lexicon_, _s. v._ Majestaet. + +[283] For with the progress of society and the growth of commerce the +old feudal customs were through the greater part of Western Europe, +and especially in Germany, either giving way to or being remodelled +and supplemented by the civil law. + +[284] 'Imperator est animata lex in terris.'--Quoted by Von Raumer, v. +81. + +[285] Thus we are told of the Emperor Charles the Bald, when he +confirmed the election of Boso, king of Burgundy and Provence, 'Dedit +Bosoni Provinciam (_sc._ Carolus Calvus), et corona in vertice capitis +imposita, eum regem appellari iussit, ut more priscorum imperatorum +regibus videretur dominari.'--_Regin. Chron._ Frederick II made his +son Enzio (that famous Enzio whose romantic history every one who has +seen Bologna will remember) king of Sardinia, and also erected the +duchy of Austria into a kingdom, although for some reason the title +seems never to have been used; and Lewis IV gave to Humbert of +Dauphine the title of King of Vienne, A.D. 1336. + +[286] It is probably for this reason that the _Ordo Romanus_ directs +the Emperor and Empress to be crowned (in St. Peter's) at the altar of +St. Maurice, the patron saint of knighthood. + +[287] See especially Gerlach Buxtorff, _Dissertatio ad Auream Bullam_; +and Augustinus Stenchus, _De Imperio Romano_; quoted by Marquard +Freher. It was keenly debated, while Charles V and Francis I (of +France) were rival candidates, whether any one but a German was +eligible. By birth Charles was either a Spaniard or a Fleming; but +this difficulty his partisans avoided by holding that he had been, +according to the civil law, _in potestate_ of Maximilian his +grandfather. However, to say nothing of the Guidos and Berengars of +earlier days, the examples of Richard and Alfonso are conclusive as to +the eligibility of others than Germans. Edward III of England was, as +has been said, actually elected; Henry VIII was a candidate. And +attempts were frequently made to elect the kings of France. + +[288] The mediaeval practice seems to have been that which still +prevails in the Roman Catholic Church--to presume the doctrinal +orthodoxy and external conformity of every citizen, whether lay or +clerical, until the contrary be proved. Of course when heresy was rife +it went hard with suspected men, unless they could either clear +themselves or submit to recant. But no one was required to pledge +himself beforehand, as a qualification for any office, to certain +doctrines. And thus, important as an Emperor's orthodoxy was, he does +not appear to have been subjected to any test, although the Pope +pretended to the right of catechizing him in the faith and rejecting +him if unsound. In the _Ordo Romanus_ we find a long series of +questions which the Pontiff was to administer, but it does not appear, +and is in the highest degree unlikely, that such a programme was ever +carried out. + +The charge of heresy was one of the weapons used with most effect +against Frederick II. + +[289] Honorius II in 1229 forbade it to be studied or taught in the +University of Paris. Innocent IV published some years later a still +more sweeping prohibition. + +[290] See Von Savigny, _History of Roman Law in the Middle Ages_, vol. +iii. pp. 81, 341-347. + +[291] Charles the Bold of Burgundy was a potentate incomparably +stronger than the Emperor Frederick III from whom he sought the regal +title. + +[292] Cf. Sismondi, _Republiques Italiennes_, iv. chap. xxvii. + +[293] See Dante, _Paradiso_, canto vi. + +[294] + + 'Vieni a veder la tua Roma, che piange + Vedova, sola, e di e notte chiama: + "Cesare mio, perche non m' accompagne?"' + _Purgatorio_, canto vi. + +[295] _Purgatorio_, canto vii. + +[296] _Inferno_, canto xxxiv. + +[297] Not that the doctors of the civil law were necessarily political +partisans of the Emperors. Savigny says that there were on the +contrary more Guelfs than Ghibelines among the jurists of +Bologna.--_Roman Law in the Middle Ages_, vol. iii. p. 80. + +[298] Cf. Palgrave, _Normandy and England_, vol. ii. (of Otto and +Adelheid). The _Ordo Romanus_ talks of a 'Camera Iuliae' in the Lateran +palace, reserved for the Empress. + +[299] See notes to _Chron. Casin._ in Muratori, _S. R. I._ iv. 515. + +[300] Zu aller Zeiten Mehrer des Reichs. + +[301] _Novellae Constitutiones_. + +[302] Marquard Freher. The question whether the seven electors vote as +_singuli_ or as a _collegium_, is solved by shewing that they have +stepped into the place of the senate and people of Rome, whose duty it +was to choose the Emperor, though (it is naively added) the soldiers +sometimes usurped it.--Peter de Andlo, _De Imperio Romano_. + +[303] Thus Charles, in a capitulary added to a revised edition of the +Lombard law issued in A.D. 801, says, 'Anno consulatus nostri primo.' +So Otto III calls himself 'Consul Senatus populique Romani.' + +[304] Francis II, the last Emperor, was one hundred and twentieth from +Augustus. Some chroniclers call Otto the Great Otto II, counting in +Salvius Otho, the successor of Galba. + +[305] See p. 45 and note to p. 143. + +[306] Nuernberg herself was not of Roman foundation. But this makes the +imitation all the more curious. The fashion even passed from the +cities to rural communities like some of the Swiss cantons. Thus we +find 'Senatus populusque Uronensis.' + +[307] See Palgrave, _Normandy and England_, i. p. 379. + +[308] AEneas Sylvius, _De Ortu et Authoritate Imperii Romani_. + +[309] Thus some civilians held Constantine's Donation null; but the +canonists, we are told, were clear as to its legality. + +[310] 'Et idem dico de istis aliis regibus et principibus, qui negant +se esse subditos regi Romanorum, ut rex Franciae, Angliae, et similes. +Si enim fatentur ipsum esse Dominum universalem, licet ab illo +universali domino se subtrahant ex privilegio vel ex praescriptione vel +consimili, non ergo desunt esse cives Romani, per ea quae dicta sunt. +Et per hoc omnes gentes quae obediunt S. matri ecclesiae sunt de populo +Romano. Et forte si quis diceret dominum Imperatorem non esse dominum +et monarcham totius orbis, esset haereticus, quia diceret contra +determinationem ecclesiae et textum S. evangelii, dum dicit, "Exivit +edictum a Caesare Augusto ut describeretur universus orbis." Ita et +recognovit Christus Imperatorem ut dominum.'--Bartolus, _Commentary on +the Pandects_, xlviii. i. 24; _De Captivis et postliminio reversis_. + +[311] Peter de Andlo, _multis locis_ (see esp. cap. viii.), and other +writings of the time. Cf. Dante's letter to Henry VII: 'Romanorum +potestas nec metis Italiae nec tricornis Siciliae margine coarctatur. +Nam etsi vim passa in angustum gubernacula sua contraxit undique, +tamen de inviolabili iure fluctus Amphitritis attingens vix ab inutili +unda Oceani se circumcingi dignatur. Scriptum est enim + + "Nascetur pulchra Troianus origine Caesar, + Imperium Oceano, famam qui terminet astris."' + +So Fr. Zoannetus, in the sixteenth century, declares it to be a mortal +sin to resist the Empire, as the power ordained of God. + +[312] AEneas Sylvius Piccolomini (afterwards Pope Pius II), _De Ortu et +Authoritate Imperii Romani_. Cf. Gerlach Buxtorff, _Dissertatio ad +Auream Bullam_. + +[313] It has hitherto been the common opinion that the _De Monarchia_ +was written in the view of Henry's expedition. But latterly weighty +reasons have been advanced for believing that its date must be placed +some years later. + +[314] Suggesting the celestial hierarchies of Dionysius the +Areopagite. + +[315] Quoting Aristotle's _Politics_. + +[316] 'Non enim cives propter consules nec gens propter regem, sed e +converso consules propter cives, rex propter gentem.' + +[317] 'Reges et principes in hoc unico concordantes, ut adversentur +Domino suo et uncto suo Romano Principi,' having quoted 'Quare +fremuerunt gentes.' + +[318] Especially in the opportune death of Alexander the Great. + +[319] Cic., _De Off._, ii. 'Ita ut illud patrocinium orbis terrarum +potius quam imperium poterat nominari.' + +[320] 'Si Pilati imperium non de iure fuit, peccatum in Christo non +fuit adeo punitum.' + +[321] There is a curious seal of the Emperor Otto IV (figured in J. M. +Heineccius, _De veteribus Germanorum atque aliarum nationum +sigillis_), on which the sun and moon are represented over the head of +the Emperor. Heineccius says he cannot explain it, but there seems to +be no reason why we should not take the device as typifying the accord +of the spiritual and temporal powers which was brought about at the +accession of Otto, the Guelfic leader, and the favoured candidate of +Pope Innocent III. + +The analogy between the lights of heaven and the princes of earth is +one which mediaeval writers are very fond of. It seems to have +originated with Gregory VII. + +[322] Typifying the spiritual and temporal powers. Dante meets this by +distinguishing the homage paid to Christ from that which his Vicar can +rightfully demand. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE CITY OF ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. + + +'It is related,' says Sozomen in the ninth book of his Ecclesiastical +History, 'that when Alaric was hastening against Rome, a holy monk of +Italy admonished him to spare the city, and not to make himself the +cause of such fearful ills. But Alaric answered, "It is not of my own +will that I do this; there is One who forces me on, and will not let +me rest, bidding me spoil Rome[323]."' + +Towards the close of the tenth century the Bohemian Woitech, famous in +after legend as St. Adalbert, forsook his bishopric of Prague to +journey into Italy, and settled himself in the Roman monastery of +Sant' Alessio. After some few years passed there in religious +solitude, he was summoned back to resume the duties of his see, and +laboured for awhile among his half-savage countrymen. Soon, however, +the old longing came over him: he resought his cell upon the brow of +the Aventine, and there, wandering among the ancient shrines, and +taking on himself the menial offices of the convent, he abode happily +for a space. At length the reproaches of his metropolitan, the +archbishop of Mentz, and the express commands of Pope Gregory the +Fifth, drove him back over the Alps, and he set off in the train of +Otto the Third, lamenting, says his biographer, that he should no more +enjoy his beloved quiet in the mother of martyrs, the home of the +Apostles, golden Rome. A few months later he died a martyr among the +pagan Lithuanians of the Baltic[324]. + +Nearly four hundred years later, and nine hundred after the time of +Alaric, Francis Petrarch writes thus to his friend John Colonna:-- + +'Thinkest thou not that I long to see that city to which there has +never been any like nor ever shall be; which even an enemy called a +city of kings; of whose people it hath been written, "Great is the +valour of the Roman people, great and terrible their name;" concerning +whose unexampled glory and incomparable empire, which was, and is, and +is to be, divine prophets have sung; where are the tombs of the +apostles and martyrs and the bodies of so many thousands of the saints +of Christ[325]?' + +It was the same irresistible impulse that drew the warrior, the monk, +and the scholar towards the mystical city which was to mediaeval Europe +more than Delphi had been to the Greek or Mecca to the Islamite, the +Jerusalem of Christianity, the city which had once ruled the earth, +and now ruled the world of disembodied spirits[326]. For there was +then, as there is now, something in Rome to attract men of every +class. The devout pilgrim came to pray at the shrine of the Prince of +the Apostles, too happy if he could carry back to his monastery in the +forests of Saxony or by the bleak Atlantic shore the bone of some holy +martyr; the lover of learning and poetry dreamed of Virgil and Cicero +among the shattered columns of the Forum; the Germanic kings, in spite +of pestilence, treachery and seditions, came with their hosts to seek +in the ancient capital of the world the fountain of temporal dominion. +Nor has the spell yet wholly lost its power. To half the Christian +nations Rome is the metropolis of religion, to all the metropolis of +art. In her streets, and hers alone among the cities of the world, may +every form of human speech be heard: she is more glorious in her decay +and desolation than the stateliest seats of modern power. + +But while men thought thus of Rome, what was Rome herself? + +The modern traveller, after his first few days in Rome, when he has +looked out upon the Campagna from the summit of St. Peter's, paced the +chilly corridors of the Vatican, and mused under the echoing dome of +the Pantheon, when he has passed in review the monuments of regal and +republican and papal Rome, begins to seek for some relics of the +twelve hundred years that lie between Constantine and Pope Julius the +Second. 'Where,' he asks, 'is the Rome of the Middle Ages, the Rome of +Alberic and Hildebrand and Rienzi? the Rome which dug the graves of so +many Teutonic hosts; whither the pilgrims flocked; whence came the +commands at which kings bowed? Where are the memorials of the +brightest age of Christian architecture, the age which reared Cologne +and Rheims and Westminster, which gave to Italy the cathedrals of +Tuscany and the wave-washed palaces of Venice?' + +To this question there is no answer. Rome, the mother of the arts, has +scarcely a building to commemorate those times, for to her they were +times of turmoil and misery, times in which the shame of the present +was embittered by recollections of a brighter past. Nevertheless a +minute scrutiny may still discover, hidden in dark corners or +disguised under an unbecoming modern dress, much that carries us back +to the mediaeval town, and helps us to realize its social and political +condition. Therefore a brief notice of the state of Rome during the +Middle Ages, with especial reference to those monuments which the +visitor may still examine for himself, may not be without its use, and +is at any rate no unfitting pendant to an account of the institution +which drew from the city its name and its magnificent pretensions. +Moreover, as will appear more fully in the sequel, the history of the +Roman people is an instructive illustration of the influence of those +ideas upon which the Empire itself rested, as well in their weakness +as in their strength[327]. + +[Sidenote: Causes of the rapid decay of the city.] + +It is not from her capture by Alaric, nor even from the more +destructive ravages of the Vandal Genseric, that the material and +social ruin of Rome must be dated, but rather from the repeated sieges +which she sustained in the war of Belisarius with the Ostrogoths. This +struggle however, long and exhausting as it was, would not have proved +so fatal had the previous condition of the city been sound and +healthy. Her wealth and population in the middle of the fifth century +were probably little inferior to what they had been in the most +prosperous days of the imperial government. But this wealth was +entirely gathered into the hands of a small and effeminate +aristocracy. The crowd that filled her streets was composed partly of +poor and idle freemen, unaccustomed to arms and debarred from +political rights; partly of a far more numerous herd of slaves, +gathered from all parts of the world, and morally even lower than +their masters. There was no middle class, and no system of municipal +institutions, for although the senate and consuls with many of the +lesser magistracies continued to exist, they had for centuries enjoyed +no effective power, and were nowise fitted to lead and rule the +people. Hence it was that when the Gothic war and the subsequent +inroads of the Lombards had reduced the great families to beggary, the +framework of society dissolved and could not be replaced. In a state +rotten to the core there was no vital force left for reconstruction. +The old forms of political activity had been too long dead to be +recalled to life: the people wanted the moral force to produce new +ones, and all the authority that could be said to exist in the midst +of anarchy tended to centre itself in the chief of the new religious +society. + +[Sidenote: Peculiarities in the position of Rome.] + +So far Rome's condition was like that of the other great towns of +Italy and Gaul. But in two points her case differed from theirs, and +to these the difference of her after fortunes may be traced. Her +bishop had no temporal potentate to overshadow his dignity or check +his ambition, for the vicar of the Eastern court lived far away at +Ravenna, and seldom interfered except to ratify a papal election or +punish a more than commonly outrageous sedition. Her population +received an all but imperceptible infusion of that Teutonic blood and +those Teutonic customs by whose stern discipline the inhabitants of +northern Italy were in the end renovated. Everywhere the old +institutions had perished of decay: in Rome alone there was nothing +except the ecclesiastical system out of which new ones could arise. +Her condition was therefore the most pitiable in which a community can +find itself, one of struggle without purpose or progress. The citizens +were divided into three orders: the military class, including what was +left of the ancient aristocracy; the clergy, a host of priests, monks +and nuns, attached to the countless churches and convents; and the +people or _plebs_, as they are called, a poverty-stricken rabble +without trade, without industry, without any municipal organization to +bind them together. Of these two latter classes the Pope was the +natural leader, the first was divided into factions headed by some +three or four of the great families, whose quarrels kept the town in +incessant bloodshed. The internal history of Rome from the sixth to +the twelfth century is an obscure and tedious record of the contest of +these factions with each other, and of the aristocracy as a whole with +the slowly growing power of the Church. + +[Sidenote: Her condition in the ninth and tenth centuries.] + +The revolt of the Romans from the Iconoclastic Emperors of the East, +followed as it was by the reception of the Franks as patricians and +emperors, is an event of the highest importance in the history of +Italy and of the popedom. In the domestic constitution of Rome it made +little change. With the instinct of a profound genius, Charles the +Great saw that Rome, though it might be ostensibly the capital, could +not be the real centre of his dominions. He continued to reside in +Germany, and did not even build a palace at Rome. For a time the awe +of his power, the presence of his _missus_ or lieutenant, and the +occasional visits of his successors Lothar and Lewis II to the city, +repressed her internal disorders. But after the death of the prince +last named, and still more after the dissolution of the Carolingian +Empire itself, Rome relapsed into a state of profligacy and barbarism +to which, even in that age, Europe supplied no parallel, a barbarism +which had inherited all the vices of civilization without any of its +virtues. The papal office in particular seems to have lost its +religious character, as it had certainly lost all claim to moral +purity. For more than a century the chief priest of Christendom was no +more than a tool of some ferocious faction among the nobles. Criminal +means had raised him to the throne; violence, sometimes going the +length of mutilation or murder, deprived him of it. The marvel is, a +marvel in which papal historians have not unnaturally discovered a +miracle, that after sinking so low, the Papacy should ever have risen +again. Its rescue and exaltation to the pinnacle of glory was +accomplished not by the Romans but by the efforts of the Transalpine +Church, aiding and prompting the Saxon and Franconian Emperors. Yet +even the religious reform did not abate intestine turmoil, and it was +not till the twelfth century that a new spirit began to work in +politics, which ennobled if it could not heal the sufferings of the +Roman people. + +[Sidenote: Growth of a republican feeling: hostility to the Popes.] + +[Sidenote: Arnold of Brescia.] + +[Sidenote: Short-sighted policy of the Emperors.] + +Ever since the time of Alberic their pride had revolted against the +haughty behaviour of the Teutonic emperors. From still earlier times +they had been jealous of sacerdotal authority, and now watched with +alarm the rapid extension of its influence. The events of the twelfth +century gave these feelings a definite direction. It was the time of +the struggle of the Investitures, in which Hildebrand and his +disciples had been striving to draw all the things of this world as +well as of the next into their grasp. It was the era of the revived +study of Roman law, by which alone the extravagant pretensions of the +decretalists could be resisted. The Lombard and Tuscan towns had +become flourishing municipalities, independent of their bishops, and +at open war with their Emperor. While all these things were stirring +the minds of the Romans, Arnold of Brescia came preaching reform, +denouncing the corrupt life of the clergy, not perhaps, like some +others of the so-called schismatics of his time, denying the need of a +sacerdotal order, but at any rate urging its restriction to purely +spiritual duties. On the minds of the Romans such teaching fell like +the spark upon dry grass; they threw off the yoke of the Pope[328], +drove out the imperial prefect, reconstituted the senate and the +equestrian order, appointed consuls, struck their own coins, and +professed to treat the German Emperors as their nominees and +dependants. To have successfully imitated the republican constitution +of the cities of northern Italy would have been much, but with this +they were not content. Knowing in a vague ignorant way that there had +been a Roman republic before there was a Roman empire, they fed their +vanity with visions of a renewal of all their ancient forms, and saw +in fancy their senate and people sitting again upon the Seven Hills +and ruling over the kings of the earth. Stepping, as it were, into the +arena where Pope and Emperor were contending for the headship of the +world, they rejected the one as a priest, and declaring the other to +be only their creature, they claimed as theirs the true and lawful +inheritance of the world-dominion which their ancestors had won. +Antiquity was in one sense on their side, and to us now it seems less +strange that the Roman people should aspire to rule the earth than +that a German barbarian should rule it in their name. But practically +the scheme was absurd, and could not maintain itself against any +serious opposition. As a modern historian aptly expresses it, 'they +were setting up ruins:' they might as well have raised the broken +columns that strewed their Forum and hoped to rear out of them a +strong and stately temple. The reverence which the men of the Middle +Ages felt for Rome was given altogether to the name and to the place, +nowise to the people. As for power, they had none: so far from holding +Italy in subjection, they could scarcely maintain themselves against +the hostility of Tusculum. But it would have been well worth the while +of the Teutonic Emperors to have made the Romans their allies, and +bridled by their help the temporal ambition of the Popes. The offer +was actually made to them, first to Conrad the Third, who seems to +have taken no notice of it; and afterwards, as has been already +stated, to Frederick the First, who repelled in the most contumelious +fashion the envoys of the senate. Hating and fearing the Pope, he +always respected him: towards the Romans he felt all the contempt of a +feudal king for burghers, and of a German warrior for Italians. At the +demand of Pope Hadrian, whose foresight thought no heresy so dangerous +as one which threatened the authority of the clergy, Arnold of Brescia +was seized by the imperial prefect, put to death, and his ashes cast +into the Tiber, lest the people should treasure them up as relics. But +the martyrdom of their leader did not quench the hopes of his +followers. The republican constitution continued to exist, and rose +from time to time, during the weakness or the absence of the Popes, +into a brief and fitful activity[329]. Once awakened, the idea, +seductive at once to the imagination of the scholar and the vanity of +the Roman citizen, could not wholly disappear, and two centuries after +Arnold's time it found a more brilliant if less disinterested exponent +in the tribune Nicholas Rienzi. + +[Sidenote: Character and career of the tribune Rienzi.] + +The career of this singular personage is misunderstood by those who +suppose him to have been possessed of profound political insight, a +republican on modern principles. He was indeed, despite his +overweening conceit, and what seems to us his charlatanry, both a +patriot and a man of genius, in temperament a poet, filled with +soaring ideas. But those ideas, although dressed out in gaudier +colours by his lively fancy, were after all only the old ones, +memories of the long-faded glories of the heathen republic, and a +series of scornful contrasts levelled at her present oppressors, both +of them shewing no vista of future peace except through the revival of +those ancient names to which there were no things to correspond. It +was by declaiming on old texts and displaying old monuments that the +tribune enlisted the support of the Roman populace, not by any appeal +to democratic principles; and the whole of his acts and plans, though +they astonished men by their boldness, do not seem to have been +regarded as novel or impracticable[330]. In the breasts of men like +Petrarch, who loved Rome even more than they hated her people, the +enthusiasm of Rienzi found a sympathetic echo: others scorned and +denounced him as an upstart, a demagogue, and a rebel. Both friends +and enemies seem to have comprehended and regarded as natural his +feelings and designs, which were altogether those of his age. Being, +however, a mere matter of imagination, not of reason, having no +anchor, so to speak, in realities, no true relation to the world as it +then stood, these schemes of republican revival were as transient and +unstable as they were quick of growth and gay of colour. As the +authority of the Popes became consolidated, and free municipalities +disappeared elsewhere throughout Italy, the dream of a renovated Rome +at length withered up and fell and died. Its last struggle was made in +the conspiracy of Stephen Porcaro, in the time of Pope Nicholas the +Fifth; and from that time onward there was no question of the +supremacy of the bishop within his holy city. + +[Sidenote: Causes of the failure of the struggle for independence.] + +It is never without a certain regret that we watch the disappearance +of a belief, however illusive, around which the love and reverence for +mankind once clung. But this illusion need be the less regretted that +it had only the feeblest influence for good on the state of mediaeval +Rome. During the three centuries that lie between Arnold of Brescia +and Porcaro, the disorders of Rome were hardly less violent than they +had been in the Dark Ages, and to all appearance worse than those of +any other European city. There was a want not only of fixed authority, +but of those elements of social stability which the other cities of +Italy possessed. In the greater republics of Lombardy and Tuscany the +bulk of the population were artizans, hard working orderly people; +while above them stood a prosperous middle class, engaged mostly in +commerce, and having in their system of trade-guilds an organization +both firm and flexible. It was by foreign trade that Genoa, Venice, +and Pisa became great, as it was the wealth acquired by manufacturing +industry that enabled Milan and Florence to overcome and incorporate +the territorial aristocracies which surrounded them. + +[Sidenote: Internal condition of the city.] + +[Sidenote: The people.] + +[Sidenote: The nobility.] + +[Sidenote: The bishop.] + +Rome possessed neither source of riches. She was ill-placed for trade; +having no market she produced no goods to be disposed of, and the +unhealthiness which long neglect had brought upon her Campagna made +its fertility unavailable. Already she stood as she stands now, lonely +and isolated, a desert at her very gates. As there was no industry, so +there was nothing that deserved to be called a citizen class. The +people were a mere rabble, prompt to follow the demagogue who +flattered their vanity, prompter still to desert him in the hour of +danger. Superstition was with them a matter of national pride, but +they lived too near sacred things to feel much reverence for them: +they ill-treated the Pope and fleeced the pilgrims who crowded to +their shrines: they were probably the only community in Europe who +sent no recruit to the armies of the Cross. Priests, monks, and all +the nondescript hangers on of an ecclesiastical court formed a large +part of the population; while of the rest many were supported in a +state of half mendicancy by the countless religious foundations, +themselves enriched by the gifts or the plunder of Latin Christendom. +The noble families were numerous, powerful, ferocious; they were +surrounded by bands of unruly retainers, and waged a constant war +against each other from their castles in the adjoining country or in +the streets of the city itself. Had things been left to take their +natural course, one of these families, the Colonna, for instance, or +the Orsini, would probably have ended by overcoming its rivals, and +have established, as was the case in the republics of Romagna and +Tuscany, a 'signoria' or local tyranny, like those which had once +prevailed in the cities of Greece. But the presence of the sacerdotal +power, as it had hindered the growth of feudalism, so also it stood in +the way of such a development as this, and in so far aggravated the +confusion of the city. Although the Pope was not as yet recognized as +legitimate sovereign, he was not only the most considerable person in +Rome, but the only one whose authority had anything of an official +character. But the reign of each pontiff was short; he had no military +force, he was frequently absent from his see. He was, moreover, very +often a member of one of the great families, and, as such, no better +than a faction leader at home, while venerated by the rest of Europe +as the universal priest. + +[Sidenote: The Emperor.] + +[Sidenote: Visits of the Emperors to Rome.] + +It remains only to speak of the person who should have been to Rome +what the national king was to the cities of France, or England, or +Germany, that is to say, of the Emperor. As has been said already, his +power was a mere chimera, chiefly important as furnishing a pretext to +the Colonna and other Ghibeline chieftains for their opposition to the +papal party. Even his abstract rights were matter of controversy. The +Popes, whose predecessors had been content to govern as the +lieutenants of Charles and Otto, now maintained that Rome as a +spiritual city could not be subject to any temporal jurisdiction, and +that she was therefore no part of the Roman Empire, though at the same +time its capital. Not only, it was urged, had Constantine yielded up +Rome to Sylvester and his successors, Lothar the Saxon had at his +coronation formally renounced his sovereignty by doing homage to the +pontiff and receiving the crown as his vassal. The Popes felt then as +they feel now, that their dignity and influence would suffer if they +should even appear to admit in their place of residence the +jurisdiction of a civil potentate, and although they could not secure +their own authority, they were at least able to exclude any other. +Hence it was that they were so uneasy whenever an Emperor came to them +to be crowned, that they raised up difficulties in his path, and +endeavoured to be rid of him as soon as possible. And here something +must be said of the programme, as one may call it, of these imperial +visits to Rome, and of the marks of their presence which the Germans +left behind them, remembering always that after the time of Frederick +the Second it was rather the exception than the rule for an Emperor to +be crowned in his capital at all. + +[Sidenote: Their approach.] + +The traveller who enters Rome now, if he comes, as he most commonly +does, by way of Civita Vecchia, slips in by the railway before he is +aware, is huddled into a vehicle at the terminus, and set down at his +hotel in the middle of the modern town before he has seen anything at +all. If he comes overland from Tuscany along the bleak road that +passes near Veii and crosses the Milvian bridge, he has indeed from +the slopes of the Ciminian range a splendid prospect of the sea-like +Campagna, girdled in by glittering hills, but of the city he sees no +sign, save the pinnacle of St. Peter's, until he is within the walls. +Far otherwise was it in the Middle Ages. Then travellers of every +grade, from the humble pilgrim to the new-made archbishop who came in +the pomp of a lengthy train to receive from the Pope the pallium of +his office, approached from the north or north-east side; following a +track along the hilly ground on the Tuscan side of the Tiber until +they halted on the brow of Monte Mario[331]--the Mount of Joy--and saw +the city of their solemnities lie spread before them, from the great +pile of the Lateran far away upon the Coelian hill, to the basilica of +St. Peter's at their feet. They saw it not, as now, a sea of billowy +cupolas, but a mass of low red-roofed houses, varied by tall brick +towers, and at rarer intervals by masses of ancient ruin, then larger +far than now; while over all rose those two monuments of the best of +the heathen Emperors, monuments that still look down, serenely +changeless, on the armies of new nations and the festivals of a new +religion--the columns of Marcus Aurelius and Trajan. + +[Sidenote: Their entrance.] + +[Sidenote: Hostility of Pope and people to the Germans.] + +From Monte Mario the Teutonic host descended, when they had paid their +orisons, into the Neronian field, the piece of flat land that lies +outside the gate of St. Angelo. Here it was the custom for the elders +of the Romans to meet the elected Emperor, present their charters for +confirmation, and receive his oath to preserve their good +customs[332]. Then a procession was formed: the priests and monks, who +had come out with hymns to greet the Emperor, led the way; the knights +and soldiers of Rome, such as they were, came next; then the monarch, +followed by a long array of Transalpine chivalry. Passing into the +city they advanced to St. Peter's, where the Pope, surrounded by his +clergy, stood on the great staircase of the basilica to welcome and +bless the Roman king. On the next day came the coronation, with +ceremonies too elaborate for description[333], ceremonies which, we +may well believe, were seldom duly completed. Far more usual were +other rites, of which the book of ritual makes no mention, unless they +are to be counted among the 'good customs of the Romans;' the clang of +war bells, the battle cry of German and Italian combatants. The Pope, +when he could not keep the Emperor from entering Rome, required him to +leave the bulk of his host without the walls, and if foiled in this, +sought his safety in raising up plots and seditions against his too +powerful friend. The Roman people, on the other hand, violent as they +often were against the Pope, felt nevertheless a sort of national +pride in him. Very different were their feelings towards the Teutonic +chieftain, who came from a far land to receive in their city, yet +without thanking them for it, the ensign of a power which the prowess +of their forefathers had won. Despoiled of their ancient right to +choose the universal bishop, they clung all the more desperately to +the belief that it was they who chose the universal prince; and were +mortified afresh when each successive sovereign contemptuously scouted +their claims, and paraded before their eyes his rude barbarian +cavalry. Thus it was that a Roman sedition was the all but invariable +accompaniment of a Roman coronation. The three revolts against Otto +the Great have been already described. His grandson Otto the Third, in +spite of his passionate fondness for the city, was met by the same +faithlessness and hatred, and departed at last in despair at the +failure of his attempts at conciliation[334]. A century afterwards +Henry the Fifth's coronation produced violent tumults, which ended in +his seizing the Pope and cardinals in St. Peter's, and keeping them +prisoners till they submitted to his terms. Remembering this, Pope +Hadrian the Fourth would fain have forced the troops of Frederick +Barbarossa to remain without the walls, but the rapidity of their +movements disconcerted his plans and anticipated the resistance of the +Roman populace. Having established himself in the Leonine city[335], +Frederick barricaded the bridge over the Tiber, and was duly crowned +in St. Peter's. But the rite was scarcely finished when the Romans, +who had assembled in arms on the Capitol, dashed over the bridge, fell +upon the Germans, and were with difficulty repulsed by the personal +efforts of Frederick. Into the city he did not venture to pursue them, +nor was he at any period of his reign able to make himself master of +the whole of it. Finding themselves similarly baffled, his successors +at last accepted their position, and were content to take the crown on +the Pope's conditions and depart without further question. + +[Sidenote: Memorials of the Germanic Emperors in Rome.] + +[Sidenote: Of Otto the Third.] + +Coming so seldom and remaining for so short a time, it is not +wonderful that the Teutonic Emperors should, in the seven centuries +from Charles the Great to Charles the Fifth, have left fewer marks of +their presence in Rome than Titus or Hadrian alone have done; fewer +and less considerable even than those which tradition attributes to +those whom it calls Servius Tullius and the elder Tarquin. Those +monuments which do exist are just sufficient to make the absence of +all others more conspicuous. The most important dates from the time of +Otto the Third, the only Emperor who attempted to make Rome his +permanent residence. Of the palace, probably nothing more than a +tower, which he built on the Aventine, no trace has been discovered; +but the church, founded by him to receive the ashes of his friend the +martyred St. Adalbert, may still be seen upon the island in the Tiber. +Having received from Benevento relics supposed to be those of +Bartholomew the Apostle[336], it became dedicated to that saint, and +is now the church of San Bartolommeo in Isola, whose quaintly +picturesque bell-tower of red brick, now grey with extreme age, looks +out from among the orange trees of a convent garden over the +swift-eddying yellow waters of the Tiber. + +[Sidenote: Of Otto the Second.] + +[Sidenote: Of Frederick the Second.] + +Otto the Second, son of Otto the Great, died at Rome, and lies buried +in the crypt of St. Peter's, the only Emperor who has found a +resting-place among the graves of the Popes[337]. His tomb is not far +from that of his nephew Pope Gregory the Fifth: it is a plain one of +roughly chiselled marble. The lid of the superb porphyry sarcophagus +in which he lay for a time now serves as the great font of St. +Peter's, and may be seen in the baptismal chapel, on the left of the +entrance of the church, not far from the tombs of the Stuarts. Last of +all must be mentioned a curious relic of the Emperor Frederick the +Second, the prince whom of all others one would least expect to see +honoured in the city of his foes. It is an inscription in the palace +of the Conservators upon the Capitoline hill, built into the wall of +the great staircase, and relates the victory of Frederick's army over +the Milanese, and the capture of the carroccio[338] of the rebel city, +which he sends as a trophy to his faithful Romans. These are all or +nearly all the traces of her Teutonic lords that Rome has preserved +till now. Pictures indeed there are in abundance, from the mosaic of +the Scala Santa at the Lateran[339] and the curious frescoes in the +church of Santi Quattro Incoronati[340], down to the paintings of the +Sistine antechapel and the Stanze of Raphael in the Vatican, where the +triumphs of the Popedom over all its foes are set forth with matchless +art and equally matchless unveracity. But these are mostly long +subsequent to the events they describe, and these all the world knows. + +Associations of the highest interest would have attached to the +churches in which the imperial coronation was performed--a ceremony +which, whether we regard the dignity of the performers or the +splendour of the adjuncts, was probably the most imposing that modern +Europe has known. But old St. Peter's disappeared in the end of the +fifteenth century, not long after the last Roman coronation, that of +Frederick the Third, while the basilica of St. John Lateran, in which +Lothar the Saxon and Henry the Seventh were crowned, has been so +wofully modernized that we can hardly figure it to ourselves as the +same building[341]. + +[Sidenote: Causes of the want of mediaeval monuments in Rome.] + +[Sidenote: Barbarism of the aristocracy.] + +Bearing in mind what was the social condition of Rome during the +middle ages, it becomes easier to understand the architectural +barrenness which at first excites the visitor's surprise. Rome had no +temporal sovereign, and there were therefore only two classes who +could build at all, the nobles and the clergy. Of these, the former +had seldom the wealth, and never the taste, which would have enabled +them to construct palaces graceful as the Venetian or massively grand +as the Florentine and Genoese. Moreover, the constant practice of +domestic war made defence the first object of a house, beauty and +convenience the second. The nobility, therefore, either adapted +ancient edifices to their purpose or built out of their materials +those huge square towers of brick, a few of which still frown over the +narrow streets in the older parts of Rome. We may judge of their +number from the statement that the senator Brancaleone destroyed one +hundred and forty of them. With perhaps no more than one exception, +that of the so-called House of Rienzi, these towers are the only +domestic buildings in the city older than the middle of the fifteenth +century. The vast palaces to which strangers now flock for the sake of +the picture galleries they contain, have been most of them erected in +the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, some even later. Among the +earliest is that Palazzo Cenci[342], whose gloomy low-browed arch so +powerfully affected the imagination of Shelley. + +[Sidenote: Ambition, weakness, and corruption of the clergy.] + +It was no want of wealth that hampered the architectural efforts of +the clergy, for vast revenues flowed in upon them from every corner of +Christendom. A good deal was actually spent upon the erection or +repairs of churches and convents, although with a less liberal hand +than that of such great Transalpine prelates as Hugh of Lincoln or +Conrad of Cologne. But the Popes always needed money for their +projects of ambition, and in times when disorder or corruption were at +their height the work of building stopped altogether. Thus it was that +after the time of the Carolingians scarcely a church was erected until +the beginning of the twelfth century, when the reforms of Hildebrand +had breathed new zeal into the priesthood. The Babylonish captivity of +Avignon, as it was called, with the great schism of the West that +followed upon it, was the cause of a second similar intermission, +which lasted nearly a century and a half. + +[Sidenote: Tendency of the Roman builders to adhere to the ancient +manner.] + +[Sidenote: Absence of Gothic in Rome.] + +At every time, however, even when his work went on most briskly, the +labours of the Roman architect took the direction of restoring and +readorning old churches rather than of erecting new ones. While the +Transalpine countries, except in a few favoured spots, such as +Provence and part of the Rhineland, remained during several ages with +few and rudely built stone churches, Rome possessed, as the +inheritance of the earlier Christian centuries, a profusion of houses +of worship, some of them still unsurpassed in splendour, and far more +than adequate to the needs of her diminished population. In repairing +these from time to time, their original form and style of work were +usually as far as possible preserved, while in constructing new ones, +the abundance of models beautiful in themselves and hallowed as well +by antiquity as by religious feeling, enthralled the invention of the +workman, bound him down to be at best a faithful imitator, and forbade +him to deviate at pleasure from the old established manner. Thus it +befel that while his brethren throughout the rest of Europe were +passing by successive steps from the old Roman and Byzantine styles to +Romanesque, and from Romanesque to Gothic, the Roman architect +scarcely departed from the plan and arrangements of the primitive +basilica. This is one chief reason why there is so little of Gothic +work in Rome, so little even of Romanesque like that of Pisa. What +there is appears chiefly in the pointed window, more rarely in the +arch, seldom or never in spire or tower or column. Only one of the +existing churches of Rome is Gothic throughout, and that, the +Dominican church of S. Maria sopra Minerva, was built by foreign +monks. In some of the other churches, and especially in the cloisters +of the convents, instances may be observed of the same style: in +others slight traces, by accident or design almost obliterated[343]. + +[Sidenote: Destruction and alteration of the old buildings:] + +[Sidenote: By invaders.] + +[Sidenote: By the Romans of the Middle Ages.] + +[Sidenote: By modern restorers of churches.] + +The mention of obliteration suggests a third cause of the comparative +want of mediaeval buildings in the city--the constant depredations and +changes of which she has been the subject. Ever since the time of +Constantine Rome has been a city of destruction, and Christians have +vied with pagans, citizens with enemies, in urging on the fatal work. +Her siege and capture by Robert Guiscard[344], the ally of Hildebrand +against Henry the Fourth, was far more ruinous than the attacks of the +Goths or Vandals: and itself yields in atrocity to the sack of Rome in +A.D. 1526 by the soldiers of the Catholic king and most pious Emperor +Charles the Fifth[345]. Since the days of the first barbarian +invasions the Romans have gone on building with materials taken from +the ancient temples, theatres, law-courts, baths and villas, stripping +them of their gorgeous casings of marble, pulling down their walls for +the sake of the blocks of travertine, setting up their own hovels on +the top or in the midst of these majestic piles. Thus it has been with +the memorials of paganism: a somewhat different cause has contributed +to the disappearance of the mediaeval churches. What pillage, or +fanaticism, or the wanton lust of destruction did in the one case, the +ostentatious zeal of modern times has done in the other. The era of +the final establishment of the Popes as temporal sovereigns of the +city, is also that of the supremacy of the Renaissance style in +architecture. After the time of Nicholas the Fifth, the pontiff +against whom, it will be remembered, the spirit of municipal freedom +made its last struggle in the conspiracy of Porcaro, nothing was built +in Gothic, and the prevailing enthusiasm for the antique produced a +corresponding dislike to everything mediaeval, a dislike conspicuous in +men like Julius the Second and Leo the Tenth, from whom the grandeur +of modern Rome may be said to begin. Not long after their time the +great religious movement of the sixteenth century, while triumphing in +the north of Europe, was in the south met and overcome by a +counter-reformation in the bosom of the old church herself, and the +construction or restoration of ecclesiastical buildings became again +the passion of the devout[346]. No employment, whether it be called an +amusement or a duty, could have been better suited to the court and +aristocracy of Rome. They were indolent; wealthy, and fond of +displaying their wealth; full of good taste, and anxious, especially +when advancing years had chased away youth's pleasures, to be full of +good works also. Popes and cardinals and the heads of the great +families vied with one another in building new churches and restoring +or enlarging those they found till little of the old was left; raising +over them huge cupolas, substituting massive pilasters for the +single-shafted columns, adorning the interior with a profusion of rare +marbles, of carving and gilding, of frescoes and altar-pieces by the +best masters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. None but a +bigoted mediaevalist can refuse to acknowledge the warmth of tone, the +repose, the stateliness, of the churches of modern Rome; but even in +the midst of admiration the sated eye turns away from the wealth of +ponderous ornament, and we long for the clear pure colour, the simple +yet grand proportions that give a charm to the buildings of an earlier +age. + +[Sidenote: Existing relics of the Dark and Middle Ages.] + +[Sidenote: The Mosaics.] + +[Sidenote: The Bell-towers.] + +Few of the ancient churches have escaped untouched; many have been +altogether rebuilt. There are also some, however, in which the +modernizers of the sixteenth and subsequent centuries have spared two +features of the old structure, its round apse or tribune and its +bell-tower. The apse has its interior usually covered with mosaics, +exceedingly interesting, both from the ideas they express and as the +only monuments of pictorial art that remain to us from the Dark Ages. +To speak of them, however, as they deserve to be spoken of, would +involve a digression for which there is no space here. The campanile +or bell-tower is a quaint little square brick tower, of no great +height, usually standing detached from the church, and having in its +topmost, sometimes also in its other upper stories, several arcade +windows, divided by tiny marble pillars[347]. What with these +campaniles, then far more numerous than they are now, and with the +huge brick fortresses of the nobles, towers must have held in the +landscape of the mediaeval city very much the part which domes do now. +Although less imposing, they were probably more picturesque, the +rather as in the earlier part of the Middle Ages the houses and +churches, which are now mostly crowded together on the flat of the +Campus Martius, were scattered over the heights and slopes of the +Coelian, Aventine, and Esquiline hills[348]. Modern Rome lies chiefly +on the opposite or north-eastern side of the Capitol, and the change +from the old to the new site of the city, which can hardly be said to +have distinctly begun before the destruction of the south-western part +of the town by Robert Guiscard, was not completed until the sixteenth +century. In A.D. 1536 the Capitol was rebuilt by Michael Angelo, in +anticipation of the entry of Charles the Fifth, upon foundations that +had been laid by the first Tarquin; and the palace of the Senator, the +greatest municipal edifice of Rome, which had hitherto looked towards +the Forum and the Coliseum, was made to front in the direction of St. +Peter's and the modern town. + +[Sidenote: Changed aspect of the city of Rome.] + +[Sidenote: Analogy between her architecture and her civil and +ecclesiastical constitution.] + +[Sidenote: Preservation of an antique character in both.] + +The Rome of to-day is no more like the city of Rienzi than she is to +the city of Trajan; just as the Roman church of the nineteenth century +differs profoundly, however she may strive to disguise it, from the +church of Hildebrand. But among all their changes, both church and +city have kept themselves wonderfully free from the intrusion of +foreign, at least of Teutonic, elements, and have faithfully preserved +at all times something of an old Roman character. Latin Christianity +inherited from the imperial system of old that firmly knit yet +flexible organization, which was one of the grand secrets of its +power: the great men whom mediaeval Rome gave to or trained up for the +Papacy were, like their progenitors, administrators, legislators, +statesmen; seldom enthusiasts themselves, but perfectly understanding +how to use and guide the enthusiasm of others--of the French and +German crusaders, of men like Francis of Assisi and Dominic and +Ignatius. Between Catholicism in Italy and Catholicism in Germany or +England there was always, as there is still, a very perceptible +difference. So also, if the analogy be not too fanciful, was it with +Rome the city. Socially she seemed always drifting towards feudalism; +yet she never fell into its grasp. Materially, her architecture was at +one time considerably influenced by Gothic forms, yet Gothic never +became, as in the rest of Europe, the dominant style. It approached +Rome late, and departed from her early, so that we scarcely notice its +presence, and seem to pass almost without a break from the old +Romanesque[349] to the Graeco-Roman of the Renaissance. Thus regarded, +the history of the city, both in her political state and in her +buildings, is seen to be intimately connected with that of the Holy +Empire itself. The Empire in its title and its pretensions expressed +the idea of the permanence of the institutions of the ancient world; +Rome the city had, in externals at least, carefully preserved their +traditions: the names of her magistracies, the character of her +buildings, all spoke of antiquity, and gave it a strange and shadowy +life in the midst of new races and new forms of faith. + +[Sidenote: Relation of the City and the Empire.] + +In its essence the Empire rested on the feeling of the unity of +mankind; it was the perpetuation of the Roman dominion by which the +old nationalities had been destroyed, with the addition of the +Christian element which had created a new nationality that was also +universal. By the extension of her citizenship to all her subjects +heathen Rome had become the common home, and, figuratively, even the +local dwelling-place of the civilized races of man. By the theology of +the time Christian Rome had been made the mystical type of humanity, +the one flock of the faithful scattered over the whole earth, the holy +city whither, as to the temple on Moriah, all the Israel of God should +come up to worship. She was not merely an image of the mighty world, +she was the mighty world itself in miniature. The pastor of her local +church is also the universal bishop; the seven suffragans who +consecrate him are the overseers of petty sees in Ostia, Antium, and +the like, towns lying close round Rome: the cardinal priests and +deacons who join these seven in electing him derive their title to be +princes of the Church, the supreme spiritual council of the Christian +world, from the incumbency of a parochial cure within the precincts of +the city. Similarly, her ruler, the Emperor, is ruler of mankind; he +is chosen by the acclamations of her people[350]: he can be lawfully +crowned nowhere but in one of her basilicas. She is, like Jerusalem of +old, the mother of us all. + +[Sidenote: Extinction of the Florentine republic, A.D. 1530.] + +There is yet another way in which the record of the domestic contests +of Rome throws light upon the history of the Empire. From the eleventh +century to the fifteenth her citizens ceased not to demand in the name +of the old republic their freedom from the tyranny of the nobles and +the Pope, and their right to rule over the world at large. These +efforts--selfish and fantastic we may call them, yet men like Petrarch +did not disdain to them their sympathy--issued from the same theories +and were directed to the same ends as those which inspired Otto the +Third and Frederick Barbarossa and Dante himself. They witness to the +same incapacity to form any ideal for the future except a revival of +the past; the same belief that one universal state is both desirable +and possible, but possible only through the means of Rome: the same +refusal to admit that a right which has once existed can ever be +extinguished. In the days of the Renaissance these notions were +passing silently away: the succeeding century brought with it +misfortunes that broke the spirit of the nation. Italy was the +battle-field of Europe: her wealth became the prey of a rapacious +soldiery: the last and greatest of her republics was enslaved by an +unfeeling Emperor, and handed over as the pledge of amity to a selfish +Medicean Pope. When the hope of independence had been lost, the people +turned away from politics to live for art and literature, and found, +before many generations had passed, how little such exclusive devotion +could compensate for the departure of freedom, and a national spirit, +and the activity of civic life. A century after the golden days of +Ariosto and Raphael, Italian literature had become frigid and +affected, while Italian art was dying of mannerism. + +[Sidenote: Feelings of the modern Italians towards Rome.] + +At length, after long ages of sloth, the stagnant waters were +troubled. The Romans, who had lived in listless contentment under the +paternal sway of the Popes, received new ideas from the advent of the +revolutionary armies of France, and have found the Papal system, since +its re-establishment fifty years ago as a modern bureaucratic +despotism, far less tolerable than it was of yore. Our own days have +seen the name of Rome become again a rallying-cry for the patriots of +Italy, but in a sense most unlike the old one. The contemporaries of +Arnold and Rienzi desired freedom only as a step to universal +domination: their descendants, more wisely, yet not more from +patriotism than from a pardonable civic pride, seek only to be the +capital of the Italian kingdom. Dante prayed for a monarchy of the +world, a reign of peace and Christian brotherhood: those who invoke +his name as the earliest prophet of their creed strive after an idea +that never crossed his mind--the national union of Italy[351]. + +Plain common-sense politicians in other countries do not understand +this passion for Rome as a capital, and think it their duty to lecture +the Italians on their flightiness. The latter do not themselves +pretend that the shores of the Tiber are a suitable site for a +capital: Rome is lonely, unhealthy, and in a bad strategical position; +she has no particular facilities for trade: her people, with some fine +qualities, are less orderly and industrious than the Tuscans or the +Piedmontese. Nevertheless all Italy cries with one voice for Rome, +firmly believing that national life can never thrill with a strong and +steady pulsation till the ancient capital has become the nation's +heart. They feel that it is owing to Rome--Rome pagan as well as +Christian--that they once played so grand a part in the drama of +European history, and that they have now been able to attain that +fervid sentiment of unity which has brought them at last together +under one government. Whether they are right, whether if right they +are likely to be successful, need not be inquired here. But it +deserves to be noted that this enthusiasm for a famous name--for it is +nothing more--is substantially the same feeling as that which created +and hallowed the Holy Empire of the Middle Ages. The events of the +last few years on both sides of the Atlantic have proved that men are +not now, any more than they ever were, chiefly governed by +calculations of material profit and loss. Sentiments, fancies, +theories, have not lost their power; the spirit of poetry has not +wholly passed away from politics. And strange as seems to us the +worship paid to the name of mediaeval Rome by those who saw the sins +and the misery of her people, it can hardly have been an intenser +feeling than is the imaginative reverence wherewith the Italians of +to-day look on the city whence, as from a fountain, all the streams of +their national life have sprung, and in which, as in an ocean, they +are all again to mingle. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[323] Hist. Eccl. l. ix. c. 6: [Greek: ton de phanai, hos ouch hekon +tade epicheirei, alla tis synechos enochlon auton biazetai, kai +epitattei ten Rhomen porthein.] + +[324] See the two Lives of St. Adalbert in Pertz, _M. G. H._, iv., +evidently compiled soon after his death. + +[325] Another letter of Petrarch's to John Colonna, written +immediately after his arrival in the city, deserves to be quoted, it +is so like what a stranger would now write off after his first day in +Rome:--'In praesens nihil est quod inchoare ausim, miraculo rerum +tantarum et stuporis mole obrutus ... praesentia vero, mirum dictu, +nihil imminuit sed auxit omnia: vere maior fuit Roma maioresque sunt +reliquiae quam rebar: iam non orbem ab hac urbe domitum sed tam sero +domitum miror. Vale.' + +[326] The idea of the continuance of the sway of Rome under a new +character is one which mediaeval writers delight to illustrate. In +Appendix, Note D, there is quoted as a specimen a poem upon Rome, by +Hildebert (bishop of Le Mans, and afterwards archbishop of Tours), +written in the beginning of the twelfth century. + +[327] In writing this chapter I have derived much assistance from the +admirable work of Ferdinand Gregorovius, _Geschichte der Stadt Rom im +Mittelalter_. Unfortunately no English translation of it exists; but I +am informed by the author that one is likely ere long to appear. + +[328] Republican forms of some sort had existed before Arnold's +arrival, but we hear the name of no other leader mentioned; and +doubtless it was by him chiefly that the spirit of hostility to the +clerical power was infused into the minds of the Romans. + +[329] The series of papal coins is interrupted (with one or two slight +exceptions) from A.D. 984 (not long after the time of Alberic) to A.D. +1304. In their place we meet with various coins struck by the +municipal authorities, some of which bear on the obverse the head of +the Apostle Peter, with the legend Roman. Pricipe: on the reverse the +head of the Apostle Paul, legend, Senat. Popul. Q. R. Gregorovius, _ut +supra_. + +[330] Rienzi called himself Augustus as well as tribune; 'tribuno +Augusto de Roma.' (He pretended, or his friends pretended for him--it +was at any rate believed--that he was an illegitimate son of the +Emperor Henry the Seventh.) He cited, on his appointment, the Pope and +cardinals to appear before the people of Rome and give an account of +their conduct; and after them the Emperor. 'Ancora citao lo Bavaro +(Lewis the Fourth). Puoi citao li elettori de lo imperio in Alemagna, +e disse "Voglio vedere che rascione haco nella elettione," che +trovasse scritto che passato alcuno tempo la elettione recadeva a li +Romani.'--_Vita di Cola di Rienzi_, c. xxvi (written by a +contemporary). I give the spelling as it stands in Muratori's edition. + +[331] The Germans called this hill, which is the highest in or near +Rome, conspicuous from a beautiful group of stone-pines upon its brow, +Mons Gaudii; the origin of the Italian name, Monte Mario, is not +known, unless it be, as some think, a corruption of Mons Malus. + +It was on this hill that Otto the Third hanged Crescentius and his +followers. + +[332] I quote this from the _Ordo Romanus_ as it stands in Muratori's +third Dissertation in the _Antiquitates Italiae medii aevi_. + +[333] Great stress was laid on one part of the procedure,--the holding +by the Emperor of the Pope's stirrup for him to mount, and the leading +of his palfrey for some distance. Frederick Barbarossa's omission of +this mark of respect when Pope Hadrian IV met him on his way to Rome, +had nearly caused a breach between the two potentates, Hadrian +absolutely refusing the kiss of peace until Frederick should have gone +through the form, which he was at last forced to do in a somewhat +ignominious way. + +[334] A remarkable speech of expostulation made by Otto III to the +Roman people (after one of their revolts) from the tower of his house +on the Aventine has been preserved to us. It begins thus: 'Vosne estis +mei Romani? Propter vos quidem meam patriam, propinquos quoque +reliqui; amore vestro Saxones et cunctos Theotiscos, sanguinem meum, +proieci; vos in remotas partes imperii nostri adduxi, quo patres +vestri cum orbem ditione premerent numquam pedem posuerunt; scilicet +ut nomen vestrum et gloriam ad fines usque dilatarem; vos filios +adoptavi: vos cunctis praetuli.'--_Vita S. Bernwardi_; in Pertz, _M. G. +H._, t. iv. + +(It is from this form 'Theotiscus' that the Italian 'Tedesco' seems to +have been derived.) + +[335] The Leonine city, so called from Pope Leo IV, lay between the +Vatican and St. Peter's and the river. + +[336] It would seem that Otto was deceived, and that in reality they +are the bones of St. Paulinus of Nola. + +[337] The only other of the Teutonic Emperors buried in Italy were, so +far as I know, Lewis the Second (whose tomb, with an inscription +commemorating his exploits, is built into the wall of the north aisle +of the famous church of S. Ambrose at Milan), Henry the Sixth and +Frederick the Second, who lie at Palermo, Conrad IV, buried at Foggia, +and Henry the Seventh, whose sarcophagus may be seen in the Campo +Santo of Pisa, a city always conspicuous for her zeal on the imperial +side. + +Six Emperors lie buried at Speyer, three or four at Prague, two at +Aachen, two at Bamberg, one at Innsbruck, one at Magdeburg, one at +Quedlinburg, two at Munich, and most of the later ones at Vienna. + +[338] See note 198, p. 178. + +[339] See p. 117. + +[340] These highly curious frescoes are in the chapel of St. Sylvester +attached to the very ancient church of Quattro Santi on the Coelian +hill, and are supposed to have been executed in the time of Pope +Innocent III. They represent scenes in the life of the Saint, more +particularly the making of the famous donation to him by Constantine, +who submissively holds the bridle of his palfrey. + +[341] The last imperial coronation, that of Charles the Fifth, took +place in the church of St. Petronius at Bologna, Pope Clement VII +being unwilling to receive Charles in Rome. It is a grand church, but +the choir, where the ceremony took place, seems to have been +'restored,' that is to say modernized, since Charles' time. + +[342] The name of Cenci is a very old one at Rome: it is supposed to +be an abbreviation of Crescentius. We hear in the eleventh century of +a certain Cencius, who on one occasion made Gregory VII prisoner. + +[343] Thus in the church of San Lorenzo without the walls there are +several pointed windows, now bricked up; and similar ones may be seen +in the church of Ara Coeli on the summit of the Capitol. So in the apse +of St. John Lateran there are three or four windows of Gothic form: +and in its cloister, as well as in that of St. Paul without the walls, +a great deal of beautiful Lombard work. The elegant porch of the +church of Sant' Antonio Abate is Lombard. In the apse of the church of +San Giovanni e Paolo on the Coelian hill there is an external arcade +exactly like those of the Duomo at Pisa. Nor are these the only +instances. + +The ruined chapel attached to the fortress of the Caetani family--the +family to which Boniface the Eighth belonged, and whose head is now +the first of the Roman nobility--is a pretty little building, more +like northern Gothic than anything within the walls of Rome. It stands +upon the Appian Way, opposite the tomb of Caecilia Metella, which the +Caetani used as a stronghold. + +[344] A good deal of the mischief done by Robert Guiscard, from which +the parts of the city lying beyond the Coliseum towards the river and +St. John Lateran never recovered, is attributed to the Saracenic +troops in his service. Saracen pirates are said to have once before +sacked Rome. Genseric was not a heathen, but he was a furious Arian, +which, as far as respect to the churches of the orthodox went, was +nearly the same thing. He is supposed to have carried off the +seven-branched candlestick and other vessels of the Temple, which +Titus had brought from Jerusalem to Rome. + +[345] We are told that one cause of the ferocity of the German part of +the army of Charles was their anger at the ruinous condition of the +imperial palace. + +[346] Under the influence, partly of this anti-pagan spirit, partly of +his own restless vanity, partly of a passion to be doing something, +Pope Sixtus the Fifth did a great deal of mischief in the way of +destroying or spoiling the monuments of antiquity. + +[347] These campaniles are generally supposed to date from the ninth +and tenth centuries. I am informed, however, by Mr. J. H. Parker, of +Oxford, whose antiquarian skill is well known, that he is led to +believe by an examination of their mouldings that few or none, unless +it be that of San Prassede, are older than the twelfth century. + +This of course applies only to the existing buildings. The type of +tower may be, and indeed no doubt is, older. + +Somewhat similar towers may be observed in many parts of the Italian +Alps, especially in the wonderful mountain land north of Venice, where +such towers are of all dates from the eleventh or twelfth down to the +nineteenth century, the ancient type having in these remote valleys +been adhered to because the builder had no other models before him. In +the valley of Cimolais I have seen such a campanile in course of +erection, precisely similar to others in the neighbouring villages +some eight centuries old. + +The very curious round towers of Ravenna, some four or five of which +are still standing, seem to have originally had similar windows, +though these have been all, or nearly all, stopped up. The Roman +towers are all square. + +[348] The Palatine hill seems to have been then, as it is for the most +part now, a waste of stupendous ruins. In the great imperial palace +upon its northern and eastern sides was the residence of an official +of the Eastern court in the beginning of the eighth century. In the +time of Charles, some seventy years later, this palace was no longer +habitable. + +[349] Such as we see it in the later and lesser churches of basilica +form. + +[350] It was thus that most of the earlier Teutonic Emperors, and +notably Charles and Otto, professed to have obtained the crown; +although practically it was partly a matter of conquest and partly of +private arrangement with the Pope. In later times, the seven Germanic +princes were recognized as the legally qualified electoral body, but +their appearance on the stage was a result of the confusion of the +German kingdom with the Roman Empire, and in strictness they had +nothing to do with the Roman crown at all. The right to bestow it +could only--on principle--belong to some Roman authority, and those +who felt the difficulty were driven to suppose a formal cession of +their privilege by the Roman people to the seven electors. See p. 227 +_supra_: and cf. Matthew Villani (iv. 77), 'Il popolo Romano, non da +se, ma la chiesa per lui, concedette la elezione degli Imperadori a +sette principi della Magna.' + +[351] That which Dante, Arnold of Brescia, and the rest really have in +common with the modern Italian 'party of movement' is their hostility +to the temporal power of the Popes. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE RENAISSANCE: CHANGE IN THE CHARACTER OF THE EMPIRE. + + +[Sidenote: Wenzel, 1378-1400.] + +[Sidenote: Rupert, 1400-1410.] + +[Sidenote: Sigismund, 1410-1438.] + +[Sidenote: Council of Constance.] + +In Frederick the Third's reign the Empire sank to its lowest point. It +had shot forth a fitful gleam under Sigismund, who in convoking and +presiding over the council of Constance had revived one of the highest +functions of his predecessors. The precedents of the first great +oecumenical councils, and especially of the council of Nicaea, had +established the principle that it belonged to the Emperor, even more +properly than to the Pope, to convoke ecclesiastical assemblies from +the whole Christian world[352]. The tenet commended itself to the +reforming party in the church, headed by Gerson, the chancellor of +Paris, whose aim it was, while making no changes in matters of faith, +to correct the abuses which had grown up in discipline and government, +and limit the power of the Popes by exalting the authority of general +councils, to whom there was now attributed an immunity from error +superior even to that which resided in the successor of Peter. And +although it was only the sacerdotal body, not the whole Christian +people, who were thus made the exponents of the universal religious +consciousness, the doctrine was nevertheless a foreshadowing of that +fuller freedom which was soon to follow. The existence of the Holy +Empire and the existence of general councils were, as has been already +remarked, necessary parts of one and the same theory[353], and it was +therefore more than a coincidence that the last occasion on which the +whole of Latin Christendom met to deliberate and act as a single +commonwealth[354] was also the last on which that commonwealth's +lawful temporal head appeared in the exercise of his international +functions. Never afterwards was he, in the eyes of Europe, anything +more than a German monarch. + +[Sidenote: Weakness of Germany as compared with the other states of +Europe.] + +[Sidenote: Albert II. 1438-1440. Frederick III. 1440-1493.] + +It might seem doubtful whether he would long remain a monarch at all. +When in A.D. 1493 the calamitous reign of Frederick the Third ended, +it was impossible for the princes to see with unconcern the condition +into which their selfishness and turbulence had brought the Empire. +The time was indeed critical. Hitherto the Germans had been protected +rather by the weakness of their enemies than by their own strength. +From France there had been little to fear while the English menaced +her on one side and the Burgundian dukes on the other: from England +still less while she was torn by the strife of York and Lancaster. But +now throughout Western Europe the power of the feudal oligarchies was +broken; and its chief countries were being, by the establishment of +fixed rules of succession and the absorption of the smaller into the +larger principalities, rapidly built up into compact and aggressive +military monarchies. Thus Spain became a great state by the union of +Castile and Aragon, and the conquest of the Moors of Granada. Thus in +England there arose the popular despotism of the Tudors. Thus France, +enlarged and consolidated under Lewis the Eleventh and his successors, +began to acquire that predominant influence on the politics of Europe +which her commanding geographical position, the martial spirit of her +people, and, it must be added, the unscrupulous ambition of her +rulers, have secured to her in every succeeding century. Meantime +there had appeared in the far East a foe still more terrible. The +capture of Constantinople gave Turks a firm hold on Europe, and +inspired them with the hope of effecting in the fifteenth century what +Abderrahman and his Saracens had so nearly effected in the eighth--of +establishing the faith of Islam through all the provinces that obeyed +the Western as well as the Eastern Caesars. The navies of the Ottoman +Sultans swept the Mediterranean; their well-appointed armies pierced +Hungary and threatened Vienna. + +[Sidenote: Loss of imperial territories.] + +Nor was it only that formidable enemies had arisen without: the +frontiers of Germany herself were exposed by the loss of those +adjoining territories which had formerly owned allegiance to the +Emperors. Poland, once tributary, had shaken off the yoke at the +interregnum, and had recently wrested Prussia and Lusatz from the +Teutonic knights. Bohemia, where German culture had struck deeper +roots, remained a member of the Empire; but the privileges she had +obtained from Charles the Fourth, and the subsequent acquisition of +Silesia and Moravia, made her virtually independent. The restless +Hungarians avenged their former vassalage to Germany by frequent +inroads on her eastern border. + +[Sidenote: Italy.] + +Imperial power in Italy ended with the life of Henry the Seventh. +Rupert did indeed cross the Alps, but it was as the hireling of +Florence; Frederick the Third received the Lombard crown, but it no +longer conveyed the slightest power. In the beginning of the +fourteenth century Dante still hopes the renovation of his country +from the action of the Teutonic Emperors. Some fifty years later +Matthew Villani sees clearly that they do not and cannot reign to any +purpose south of the Alps[355]. Nevertheless the phantom of imperial +authority lingers on for a time. It is put forward by the Ghibeline +tyrants of the cities to justify their attacks on their Guelfic +neighbours: even resolute republicans like the Florentines do not yet +venture altogether to reject it, however unwilling to permit its +exercise. Before the middle of the fifteenth century, the names of +Guelf and Ghibeline had ceased to have any sense or meaning; the Pope +was no longer the protector nor the Emperor the assailant of municipal +freedom, for municipal freedom itself had well-nigh disappeared. But +the old war-cries of the Church and the Empire were still repeated as +they had been three centuries before, and the rival principles that +had once enlisted the noblest spirits of Italy on one or other side +had now sunk into a pretext for wars of aggrandizement or of mere +unmeaning hate. That which had been remarked long before in Greece was +seen to be true here; the spirit of faction outlived the cause of +faction, and became itself the new and prolific source of a useless, +endless strife. + +[Sidenote: Burgundy.] + +After Frederick the Third no Emperor was crowned in Rome, and almost +the only trace of that connection between Germany and Italy to +maintain which so much had been risked and lost, was to be found in +the obstinate belief of the Hapsburg Emperors, that their own claims, +though often purely dynastic and personal, could be enforced by an +appeal to the imperial rights of their predecessors. Because +Barbarossa had overrun Lombardy with a Transalpine host they fancied +themselves entitled to demand duchies for themselves and their +relatives, and to entangle the Empire in wars wherein no interest but +their own was involved. + +The kingdom of Arles, if it had never added much strength to the +Empire, had been useful as an outwork against France. And thus its +loss--Dauphine passing over, partly in A.D. 1350, finally in 1457, +Provence in 1486--proved a serious calamity, for it brought the French +nearer to Switzerland, and opened to them a tempting passage into +Italy. The Emperors did not for a time expressly renounce their feudal +suzerainty over these lands, but if it was hard to enforce a feudal +claim over a rebellious landgrave in Germany, how much harder to +control a vassal who was also the mightiest king in Europe. + +On the north-west frontier, the fall in A.D. 1477 of the great +principality which the dukes of French Burgundy were building up, was +seen with pleasure by the Rhinelanders whom Charles the last duke had +incessantly alarmed. But the only effect of its fall was to leave +France and Germany directly confronting each other, and it was soon +seen that the balance of strength lay on the side of the less numerous +but better organized and more active nation. + +[Sidenote: Switzerland.] + +Switzerland, too, could no longer be considered a part of the Germanic +realm. The revolt of the Forest Cantons, in A.D. 1313, was against the +oppressions practised in the name of Albert count of Hapsburg, rather +than against the legitimate authority of Albert the Emperor. But +although several subsequent sovereigns, and among them conspicuously +Henry the Seventh and Sigismund, favoured the Swiss liberties, yet +while the antipathy between the Confederates and the territorial +nobility gave a peculiar direction to their policy, the accession of +new cantons to their body, and their brilliant success against Charles +the Bold in A.D. 1477, made them proud of a separate national +existence, and not unwilling to cast themselves loose from the +stranded hulk of the Empire. Maximilian tried to reconquer them, but +after a furious struggle, in which the valleys of Western Tyrol were +repeatedly laid waste by the peasants of the Engadin, he was forced to +give way, and in A.D. 1500 recognized them by treaty as practically +independent. Not, however, till the peace of Westphalia, in A.D. 1648, +was the Swiss Confederation in the eye of public law a sovereign +state, and even after that date some of the towns continued to stamp +their coins with the double eagle of the Empire. + +[Sidenote: Internal weakness.] + +If those losses of territory were serious, far more serious was the +plight in which Germany herself lay. The country had now become not so +much an empire as an aggregate of very many small states, governed by +sovereigns who would neither remain at peace with each other nor +combine against a foreign enemy, under the nominal presidency of an +Emperor who had little lawful authority, and could not exert what he +had[356]. + +[Sidenote: Influence of the theory of the Empire as an international +power upon the Germanic constitution.] + +[Sidenote: Position of the Emperor in Germany, compared with that of +his predecessors in Europe.] + +There was another cause, besides those palpable and obvious ones +already enumerated, to which this state of things must be ascribed. +That cause is to be found in the theory which regarded the Empire as +an international power, supreme among Christian states. From the day +when Otto the Great was crowned at Rome, the characters of German king +and Roman Emperor were united in one person, and it has been shewn how +that union tended more and more to become a fusion. If the two +offices, in their nature and origin so dissimilar, had been held by +different persons, the Roman Empire would most probably have soon +disappeared, while the German kingdom grew into a robust national +monarchy. Their connection gave a longer life to the one and a feebler +life to the other, while at the same time it transformed both. So long +as Germany was only one of the many countries that bowed beneath their +sceptre it was possible for the Emperors, though we need not suppose +they troubled themselves with speculations on the matter, to +distinguish their imperial authority, as international and more than +half religious, from their royal, which was, or was meant to be, +exclusively local and feudal. But when within the narrowed bounds of +Germany these international functions had ceased to have any meaning, +when the rulers of England, Spain, France, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, +Italy, Burgundy, had in succession repudiated their control, and the +Lord of the World found himself obeyed by none but his own people, he +would not sink from being lord of the world into a simple Teutonic +king, but continued to play in the more contracted theatre the part +which had belonged to him in the wider. Thus did Germany instead of +Europe become the sphere of his international jurisdiction; and her +electors and princes, originally mere vassals, no greater than a Count +of Champagne in France, or an Earl of Chester in England, stepped into +the place which it had been meant that the several monarchs of +Christendom should fill. If the power of their head had been what it +was in the eleventh century, the additional dignity so assigned to +them might have signified very little. But coming in to confirm and +justify the liberties already won, this theory of their relation to +the sovereign had a great though at the time scarcely perceptible +influence in changing the German Empire, as we may now begin to call +it, from a state into a sort of confederation or body of states, +united indeed for some of the purposes of government, but separate and +independent for others more important. Thus, and that in its +ecclesiastical as well as its civil organization, Germany became a +miniature of Christendom[357]. The Pope, though he retained the wider +sway which his rival had lost, was in an especial manner the head of +the German clergy, as the Emperor was of the laity: the three Rhenish +prelates sat in the supreme college beside the four temporal electors: +the nobility of prince-bishops and abbots was as essential a part of +the constitution and as influential in the deliberations of the Diet +as were the dukes, counts, and margraves of the Empire. The +world-embracing Christian state was to have been governed by a +hierarchy of spiritual pastors, whose graduated ranks of authority +should exactly correspond with those of the temporal magistracy, who +were to be like them endowed with worldly wealth and power, and to +enjoy a jurisdiction co-ordinate although distinct. This system, which +it was in vain attempted to establish in Europe during the eleventh +and twelfth centuries, was in its main features that which prevailed +in the Germanic Empire from the fourteenth century onwards. And +conformably to the analogy which may be traced between the position of +the archdukes of Austria in Germany and the place which the four Saxon +and the two first Franconian Emperors had held in Europe, both being +recognized as leaders and presidents in all that concerned the common +interest, in the one case of the Christian, in the other of the whole +German people, while neither of them had any power of direct +government in the territories of local kings and lords; so the plan by +which those who chose Maximilian emperor sought to strengthen their +national monarchy was in substance that which the Popes had followed +when they conferred the crown of the world on Charles and Otto. The +pontiffs then, like the electors now, finding that they could not give +with the title the power which its functions demanded, were driven to +the expedient of selecting for the office persons whose private +resources enabled them to sustain it with dignity. The first Frankish +and the first Saxon Emperors were chosen because they were already the +mightiest potentates in Europe; Maximilian because he was the +strongest of the German princes. The parallel may be carried one step +further. Just as under Otto and his successors the Roman Empire was +Teutonized, so now under the Hapsburg dynasty, from whose hands the +sceptre departed only once thenceforth, the Teutonic Empire tends more +and more to lose itself in an Austrian monarchy. + +[Sidenote: Beginning of the Hapsburg influence in Germany.] + +Of that monarchy and of the power of the house of Hapsburg, Maximilian +was, even more than Rudolph his ancestor, the founder[358]. Uniting in +his person those wide domains through Germany which had been dispersed +among the collateral branches of his house, and claiming by his +marriage with Mary of Burgundy most of the territories of Charles the +Bold, he was a prince greater than any who had sat on the Teutonic +throne since the death of Frederick the Second. But it was as archduke +of Austria, count of Tyrol, duke of Styria and Carinthia, feudal +superior of lands, in Swabia, Alsace, and Switzerland, that he was +great, not as Roman Emperor. For just as from him the Austrian +monarchy begins, so with him the Holy Empire in its old meaning ends. +That strange system of doctrines, half religious half political, which +had supported it for so many ages, was growing obsolete, and the +theory which had wrought such changes on Germany and Europe, passed +ere long so completely from remembrance that we can now do no more +than call up a faint and wavering image of what it must once have +been. + +[Sidenote: Character of the epoch of Maximilian.] + +[Sidenote: The discovery of America.] + +For it is not only in imperial history that the accession of +Maximilian is a landmark. That time--a time of change and movement in +every part of human life, a time when printing had become common, and +books were no longer confined to the clergy, when drilled troops were +replacing the feudal militia, when the use of gunpowder was changing +the face of war--was especially marked by one event, to which the +history of the world offers no parallel before or since, the discovery +of America. The cloud which from the beginning of things had hung +thick and dark round the borders of civilization was suddenly lifted: +the feeling of mysterious awe with which men had regarded the firm +plain of earth and her encircling ocean ever since the days of Homer, +vanished when astronomers and geographers taught them that she was an +insignificant globe, which, so far from being the centre of the +universe, was itself swept round in the motion of one of the least of +its countless systems. The notions that had hitherto prevailed +regarding the life of man and his relations to nature and the +supernatural, were rudely shaken by the knowledge that was soon gained +of tribes in every stage of culture and living under every variety of +condition, who had developed apart from all the influences of the +Eastern hemisphere. In A.D. 1453 the capture of Constantinople and +extinction of the Eastern Empire had dealt a fatal blow to the +prestige of tradition and an immemorial name: in A.D. 1492 there was +disclosed a world whither the eagles of all-conquering Rome had never +winged their flight. No one could now have repeated the arguments of +the _De Monarchia_. + +[Sidenote: The Renaissance.] + +Another movement, too, widely different, but even more momentous, was +beginning to spread from Italy beyond the Alps. Since the barbarian +tribes settled in the Roman provinces, no change had come to pass in +Europe at all comparable to that which followed the diffusion of the +new learning in the latter half of the fifteenth century. Enchanted by +the beauty of the ancient models of art and poetry, more particularly +those of the Greeks, men came to regard with aversion and contempt all +that had been done or produced from the days of Trajan to those of +Pope Nicholas the Fifth. The Latin style of the writers who lived +after Tacitus was debased: the architecture of the Middle Ages was +barbarous: the scholastic philosophy was an odious and unmeaning +jargon: Aristotle himself, Greek though he was, Aristotle who had been +for three centuries more than a prophet or an apostle, was hurled from +his throne, because his name was associated with the dismal quarrels +of Scotists and Thomists. That spirit, whether we call it analytical +or sceptical, or earthly, or simply secular, for it is more or less +all of these--the spirit which was the exact antithesis of mediaeval +mysticism, had swept in and carried men away, with all the force of a +pent-up torrent. People were content to gratify their tastes and their +senses, caring little for worship, and still less for doctrine: their +hopes and ideas were no longer such as had made their forefathers +crusaders or ascetics: their imagination was possessed by associations +far different from those which had inspired Dante: they did not revolt +against the church, but they had no enthusiasm for her, and they had +enthusiasm for whatever was fresh and graceful and intelligible. From +all that was old and solemn, or that seemed to savour of feudalism or +monkery, they turned away, too indifferent to be hostile. And so, in +the midst of the Renaissance, so, under the consciousness that former +things were passing from the earth, and a new order opening, so, with +the other beliefs and memories of the Middle Age, the shadowy rights +of the Roman Empire melted away in the fuller modern light. Here and +there a jurist muttered that no neglect could destroy its universal +supremacy, or a priest declaimed to listless hearers on its duty to +protect the Holy See; but to Germany it had become an ancient device +for holding together the discordant members of her body, to its +possessors an engine for extending the power of the house of Hapsburg. + +[Sidenote: Empire henceforth German.] + +Henceforth, therefore, we must look upon the Holy Roman Empire as lost +in the German; and after a few faint attempts to resuscitate +old-fashioned claims, nothing remains to indicate its origin save a +sounding title and a precedence among the states of Europe. It was not +that the Renaissance exerted any direct political influence either +against the Empire or for it; men were too busy upon statues and coins +and manuscripts to care what befel Popes or Emperors. It acted rather +by silently withdrawing the whole system of doctrines upon which the +Empire had rested, and thus leaving it, since it had previously no +support but that of opinion, without any support at all. + +[Sidenote: Attempts to reform the Germanic Constitution.] + +[Sidenote: Causes of the failure of the projects of reform.] + +During Maximilian's eventful reign several efforts were made to +construct a new constitution, but it is to German, rather than to +imperial history that they properly belong. Here, indeed, the history +of the Holy Empire might close, did not the title unchanged beckon us +on, and were it not that the events of these later centuries may in +their causes be traced back to times when the name of Roman was not +wholly a mockery. It may be enough to remark that while the +preservation of peace and the better administration of justice were in +some measure attained by the Public Peace and Imperial Chamber, +established in A.D. 1495, schemes still more important failed through +the bad constitution of the Diet, and the unconquerable jealousy of +the Emperor and the Estates. Maximilian refused to have his +prerogative, indefinite though weak, restricted by the appointment of +an administrative council[359], and when the Estates extorted it from +him, did his best to ensure its failure. In the Diet, which consisted +of three colleges, electors, princes, and cities, the lower nobility +and knights of the Empire were unrepresented, and resented every +decree that affected their position, refusing to pay taxes in voting +which they had no voice. The interests of the princes and the cities +were often irreconcilable, while the strength of the crown would not +have been sufficient to make its adhesion to the latter of any effect. +The policy of conciliating the commons, which Sigismund had tried, +succeeding Emperors seldom cared to repeat, content to gain their +point by raising factions among the territorial magnates, and so to +stave off the unwelcome demand for reform. After many earnest attempts +to establish a representative system, such as might resist the +tendency to local independence and cure the evils of separate +administration, the hope so often baffled died away. Forces were too +nearly balanced: the sovereign could not extend his personal control, +nor could the reforming party limit him by a strong council of +government, for such a measure would have equally trenched on the +independence of the states. So ended the first great effort for German +unity, interesting from its bearing on the events and aspirations of +our own day; interesting, too, as giving the most convincing proof of +the decline of the imperial office. For the projects of reform did not +propose to effect their objects by restoring to Maximilian the +authority his predecessors had once enjoyed, but by setting up a body +which would resemble far more nearly the senate of a federal state +than the administrative council which surrounds a monarch. The +existing system developed itself further: relieved from external +pressure, the princes became more despotic in their own territories: +distinct codes were framed, and new systems of administration +introduced: the insurgent peasantry were crushed down with more +confident harshness. Already had leagues of princes and cities been +formed[360] (that of Swabia was one of the strongest forces in +Germany, and often the monarch's firmest support); now alliances begin +to be contracted with foreign powers, and receive a direction of +formidable import from the rivalry which the pretensions on Naples and +Milan of Charles the Eighth and Lewis the Twelfth of France kindled +between their house and the Austrian. It was no slight gain to have +friends in the heart of the enemy's country, such as French intrigue +found in the Elector Palatine and the count of Wuertemberg. + +[Sidenote: Germanic nationality.] + +[Sidenote: Change of Titles.] + +[Sidenote: The title 'Imperator Electus.'] + +Nevertheless this was also the era of the first conscious feeling of +German nationality, as distinct from imperial. Driven in on all hands, +with Italy and the Slavic lands and Burgundy hopelessly lost, +Teutschland learnt to separate itself from Welschland[361]. The Empire +became the representative of a narrower but more practicable national +union. It is not a mere coincidence that at this date there appear +several notable changes of style. 'Nationis Teutonicae' (Teutscher +Nation) is added to the simple 'sacrum imperium Romanum.' The title of +'Imperator electus,' which Maximilian obtains leave from Pope Julius +the Second to assume, when the Venetians prevent him from reaching his +capital, marks the severance of Germany from Rome. No subsequent +Emperor received his crown in the ancient capital (Charles the Fifth +was indeed crowned by the Pope's hands, but the ceremony took place at +Bologna, and was therefore of at least questionable validity); each +assumed after his German coronation[362] the title of Emperor +Elect[363], and employed this in all documents issued in his name. But +the word 'elect' being omitted when he was addressed by others, partly +from motives of courtesy, partly because the old rules regarding the +Roman coronation were forgotten, or remembered only by antiquaries, he +was never called, even when formality was required, anything but +Emperor. The substantial import of another title now first introduced +is the same. Before Otto the First, the Teutonic king had called +himself either 'rex' alone, or 'Francorum orientalium rex,' or +'Francorum atque Saxonum rex:' after A.D. 962, all lesser dignities +had been merged in the 'Romanorum Imperator[364].' To this Maximilian +appended 'Germaniae rex,' or, adding Frederick the Second's +bequest[365], 'Koenig in Germanien und Jerusalem.' It has been thought +that from a mixture of the title King of Germany, and that of Emperor, +has been formed the phrase 'German Emperor,' or less correctly, +'Emperor of Germany[366].' But more probably the terms 'German +Emperor' and 'Emperor of Germany' are nothing but convenient +corruptions of the technical description of the Germanic +sovereign[367]. + +That the Empire was thus sinking into a merely German power cannot be +doubted. But it was only natural that those who lived at the time +should not discern the tendency of events. Again and again did the +restless and sanguine Maximilian propose the recovery of Burgundy and +Italy,--his last scheme was to adjust the relations of Papacy and +Empire by becoming Pope himself: nor were successive Diets less +zealous to check private war, still the scandal of Germany, to set +right the gear of the imperial chamber, to make the imperial officials +permanent, and their administration uniform throughout the country. +But while they talked the heavens darkened, and the flood came and +destroyed them all. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[352] See Dean Stanley's _Lectures on the History of the Eastern +Church_, Lecture II. + +[353] It is not without interest to observe that the council of Basel +shewed signs of reciprocating imperial care by claiming those very +rights over the Empire to which the Popes were accustomed to pretend. + +[354] The councils of Basel and Florence were not recognized from +first to last by all Europe, as was the council of Constance. When the +assembly of Trent met, the great religious schism had already made a +general council, in the true sense of the word, impossible. + +[355] 'E pero venendo gl'imperadori della Magna col supremo titolo, e +volendo col senno e colla forza della Magna reggiere gli Italiani, non +lo fanno e non lo possono fare.'--M. Villani, iv. 77. + +Matthew Villani's etymology of the two great faction names of Italy is +worth quoting, as a fair sample of the skill of mediaevals in such +matters:--'La Italia tutta e divisa mistamente in due parti, l'una che +seguita ne' fatti del mondo la santa chiesa--e questi son dinominati +Guelfi; cioe, guardatori di fe. E l'altra parte seguitano lo 'mperio o +fedele o enfedele che sia delle cose del mondo a santa chiesa. E +chiamansi Ghibellini, quasi guida belli; cioe, guidatori di +battaglie.' + +[356] 'Nam quamvis Imperatorem et regem et dominum vestrum esse +fateamini, precario tamen ille imperare videtur: nulla ei potentia +est; tantum ei paretis quantum vultis, vultis autem minimum.'--AEneas +Sylvius to the princes of Germany, quoted by Hippolytus a Lapide. + +[357] See AEgidi, _Der Fuerstenrath nach dem Luneviller Frieden_; a book +which throws more light than any other with which I am acquainted on +the inner nature of the Empire. + +[358] The two immediately preceding Emperors, Albert II (1438-1439) +and Frederick III, father of Maximilian (1439-1493), had been +Hapsburgs. It is nevertheless from Maximilian that the ascendancy of +that family must be dated. + +[359] Reichsregiment. + +[360] Wenzel had encouraged the leagues of the cities, and incurred +thereby the hatred of the nobles. + +[361] The Germans, like our own ancestors, called foreign, _i. e._ +non-Teutonic nations, Welsh. Yet apparently not all such nations, but +only those which they in some way associated with the Roman Empire, +the Cymry of Roman Britain, the Romanized Kelts of Gaul, the Italians, +the Roumans or Wallachs of Transylvania and the Principalities. It +does not appear that either the Magyars or any Slavonic people were +called by any form of the name Welsh. + +[362] The German crown was received at Aachen, the ancient Frankish +capital, where may still be seen, in the gallery of the basilica, the +marble throne on which the Emperors from the days of Charles to those +of Ferdinand I were crowned. It was upon this chair that Otto III had +found the body of Charles seated, when he opened his tomb in A.D. +1001. After Ferdinand I, the coronation as well as the election took +place at Frankfort. An account of the ceremony may be found in +Goethe's _Wahrheit und Dichtung_. Aachen, though it remained and +indeed is still a German town, lay in too remote a corner of the +country to be a convenient capital, and was moreover in dangerous +proximity to the West Franks, as stubborn old Germans continue to call +them. As early as A.D. 1353 we find bishop Leopold of Bamberg +complaining that the French had arrogated to themselves the honours of +the Frankish name, and called themselves 'reges Franciae,' instead of +'reges Franciae occidentalis.'--Lupoldus Bebenburgensis, apud +Schardium, _Sylloge Tractatuum_. + +[363] Erwaehlter Kaiser. See Appendix, Note C. + +[364] Romanorum rex (after Henry II) till the coronation at Rome. + +[365] But the Emperor was only one of many claimants to this kingdom; +they multiplied as the prospect of regaining it died away. + +[366] The latter does not occur, even in English books, till +comparatively recent times. English writers of the seventeenth century +always call him 'The Emperor,' pure and simple, just as they +invariably say 'the French king.' But the phrase 'Empereur d'Almayne' +may be found in very early French writers. + +[367] See Moser, _Roemische Kayser_; Goldast's and other collections of +imperial edicts and proclamations. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE REFORMATION AND ITS EFFECTS UPON THE EMPIRE. + + +The Reformation falls to be mentioned here, of course not as a +religious movement, but as the cause of political changes, which still +further rent the Empire, and struck at the root of the theory by which +it had been created and upheld. Luther completed the work of +Hildebrand. Hitherto it had seemed not impossible to strengthen the +German state into a monarchy, compact if not despotic; the very Diet +of Worms, where the monk of Wittenberg proclaimed to an astonished +church and Emperor that the day of spiritual tyranny was past, had +framed and presented a fresh scheme for the construction of a central +council of government. The great religious schism put an end to all +such hopes, for it became a source of political disunion far more +serious and permanent than any that had existed before, and it taught +the two factions into which Germany was henceforth divided to regard +each other with feelings more bitter than those of hostile nations. + +[Sidenote: Accession of Charles V (1519-1558).] + +The breach came at the most unfortunate time possible. After an +election, more memorable than any preceding, an election in which +Francis the First of France and Henry the Eighth of England had been +his competitors, a prince had just ascended the imperial throne who +united dominions vaster than any Europe had seen since the days of his +great namesake. Spain and Naples, Flanders, and other parts of the +Burgundian lands, as well as large regions in Eastern Germany, obeyed +Charles: he drew inexhaustible revenues from a new empire beyond the +Atlantic. Such a power, directed by a mind more resolute and profound +than that of Maximilian his grandfather, might have well been able, +despite the stringency of his coronation engagements[368], and the +watchfulness of the electors[369], to override their usurped +privileges, and make himself practically as well as officially the +head of the nation. Charles the Fifth, though from the coldness of his +manner[370] and his Flemish speech never a favourite among the +Germans, was in point of fact far stronger than Maximilian or any +other Emperor who had reigned for three centuries. In Italy he +succeeded, after long struggles with the Pope and the French, in +rendering himself supreme: England he knew how to lead, by flattering +Henry and cajoling Wolsey: from no state but France had he serious +opposition to fear. To this strength his imperial dignity was indeed a +mere accident: its sources were the infantry of Spain, the looms of +Flanders, the sierras of Peru. But the conquest once achieved, might +could lose itself in right; and as an earlier Charles had veiled the +terror of the Frankish sword under the mask of Roman election, so +might his successor sway a hundred provinces with the sole name of +Roman Emperor, and transmit to his race a dominion as wide and more +enduring. + +[Sidenote: Attitude of Charles towards the religious movement.] + +One is tempted to speculate as to what might have happened had Charles +espoused the reforming cause. His reverence for the Pope's person is +sufficiently seen in the sack of Rome and the captivity of Clement; +the traditions of his office might have led him to tread in the steps +of the Henrys and the Fredericks, into which even the timid Lewis the +Fourth and the unstable Sigismund had sometimes ventured; the +awakening zeal of the German people, exasperated by the exactions of +the Romish court, would have strengthened his hands, and enabled him, +while moderating the excesses of change, to fix his throne on the deep +foundations of national love. It may well be doubted--Englishmen at +least have reason for the doubt--whether the Reformation would not +have lost as much as it could have gained by being entangled in the +meshes of royal patronage. But, setting aside Charles's personal +leaning to the old faith, and forgetting that he was king of the most +bigoted race of Europe, his position as Emperor made him almost +perforce the Pope's ally. The Empire had been called into being by +Rome, had vaunted the protection of the Apostolic See as its highest +earthly privilege, had latterly been wont, especially in Hapsburg +hands, to lean on the papacy for support. Itself founded entirely on +prescription and the traditions of immemorial reverence, how could it +abandon the cause which the longest prescription and the most solemn +authority had combined to consecrate? With the German clergy, despite +occasional quarrels, it had been on better terms than with the lay +aristocracy; their heads had been the chief ministers of the crown; +the advocacies of their abbeys were the last source of imperial +revenue to disappear. To turn against them now, when furiously +assailed by heretics; to abrogate claims hallowed by antiquity and a +hundred laws, would be to pronounce its own sentence, and the fall of +the eternal city's spiritual dominion must involve the fall of what +still professed to be her temporal. Charles would have been glad to +see some abuses corrected; but a broad line of policy was called for, +and he cast in his lot with the Catholics[371]. + +[Sidenote: Ultimate failure of the repressive policy of Charles.] + +[Sidenote: Ferdinand I, 1558-1564.] + +[Sidenote: Maximilian II, 1564-1576.] + +[Sidenote: Destruction of the Germanic state-system.] + +Of many momentous results only a few need be noticed here. The +reconstruction of the old imperial system, upon the basis of Hapsburg +power, proved in the end impossible. Yet for some years it had seemed +actually accomplished. When the Smalkaldic league had been dissolved +and its leaders captured, the whole country lay prostrate before +Charles. He overawed the Diet at Augsburg by the Spanish soldiery: he +forced formularies of doctrine upon the vanquished Protestants: he set +up and pulled down whom he would throughout Germany, amid the muttered +discontent of his own partisans. Then, as in the beginning of the year +1552, he lay at Innsbruck, fondly dreaming that his work was done, +waiting the spring weather to cross to Trent, where the Catholic +fathers had again met to settle the world's faith for it, news was +suddenly brought that North Germany was in arms, and that the revolted +Maurice of Saxony had seized Donauwerth, and was hurrying through the +Bavarian Alps to surprise his sovereign. Charles rose and fled +southwards over the snows of the Brenner, then eastwards, under the +blood-red cliffs of dolomite that wall in the Pusterthal, far away +into the valleys of Carinthia: the council of Trent broke up in +consternation: Europe saw and the Emperor acknowledged that in his +fancied triumph over the spirit of revolution he had done no more than +block up for the moment an irresistible torrent. When this last effort +to produce religious uniformity by violence had failed as hopelessly +as the previous devices of holding discussions of doctrine and calling +a general council, a sort of armistice was agreed to in 1554, which +lasted in mutual fear and suspicion for more than sixty years. Four +years after this disappointment of the hopes and projects which had +occupied his busy life, Charles, weighed down by cares and with the +shadow of coming death already upon him, resigned the sovereignty of +Spain and the Indies, of Flanders and Naples, into the hands of his +son Philip the Second; while the imperial sceptre passed to his +brother Ferdinand, who had been some time before chosen King of the +Romans. Ferdinand was content to leave things much as he found them, +and the amiable Maximilian II, who succeeded him, though personally +well inclined to the Protestants, found himself fettered by his +position and his allies, and could do little or nothing to quench the +flame of religious and political hatred. Germany remained divided into +two omnipresent factions, and so further than ever from harmonious +action, or a tightening of the long-loosened bond of feudal +allegiance. The states of either creed being gathered into a league, +there could no longer be a recognized centre of authority for judicial +or administrative purposes. Least of all could a centre be sought in +the Emperor, the leader of the papal party, the suspected foe of every +Protestant. Too closely watched to do anything of his own authority, +too much committed to one party to be accepted as a mediator by the +other, he was driven to attain his own objects by falling in with the +schemes and furthering the selfish ends of his adherents, by becoming +the accomplice or the tool of the Jesuits. The Lutheran princes +addressed themselves to reduce a power of which they had still an +over-sensitive dread, and found when they exacted from each successive +sovereign engagements more stringent than his predecessor's, that in +this, and this alone, their Catholic brethren were not unwilling to +join them. Thus obliged to strip himself one by one of the ancient +privileges of his crown, the Emperor came to have little influence on +the government except that which his intrigues might exercise. Nay, it +became almost impossible to maintain a government at all. For when the +Reformers found themselves outvoted at the Diet, they declared that in +matters of religion a majority ought not to bind a minority. As the +measures were few which did not admit of being reduced to this +category, for whatever benefited the Emperor or any other Catholic +prince injured the Protestants, nothing could be done save by the +assent of two bitterly hostile factions. Thus scarce anything was +done; and even the courts of justice were stopped by the disputes that +attended the appointment of every judge or assessor. + +[Sidenote: Alliance of the Protestants with France.] + +In the foreign politics of Germany another result followed. Inferior +in military force and organization, the Protestant princes at first +provided for their safety by forming leagues among themselves. The +device was an old one, and had been employed by the monarch himself +before now, in despair at the effete and cumbrous forms of the +imperial system. Soon they began to look beyond the Vosges, and found +that France, burning heretics at home, was only too happy to smile on +free opinions elsewhere. The alliance was easily struck; Henry the +Second assumed in 1552 the title of 'Protector of the Germanic +liberties,' and a pretext for interference was never wanting in +future. + +[Sidenote: The Reformation spirit, and its influence upon the Empire.] + +[Sidenote: Effect of the Reformation on the doctrines regarding the +Visible Church.] + +These were some of the visible political consequences of the great +religious schism of the sixteenth century. But beyond and above them +there was a change far more momentous than any of its immediate +results. There is perhaps no event in history which has been represented +in so great a variety of lights as the Reformation. It has been called +a revolt of the laity against the clergy, or of the Teutonic races +against the Italians, or of the kingdoms of Europe against the +universal monarchy of the Popes. Some have seen in it only a burst of +long-repressed anger at the luxury of the prelates and the manifold +abuses of the ecclesiastical system; others a renewal of the youth of +the church by a return to primitive forms of doctrine. All these +indeed to some extent it was; but it was also something more profound, +and fraught with mightier consequences than any of them. It was in its +essence the assertion of the principle of individuality--that is to +say, of true spiritual freedom. Hitherto the personal consciousness +had been a faint and broken reflection of the universal; obedience had +been held the first of religious duties; truth had been conceived as a +something external and positive, which the priesthood who were its +stewards were to communicate to the passive layman, and whose saving +virtue lay not in its being felt and known by him to be truth, but in +a purely formal and unreasoning acceptance. The great principles which +mediaeval Christianity still cherished were obscured by the limited, +rigid, almost sensuous forms which had been forced on them in times of +ignorance and barbarism. That which was in its nature abstract, had +been able to survive only by taking a concrete expression. The +universal consciousness became the Visible Church: the Visible Church +hardened into a government and degenerated into a hierarchy. Holiness +of heart and life was sought by outward works, by penances and +pilgrimages, by gifts to the poor and to the clergy, wherein there +dwelt often little enough of a charitable mind. The presence of divine +truth among men was symbolized under one aspect by the existence on +earth of an infallible Vicar of God, the Pope; under another, by the +reception of the present Deity in the sacrifice of the mass; in a +third, by the doctrine that the priest's power to remit sins and +administer the sacraments depended upon a transmission of miraculous +gifts which can hardly be called other than physical. All this system +of doctrine, which might, but for the position of the church as a +worldly and therefore obstructive power, have expanded, renewed, and +purified itself during the four centuries that had elapsed since its +completion[372], and thus remained in harmony with the growing +intelligence of mankind, was suddenly rent in pieces by the convulsion +of the Reformation, and flung away by the more religious and more +progressive peoples of Europe. That which was external and concrete, +was in all things to be superseded by that which was inward and +spiritual. It was proclaimed that the individual spirit, while it +continued to mirror itself in the world-spirit, had nevertheless an +independent existence as a centre of self-issuing force, and was to be +in all things active rather than passive. Truth was no longer to be +truth to the soul until it should have been by the soul recognized, +and in some measure even created; but when so recognized and felt, it +is able under the form of faith to transcend outward works and to +transform the dogmas of the understanding; it becomes the living +principle within each man's breast, infinite itself, and expressing +itself infinitely through his thoughts and acts. He who as a spiritual +being was delivered from the priest, and brought into direct relation +with the Divinity, needed not, as heretofore, to be enrolled a member +of a visible congregation of his fellows, that he might live a pure +and useful life among them. Thus by the Reformation the Visible Church +as well as the priesthood lost that paramount importance which had +hitherto belonged to it, and sank from being the depositary of all +religious tradition, the source and centre of religious life, the +arbiter of eternal happiness or misery, into a mere association of +Christian men, for the expression of mutual sympathy and the better +attainment of certain common ends. Like those other doctrines which +were now assailed by the Reformation, this mediaeval view of the nature +of the Visible Church had been naturally, and so, it may be said, +necessarily developed between the third and the twelfth century, and +must therefore have represented the thoughts and satisfied the wants +of those times. By the Visible Church the flickering lamp of knowledge +and literary culture, as well as of religion, had been fed and tended +through the long night of the Dark Ages. But, like the whole +theological fabric of which it formed a part, it was now hard and +unfruitful, identified with its own worst abuses, capable apparently +of no further development, and unable to satisfy minds which in +growing stronger had grown more conscious of their strength. Before +the awakened zeal of the northern nations it stood a cold and lifeless +system, whose organization as a hierarchy checked the free activity of +thought, whose bestowal of worldly power and wealth on spiritual +pastors drew them away from their proper duties, and which by +maintaining alongside of the civil magistracy a co-ordinate and rival +government, maintained also that separation of the spiritual element +in man from the secular, which had been so complete and so pernicious +during the Middle Ages, which debases life, and severs religion from +morality. + +[Sidenote: Consequent effect upon the Empire.] + +The Reformation, it may be said, was a religious movement: and it is +the Empire, not the Church, that we have here to consider. The +distinction is only apparent. The Holy Empire is but another name for +the Visible Church. It has been shewn already how mediaeval theory +constructed the State on the model of the Church; how the Roman Empire +was the shadow of the Popedom--designed to rule men's bodies as the +pontiff ruled their souls. Both alike claimed obedience on the ground +that Truth is One, and that where there is One faith there must be One +government[373]. And, therefore, since it was this very principle of +Formal Unity that the Reformation overthrew, it became a revolt +against despotism of every kind; it erected the standard of civil as +well as of religious liberty, since both of them are needed, though +needed in a different measure, for the worthy development of the +individual spirit. The Empire had never been conspicuously the +antagonist of popular freedom, and was, even under Charles the Fifth, +far less formidable to the commonalty than were the petty princes of +Germany. But submission, and submission on the ground of indefeasible +transmitted right, upon the ground of Catholic traditions and the duty +of the Christian magistrate to suffer heresy and schism as little as +the parallel sins of treason and rebellion, had been its constant +claim and watchword. Since the days of Julius Caesar it had passed +through many phases, but in none of them had it ever been a +constitutional monarchy, pledged to the recognition of popular rights. +And hence the indirect tendency of the Reformation to narrow the +province of government and exalt the privileges of the subject was as +plainly adverse to the Empire as the Protestant claim of the right of +private judgment was to the pretensions of the Papacy and the +priesthood. + +[Sidenote: Immediate influence of the Reformation on political and +religious liberty.] + +[Sidenote: Conduct of the Protestant States.] + +The remark must not be omitted in passing, how much less than might +have been expected the religious movement did at first actually effect +in the way of promoting either political progress or freedom of +conscience. The habits of centuries were not to be unlearnt in a few +years, and it was natural that ideas struggling into existence and +activity should work erringly and imperfectly for a time. By a few +inflammable minds liberty was carried into antinomianism, and produced +the wildest excesses of life and doctrine. Several fantastic sects +arose, refusing to conform to the ordinary rules without which human +society could not subsist. But these commotions neither spread widely +nor lasted long. Far more pervading and more remarkable was the other +error, if that can be called an error which was the almost unavoidable +result of the circumstances of the time. The principles which had led +the Protestants to sever themselves from the Roman Church, should have +taught them to bear with the opinions of others, and warned them from +the attempt to connect agreement in doctrine or manner of worship with +the necessary forms of civil government. Still less ought they to have +enforced that agreement by civil penalties; for faith, upon their own +shewing, had no value save when it was freely given. A church which +does not claim to be infallible is bound to allow that some part of +the truth may possibly be with its adversaries: a church which permits +or encourages human reason to apply itself to revelation has no right +first to argue with people and then to punish them if they are not +convinced. But whether it was that men only half saw what they had +done, or that finding it hard enough to unrivet priestly fetters, they +welcomed all the aid a temporal prince could give, the result was that +religion, or rather religious creeds, began to be involved with +politics more closely than had ever been the case before. Through the +greater part of Christendom wars of religion raged for a century or +more, and down to our own days feelings of theological antipathy +continue to affect the relations of the powers of Europe. In almost +every country the form of doctrine which triumphed associated itself +with the state, and maintained the despotic system of the Middle Ages, +while it forsook the grounds on which that system had been based. It +was thus that there arose National Churches, which were to be to the +several countries of Europe that which the Church Catholic had been to +the world at large; churches, that is to say, each of which was to be +co-extensive with its respective state, was to enjoy landed wealth and +exclusive political privilege, and was to be armed with coercive +powers against recusants. It was not altogether easy to find a set of +theoretical principles on which such churches might be made to rest, +for they could not, like the old church, point to the historical +transmission of their doctrines; they could not claim to have in any +one man or body of men an infallible organ of divine truth; they could +not even fall back upon general councils, or the argument, whatever it +may be worth, '_Securus iudicat orbis terrarum_.' But in practice +these difficulties were soon got over, for the dominant party in each +state, if it was not infallible, was at any rate quite sure that it +was right, and could attribute the resistance of other sects to +nothing but moral obliquity. The will of the sovereign, as in England, +or the will of the majority, as in Holland, Scandinavia, and Scotland, +imposed upon each country a peculiar form of worship, and kept up the +practices of mediaeval intolerance without their justification. +Persecution, which might be at least excused in an infallible Catholic +and Apostolic Church, was peculiarly odious when practised by those +who were not catholic, who were no more apostolic than their +neighbours, and who had just revolted from the most ancient and +venerable authority in the name of rights which they now denied to +others. If union with the visible church by participation in a +material sacrament be necessary to eternal life, persecution may be +held a duty, a kindness to perishing souls. But if the kingdom of +heaven be in every sense a kingdom of the spirit, if saving faith be +possible out of one visible body and under a diversity of external +forms, persecution becomes at once a crime and a folly. Therefore the +intolerance of Protestants, if the forms it took were less cruel than +those practised by the Roman Catholics, was also far less defensible; +for it had seldom anything better to allege on its behalf than motives +of political expediency, or, more often, the mere headstrong passion +of a ruler or a faction to silence the expressions of any opinions but +their own. To enlarge upon this theme, did space permit it, would not +be to digress from the proper subject of this narrative. For the +Empire, as has been said more than once already, was far less an +institution than a theory or doctrine. And hence it is not too much to +say, that the ideas which have but recently ceased to prevail +regarding the duty of the magistrate to compel uniformity in doctrine +and worship by the civil arm, may all be traced to the relation which +that doctrine established between the Roman Church and the Roman +Empire; to the conception, in fact, of an Empire Church itself. + +[Sidenote: Influence of the Reformation on the name and associations +of the Empire.] + +Two of the ways in which the Reformation affected the Empire have been +now described: its immediate political results, and its far more +profound doctrinal importance, as implanting new ideas regarding the +nature of freedom and the province of government. A third, though +apparently almost superficial, cannot be omitted. Its name and its +traditions, little as they retained of their former magic power, were +still such as to excite the antipathy of the German reformers. The +form which the doctrine of the supreme importance of one faith and one +body of the faithful had taken was the dominion of the ancient capital +of the world through her spiritual head, the Roman bishop, and her +temporal head, the Emperor. As the names of Roman and Christian had +been once convertible, so long afterwards were those of Roman and +Catholic. The Reformation, separating into its parts what had hitherto +been one conception, attacked Romanism but not Catholicity, and formed +religious communities which, while continuing to call themselves +Christian, repudiated the form with which Christianity had been so +long identified in the West. As the Empire was founded upon the +assumption that the limits of Church and State are exactly +co-extensive, a change which withdrew half of its subjects from the +one body while they remained members of the other, transformed it +utterly, destroyed the meaning and value of its old arrangements, and +forced the Emperor into a strange and incongruous position. To his +Protestant subjects he was merely the head of the administration, to +the Catholics he was also the Defender and Advocate of their church. +Thus from being chief of the whole state he became the chief of a +party within it, the Corpus Catholicorum, as opposed to the Corpus +Evangelicorum; he lost what had been hitherto his most holy claim to +the obedience of the subject; the awakened feeling of German +nationality was driven into hostility to an institution whose title +and history bound it to the centre of foreign tyranny. After exulting +for seven centuries in the heritage of Roman rule, the Teutonic +nations cherished again the feelings with which their ancestors had +resisted Julius Caesar and Germanicus. Two mutually repugnant systems +could not exist side by side without striving to destroy one another. +The instincts of theological sympathy overcame the duties of political +allegiance, and men who were subjects both of the Empire and of their +local prince, gave all their loyalty to him who espoused their +doctrines and protected their worship. For in North Germany, princes +as well as people were mostly Lutheran: in the southern and especially +the south-eastern lands, where the magnates held to the old faith, +Protestants were scarcely to be found except in the free cities. The +same causes which injured the Emperor's position in Germany swept away +the last semblance of his authority through other countries. In the +great struggle which followed, the Protestants of England and France, +of Holland and Sweden, thought of him only as the ally of Spain, of +the Vatican, of the Jesuits; and he of whom it had been believed a +century before that by nothing but his existence was the coming of +Antichrist on earth delayed, was in the eyes of the northern divines +either Antichrist himself or Antichrist's foremost champion. The +earthquake that opened a chasm in Germany was felt through Europe; its +states and peoples marshalled themselves under two hostile banners, +and with the Empire's expiring power vanished that united Christendom +it had been created to lead[374]. + +[Sidenote: Troubles of Germany.] + +[Sidenote: Rudolf II, 1576-1612.] + +[Sidenote: Matthias, 1612-1619.] + +Some of the effects thus sketched began to shew themselves as early as +that famous Diet of Worms, from Luther's appearance at which, in A.D. +1521, we may date the beginning of the Reformation. But just as the +end of the religious conflict in England can hardly be placed earlier +than the Revolution of 1688, nor in France than the Revocation of the +Edict of Nantes in 1685, so it was not till after more than a century +of doubtful strife that the new order of things was fully and finally +established in Germany. The arrangements of Augsburg, like most +treaties on the basis of _uti possidetis_, were no better than a +hollow truce, satisfying no one, and consciously made to be broken. +The church lands which Protestants had seized, and Jesuit confessors +urged the Catholic princes to reclaim, furnished an unceasing ground +of quarrel: neither party yet knew the strength of its antagonists +sufficiently to abstain from insulting or persecuting their modes of +worship, and the smouldering hate of half a century was kindled by the +troubles of Bohemia into the Thirty Years' War. + +[Sidenote: Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648.] + +[Sidenote: Ferdinand II, A.D. 1619-37.] + +[Sidenote: Plans of Ferdinand II.] + +[Sidenote: Gustavus Adolphus.] + +[Sidenote: Ferdinand III, 1637-1658.] + +[Sidenote: The peace of Westphalia.] + +The imperial sceptre had now passed from the indolent and vacillating +Rudolf II (1576-1612), the corrupt and reckless policy of whose +ministers had done much to exasperate the already suspicious minds of +the Protestants, into the firmer grasp of Ferdinand the Second[375]. +Jealous, bigoted, implacable, skilful in forming and concealing his +plans, resolute to obstinacy in carrying them out in action, the house +of Hapsburg could have had no abler and no more unpopular leader in +their second attempt to turn the German Empire into an Austrian +military monarchy. They seemed for a time as near to the +accomplishment of the project as Charles the Fifth had been. Leagued +with Spain, backed by the Catholics of Germany, served by such a +leader as Wallenstein, Ferdinand proposed nothing less than the +extension of the Empire to its old limits, and the recovery of his +crown's full prerogative over all its vassals. Denmark and Holland +were to be attacked by sea and land: Italy to be reconquered with the +help of Spain: Maximilian of Bavaria and Wallenstein to be rewarded +with principalities in Pomerania and Mecklenburg. The latter general +was all but master of Northern Germany when the successful resistance +of Stralsund turned the wavering balance of the war. Soon after (A.D. +1630), Gustavus Adolphus crossed the Baltic, and saved Europe from an +impending reign of the Jesuits. Ferdinand's high-handed proceedings +had already alarmed even the Catholic princes. Of his own authority he +had put the Elector Palatine and other magnates to the ban of the +Empire: he had transferred an electoral vote to Bavaria; had treated +the districts overrun by his generals as spoil of war, to be portioned +out at his pleasure; had unsettled all possession by requiring the +restitution of church property occupied since A.D. 1555. The +Protestants were helpless; the Catholics, though they complained of +the flagrant illegality of such conduct, did not dare to oppose it: +the rescue of Germany was the work of the Swedish king. In four +campaigns he destroyed the armies and the prestige of the Emperor; +devastated his lands, emptied his treasury, and left him at last so +enfeebled that no subsequent successes could make him again +formidable. Such, nevertheless, was the selfishness and apathy of the +Protestant princes, divided by the mutual jealousy of the Lutheran and +the Calvinist party--some, like the Saxon elector, most inglorious of +his inglorious house, bribed by the cunning Austrian; others afraid to +stir lest a reverse should expose them unprotected to his +vengeance--that the issue of the long protracted contest would have +gone against them but for the interference of France. It was the +leading principle of Richelieu's policy to depress the house of +Hapsburg and keep Germany disunited: hence he fostered Protestantism +abroad while trampling it down at home. The triumph he did not live to +see was sealed in A.D. 1648, on the utter exhaustion of all the +combatants, and the treaties of Muenster and Osnabrueck were +thenceforward the basis of the Germanic constitution. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[368] The so-called 'Wahlcapitulation.' + +[369] The electors long refused to elect Charles, dreading his great +hereditary power, and were at last induced to do so only by their +overmastering fear of the Turks. + +[370] Nearly all the Hapsburgs seem to have wanted that sort of genial +heartiness which, apt as it is to be stifled by education in the +purple, has nevertheless been possessed by several other royal lines, +greatly contributing to their vitality; as for instance by more than +one prince of the houses of Brunswick and Hohenzollern. + +[371] See this brought out with great force in the very interesting +work of Padre Tosti, _Prolegomeni alla Storia Universale della +Chiesa_, from which I quote one passage, which bears directly on the +matter in hand: 'Il grido della riforma clericale aveva un eco +terribile in tutta la compagnia civile dei popoli: essa percuoteva le +cime del laicale potere, e rimbalzava per tutta la gerarchia sociale. +Se l'imperadore Sigismondo nel concilio di Costanza non avesse +fiutate queste consequenze nella eresia di Hus e di Girolamo di Praga, +forse non avrebbe con tanto zelo mandati alle fiamme que' novatori. +Rotto da Lutero il vincolo di suggezione al Papa ed ai preti in fatti +di religione, avvenne che anche quello che sommetteva il vassallo al +barone, il barone al imperadore si allentasse. Il popolo con la Bibbia +in mano era prete, vescovo, e papa; e se prima contristato della +prepotenza di chi gli soprastava, ricorreva al successore di San +Pietro, ora ricorreva a se stesso, avendogli commesse Fra Martino le +chiavi del regno dei Cieli.'--vol. ii. pp. 398, 9. + +[372] It was not till the end of the eleventh century that +transubstantiation was definitely established as a dogma. + +[373] See the passages quoted in note 113, p. 98; and note 132, p. 110. + +[374] Henry VIII of England when he rebelled against the Pope called +himself King of Ireland (his predecessors had used only the title +'Dominus Hiberniae') without asking the Emperor's permission, in order +to shew that he repudiated the temporal as well as the spiritual +dominion of Rome. + +So the Statute of Appeals is careful to deny and reject the authority +of 'other foreign potentates,' meaning, no doubt, the Emperor as well +as the Pope. + +[375] Matthias, brother of Rudolf II, reigned from 1612 till 1619. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA: LAST STAGE IN THE DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. + + +The Peace of Westphalia is the first, and, with the exception perhaps +of the Treaties of Vienna in 1815, the most important of those +attempts to reconstruct by diplomacy the European states-system which +have played so large a part in modern history. It is important, +however, not as marking the introduction of new principles, but as +winding up the struggle which had convulsed Germany since the revolt +of Luther, sealing its results, and closing definitively the period of +the Reformation. Although the causes of disunion which the religious +movement called into being had now been at work for more than a +hundred years, their effects were not fully seen till it became +necessary to establish a system which should represent the altered +relations of the German states. It may thus be said of this famous +peace, as of the other so-called 'fundamental law of the Empire,' the +Golden Bull, that it did no more than legalize a condition of things +already in existence, but which by being legalized acquired new +importance. To all parties alike the result of the Thirty Years' War +was thoroughly unsatisfactory: to the Protestants, who had lost +Bohemia, and still were obliged to hold an inferior place in the +electoral college and in the Diet: to the Catholics, who were forced +to permit the exercise of heretical worship, and leave the church +lands in the grasp of sacrilegious spoilers: to the princes, who could +not throw off the burden of imperial supremacy: to the Emperor, who +could turn that supremacy to no practical account. No other conclusion +was possible to a contest in which every one had been vanquished and +no one victorious; which had ceased because while the reasons for war +continued the means of war had failed. Nevertheless, the substantial +advantage remained with the German princes, for they gained the formal +recognition of that territorial independence whose origin may be +placed as far back as the days of Frederick the Second, and the +maturity of which had been hastened by the events of the last +preceding century. It was, indeed, not only recognized but justified +as rightful and necessary. For while the political situation, to use a +current phrase, had changed within the last two hundred years, the +eyes with which men regarded it had changed still more. Never by their +fiercest enemies in earlier times, not once by the Popes or Lombard +republicans in the heat of their strife with the Franconian and +Swabian Caesars, had the Emperors been reproached as mere German kings, +or their claim to be the lawful heirs of Rome denied. The Protestant +jurists of the sixteenth or rather of the seventeenth century were the +first persons who ventured to scoff at the pretended lordship of the +world, and declare their Empire to be nothing more than a German +monarchy, in dealing with which no superstitious reverence need +prevent its subjects from making the best terms they could for +themselves, and controlling a sovereign whose religious predilections +made him the friend of their enemies. + +[Sidenote: The treatise of Hippolytus a Lapide.] + +[Sidenote: Rights of the Emperor and the Diet, as settled in A.D. +1648.] + +It is very instructive to turn suddenly from Dante or Peter de Andlo +to a book published shortly before A.D. 1648, under the name of +Hippolytus a Lapide[376], and notice the matter-of-fact way, the +almost contemptuous spirit in which, disregarding the traditional +glories of the Empire, he comments on its actual condition and +prospects. Hippolytus, the pseudonym which the jurist Chemnitz +assumed, urges with violence almost superfluous, that the Germanic +constitution must be treated entirely as a native growth: that the +'lex regia' (so much discussed and so often misunderstood) and the +whole system of Justinianean absolutism which the Emperor had used so +dexterously, were in their applications to Germany not merely +incongruous but positively absurd. With eminent learning, Chemnitz +examines the early history of the Empire, draws from the unceasing +contests of the monarch with the nobility the unexpected moral that +the power of the former has been always dangerous, and is now more +dangerous than ever, and then launches out into a long invective +against the policy of the Hapsburgs, an invective which the ambition +and harshness of the late Emperor made only too plausible. The one +real remedy for the evils that menace Germany he states +concisely--'domus Austriacae extirpatio:' but, failing this, he would +have the Emperor's prerogative restricted in every way, and provide +means for resisting or dethroning him. It was by these views, which +seem to have made a profound impression in Germany, that the states, +or rather France and Sweden acting on their behalf, were guided in the +negotiations of Osnabrueck and Muenster. By extorting a full recognition +of the sovereignty of all the princes, Catholics and Protestants +alike, in their respective territories, they bound the Emperor from +any direct interference with the administration, either in particular +districts or throughout the Empire. All affairs of public importance, +including the rights of making war or peace, of levying contributions, +raising troops, building fortresses, passing or interpreting laws, +were henceforth to be left entirely in the hands of the Diet. The +Aulic Council, which had been sometimes the engine of imperial +oppression, and always of imperial intrigue, was so restricted as to +be harmless for the future. The 'reservata' of the Emperor were +confined to the rights of granting titles and confirming tolls. In +matters of religion, an exact though not perfectly reciprocal equality +was established between the two chief ecclesiastical bodies, and the +right of 'Itio in partes,' that is to say, of deciding questions in +which religion was involved by amicable negotiations between the +Protestant and Catholic states, instead of by a majority of votes in +the Diet, was definitely conceded. Both Lutherans and Calvinists were +declared free from all jurisdiction of the Pope or any Catholic +prelate. Thus the last link which bound Germany to Rome was snapped, +the last of the principles by virtue of which the Empire had existed +was abandoned. For the Empire now contained and recognized as its +members persons who formed a visible body at open war with the Holy +Roman Church; and its constitution admitted schismatics to a full +share in all those civil rights which, according to the doctrines of +the early Middle Age, could be enjoyed by no one who was out of the +communion of the Catholic Church. The Peace of Westphalia was +therefore an abrogation of the sovereignty of Rome, and of the theory +of Church and State with which the name of Rome was associated. And in +this light was it regarded by Pope Innocent the Tenth, who commanded +his legate to protest against it, and subsequently declared it void by +the bull 'Zelo domus Dei[377].' + +[Sidenote: Loss of imperial territories.] + +The transference of power within the Empire, from its head to its +members, was a small matter compared with the losses which the Empire +suffered as a whole. The real gainers by the treaties of Westphalia +were those who had borne the brunt of the battle against Ferdinand the +Second and his son. To France were ceded Brisac, the Austrian part of +Alsace, and the lands of the three bishoprics in Lorraine--Metz, Toul, +and Verdun, which her armies had seized in A.D. 1552: to Sweden, +northern Pomerania, Bremen, and Verden. There was, however, this +difference between the position of the two, that whereas Sweden became +a member of the German Diet for what she received (as the king of +Holland was, until 1866-7, a member for Dutch Luxemburg, and as the +kings of Denmark, up till the accession of the present sovereign, were +for Holstein), the acquisitions of France were delivered over to her +in full sovereignty, and for ever severed from the Germanic body. And +as it was by their aid that the liberties of the Protestants had been +won, these two states obtained at the same time what was more valuable +than territorial accessions--the right of interfering at imperial +elections, and generally whenever the provisions of the treaties of +Osnabrueck and Muenster, which they had guaranteed, might be supposed to +be endangered. The bounds of the Empire were further narrowed by the +final separation of two countries, once integral parts of Germany, and +up to this time legally members of her body. Holland and Switzerland +were, in A.D. 1648, declared independent. + +[Sidenote: Germany after the Peace.] + +[Sidenote: Number of petty independent states: effects of such a +system on Germany.] + +The Peace of Westphalia is an era in imperial history not less clearly +marked than the coronation of Otto the Great, or the death of +Frederick the Second. As from the days of Maximilian it had borne a +mixed or transitional character, well expressed by the name +Romano-Germanic, so henceforth it is in everything but title purely +and solely a German Empire. Properly, indeed, it was no longer an +Empire at all, but a Confederation, and that of the loosest sort. For +it had no common treasury, no efficient common tribunals[378], no +means of coercing a refractory member[379]; its states were of +different religions, were governed according to different forms, were +administered judicially and financially without any regard to each +other. The traveller in Central Germany now is amused to find, every +hour or two, by the change in the soldiers' uniforms, and the colour +of the stripes on the railway fences, that he has passed out of one +and into another of its miniature kingdoms. Much more surprised and +embarrassed would he have been a century ago, when, instead of the +present thirty-two there were three hundred petty principalities +between the Alps and the Baltic, each with its own laws, its own +courts (in which the ceremonious pomp of Versailles was faintly +reproduced), its little armies, its separate coinage, its tolls and +custom-houses on the frontier, its crowd of meddlesome and pedantic +officials, presided over by a prime minister who was generally the +unworthy favourite of his prince and the pensioner of some foreign +court. This vicious system, which paralyzed the trade, the literature, +and the political thought of Germany, had been forming itself for some +time, but did not become fully established until the Peace of +Westphalia, by emancipating the princes from imperial control, had +made them despots in their own territories. The impoverishment of the +inferior nobility and the decline of the commercial cities caused by a +war that had lasted a whole generation, removed every counterpoise to +the power of the electors and princes, and made absolutism supreme +just where absolutism wants all its justification, in states too small +to have any public opinion, states in which everything depends on the +monarch, and the monarch depends on his favourites. After A.D. 1648 +the provincial estates or parliaments became obsolete in most of these +principalities, and powerless in the rest. Germany was forced to drink +to its very dregs the cup of feudalism, feudalism from which all the +feelings that once ennobled it had departed. + +[Sidenote: Feudalism in France, England, Germany.] + +It is instructive to compare the results of the system of feudality in +the three chief countries of modern Europe. In France, the feudal head +absorbed all the powers of the state, and left to the aristocracy only +a few privileges, odious indeed, but politically worthless. In +England, the mediaeval system expanded into a constitutional monarchy, +where the oligarchy was still strong, but the commons had won the full +recognition of equal civil rights. In Germany, everything was taken +from the sovereign, and nothing given to the people; the +representatives of those who had been fief-holders of the first and +second rank before the Great Interregnum were now independent +potentates; and what had been once a monarchy was now an aristocratic +federation. The Diet, originally an assembly of magnates meeting from +time to time like our early English Parliaments, became in A.D. 1654 a +permanent body, at which the electors, princes, and cities were +represented by their envoys. In other words, it was now not a national +council, but an international congress of diplomatists. + +[Sidenote: Causes of the continuance of the Empire.] + +Where the sacrifice of imperial, or rather federal, rights to state +rights was so complete, we may wonder that the farce of an Empire +should have been retained at all. A mere German Empire would probably +have perished; but the Teutonic people could not bring itself to +abandon the venerable heritage of Rome. Moreover, the Germans were of +all European peoples the most slow-moving and long-suffering; and as, +if the Empire had fallen, something must have been erected in its +place, they preferred to work on with the clumsy machine so long as it +would work at all. Properly speaking, it has no history after this; +and the history of the particular states of Germany which takes its +place is one of the dreariest chapters in the annals of mankind. It +would be hard to find, from the Peace of Westphalia to the French +Revolution, a single grand character or a single noble enterprise; a +single sacrifice made to great public interests, a single instance in +which the welfare of nations was preferred to the selfish passions of +their princes. The military history of those times will always be read +with interest; but free and progressive countries have a history of +peace not less rich and varied than that of war; and when we ask for +an account of the political life of Germany in the eighteenth century, +we hear nothing but the scandals of buzzing courts, and the wrangling +of diplomatists at never-ending congresses. + +[Sidenote: The Empire and the Balance of power.] + +Useless and helpless as the Empire had become, it was not without its +importance to the neighbouring countries, with whose fortunes it had +been linked by the Peace of Westphalia. It was the pivot on which the +political system of Europe was to revolve: the scales, so to speak, +which marked the equipoise of power that had become the grand object +of the policy of all states. This modern caricature of the plan by +which the theorists of the fourteenth century had proposed to keep the +world at peace, used means less noble and attained its end no better +than theirs had done. No one will deny that it was and is desirable to +prevent a universal monarchy in Europe. But it may be asked whether a +system can be considered successful which allowed Frederick of Prussia +to seize Silesia, which did not check the aggressions of Russia and +France upon their neighbours, which was for ever bartering and +exchanging lands in every part of Europe without thought of the +inhabitants, which permitted and has never been able to redress that +greatest of public misfortunes, the partitionment of Poland. And if it +be said that bad as things have been under this system, they would +have been worse without it, it is hard to refrain from asking whether +any evils could have been greater than those which the people of +Europe have suffered through constant wars with each other, and +through the withdrawal, even in time of peace, of so large a part of +their population from useful labour to be wasted in maintaining a +standing army. + +[Sidenote: Position of the Empire in Europe.] + +[Sidenote: Weakness and stagnation of Germany.] + +The result of the extended relations in which Germany now found +herself to Europe, with two foreign kings never wanting an occasion, +one of them never the wish, to interfere, was that a spark from her +set the Continent ablaze, while flames kindled elsewhere were sure to +spread hither. Matters grew worse as her princes inherited or created +so many thrones abroad. The Duke of Holstein acquired Denmark, the +Count Palatine Sweden, the Elector of Saxony Poland, the Elector of +Hanover England, the Archduke of Austria Hungary and Bohemia, while +the Elector (originally Margrave) of Brandenburg obtained, on the +strength of non-imperial territories to the north-eastward which had +come into his hands, the style and title of King of Prussia. Thus the +Empire seemed again about to embrace Europe; but in a sense far +different from that which those words would have expressed under +Charles and Otto. Its history for a century and a half is a dismal +list of losses and disgraces. The chief external danger was from +French influence, for a time supreme, always menacing. For though +Lewis the Fourteenth, on whom, in A.D. 1658, half the electoral +college wished to confer the imperial crown, was before the end of his +life an object of intense hatred, officially entitled 'Hereditary +enemy of the Holy Empire[380],' France had nevertheless a strong party +among the princes always at her beck. The Rhenish and Bavarian +electors were her favourite tools. The '_reunions_' begun in A.D. +1680, a pleasant euphemism for robbery in time of peace, added +Strasburg and other places in Alsace, Lorraine, and Franche Comte to +the monarchy of Lewis, and brought him nearer the heart of the Empire; +his ambition and cruelty were witnessed to by repeated wars, and by +the devastation of the Rhine countries; the ultimate though +short-lived triumph of his policy was attained when Marshal Belleisle +dictated the election of Charles VII in A.D. 1742. In the Turkish +wars, when the princes left Vienna to be saved by the Polish Sobieski, +the Empire's weakness appeared in a still more pitiable light. There +was, indeed, a complete loss of hope and interest in the old system. +The princes had been so long accustomed to consider themselves the +natural foes of a central government, that a request made by it was +sure to be disregarded; they aped in their petty courts the pomp and +etiquette of Vienna or Paris, grumbling that they should be required +to garrison the great frontier fortresses which alone protected them +from an encroaching neighbour. The Free Cities had never recovered the +famines and sieges of the Thirty Years' War: Hanseatic greatness had +waned, and the southern towns had sunk into languid oligarchies. All +the vigour of the people in a somewhat stagnant age either found its +sphere in rising states like the Prussia of Frederick the Great, or +turned away from politics altogether into other channels. The Diet had +become contemptible from the slowness with which it moved, and its +tedious squabbles on matters the most frivolous. Many sittings were +consumed in the discussion of a question regarding the time of keeping +Easter, more ridiculous than that which had distracted the Western +churches in the seventh century, the Protestants refusing to reckon by +the reformed calendar because it was the work of a Pope. Collective +action through the old organs was confessed impossible, when the +common object of defence against France was sought by forming a league +under the Emperor's presidency, and when at European congresses the +Empire was not represented at all[381]. No change could come from the +Emperor, whom the capitulation of A.D. 1658 deposed _ipso facto_ if he +violated its provisions. As Dohm[382] said, to keep him from doing +harm, he was kept from doing anything. + +[Sidenote: Leopold I, 1658-1705.] + +[Sidenote: Joseph I, 1705-1711.] + +[Sidenote: Charles VI, 1711-1742.] + +[Sidenote: The Hapsburg Emperors and their policy.] + +[Sidenote: Causes of the long retention of the throne by Austria.] + +[Sidenote: Charles VII, 1742-1745.] + +[Sidenote: Francis I, 1745-1765.] + +[Sidenote: Seven Years' War.] + +[Sidenote: Joseph II, 1765-1790.] + +[Sidenote: Leopold II, 1790-1792. Last phase of the Empire.] + +[Sidenote: The Diet.] + +Yet little was lost by his inactivity, for what could have been hoped +from his action? From the election of Albert the Second, A.D. 1437, to +the death of Charles the Sixth, A.D. 1742, the sceptre had remained in +the hands of one family. So far from being fit subjects for +undistinguishing invective, the Hapsburg Emperors may be contrasted +favourably with the contemporary dynasties of France, Spain, or +England. Their policy, viewed as a whole from the days of Rudolf +downwards, had been neither conspicuously tyrannical, nor faltering, +nor dishonest. But it had been always selfish. Entrusted with an +office which might, if there be any power in those memories of the +past to which the champions of hereditary monarchy so constantly +appeal, have stirred their sluggish souls with some enthusiasm for the +heroes on whose throne they sat, some wish to advance the glory and +the happiness of Germany, they had cared for nothing, sought nothing, +used the Empire as an instrument for nothing but the attainment of +their own personal or dynastic ends. Placed on the eastern verge of +Germany, the Hapsburgs had added to their ancient lands in Austria +proper and Tyrol, non-German territories far more extensive, and had +thus become the chiefs of a separate and independent state. They +endeavoured to reconcile its interests with the interests of the +Empire, so long as it seemed possible to recover part of the old +imperial prerogative. But when such hopes were dashed by the defeats +of the Thirty Years' War, they hesitated no longer between an elective +crown and the rule of their hereditary states, and comported +themselves thenceforth in European politics not as the representatives +of Germany, but as heads of the great Austrian monarchy. There would +have been nothing culpable in this had they not at the same time +continued to entangle Germany in wars with which she had no concern: +to waste her strength in tedious combats with the Turks, or plunge her +into a new struggle with France, not to defend her frontiers or +recover the lands she had lost, but that some scion of the house of +Hapsburg might reign in Spain or Italy. Watching the whole course of +their foreign policy, marking how in A.D. 1736 they had bartered away +Lorraine for Tuscany, a German for a non-German territory, and seeing +how at home they opposed every scheme of reform which could in the +least degree trench upon their own prerogative, how they strove to +obstruct the imperial chamber lest it should interfere with their own +Aulic council, men were driven to separate the body of the Empire from +the imperial office and its possessors[383], and when plans for +reinvigorating the one failed, to leave the others to their fate. +Still the old line clung to the crown with that Hapsburg gripe which +has almost passed into a proverb. Odious as Austria was, no one could +despise her, or fancy it easy to shake her commanding position in +Europe. Her alliances were fortunate: her designs were steadily +pursued: her dismembered territories always returned to her. Though +the throne continued strictly elective, it was impossible not to be +influenced by long prescription. Projects were repeatedly formed to +set the Hapsburgs aside by electing a prince of some other line[384], +or by passing a law that there should never be more than two, or four, +successive Emperors of the same house. France[385] ever and anon +renewed her warnings to the electors, that their freedom was passing +from them, and the sceptre becoming hereditary in one haughty family. +But it was felt that a change would be difficult and disagreeable, and +that the heavy expense and scanty revenues of the Empire required to +be supported by larger patrimonial domains than most German princes +possessed. The heads of states like Prussia and Hanover, states whose +size and wealth would have made them suitable candidates, were +Protestants, and so excluded both by the connexion of the imperial +office with the Church, and by the majority of Roman Catholics in the +electoral college[386], who, however jealous they might be of Austria, +were led both by habit and sympathy to rally round her in moments of +peril. The one occasion on which these considerations were disregarded +shewed their force. On the extinction of the male line of Hapsburg in +the person of Charles the Sixth, the intrigues of the French envoy, +Marshal Belleisle, procured the election of Charles Albert of Bavaria, +who stood first among the Catholic princes. His reign was a succession +of misfortunes and ignominies. Driven from Munich by the Austrians, +the head of the Holy Empire lived in Frankfort on the bounty of +France, cursed by the country on which his ambition had brought the +miseries of a protracted war[387]. The choice in 1745 of Duke Francis +of Lorraine, husband of the archduchess of Austria and queen of +Hungary, Maria Theresa, was meant to restore the crown to the only +power capable of wearing it with dignity: in Joseph the Second, her +son, it again rested on the brow of a Hapsburg[388]. In the war of the +Austrian succession, which followed on the death of Charles the Sixth, +the Empire as a body took no part; in the Seven Years' War its whole +might broke in vain against one resolute member. Under Frederick the +Great Prussia approved herself at least a match for France and Austria +leagued against her, and the semblance of unity which the predominance +of a single power had hitherto given to the Empire was replaced by the +avowed rivalry of two military monarchies. The Emperor Joseph the +Second, a sort of philosopher-king, than whom few have more narrowly +missed greatness, made a desperate effort to set things right, +striving to restore the disordered finances, to purge and vivify the +Imperial Chamber. Nay, he renounced the intolerant policy of his +ancestors, quarrelled with the Pope[389], and presumed to visit Rome, +whose streets heard once more the shout that had been silent for three +centuries, 'Evviva il nostro imperatore! Siete a casa vostra: siete il +padrone[390].' But his indiscreet haste was met by a sullen +resistance, and he died disappointed in plans for which the time was +not yet ripe, leaving no result save the league of princes which +Frederick the Great had formed to oppose his designs on Bavaria. His +successor, Leopold the Second, abandoned the projected reforms, and a +calm, the calm before the hurricane, settled down again upon Germany. +The existence of the Empire was almost forgotten by its subjects: +there was nothing to remind them of it but a feudal investiture now +and then at Vienna (real feudal rights were obsolete[391]); a +concourse of solemn old lawyers at Wetzlar puzzling over interminable +suits[392]; and some thirty diplomatists at Regensburg[393], the +relics of that Imperial Diet where once a hero-king, a Frederick or a +Henry, enthroned amid mitred prelates and steel-clad barons, had +issued laws for every tribe from the Mediterranean to the Baltic[394]. +The solemn triflings of this so-called 'Diet of Deputation' have +probably never been equalled elsewhere[395]. Questions of precedence +and title, questions whether the envoys of princes should have chairs +of red cloth like those of the electors, or only of the less +honourable green, whether they should be served on gold or on silver, +how many hawthorn boughs should be hung up before the door of each on +May-day; these, and such as these, it was their chief employment not +to settle but to discuss. The pedantic formalism of old Germany passed +that of Spaniards or Turks; it had now crushed under a mountain of +rubbish whatever meaning or force its old institutions had contained. +It is the penalty of greatness that its form should outlive its +substance: that gilding and trappings should remain when that which +they were meant to deck and clothe has departed. So our sloth or our +timidity, not seeing that whatever is false must be also bad, +maintains in being what once was good long after it has become +helpless and hopeless: so now at the close of the eighteenth century, +strings of sounding titles were all that was left of the Empire which +Charles had founded, and Frederick adorned, and Dante sung. + +[Sidenote: Feelings of the German people.] + +The German mind, just beginning to put forth the blossoms of its +wondrous literature, turned away in disgust from the spectacle of +ceremonious imbecility more than Byzantine. National feeling seemed +gone from princes and people alike. Lessing, who did more than any one +else to create the German literary spirit, says, 'Of the love of +country I have no conception: it appears to me at best a heroic +weakness which I am right glad to be without[396].' The Emperor Joseph +II writes to his brother of France: 'You must know that the +annihilation of German nationality is a necessary leading principle of +my policy[397].' There were nevertheless persons who saw how fatal +such a system was, lying like a nightmare on the people's soul. +Speaking of the union of princes formed by Frederick of Prussia to +preserve the existing condition of things, Johannes von Mueller +writes[398]: 'If the German Union serves for nothing better than to +maintain the _status quo_, it is against the eternal order of God, by +which neither the physical nor the moral world remains for a moment in +the _status quo_, but all is life and motion and progress. To exist +without law or justice, without security from arbitrary imposts, +doubtful whether we can preserve from day to day our honours, our +liberties, our rights, our lives, helpless before superior force, +without a beneficial connexion between our states, without a national +spirit at all, this is the _status quo_ of our nation. And it was this +that the Union was meant to confirm. If it be this and nothing more, +then bethink you how when Israel saw that Rehoboam would not hearken, +the people gave answer to the king and spake, "What portion have we in +David, or what inheritance in the son of Jesse? to your tents, O +Israel: David, see to thine own house." See then to your own houses, +ye princes.' + +Nevertheless, though the Empire stood like a corpse brought forth from +some Egyptian sepulchre, ready to crumble at a touch, there seemed no +reason why it should not stand so for centuries more. Fate was kind, +and slew it in the light. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[376] _De Ratione Status in Imperio nostro Romano-Germanico_. + +[377] Even then the Roman pontiffs had lapsed into that scolding, +anile tone (so unlike the fiery brevity of Hildebrand, or the stern +precision of Innocent III) which is now seldom absent from their +public utterances. Pope Innocent the Tenth pronounces the provisions +of the treaty, 'ipso iure nulla, irrita, invalida, iniqua, iniusta, +damnata, reprobata, inania, viribusque et effectu vacua, omnino +fuisse, esse, et perpetuo fore.' In spite of which they were observed. + +This bull may be found in vol. xvii. of the _Bullarium_. It bears date +Nov. 20th, A.D. 1648. + +[378] The Imperial Chamber (Kammergericht) continued, with frequent +and long interruptions, to sit while the Empire lasted. But its +slowness and formality passed that of any other legal body the world +has yet seen, and it had no power to enforce its sentences. The Aulic +council was little more efficient, and was generally disliked as the +tool of imperial intrigue. + +[379] The 'matricula' specifying the quota of each state to the +imperial army could not be any longer employed. + +[380] _Erbfeind des heiligen Reichs._ + +[381] Only the envoys of the several states were present at Utrecht in +1713. + +[382] Quoted by Ludwig Hauesser, _Deutsche Geschichte_. + +[383] The distinction is well expressed by the German 'Reich' and +'Kaiserthum,' to which we have unfortunately no terms to correspond. + +[384] So the Elector of Saxony proposed in 1532 that Albert II, +Frederick III, and Maximilian having been all of one house, Charles +V's successor should be chosen from some other.--Moser, _Roemische +Kayser_. See the various attempts of France in Moser. The coronation +engagements (Wahlcapitulation) of every Emperor bound him not to +attempt to make the throne hereditary in his family. + +[385] In 1658 France offered to subsidize the Elector of Bavaria if he +would become Emperor. + +[386] Whether an Evangelical was eligible for the office of Emperor +was a question often debated, but never actually raised by the +candidature of any but a Roman Catholic prince. The 'exacta aequalitas' +conceded by the Peace of Westphalia might appear to include so +important a privilege. But when we consider that the peculiar relation +in which the Emperor stood to the Holy Roman Church was one which no +heretic could hold, and that the coronation oaths could not have been +taken by, nor the coronation ceremonies (among which was a sort of +ordination) performed upon a Protestant, the conclusion must be +unfavourable to the claims of any but a Catholic. + +[387] + + 'The bold Bavarian, in a luckless hour, + Tries the dread summits of Caesarian power. + With unexpected legions bursts away, + And sees defenceless realms receive his sway.... + The baffled prince in honour's flattering bloom + Of hasty greatness finds the fatal doom; + His foes' derision and his subjects' blame, + And steals to death from anguish and from shame.' + JOHNSON, _Vanity of Human Wishes_. + +[388] The following nine reasons for the long continuance of the +Empire in the House of Hapsburg are given by Pfeffinger (_Vitriarius +Illustratus_), writing early in the eighteenth century:-- + + 1. The great power of Austria. + + 2. Her wealth, now that the Empire was so poor. + + 3. The majority of Catholics among the electors. + + 4. Her fortunate matrimonial alliances. + + 5. Her moderation. + + 6. The memory of benefits conferred by her. + + 7. The example of evils that had followed a departure from + the blood of former Caesars. + + 8. The fear of the confusion that would ensue if she were + deprived of the crown. + + 9. Her own eagerness to have it. + +[389] The Pope undertook a journey to Vienna to mollify Joseph, and +met with a sufficiently cold reception. When he saw the famous +minister Kaunitz and gave him his hand to kiss, Kaunitz took it and +shook it. + +[390] 'You are in your own house: be the master.' + +[391] Joseph II was foiled in his attempt to assert them. + +[392] Goethe spent some time in studying law at Wetzlar among those +who practised in the Kammergericht. + +[393] Cf. Puetter, _Historical Developement of the Political +Constitution of the German Empire_, vol. iii. + +[394] Frederick the Great said of the Diet, 'Es ist ein Schattenbild, +eine Versammlung aus Publizisten die mehr mit Formalien als mit Sachen +sich beschaeftigen, und, wie Hofhunde, den Mond anbellen.' + +[395] Cf. Hauesser, _Deutsche Geschichte_; Introduction. + +[396] Quoted by Hauesser. + +[397] Rotteck and Welcker, _Staats Lexikon_, s. v. 'Deutsches Reich.' + +[398] _Deutschlands Erwartungen vom Fuerstenbunde_, quoted in the +_Staats Lexikon_. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +FALL OF THE EMPIRE. + + +[Sidenote: Francis II, 1792-1806.] + +[Sidenote: Napoleon, Emperor of the West.] + +[Sidenote: Belief of Napoleon that he was the successor of +Charlemagne.] + +[Sidenote: Attitude of the Papacy towards Napoleon.] + +Goethe has described the uneasiness with which, in the days of his +childhood, the burghers of his native Frankfort saw the walls of the +Roman Hall covered with the portraits of Emperor after Emperor, till +space was left for few, at last for one[399]. In A.D. 1792 Francis the +Second mounted the throne of Augustus, and the last place was filled. +Three years before there had arisen on the western horizon a little +cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, and now the heaven was black with +storms of ruin. There was a prophecy[400], dating from the first days +of the Empire's decline, that when all things were falling to ruin, +and wickedness rife in the world, a second Frankish Charles should +rise as Emperor to purge and heal, to bring back peace and purify +religion. If this was not exactly the mission of the new ruler of the +West Franks, he was at least anxious to tread in the steps and revive +the glories of the hero whose crown he professed to have inherited. It +were a task superfluously easy to shew how delusive is that minute +historical parallel of which every Parisian was full in A.D. 1804, the +parallel between the heir of a long line of fierce Teutonic +chieftains, whose vigorous genius had seized what it could of the +monkish learning of the eighth century, and the son of the Corsican +lawyer, with all the brilliance of a Frenchman and all the resolute +profundity of an Italian, reared in, yet only half believing, the +ideas of the Encyclopaedists, swept up into the seat of absolute power +by the whirlwind of a revolution. Alcuin and Talleyrand are not more +unlike than are their masters. But though in the characters and temper +of the men there is little resemblance, though their Empires agree in +this only, and hardly even in this, that both were founded on +conquest, there is nevertheless a sort of grand historical similarity +between their positions. Both were the leaders of fiery and warlike +nations, the one still untamed as the creatures of their native woods, +the other drunk with revolutionary fury. Both aspired to found, and +seemed for a time to have succeeded in founding, universal monarchies. +Both were gifted with a strong and susceptible imagination, which if +it sometimes overbore their judgment, was yet one of the truest and +highest elements of their greatness. As the one looked back to the +kings under the Jewish theocracy and the Emperors of Christian Rome, +so the other thought to model himself after Caesar and Charlemagne. +For, useful as was the fancied precedent of the title and career of +the great Carolingian to a chief determined to be king, yet unable to +be king after the fashion of the Bourbons, and seductive as was such a +connexion to the imaginative vanity of the French people, it was no +studied purpose or simulating art that led Napoleon to remind his +subjects so frequently of the hero he claimed to represent. No one who +reads the records of his life can doubt that he believed, as fully as +he believed anything, that the same destiny which had made France the +centre of the modern world had also appointed him to sit on the throne +and carry out the projects of Charles the Frank, to rule all Europe +from Paris, as the Caesars had ruled it from Rome[401]. It was in this +belief that he went to the ancient capital of the Frankish Emperors to +receive there the Austrian recognition of his imperial title: that he +talked of 'revendicating' Catalonia and Aragon, because they had +formed a part of the Carolingian realm, though they had never obeyed +the descendants of Hugh Capet: that he undertook a journey to +Nimeguen, where he had ordered the ancient palace to be restored, and +inscribed on its walls his name below that of Charles: that he +summoned the Pope to attend his coronation as Stephen had come ten +centuries before to instal Pipin in the throne of the last +Merovingian[402]. The same desire to be regarded as lawful Emperor of +the West shewed itself in his assumption of the Lombard crown at +Milan; in the words of the decree by which he annexed Rome to the +Empire, revoking 'the donations which my predecessors, the French +Emperors, have made[403];' in the title 'King of Rome,' which he +bestowed on his ill-fated son, in imitation of the German 'King of the +Romans[404].' We are even told that it was at one time his intention +to eject the Hapsburgs, and be chosen Roman Emperor in their stead. +Had this been done, the analogy would have been complete between the +position which the French ruler held to Austria now, and that in which +Charles and Otto had stood to the feeble Caesars of Byzantium. It was +curious to see the head of the Roman church turning away from his +ancient ally to the reviving power of France--France, where the +Goddess of Reason had been worshipped eight years before--just as he +had sought the help of the first Carolingians against his Lombard +enemies[405]. The difference was indeed great between the feelings +wherewith Pius the Seventh addressed his 'very dear son in Christ,' +and those that had pervaded the intercourse of Pope Hadrian the First +with the son of Pipin; just as the contrast is strange between the +principles that shaped Napoleon's policy and the vision of a theocracy +that had floated before the mind of Charles. Neither comparison is +much to the advantage of the modern; but Pius might be pardoned for +catching at any help in his distress, and Napoleon found that the +protectorship of the church strengthened his position in France, and +gave him dignity in the eyes of Christendom[406]. + +[Sidenote: The French Empire.] + +[Sidenote: Napoleon in Germany.] + +[Sidenote: The Confederation of the Rhine.] + +[Sidenote: Abdication of the Emperor Francis II.] + +[Sidenote: End of the Empire.] + +A swift succession of triumphs had left only one thing still +preventing the full recognition of the Corsican warrior as sovereign +of Western Europe, and that one was the existence of the old +Romano-Germanic Empire. Napoleon had not long assumed his new title +when he began to mark a distinction between 'la France' and 'l'Empire +Francaise.' France had, since A.D. 1792, advanced to the Rhine, and, +by the annexation of Piedmont, had overstepped the Alps; the French +Empire included, besides the kingdom of Italy, a mass of dependent +states, Naples, Holland, Switzerland, and many German principalities, +the allies of France in the same sense in which the 'socii populi +Romani' were allies of Rome[407]. When the last of Pitt's coalitions +had been destroyed at Austerlitz, and Austria had made her submission +by the peace of Presburg, the conqueror felt that his hour was come. +He had now overcome two Emperors, those of Austria and Russia, +claiming to represent the old and the new Rome respectively, and had +in eighteen months created more kings than the occupants of the +Germanic throne in as many centuries. It was time, he thought, to +sweep away obsolete pretensions, and claim the sole inheritance of +that Western Empire, of which the titles and ceremonies of his court +presented a grotesque imitation[408]. The task was an easy one after +what had been already accomplished. Previous wars and treaties had so +redistributed the territories and changed the constitution of the +Germanic Empire that it could hardly be said to exist in anything but +name. In French history Napoleon appears as the restorer of peace, the +rebuilder of the shattered edifice of social order: the author of a +code and an administrative system which the Bourbons who dethroned him +were glad to preserve. Abroad he was the true child of the Revolution, +and conquered only to destroy. It was his mission--a mission more +beneficent in its result than in its means[409]--to break up in +Germany and Italy the abominable system of petty states, to reawaken +the spirit of the people, to sweep away the relics of an effete +feudalism, and leave the ground clear for the growth of newer and +better forms of political life. Since A.D. 1797, when Austria at Campo +Formio perfidiously exchanged the Netherlands for Venetia, the work of +destruction had gone on apace. All the German sovereigns west of the +Rhine had been dispossessed, and their territories incorporated with +France, while the rest of the country had been revolutionized by the +arrangements of the peace of Luneville and the 'Indemnities,' dictated +by the French to the Diet in February 1803. New kingdoms were erected, +electorates created and extinguished, the lesser princes mediatized, +the free cities occupied by troops and bestowed on some neighbouring +potentate. More than any other change, the secularization of the +dominions of the prince-bishops and abbots proclaimed the fall of the +old constitution, whose principles had required the existence of a +spiritual alongside of the temporal aristocracy. The Emperor Francis, +partly foreboding the events that were at hand, partly in order to +meet Napoleon's assumption of the imperial name by depriving that name +of its peculiar meaning, began in A.D. 1805 to style himself +'Hereditary Emperor of Austria,' while retaining at the same time his +former title[410]. The next act of the drama was one in which we may +more readily pardon the ambition of a foreign conqueror than the +traitorous selfishness of the German princes, who broke every tie of +ancient friendship and duty to grovel at his throne. By the Act of the +Confederation[411] of the Rhine, signed at Paris, July 12th, 1806, +Bavaria, Wuertemberg, Baden, and several other states, sixteen in all, +withdrew from the body and repudiated the laws of the Empire, while on +August 1st the French envoy at Regensburg announced to the Diet that +his master, who had consented to become Protector of the Confederate +princes, no longer recognized the existence of the Empire. Francis the +Second resolved at once to anticipate this new Odoacer, and by a +declaration, dated August 6th, 1806, resigned the imperial dignity. +His deed states that finding it impossible, in the altered state of +things, to fulfil the obligations imposed by his capitulation, he +considers as dissolved the bonds which attached him to the Germanic +body, releases from their allegiance the states who formed it, and +retires to the government of his hereditary dominions under the title +of 'Emperor of Austria[412].' Throughout, the term 'German Empire' +(_Deutsches Reich_) is employed. But it was the crown of Augustus, of +Constantine, of Charles, of Maximilian, that Francis of Hapsburg laid +down, and a new era in the world's history was marked by the fall of +its most venerable institution. One thousand and six years after Leo +the Pope had crowned the Frankish king, eighteen hundred and +fifty-eight years after Caesar had conquered at Pharsalia, the Holy +Roman Empire came to its end. + +[Sidenote: Congress of Vienna.] + +There was a time when this event would have been thought a sign that +the last days of the world were at hand. But in the whirl of change +that had bewildered men since A.D. 1789, it passed almost unnoticed. +No one could yet fancy how things would end, or what sort of a new +order would at last shape itself out of chaos. When Napoleon's +universal monarchy had dissolved, and old landmarks shewed themselves +again above the receding waters, it was commonly supposed that the +Empire would be re-established on its former footing[413]. Such was +indeed the wish of many states, and among them of Hanover, +representing Great Britain[414]. Though a simple revival of the old +Romano-Germanic Empire was plainly out of the question, it still +appeared to them that Germany would be best off under the presidency +of a single head, entrusted with the ancient office of maintaining +peace among the members of the confederation. But the new kingdoms, +Bavaria especially, were unwilling to admit a superior; Prussia, +elated at the glory she had won in the war of independence, would have +disputed the crown with Austria; Austria herself cared little to +resume an office shorn of much of its dignity, with duties to perform +and no resources to enable her to discharge them. Use was therefore +made of an expression in the Peace of Paris which spoke of uniting +Germany by a federative bond[415], and the Congress of Vienna was +decided by the wishes of Austria to establish a Confederation. Thus +was brought about the present German federal constitution, which is +itself confessed, by the attempts so often made to reform it, to be a +mere temporary expedient, oppressive in the hands of the strong, and +useless for the protection of the weak. Of late years, one school of +liberal politicians, justly indignant at their betrayal by the princes +after the enthusiastic uprising of A.D. 1814, has aspired to the +restoration of the Empire, either as an hereditary kingdom in the +Prussian or some other family, or in a more republican fashion under a +head elected by the people[416]. The obstacles in the way of such +plans are evidently very great; but even were the horizon more clear +than it is, this would not be the place from which to scan it[417]. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[399] _Wahrheit und Dichtung_, book i. The Roemer Saal is still one of +the sights of Frankfort. The portraits, however, which one now sees in +it, seem to be all or nearly all of them modern; and few have any +merit as works of art. + +[400] _Jordanis Chronica_, ap. Schardium, _Sylloge Tractatuum_. + +[401] In an address by Napoleon to the Senate in 1804, bearing date +10th Frimaire (1st Dec.), are the words, 'Mes descendans conserveront +longtemps ce trone, le premier de l'univers.' Answering a deputation +from the department of the Lippe, Aug. 8th, 1811, 'La Providence, qui +a voulu que je retablisse le trone de Charlemagne, vous a fait +naturellement rentrer, avec la Hollande et les villes anseatiques, +dans le sein de l'Empire.'--_Oeuvres de Napoleon_, tom. v. p. 521. + +'Pour le Pape, je suis Charlemagne, parce que, comme Charlemagne, je +reunis la couronne de France a celle des Lombards, et que mon Empire +confine avec l'Orient.' (Quoted by Lanfrey, _Vie de Napoleon_, iii. +417.) + +'Votre Saintete est souveraine de Rome, mais j'en suis l'Empereur.' +(Letter of Napoleon to Pope Pius, Feb. 13th, 1806. Lanfrey.) + +'Dites bien,' says Napoleon to Cardinal Fesch, 'que je suis +Charlemagne, leur Empereur [of the Papal Court] que je dois etre +traite de meme. Je fais connaitre au Pape mes intentions en peu de +mots, s'il n'y acquiesce pas, je le reduirai a la meme condition qu'il +etait avant Charlemagne.' (Lanfrey, _Vie de Napoleon_, iii. 420.) + +[402] Napoleon said on one occasion, 'Je n'ai pas succede a Louis +Quatorze, mais a Charlemagne.'--Bourrienne, _Vie de Napoleon_, iv. In +1804, shortly before he was crowned, he had the imperial insignia of +Charles brought from the old Frankish capital, and exhibited them in a +jeweller's shop in Paris, along with those which had just been made +for his own coronation;--(Bourrienne, _ut supra_.) Somewhat in the +same spirit in which he displayed the Bayeux tapestry, in order to +incite his subjects to the conquest of England. + +[403] 'Je n'ai pu concilier ces grands interets (of political order +and the spiritual authority of the Pope) qu'en annulant les donations +des Empereurs Francais, mes predecesseurs, et en reunissant les etats +romains a la France.'--Proclamation issued in 1809: _Oeuvres_, iv. + +[404] See Appendix, Note C. + +[405] Pope Pius VII wrote to the First Consul, 'Carissime in Christo +Fili noster ... tam perspecta sunt nobis tuae voluntatis studia erga +nos, ut _quotiescunque_ ope aliqua in rebus nostris indigemus, eam a +te fidenter petere non dubitare debeamus.'--Quoted by AEgidi. + +[406] Let us place side by side the letters of Hadrian to Charles in +the _Codex Carolinus_, and the following preamble to the Concordat of +A.D. 1801, between the First Consul and the Pope (which I quote from +the _Bullarium Romanum_), and mark the changes of a thousand years. + +'Gubernium reipublicae [Gallicae] recognoscit religionem Catholicam +Apostolicam Romanam eam esse religionem quam longe maxima pars civium +Gallicae reipublicae profitetur. + +'Summus pontifex pari modo recognoscit eandem religionem maximam +utilitatem maximumque decus percepisse et hoc quoque tempore +praestolari ex catholico cultu in Gallia constituto, necnon ex +peculiari eius professione quam faciunt reipublicae consules.' + +[407] Cf. Heeren, _Political System_, vol. iii. 273. + +[408] He had arch-chancellors, arch-treasurers, and so forth. The +Legion of Honour, which was thought important enough to be mentioned +in the coronation oath, was meant to be something like the mediaeval +orders of knighthood: whose connexion with the Empire has already been +mentioned. + +[409] Napoleon's feelings towards Germany may be gathered from the +phrase he once used, 'Il faut depayser l'Allemagne.' + +[410] Thus in documents issued by the Emperor during these two years +he is styled 'Roman Emperor Elect, Hereditary Emperor of Austria' +(erwaehlter Roemischer Kaiser, Erbkaiser von Oesterreich). + +[411] This Act of Confederation of the Rhine (Rheinbund) is printed in +Koch's _Traites_ (continued by Schoell), vol. viii., and Meyer's +_Corpus Iuris Confoederationis Germanicae_, vol. i. It has every +appearance of being a translation from the French, and was no doubt +originally drawn up in that language. Napoleon is called in one place +'Der naemliche Monarch, dessen Absichten sich stets mit den wahren +Interessen Deutschlands uebereinstimmend gezeigt haben.' The phrase +'Roman Empire' does not occur: we hear only of the 'German Empire,' +'body of German states' (Staatskoerper), and so forth. This +Confederation of the Rhine was eventually joined by every German State +except Austria, Prussia, Electoral Hesse, and Brunswick. + +[412] _Histoire des Traites_, vol. viii. The original may be found in +Meyer's _Corpus Iuris Confoederationis Germanicae_, vol. i. p. 70. It is +a document in no way remarkable, except from the ludicrous resemblance +which its language suggests to the circular in which a tradesman, +announcing the dissolution of an old partnership, solicits, and hopes +by close attention to merit, a continuance of his customers' patronage +to his business, which will henceforth be carried on under the name +of, &c., &c. + +[413] Koch (Schoell), _Histoire des Traites_, vol. xi. p. 257, sqq.; +Hauesser, _Deutsche Geschichte_, vol. iv. + +[414] Great Britain had refused in 1806 to recognize the dissolution +of the Empire. And it may indeed be maintained that in point of law +the Empire was never extinguished at all, but lives on as a +disembodied spirit to this day. For it is clear that, technically +speaking, the abdication of a sovereign can destroy only his own +rights, and does not dissolve the state over which he presides. + +[415] 'Les etats d'Allemagne seront independans et unis par un lien +federatif.'--_Histoire des Traites_, xi. p. 257. + +[416] The late king of Prussia was actually elected Emperor by the +revolutionary Diet at Frankfort in 1848. He refused the crown. + +[417] [Since the above was written (in A.D. 1865) sudden and momentous +changes have been effected in Germany by the war of 1866; the Prussian +kingdom has been enlarged by the annexation of Hanover, Hessen-Cassel, +Nassau, and Frankfort; the establishment of the North German +Confederation has brought all the states north of the Main under +Prussian control; while even the potentates of the south have +virtually accepted the hegemony of the house of Hohenzollern. It was +the author's intention to have added here a chapter examining these +changes by the light of the past history of Germany and the Empire, +and tracing out the causes to which the success of Prussia is to be +ascribed. But at this moment (July 15th, 1870) the French Emperor +declares war against Prussia, and there rises to meet the challenge an +united German people,--united for the time, at least, by the folly of +the enemy who has so long plotted for and profited by its disunion. +Whatever the result of the struggle may be, it is almost certain to +alter still further the internal constitution of Germany; and there is +therefore little use in discussing the existing system, and tracing +the progress hitherto of a development which, if not suddenly +arrested, is likely to be greatly accelerated by the events which we +see passing.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +CONCLUSION. + + +[Sidenote: General summary.] + +[Sidenote: Perpetuation of the name of Rome.] + +After the attempts already made to examine separately each of the +phases of the Empire, little need be said, in conclusion, upon its +nature and results in general. A general character can hardly help +being either vague or false. For the aspects which the Empire took are +as many and as various as the ages and conditions of society during +which it continued to exist. Among the exhausted peoples around the +Mediterranean, whose national feeling had died out, whose faith was +extinct or turned to superstition, whose thought and art was a faint +imitation of the Greek, there arises a huge despotism, first of a +city, then of an administrative system, which presses with equal +weight on all its subjects, and becomes to them a religion as well as +a government. Just when the mass is at length dissolving, the tribes +of the North come down, too rude to maintain the institutions they +found subsisting, too few to introduce their own, and a weltering +confusion follows, till the strong hand of the first Frankish Emperor +raises the fallen image and bids the nations bow down to it once more. +Under him it is for some brief space a theocracy; under his German +successors the first of feudal kingdoms, the centre of European +chivalry. As feudalism wanes, it is again transformed, and after +promising for a time to become an hereditary Hapsburg monarchy, sinks +at last into the presidency, not more dignified than powerless, of an +international league. To us moderns, a perpetuation under conditions +so diverse of the same name and the same pretensions, appears at first +sight absurd, a phantom too vain to impress the most superstitious +mind. Closer examination will correct such a notion. No power was ever +based on foundations so sure and deep as those which Rome laid during +three centuries of conquest and four of undisturbed dominion. If her +empire had been an hereditary or local kingdom, it might have fallen +with the extinction of the royal line, the conquest of the tribe, the +destruction of the city to which it was attached. But it was not so +limited. It was imperishable because it was universal; and when its +power had ceased, it was remembered with awe and love by the races +whose separate existence it had destroyed, because it had spared the +weak while it smote down the strong; because it had granted equal +rights to all, and closed against none of its subjects the path of +honourable ambition. When the military power of the conquering city +had departed, her sway over the world of thought began: by her the +theories of the Greeks had been reduced to practice; by her the new +religion had been embraced and organized; her language, her theology, +her laws, her architecture made their way where the eagles of war had +never flown, and with the spread of civilization have found new homes +on the Ganges and the Mississippi. + +[Sidenote: Parallel instances.] + +[Sidenote: Claims to represent the Roman Empire.] + +[Sidenote: Austria.] + +[Sidenote: France.] + +[Sidenote: Russia.] + +[Sidenote: Greece.] + +[Sidenote: The Turks.] + +Nor is such a claim of government prolonged under changed conditions +by any means a singular phenomenon. Titles sum up the political +history of nations, and are as often causes as effects: if not +insignificant now, how much less so in ages of ignorance and unreason. +It would be an instructive, if it were not a tedious task, to examine +the many pretensions that are still put forward to represent the +Empire of Rome, all of them baseless, none of them effectless. Austria +clings to a name which seems to give her a sort of precedence in +Europe, and was wont, while she held Lombardy, to justify her position +there by invoking the feudal rights of the Hohenstaufen. With no more +legal right than the prince of Reuss or the landgrave of Homburg might +pretend to, she has assumed the arms and devices of the old Empire, +and being almost the youngest of European monarchies, is respected as +the oldest and most conservative. Bonapartean France, as the +self-appointed heir of the Carolingians, grasped for a time the +sceptre of the West, and still aspires to hold the balance of European +politics, and be recognized as the leader and patron of the so-called +Latin races on both sides of the Atlantic[418]. Professing the creed +of Byzantium, Russia claims the crown of the Byzantine Caesars, and +trusts that the capital which prophecy has promised for a thousand +years will not be long withheld. The doctrine of Panslavism, under an +imperial head of the whole Eastern church, has become a formidable +engine of aggression in the hands of a crafty and warlike despotism. +Another testimony to the enduring influence of old political +combinations is supplied by the eagerness with which modern Hellas has +embraced the notion of gathering all the Greek races into a revived +Empire of the East, with its capital on the Bosphorus. Nay, the +intruding Ottoman himself, different in faith as well as in blood, has +more than once declared himself the representative of the Eastern +Caesars, whose dominion he extinguished. Solyman the Magnificent +assumed the name of Emperor, and refused it to Charles the Fifth: his +successors were long preceded through the streets of Constantinople by +twelve officers, bearing straws aloft, a faint semblance of the +consular fasces that had escorted a Quinctius or a Fabius through the +Roman forum. Yet in no one of these cases has there been that apparent +legality of title which the shouts of the people and the benediction +of the pontiff conveyed to Charles and Otto[419]. + +[Sidenote: Parallel of the Papacy.] + +These examples, however, are minor parallels: the complement and +illustration of the history of the Empire is to be found in that of +the Holy See. The Papacy, whose spiritual power was itself the +offspring of Rome's temporal dominion, evoked the phantom of her +parent, used it, obeyed it, rebelled and overthrew it, in its old age +once more embraced it, till in its downfall she has heard the knell of +her own approaching doom[420]. + +Both Papacy and Empire rose in an age when the human spirit was +utterly prostrated before authority and tradition, when the exercise +of private judgment was impossible to most and sinful to all. Those +who believed the miracles recorded in the _Acta Sanctorum_, and did +not question the Isidorian decretals, might well recognize as ordained +of God the twofold authority of Rome, founded, as it seemed to be, on +so many texts of Scripture, and confirmed by five centuries of +undisputed possession. + +Both sanctioned and satisfied the passion of the Middle Ages for +unity. Ferocity, violence, disorder, were the conspicuous evils of +that time: hence all the aspirations of the good were for something +which, breaking the force of passion and increasing the force of +sympathy, should teach the stubborn wills to sacrifice themselves in +the view of a common purpose. To those men, moreover, unable to rise +above the sensuous, not seeing the true connexion or the true +difference of the spiritual and the secular, the idea of the Visible +Church was full of awful meaning. Solitary thought was helpless, and +strove to lose itself in the aggregate, since it could not create for +itself that which was universal. The schism that severed a man from +the congregation of the faithful on earth was hardly less dreadful +than the heresy which excluded him from the company of the blessed in +heaven. He who kept not his appointed place in the ranks of the church +militant had no right to swell the rejoicing anthems of the church +triumphant. Here, as in so many other cases, the continued use of +traditional language seems to have prevented us from seeing how great +is the difference between our own times and those in which the phrases +we repeat were first used, and used in full sincerity. Whether the +world is better or worse for the change which has passed upon its +feelings in these matters is another question: all that it is +necessary to note here is that the change is a profound and pervading +one. Obedience, almost the first of mediaeval virtues, is now often +spoken of as if it were fit only for slaves or fools. Instead of +praising, men are wont to condemn the submission of the individual +will, the surrender of the individual belief, to the will or the +belief of the community. Some persons declare variety of opinion to be +a positive good. The great mass have certainly no longing for an +abstract unity of faith. They have no horror of schism. They do not, +cannot, understand the intense fascination which the idea of one +all-pervading church exercised upon their mediaeval forefathers. A life +in the church, for the church, through the church; a life which she +blessed in mass at morning and sent to peaceful rest by the vesper +hymn; a life which she supported by the constantly recurring stimulus +of the sacraments, relieving it by confession, purifying it by +penance, admonishing it by the presentation of visible objects for +contemplation and worship,--this was the life which they of the Middle +Ages conceived of as the rightful life for man; it was the actual life +of many, the ideal of all. The unseen world was so unceasingly pointed +to, and its dependence on the seen so intensely felt, that the barrier +between the two seemed to disappear. The church was not merely the +portal to heaven; it was heaven anticipated; it was already +self-gathered and complete. In one sentence from a famous mediaeval +document may be found a key to much which seems strangest to us in the +feelings of the Middle Ages: 'The church is dearer to God than heaven. +For the church does not exist for the sake of heaven, but conversely, +heaven for the sake of the church[421].' + +Again, both Empire and Papacy rested on opinion rather than on +physical force, and when the struggle of the eleventh century came, +the Empire fell, because its rival's hold over the souls of men was +firmer, more direct, enforced by penalties more terrible than the +death of the body. The ecclesiastical body under Alexander and +Innocent was animated by a loftier spirit and more wholly devoted to a +single aim than the knights and nobles who followed the banner of the +Swabian Caesars. Its allegiance was undivided; it comprehended the +principles for which it fought: they trembled at even while they +resisted the spiritual power. + +[Sidenote: Papacy and Empire compared as perpetuations of a name.] + +Both sprang from what might be called the accident of name. The power +of the great Latin patriarchate was a Form: the ghost, it has been +said, of the older Empire, favoured in its growth by circumstances, +but really vital because capable of wonderful adaptation to the +character and wants of the time. So too, though far less perfectly, +was the Empire. Its Form was the tradition of the universal rule of +Rome; it met the needs of successive centuries by civilizing barbarous +peoples, by maintaining unity in confusion and disorganization, by +controlling brute violence through the sanctions of a higher power, by +being made the keystone of a gigantic feudal arch, by assuming in its +old age the presidency of a European confederation. And the history of +both, as it shews the power of ancient names and forms, shews also +within what limits such a perpetuation is possible, and how it +sometimes deceives men, by preserving the shadow while it loses the +substance. This perpetuation itself, what is it but the expression of +the belief of mankind, a belief incessantly corrected yet never +weakened, that their old institutions do and may continue to subsist +unchanged, that what has served their fathers will do well enough for +them, that it is possible to make a system perfect and abide in it for +ever? Of all political instincts this is perhaps the strongest; often +useful, often grossly abused, but never so natural and so fitting as +when it leads men who feel themselves inferior to their predecessors, +to save what they can from the wreck of a civilization higher than +their own. It was thus that both Papacy and Empire were maintained by +the generations who had no type of greatness and wisdom save that +which they associated with the name of Rome. And therefore it is that +no examples shew so convincingly how hopeless are all such attempts to +preserve in life a system which arose out of ideas and under +conditions that have passed away. Though it never could have existed +save as a prolongation, though it was and remained through the Middle +Ages an anachronism, the Empire of the tenth century had little in +common with the Empire of the second. Much more was the Papacy, though +it too hankered after the forms and titles of antiquity, in reality a +new creation. And in the same proportion as it was new, and +represented the spirit not of a past age but of its own, was it a +power stronger and more enduring than the Empire. More enduring, +because younger, and so in fuller harmony with the feelings of its +contemporaries: stronger, because at the head of the great +ecclesiastical body, in and through which, rather than through secular +life, all the intelligence and political activity of the Middle Ages +sought its expression. The famous simile of Gregory the Seventh is +that which best describes the Empire and the Popedom. They were indeed +the 'two lights in the firmament of the militant church,' the lights +which illumined and ruled the world all through the Middle Ages. And +as moonlight is to sunlight, so was the Empire to the Papacy. The rays +of the one were borrowed, feeble, often interrupted: the other shone +with an unquenchable brilliance that was all her own. + +[Sidenote: In what sense was the Empire Roman?] + +The Empire, it has just been said, was never truly mediaeval. Was it +then Roman in anything but name? and was that name anything better +than a piece of fantastic antiquarianism? It is easy to draw a +comparison between the Antonines and the Ottos which should shew +nothing but unlikeness. What the Empire was in the second century +every one knows. In the tenth it was a feudal monarchy, resting on a +strong territorial oligarchy. Its chiefs were barbarians, the sons of +those who had destroyed Varus and baffled Germanicus, sometimes unable +even to use the tongue of Rome. Its powers were limited. It could +scarcely be said to have a regular organization at all, whether +judicial or administrative. It was consecrated to the defence, nay, it +existed by virtue of the religion which Trajan and Marcus had +persecuted. Nevertheless, when the contrast has been stated in the +strongest terms, there will remain points of resemblance. The +thoroughly Roman idea of universal denationalization survived, and +drew with it that of a certain equality among all free subjects. It +has been remarked already, that the world's highest dignity was for +many centuries the only civil office to which any free-born Christian +was legally eligible. And there was also, during the earlier ages, +that indomitable vigour which might have made Trajan or Severus seek +their true successors among the woods of Germany rather than in the +palaces of Byzantium, where every office and name and custom had +floated down from the court of Constantine in a stream of unbroken +legitimacy. The ceremonies of Henry the Seventh's coronation would +have been strange indeed to Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus; +but how much nobler, how much more Roman in force and truth than the +childish and unmeaning forms with which a Palaeologus was installed! It +was not in purple buskins that the dignity of the Luxemburger +lay[422]. To such a boast the Germanic Empire had long ere its death +lost right: it had lived on, when honour and nature bade it die: it +had become what the Empire of the Moguls was, and that of the Ottomans +is now, a curious relic of antiquity, over which the imaginative might +muse, but which the mass of men would push aside with impatient +contempt. But institutions, like men, should be judged by their prime. + +[Sidenote: 'Imperialism:' Roman, French, and mediaeval.] + +[Sidenote: Political character of the Teutonic and Gallic races.] + +The comparison of the old Roman Empire with its Germanic +representative raises a question which has been a good deal canvassed +of late years. That wonderful system which Julius Caesar and his subtle +nephew erected upon the ruins of the republican constitution of Rome +has been made the type of a certain form of government and of a +certain set of social as well as political arrangements, to which, or +rather to the theory whereof they are a part, there has been given the +name of Imperialism. The sacrifice of the individual to the mass, the +concentration of all legislative and judicial powers in the person of +the sovereign, the centralization of the administrative system, the +maintenance of order by a large military force, the substitution of +the influence of public opinion for the control of representative +assemblies, are commonly taken, whether rightly or wrongly, to +characterize that theory. Its enemies cannot deny that it has before +now given and may again give to nations a sudden and violent access of +aggressive energy; that it has often achieved the glory (whatever that +may be) of war and conquest; that it has a better title to respect in +the ease with which it may be made, as it was by the Flavian and +Antonine Caesars of old, and at the beginning of this century by +Napoleon in France, the instrument of comprehensive reforms in law and +government. The parallel between the Roman world under the Caesars and +the French people now is indeed less perfect than those who dilate +upon it fancy. That equalizing despotism which was a good to a medley +of tribes, the force of whose national life had spent itself and left +them languid, yet restless, with all the evils of isolation and none +of its advantages, is not necessarily a good to a country already the +strongest and most united in Europe, a country where the +administration is only too perfect, and the pressure of social +uniformity only too strong. But whether it be a good or an evil, no +one can doubt that France represents, and has always represented, the +imperialist spirit of Rome far more truly than those whom the Middle +Ages recognized as the legitimate heirs of her name and dominion. In +the political character of the French people, whether it be the result +of the five centuries of Roman rule in Gaul, or rather due to the +original instincts of the Gallic race, is to be found their claim, a +claim better founded than any which Napoleon put forward, to be the +Romans[423] of the modern world. The tendency of the Teuton was and is +to the independence of the individual life, to the mutual repulsion, +if the phrase may be permitted, of the social atoms, as contrasted +with Keltic and so-called Romanic peoples, among which the unit is +more completely absorbed in the mass, who live possessed by a common +idea which they are driven to realize in the concrete. Teutonic states +have been little more successful than their neighbours in the +establishment of free constitutions. Their assemblies meet, and vote, +and are dissolved, and nothing comes of it: their citizens endure +without greatly resenting outrages that would raise the more excitable +French or Italians in revolt. But, whatever may have been the form of +government, the body of the people have in Germany always enjoyed a +freedom of thought which has made them comparatively careless of +politics; and the absolutism of the Elbe is at this day no more like +that of the Seine than a revolution at Dresden is to a revolution at +Paris. The rule of the Hohenstaufen had nothing either of the good or +the evil of the imperialism which Tacitus painted, or of that which +the panegyrists of the present system in France paint in colours +somewhat different from his. + +[Sidenote: Essential principles of the mediaeval Empire.] + +There was, nevertheless, such a thing as mediaeval imperialism, a +theory of the nature of the state and the best form of government, +which has been described once already, and need not be described +again. It is enough to say, that from three leading principles all its +properties may be derived. The first and the least essential was the +existence of the state as a monarchy. The second was the exact +coincidence of the state's limits, and the perfect harmony of its +workings with the limits and the workings of the church. The third was +its universality. These three were vital. Forms of political +organization, the presence or absence of constitutional checks, the +degree of liberty enjoyed by the subject, the rights conceded to local +authorities, all these were matters of secondary importance. But +although there brooded over all the shadow of a despotism, it was a +despotism not of the sword but of law; a despotism not chilling and +blighting, but one which, in Germany at least, looked with favour on +municipal freedom, and everywhere did its best for learning, for +religion, for intelligence; a despotism not hereditary, but one which +constantly maintained in theory the principle that he should rule who +was found the fittest. To praise or to decry the Empire as a despotic +power is to misunderstand it altogether. We need not, because an +unbounded prerogative was useful in ages of turbulence, advocate it +now; nor need we, with Sismondi, blame the Frankish conqueror because +he granted no 'constitutional charter' to all the nations that obeyed +him. Like the Papacy, the Empire expressed the political ideas of a +time, and not of all time: like the Papacy, it decayed when those +ideas changed; when men became more capable of rational liberty; when +thought grew stronger, and the spiritual nature shook itself more free +from the bonds of sense. + +[Sidenote: Influence of the Holy Empire on Germany.] + +The influence of the Empire upon Germany is a subject too wide to be +more than glanced at here. There is much to make it appear altogether +unfortunate. For many generations the flower of Teutonic chivalry +crossed the Alps to perish by the sword of the Lombards, or the +deadlier fevers of Rome. Italy terribly avenged the wrongs she +suffered. Those who destroyed the national existence of another people +forfeited their own: the German kingdom, crushed beneath the weight of +the Roman Empire, could never recover strength enough to form a +compact and united monarchy, such as arose elsewhere in Europe: the +race whom their neighbours had feared and obeyed till the fourteenth +century saw themselves, down even to our own day, the prey of +intestine feuds and their country the battlefield of Europe. Spoiled +and insulted by a neighbour restlessly aggressive and superior in all +the arts of success, they came to regard France as the persecuted +Slave regards them. The want of national union and political liberty +from which Germany has suffered, and to some extent suffers still, +cannot be attributed to the differences of her races; for, conspicuous +as that difference was in the days of Otto the Great, it was no +greater than in France, where intruding Franks, Goths, Burgundians, +and Northmen were mingled with primitive Kelts and Basques; not so +great as in Spain, or Italy, or Britain. Rather is it due to the +decline of the central government, which was induced by its strife +with the Popedom, its endless Italian wars, and the passion for +universal dominion which made it the assailant of all the neighbouring +countries. The absence or the weakness of the monarch enabled his +feudal vassals to establish petty despotisms, debarring the nation +from united political action, and greatly retarding the emancipation +of the commons. Thus, while the princes became shamelessly selfish, +justifying their resistance to the throne as the defence of their own +liberty--liberty to oppress the subject--and ready on the least +occasion to throw themselves into the arms of France, the body of the +people were deprived of all political training, and have found the +lack of such experience impede their efforts to this day. + +For these misfortunes, however, there has not been wanting some +compensation. The inheritance of the Roman Empire made the Germans the +ruling race of Europe, and the brilliance of that glorious dawn can +never fade entirely from their name. A peaceful people now, peaceful +in sentiment even now when they have become a great military power, +submissive to paternal government, and given to the quiet enjoyments +of art, music, and meditation, they delight themselves with memories +of the time when their conquering chivalry was the terror of the Gaul +and the Slave, the Lombard and the Saracen. The national life received +a keen stimulus from the sense of exaltation which victory brought, +and from the intercourse with countries where the old civilization had +not wholly perished. It was this connexion with Italy that raised the +German lands out of barbarism, and did for them the work which Roman +conquest had performed in Gaul, Spain, and Britain. From the Empire +flowed all the richness of their mediaeval life and literature: it +first awoke in them a consciousness of national existence; its history +has inspired and served as material to their poetry; to many ardent +politicians the splendours of the past have become the beacon of the +future[424]. There is a bright side even to their political disunion. +When they complain that they are not a nation, and sigh for the +harmony of feeling and singleness of aim which their great rival +displays, the example of the Greeks may comfort them. To the variety +which so many small governments have produced may be partly attributed +the breadth of development in German thought and literature, by virtue +of which it transcends the French hardly less than the Greek surpassed +the Roman. Paris no doubt is great, but a country may lose as well as +gain by the predominance of a single city; and Germany need not mourn +that she alone among modern states has not and never has had a +capital. + +[Sidenote: Austria as heir of the Holy Empire.] + +The merits of the old Empire were not long since the subject of a +brisk controversy among several German professors of history[425]. The +spokesmen of the Austrian or Roman Catholic party, a party which ten +years ago was not less powerful in some of the minor South German +States than in Vienna, claimed for the Hapsburg monarchy the honour of +being the legitimate representative of the mediaeval Empire, and +declared that only by again accepting Hapsburg leadership could +Germany win back the glory and the strength that once were hers. The +North German liberals ironically applauded the comparison. 'Yes,' they +replied, 'your Austrian Empire, as it calls itself, is the true +daughter of the old despotism: not less tyrannical, not less +aggressive, not less retrograde; like its progenitor, the friend of +priests, the enemy of free thought, the trampler upon the national +feeling of the peoples that obey it. It is you whose selfish and +anti-national policy blasts the hope of German unity now, as Otto and +Frederick blasted it long ago by their schemes of foreign conquest. +The dream of Empire has been our bane from first to last.' It is +possible, one may hope, to escape the alternative of admiring the +Austrian Empire or denouncing the Holy Roman. Austria has indeed, in +some things, but too faithfully reproduced the policy of the Saxon and +Swabian Caesars. Like her, they oppressed and insulted the Italian +people: but it was in the defence of rights which the Italians +themselves admitted. Like her, they lusted after a dominion over the +races on their borders, but that dominion was to them a means of +spreading civilization and religion in savage countries, not of +pampering upon their revenues a hated court and aristocracy. Like her, +they strove to maintain a strong government at home, but they did it +when a strong government was the first of political blessings. Like +her, they gathered and maintained vast armies; but those armies were +composed of knights and barons who lived for war alone, not of +peasants torn away from useful labour and condemned to the cruel task +of perpetuating their own bondage by crushing the aspirations of +another nationality. They sinned grievously, no doubt, but they sinned +in the dim twilight of a half-barbarous age, not in the noonday blaze +of modern civilization. The enthusiasm for mediaeval faith and +simplicity which was so fervid some years ago has run its course, and +is not likely soon to revive. He who reads the history of the Middle +Ages will not deny that its heroes, even the best of them, were in +some respects little better than savages. But when he approaches more +recent times, and sees how, during the last three hundred years, kings +have dealt with their subjects and with each other, he will forget the +ferocity of the Middle Ages, in horror at the heartlessness, the +treachery, the injustice all the more odious because it sometimes +wears the mask of legality, which disgraces the annals of the military +monarchies of Europe. With regard, however, to the pretensions of +modern Austria, the truth is that this dispute about the worth of the +old system has no bearing upon them at all. The day of imperial +greatness was already past when Rudolf the first Hapsburg reached the +throne; while during what may be called the Austrian period, from +Maximilian to Francis II, the Holy Empire was to Germany a mere clog +and incumbrance, which the unhappy nation bore because she knew not +how to rid herself of it. The Germans are welcome to appeal to the old +Empire to prove that they were once a united people. Nor is there any +harm in their comparing the politics of the twelfth century with those +of the nineteenth, although to argue from the one to the other seems +to betray a want of historical judgment. But the one thing which is +wholly absurd is to make Francis Joseph of Austria the successor of +Frederick of Hohenstaufen, and justify the most sordid and ungenial of +modern despotisms by the example of the mirror of mediaeval chivalry, +the noblest creation of mediaeval thought. + +[Sidenote: Bearing of the Empire upon the progress of European +civilization.] + +[Sidenote: Influence upon modern jurisprudence.] + +We are not yet far enough from the Empire to comprehend or state +rightly its bearing on European progress. The mountain lies behind us, +but miles must be traversed before we can take in at a glance its +peaks and slopes and buttresses, picture its form, and conjecture its +height. Of the perpetuation among the peoples of the West of the arts +and literature of Rome it was both an effect and a cause, a cause only +less powerful than the church. It would be endless to shew in how many +ways it affected the political institutions of the Middle Ages, and +through them of the whole civilized world. Most of the attributes of +modern royalty, to take the most obvious instance, belonged originally +and properly to the Emperor, and were borrowed from him by other +monarchs. The once famous doctrine of divine right had the same +origin. To the existence of the Empire is chiefly to be ascribed the +prevalence of Roman law through Europe, and its practical importance +in our own days. For while in Southern France and Central Italy, where +the subject population greatly outnumbered their conquerors, the old +system would have in any case survived, it cannot be doubted that in +Germany, as in England, a body of customary Teutonic law would have +grown up, had it not been for the notion that since the German monarch +was the legitimate successor of Justinian, the Corpus Juris must be +binding on all his subjects. This strange idea was received with a +faith so unhesitating that even the aristocracy, who naturally +disliked a system which the Emperors and the cities favoured, could +not but admit its validity, and before the end of the Middle Ages +Roman law prevailed through all Germany[426]. When it is considered +how great are the services which German writers have rendered and +continue to render to the study of scientific jurisprudence, this +result will appear far from insignificant. But another of still wider +import followed. When by the Peace of Westphalia a crowd of petty +principalities were recognized as practically independent states, the +need of a code to regulate their intercourse became pressing. That +code Grotius and his successors formed out of what was then the +private law of Germany, which thus became the foundation whereon the +system of international jurisprudence has been built up during the +last two centuries. That system is, indeed, entirely a German +creation, and could have arisen in no country where the law of Rome +had not been the fountain of legal ideas and the groundwork of +positive codes. In Germany, too, was it first carried out in practice, +and that with a success which is the best, some might say the only, +title of the later Empire to the grateful remembrance of mankind. +Under its protecting shade small princedoms and free cities lived +unmolested beside states like Saxony and Bavaria; each member of the +Germanic body feeling that the rights of the weakest of his brethren +were also his own. + +[Sidenote: Influence of the Empire upon the history of the Church.] + +[Sidenote: Nature of the question at issue between the Emperors and +the Popes.] + +The most important chapter in the history of the Empire is that which +describes its relation to the Church and the Papacy. Of the +ecclesiastical power it was alternately the champion and the enemy. In +the ninth and tenth centuries the Emperors extended the dominion of +Peter's chair: in the tenth and eleventh they rescued it from an abyss +of guilt and shame to be the instrument of their own downfall. The +struggle which Gregory the Seventh began, although it was political +rather than religious, awoke in the Teutonic nations a hostility to +the pretensions of the Romish court. That struggle ended, with the +death of the last Hohenstaufen, in the victory of the priesthood, a +victory whose abuse by the insolent and greedy pontiffs of the +fourteenth and fifteenth centuries made it more ruinous than a defeat. +The anger which had long smouldered in the breasts of the northern +nations of Europe burst out in the sixteenth with a violence which +alarmed those whom it had hitherto defended, and made the Emperors +once more the allies of the Popedom, and the partners of its declining +fortunes. But the nature of that alliance and of the hostility which +had preceded it must not be misunderstood. It is a natural, but not +the less a serious error to suppose, as modern writers often seem to +do, that the pretensions of the Empire and the Popedom were mutually +exclusive; that each claimed all the rights, spiritual and secular, of +a universal monarch. So far was this from being the case, that we find +mediaeval writers and statesmen, even Emperors and Popes themselves, +expressly recognizing a divinely appointed duality of government--two +potentates, each supreme in the sphere of his own activity, Peter in +things eternal, Caesar in things temporal. The relative position of the +two does indeed in course of time undergo a signal alteration. In the +days of Charles, the barbarous age of modern Europe, when men were and +could not but be governed chiefly by physical force, the Emperor was +practically, if not theoretically, the grander figure. Four centuries +later, in the era of Pope Innocent the Third, when the power of ideas +had grown stronger in the world, and was able to resist or to bend to +its service the arms and the wealth of men, we see the balance +inclined the other way. Spiritual authority is conceived of as being +of a nature so high and holy that it must inspire and guide the civil +administration. But it is not proposed to supplant that administration +nor to degrade its head: the great struggle of the eleventh and two +following centuries does not aim at the annihilation of one or other +power, but turns solely upon the character of their connexion. +Hildebrand, the typical representative of the Popedom, requires the +obedience of the Emperor on the ground of his own personal +responsibility for the souls of their common subjects: he demands, not +that the functions of temporal government shall be directly committed +to himself, but that they shall be exercised in conformity with the +will of God, whereof he is the exponent. The imperialist party had no +means of meeting this argument, for they could not deny the spiritual +supremacy of the Pope, nor the transcendant importance of eternal +salvation. They could therefore only protest that the Emperor, being +also divinely appointed, was directly answerable to God, and remind +the Pope that his kingdom was not of this world. There was in truth no +way out of the difficulty, for it was caused by the attempt to sever +things that admit of no severance, life in the soul and life in the +world, life for the future and life in the present. What it is most +pertinent to remark is that neither combatant pushed his theory to +extremities, since he felt that his adversary's title rested on the +same foundations as his own. The strife was keenest at the time when +the whole world believed fervently in both powers; the alliance came +when faith had forsaken the one and grown cold towards the other; from +the Reformation onwards Empire and Popedom fought no longer for +supremacy, but for existence. One is fallen already, the other shakes +with every blast. + +[Sidenote: Ennobling influence of the conception of the World Empire.] + +Nor was that which may be called the inner life of the Empire less +momentous in its influence upon the minds of men than were its outward +dealings with the Roman church upon her greatness and decline. In the +Middle Ages, men conceived of the communion of the saints as the +formal unity of an organized body of worshippers, and found the +concrete realization of that conception in their universal religious +state, which was in one aspect, the Church; in another, the Empire. +Into the meaning and worth of the conception, into the nature of the +connexion which subsists or ought to subsist between the Church and +the State, this is not the place to inquire. That the form which it +took in the Middle Ages was always imperfect and became eventually +rigid and unprogressive was sufficiently proved by the event. But by +it the European peoples were saved from the isolation, and narrowness, +and jealous exclusiveness which had checked the growth of the earlier +civilizations of the world, and which we see now lying like a weight +upon the kingdoms of the East: by it they were brought into that +mutual knowledge and co-operation which is the condition if it be not +the source of all true culture and progress. For as by the Roman +Empire of old the nations were first forced to own a common sway, so +by the Empire of the Middle Ages was preserved the feeling of a +brotherhood of mankind, a commonwealth of the whole world, whose +sublime unity transcended every minor distinction. + +[Sidenote: Principles adverse to the Empire.] + +As despotic monarchs claiming the world for their realm, the Teutonic +Emperors strove from the first against three principles, over all of +which their forerunners of the elder Rome had triumphed,--those of +Nationality, Aristocracy, and Popular Freedom. Their early struggles +were against the first of these, and ended with its victory in the +emancipation, one after another, of England, France, Poland, Hungary, +Denmark, Burgundy, and Italy. The second, in the form of feudalism, +menaced even when seeming to embrace and obey them, and succeeded, +after the Great Interregnum, in destroying their effective strength in +Germany. Aggression and inheritance turned the numerous independent +principalities thus formed out of the greater fiefs, into a few +military monarchies, resting neither on a rude loyalty, like feudal +kingdoms, nor on religious duty and tradition, like the Empire, but on +physical force, more or less disguised by legal forms. That the +hostility to the Empire of the third was accidental rather than +necessary is seen by this, that the very same monarchs who strove to +crush the Lombard and Tuscan cities favoured the growth of the free +towns of Germany. Asserting the rights of the individual in the sphere +of religion, the Reformation weakened the Empire by denying the +necessity of external unity in matters spiritual: the extension of the +same principle to the secular world, whose fulness is still withheld +from the Germans, would have struck at the doctrine of imperial +absolutism had it not found a nearer and deadlier foe in the actual +tyranny of the princes. It is more than a coincidence, that as the +proclamation of the liberty of thought had shaken it, so that of the +liberty of action made by the revolutionary movement, whose beginning +the world saw and understood not in 1789, whose end we see not yet, +should have indirectly become the cause which overthrew the Empire. + +[Sidenote: Change marked by its fall.] + +[Sidenote: Relations of the Empire to the nationalities of Europe.] + +Its fall in the midst of the great convulsion that changed the face of +Europe marks an era in history, an era whose character the events of +every year are further unfolding: an era of the destruction of old +forms and systems and the building up of new. The last instance is the +most memorable. Under our eyes, the work which Theodoric and Lewis the +Second, Guido and Ardoin and the second Frederick essayed in vain, has +been achieved by the steadfast will of the Italian people. The fairest +province of the Empire, for which Franconian and Swabian battled so +long, is now a single monarchy under the Burgundian count, whom +Sigismund created imperial vicar in Italy, and who wants only the +possession of the capital to be able to call himself 'king of the +Romans' more truly than Greek or Frank or Austrian has done since +Constantine forsook the Tiber for the Bosphorus. No longer the prey of +the stranger, Italy may forget the past, and sympathize, as she has +now indeed, since the fortunate alliance of 1866, begun to sympathize, +with the efforts after national unity of her ancient enemy--efforts +confronted by so many obstacles that a few years ago they seemed all +but hopeless. On the new shapes that may emerge in this general +reconstruction it would be idle to speculate. Yet one prediction may +be ventured. No universal monarchy is likely to arise. More frequent +intercourse, and the progress of thought, have done much to change the +character of national distinctions, substituting for ignorant +prejudice and hatred a genial sympathy and the sense of a common +interest. They have not lessened their force. No one who reads the +history of the last three hundred years, no one, above all, who +studies attentively the career of Napoleon, can believe it possible +for any state, however great her energy and material resources, to +repeat in modern Europe the part of ancient Rome: to gather into one +vast political body races whose national individuality has grown more +and more marked in each successive age. Nevertheless, it is in great +measure due to Rome and to the Roman Empire of the Middle Ages that +the bonds of national union are on the whole both stronger and nobler +than they were ever before. The latest historian of Rome, after +summing up the results to the world of his hero's career, closes his +treatise with these words: 'There was in the world as Caesar found it +the rich and noble heritage of past centuries, and an endless +abundance of splendour and glory, but little soul, still less taste, +and, least of all, joy in and through life. Truly it was an old world, +and even Caesar's genial patriotism could not make it young again. The +blush of dawn returns not until the night has fully descended. Yet +with him there came to the much-tormented races of the Mediterranean a +tranquil evening after a sultry day; and when, after long historical +night, the new day broke once more upon the peoples, and fresh nations +in free self-guided movement began their course towards new and higher +aims, many were found among them in whom the seed of Caesar had sprung +up, many who owed him, and who owe him still, their national +individuality[427].' If this be the glory of Julius, the first great +founder of the Empire, so is it also the glory of Charles, the second +founder, and of more than one amongst his Teutonic successors. The +work of the mediaeval Empire was self-destructive; and it fostered, +while seeming to oppose, the nationalities that were destined to +replace it. It tamed the barbarous races of the North, and forced them +within the pale of civilization. It preserved the arts and literature +of antiquity. In times of violence and oppression, it set before its +subjects the duty of rational obedience to an authority whose +watchwords were peace and religion. It kept alive, when national +hatreds were most bitter, the notion of a great European Commonwealth. +And by doing all this, it was in effect abolishing the need for a +centralizing and despotic power like itself: it was making men capable +of using national independence aright: it was teaching them to rise to +that conception of spontaneous activity, and a freedom which is above +law but not against it, to which national independence itself, if it +is to be a blessing at all, must be only a means. Those who mark what +has been the tendency of events since A.D. 1789, and who remember how +many of the crimes and calamities of the past are still but half +redressed, need not be surprised to see the so-called principle of +nationalities advocated with honest devotion as the final and perfect +form of political development. But such undistinguishing advocacy is +after all only the old error in a new shape. If all other history did +not bid us beware the habit of taking the problems and the conditions +of our own age for those of all time, the warning which the Empire +gives might alone be warning enough. From the days of Augustus down to +those of Charles the Fifth the whole civilized world believed in its +existence as a part of the eternal fitness of things, and Christian +theologians were not behind heathen poets in declaring that when it +perished the world would perish with it. Yet the Empire is gone, and +the world remains, and hardly notes the change. + +[Sidenote: Difficulties arising from the nature of the subject.] + +This is but a small part of what might be said upon an almost +inexhaustible theme: inexhaustible not from its extent but from its +profundity: not because there is so much to say, but because, pursue +we it never so far, more will remain unexpressed, since incapable of +expression. For that which it is at once most necessary and least +possible to do, is to look at the Empire as a whole: a single +institution, in which centres the history of eighteen centuries--whose +outer form is the same, while its essence and spirit are constantly +changing. It is when we come to consider it in this light that the +difficulties of so vast a subject are felt in all their force. Try to +explain in words the theory and inner meaning of the Holy Empire, as +it appeared to the saints and poets of the Middle Ages, and that which +we cannot but conceive as noble and fertile in its life, sinks into a +heap of barren and scarcely intelligible formulas. Who has been able +to describe the Papacy in the power it once wielded over the hearts +and imaginations of men? Those persons, if such there still be, who +see in it nothing but a gigantic upas-tree of fraud and superstition, +planted and reared by the enemy of mankind, are hardly further from +entering into the mystery of its being than the complacent political +philosopher, who explains in neat phrases the process of its growth, +analyses it as a clever piece of mechanism, enumerates and measures +the interests it appealed to, and gives, in conclusion, a sort of +tabular view of its results for good and for evil. So, too, is the +Holy Empire above all description or explanation; not that it is +impossible to discover the beliefs which created and sustained it, but +that the power of those beliefs cannot be adequately apprehended by +men whose minds have been differently trained, and whose imaginations +are fired by different ideals. Something, yet still how little, we +should know of it if we knew what were the thoughts of Julius Caesar +when he laid the foundations on which Augustus built: of Charles, when +he reared anew the stately pile: of Barbarossa and his grandson, when +they strove to avert the surely coming ruin. Something more succeeding +generations will know, who will judge the Middle Ages more fairly than +we, still living in the midst of a reaction against all that is +mediaeval, can hope to do, and to whom it will be given to see and +understand new forms of political life, whose nature we cannot so much +as conjecture. Seeing more than we do, they will also see some things +less distinctly. The Empire which to us still looms largely on the +horizon of the past, will to them sink lower and lower as they journey +onwards into the future. But its importance in universal history it +can never lose. For into it all the life of the ancient world was +gathered: out of it all the life of the modern world arose. + +THE END. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[418] See Louis Napoleon's letter to General Forey, explaining the +object of the expedition to Mexico. + +[419] One may also compare the retention of the office of consul at +Rome till the time of Justinian: indeed it even survived his formal +abolition. The relinquishment of the title 'King of Great Britain, +France, and Ireland,' seriously distressed many excellent persons. + +[420] I speak, of course, of the Papacy as an autocratic power +claiming a more than spiritual authority. + +[421] 'Ipsa enim ecclesia charior Deo est quam coelum. Non enim propter +coelum ecclesia, sed e converso propter ecclesiam coelum.' From the +tract entitled 'A Letter of the four Universities to Wenzel and Urban +VIII,' quoted in an earlier chapter. + +[422] Von Raumer, _Geschichte der Hohenstaufen_, v. + +[423] Meaning thereby not the citizens of Rome in her republican days, +but the Italo-Hellenic subjects of the Roman Empire. + +[424] Take, among many instances, those of the preface to Giesebrecht, +_Die Deutsche Kaiserzeit_; and Rotteck and Welcker's _Staats Lexikon_. +The German newspapers are indeed sufficient illustration. + +[425] See especially Von Sybel, _Die Deutsche Nation und das +Kaiserreich_; and the answers of Ficker and Von Wydenbrugk. + +[426] Modified of course by the canon law, and not superseding the +feudal law of land. + +[427] Mommsen, _Roemische Geschichte_, iii. _sub. fin._ + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +NOTE A. + +ON THE BURGUNDIES. + +It would be hard to mention any geographical name which, by its +application at different times to different districts, has caused, and +continues to cause, more confusion than this name Burgundy. There may, +therefore, be some use in a brief statement of the more important of +those applications. Without going into the minutiae of the subject, the +following may be given as the ten senses in which the name is most +frequently to be met with:-- + +I. The kingdom of the Burgundians (_regnum Burgundionum_), founded +A.D. 406, occupying the whole valley of the Saone and lower Rhone, +from Dijon to the Mediterranean, and including also the western half +of Switzerland. It was destroyed by the sons of Clovis in A.D. 534. + +II. The kingdom of Burgundy (_regnum Burgundiae_), mentioned +occasionally under the Merovingian kings as a separate principality, +confined within boundaries apparently somewhat narrower than those of +the older kingdom last named. + +III. The kingdom of Provence or Burgundy (_regnum Provinciae seu +Burgundiae_)--also, though less accurately, called the kingdom of +Cis-Jurane Burgundy--was founded by Boso in A.D. 877, and included +Provence, Dauphine, the southern part of Savoy, and the country +between the Saone and the Jura. + +IV. The kingdom of Trans-Jurane Burgundy (_regnum Iurense_, _Burgundia +Transiurensis_), founded by Rudolf in A.D. 888, recognized in the same +year by the Emperor Arnulf, included the northern part of Savoy, and +all Switzerland between the Reuss and the Jura. + +V. The kingdom of Burgundy or Arles (_regnum Burgundiae_, _regnum +Arelatense_), formed by the union, under Conrad the Pacific, in A.D. +937, of the kingdoms described above as III and IV. On the death, in +1032, of the last independent king, Rudolf III, it came partly by +bequest, partly by conquest, into the hands of the Emperor Conrad II +(the Salic), and thenceforward formed a part of the Empire. In the +thirteenth century, France began to absorb it, bit by bit, and has now +(since the annexation of Savoy in 1861) acquired all except the Swiss +portion of it. + +VI. The Lesser Duchy (_Burgundia Minor_), (Klein Burgund), +corresponded very nearly with what is now Switzerland west of the +Reuss, including the Valais. It was Trans-Jurane Burgundy (IV) _minus_ +the parts of Savoy which had belonged to that kingdom. It disappears +from history after the extinction of the house of Zahringen in the +thirteenth century. Legally it was part of the Empire till A.D. 1648, +though practically independent long before that date. + +VII. The Free County or Palatinate of Burgundy (Franche Comte), +(Freigrafschaft), (called also Upper Burgundy), to which the name of +Cis-Jurane Burgundy originally and properly belonged, lay between the +Saone and the Jura. It formed a part of III and V, and was therefore a +fief of the Empire. The French dukes of Burgundy were invested with it +in A.D. 1384, and in 1678 it was annexed to the crown of France. + +VIII. The Landgraviate of Burgundy (Landgrafschaft) was in Western +Switzerland, on both sides of the Aar, between Thun and Solothurn. It +was a part of the Lesser Duchy (VI), and, like it, is hardly mentioned +after the thirteenth century. + +IX. The Circle of Burgundy (Kreis Burgund), an administrative division +of the Empire, was established by Charles V in 1548; and included the +Free County of Burgundy (VII) and the seventeen provinces of the +Netherlands, which Charles inherited from his grandmother Mary, +daughter of Charles the Bold. + +X. The Duchy of Burgundy (Lower Burgundy), (Bourgogne), the most +northerly part of the old kingdom of the Burgundians, was always a +fief of the crown of France, and a province of France till the +Revolution. It was of this Burgundy that Philip the Good and Charles +the Bold were Dukes. They were also Counts of the Free County (VII). + + * * * * * + +The most copious and accurate information regarding the obscure +history of the Burgundian kingdoms (III, IV, and V) is to be found in +the contributions of Baron Frederic de Gingins la Sarraz, a Vaudois +historian, to the _Archiv fuer Schweizer Geschichte_. See also an +admirable article in the _National Review_ for October 1860, entitled +'The Franks and the Gauls.' + + +NOTE B. + +ON THE RELATIONS TO THE EMPIRE OF THE KINGDOM OF DENMARK, AND THE +DUCHIES OF SCHLESWIG AND HOLSTEIN. + +The history of the relations of Denmark and the Duchies to the +Romano-Germanic Empire is a very small part of the great +Schleswig-Holstein controversy. But having been unnecessarily mixed up +with two questions properly quite distinct,--the first, as to the +relation of Schleswig to Holstein, and of both jointly to the Danish +crown; the second, as to the diplomatic engagements which the Danish +kings have in recent times contracted with the German powers,--it has +borne its part in making the whole question the most intricate and +interminable that has vexed Europe for two centuries and a half. +Setting aside irrelevant matter, the facts as to the Empire are as +follows:-- + +I. The Danish kings began to own the supremacy of the Frankish +Emperors early in the ninth century. Having recovered their +independence in the confusion that followed the fall of the +Carolingian dynasty, they were again subdued by Henry the Fowler and +Otto the Great, and continued tolerably submissive till the death of +Frederick II and the period of anarchy which followed. Since that time +Denmark has been always independent, although her king was, until the +treaty of A.D. 1865, a member of the German Confederation for +Holstein. + +II. Schleswig was in Carolingian times Danish; the Eyder being, as +Eginhard tells us, the boundary between Saxonia Transalbiana +(Holstein), and the Terra Nortmannorum (wherein lay the town of +Sliesthorp), inhabited by the Scandinavian heathen. Otto the Great +conquered all Schleswig, and, it is said, Jutland also, and added the +southern part of Schleswig to the immediate territory of the Empire, +erecting it into a margraviate. So it remained till the days of Conrad +II, who made the Eyder again the boundary, retaining of course his +suzerainty over the kingdom of Denmark as a whole. But by this time +the colonization of Schleswig by the Germans had begun; and ever since +the numbers of the Danish population seem to have steadily declined, +and the mass of the people to have grown more and more disposed to +sympathize with their southern rather than their northern neighbours. + +III. Holstein always was an integral part of the Empire, as it is at +this day of the North German Bund. + + +NOTE C. + +ON CERTAIN IMPERIAL TITLES AND CEREMONIES. + +This subject is a great deal too wide and too intricate to be more +than touched upon here. But a few brief statements may have their use; +for the practice of the Germanic Emperors varied so greatly from time +to time, that the reader becomes hopelessly perplexed without some +clue. And if there were space to explain the causes of each change of +title, it would be seen that the subject, dry as it may appear, is +very far from being a barren or a dull one. + +I. TITLES OF EMPERORS. Charles the Great styled himself 'Carolus +serenissimus Augustus, a Deo coronatus, magnus et pacificus imperator, +Romanum (_or_ Romanorum) gubernans imperium, qui et per misericordiam +Dei rex Francorum et Langobardorum.' + +Subsequent Carolingian Emperors were usually entitled simply +'Imperator Augustus.' Sometimes 'rex Francorum et Langobardorum' was +added[428]. + +Conrad I and Henry I (the Fowler) were only German kings. + +A Saxon Emperor was, before his coronation at Rome, 'rex,' or 'rex +Francorum Orientalium,' or 'Francorum atque Saxonum rex;' after it, +simply 'Imperator Augustus.' Otto III is usually said to have +introduced the form 'Romanorum Imperator Augustus,' but some +authorities state that it occurs in documents of the time of Lewis I. + +Henry II and his successors, not daring to take the title of Emperor +till crowned at Rome (in conformity with the superstitious notion +which had begun with Charles the Bald), but anxious to claim the +sovereignty of Rome, as indissolubly attached to the German crown, +began to call themselves 'reges Romanorum.' The title did not, +however, become common or regular till the time of Henry IV, in whose +proclamations it occurs constantly. + +From the eleventh century till the sixteenth, the invariable practice +was for the monarch to be called 'Romanorum rex semper Augustus,' till +his coronation at Rome by the Pope; after it, 'Romanorum Imperator +semper Augustus.' + +In A.D. 1508, Maximilian I, being refused a passage to Rome by the +Venetians, obtained a bull from Pope Julius II permitting him to call +himself 'Imperator electus' (erwaehlter Kaiser). This title Ferdinand I +(brother of Charles V) and all succeeding Emperors took immediately +upon their German coronation, and it was till A.D. 1806 their strict +legal designation[429], and was always employed by them in +proclamations or other official documents. The term 'elect' was +however omitted, even in formal documents when the sovereign was +addressed or spoken of in the third person; and in ordinary practice +he was simply 'Roman Emperor.' + +Maximilian added the title 'Germaniae rex,' which had never been known +before, although the phrase 'rex Germanorum' may be found employed +once or twice in early times. 'Rex Teutonicorum,' 'regnum +Teutonicum[430],' occur often in the tenth and eleventh centuries. A +great many titles of less consequence were added from time to time. +Charles the Fifth had seventy-five, not, of course, as Emperor, but in +virtue of his vast hereditary possessions[431]. + +It is perhaps worth remarking that the word Emperor has not at all the +same meaning now that it had even so lately as two centuries ago. It +is now a commonplace, not to say vulgar, title, somewhat more pompous +than that of King, and supposed to belong especially to despots. It is +given to all sorts of barbarous princes, like those of China and +Abyssinia, in default of a better name. It is peculiarly affected by +new dynasties; and has indeed grown so fashionable, that what with +Emperors of Brazil, of Hayti, and of Mexico, the good old title of +King seems in a fair way to become obsolete[432]. But in former times +there was, and could be but one Emperor; he was always mentioned with +a certain reverence: his name summoned up a host of thoughts and +associations, which we cannot comprehend or sympathize with. His +office, unlike that of modern Emperors, was by its very nature +elective, and not hereditary; and, so far from resting on conquest or +the will of the people, rested on and represented pure legality. War +could give him nothing which law had not given him already: the people +could delegate no power to him who was their lord and the viceroy of +God. + +II. THE CROWNS. + +Of the four crowns something has been said in the text. They were +those of Germany, taken at Aachen; of Burgundy, at Arles; of Italy, +sometimes at Pavia, more usually at Milan or Monza; of the world, at +Rome. + +The German crown was taken by every Emperor after the time of Otto the +Great; that of Italy by every one, or almost every one, who took the +Roman down to Frederick III, by none after him; that of Burgundy, it +would appear, by four Emperors only, Conrad II, Henry III, Frederick +I, and Charles IV. The imperial crown was received at Rome by most +Emperors till Frederick III; after him by none save Charles V, who +obtained both it and the Italian at Bologna in a somewhat informal +manner. But down to A.D. 1806, every Emperor bound himself by his +capitulation to proceed to Rome to receive it. + +It should be remembered that none of these inferior crowns was +necessarily connected with that of the Roman Empire, which might have +been held by a simple knight without a foot of land in the world. For +as there had been Emperors (Lothar I, Lewis II, Lewis of Provence (son +of Boso), Guy, Lambert, and Berengar) who were not kings of Germany, +so there were several (all those who preceded Conrad II) who were not +kings of Burgundy, and others (Arnulf, for example) who were not kings +of Italy. And it is also worth remarking, that although no crown save +the German was assumed by the successors of Charles V, their wider +rights remained in full force, and were never subsequently +relinquished. There was nothing, except the practical difficulty and +absurdity of such a project, to prevent Francis II from having himself +crowned at Arles[433], Milan, and Rome. + +III. THE KING OF THE ROMANS (ROeMISCHER KOeNIG). + +It has been shewn above how and why, about the time of Henry II, the +German monarch began to entitle himself 'Romanorum rex.' Now it was +not uncommon in the Middle Ages for the heir-apparent to a throne to +be crowned during his father's lifetime, that at the death of the +latter he might step at once into his place. (Coronation, it must be +remembered, which is now merely a spectacle, was in those days not +only a sort of sacrament, but a matter of great political importance.) +This plan was specially useful in an elective monarchy, such as +Germany was after the twelfth century, for it avoided the delays and +dangers of an election while the throne was vacant. But as it seemed +against the order of nature to have two Emperors at once[434], and as +the sovereign's authority in Germany depended not on the Roman but on +the German coronation, the practice came to be that each Emperor +during his own life procured, if he could, the election of his +successor, who was crowned at Aachen, in later times at Frankfort, and +took the title of 'King of the Romans.' During the presence of the +Emperor in Germany he exercised no more authority than a Prince of +Wales does in England, but on the Emperor's death he succeeded at +once, without any second election or coronation, and assumed (after +the time of Ferdinand I) the title of 'Emperor Elect[435].' Before +Ferdinand's time, he would have been expected to go to Rome to be +crowned there. While the Hapsburgs held the sceptre, each monarch +generally contrived in this way to have his son or some other near +relative chosen to succeed him. But many were foiled in their attempts +to do so; and, in such cases, an election was held after the Emperor's +death, according to the rules laid down in the Golden Bull. + +The first person who thus became king of the Romans in the lifetime of +an Emperor seems to have been Henry VI, son of Frederick I. + +It was in imitation of this title that Napoleon called his son king of +Rome. + + +NOTE D. + +LINES CONTRASTING THE PAST AND PRESENT OF ROME. + + Dum simulacra mihi, dum numina vana placebant, + Militia, populo, moenibus alta fui: + At simul effigies arasque superstitiosas + Deiiciens, uni sum famulata Deo, + Cesserunt arces, cecidere palatia divum, + Servivit populus, degeneravit eques. + Vix scio quae fuerim, vix Romae Roma recordor; + Vix sinit occasus vel meminisse mei. + Gratior haec iactura mihi successibus illis; + Maior sum pauper divite, stante iacens: + Plus aquilis vexilla crucis, plus Caesare Petrus, + Plus cinctis ducibus vulgus inerme dedit. + Stans domui terras, infernum diruta pulso, + Corpora stans, animas fracta iacensque rego. + Tunc miserae plebi, modo principibus tenebrarum + Impero: tunc urbes, nunc mea regna polus. + +Written by Hildebert, bishop of Le Mans, and afterwards archbishop of +Tours (born A.D. 1057). Extracted from his works as printed by Migne, +_Patrologiae Cursus Completus_[436]. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[428] Waitz (_Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte_) says that the phrase +'semper Augustus' may be found in the times of the Carolingians, but +not in official documents. + +[429] There is some reason to think that towards the end of the Empire +people had begun to fancy that 'erwaehlter' did not mean 'elect,' but +'elective.' Cf. note 410, p. 362. + +[430] These expressions seem to have been intended to distinguish the +kingdom of the Eastern or Germanic Franks from that of the Western or +Gallicized Franks (Francigenae), which having been for some time +'regnum Francorum Occidentalium,' grew at last to be simply 'regnum +Franciae,' the East Frankish kingdom being swallowed up in the Empire. + +[431] It is right to remark that what is stated here can be taken as +only generally and probably true: so great are the discrepancies among +even the most careful writers on the subject, and so numerous the +forgeries of a later age, which are to be found among the genuine +documents of the early Empire. Goldast's _Collections_, for instance, +are full of forgeries and anachronisms. Detailed information may be +found in Pfeffinger, Moser, and Puetter, and in the host of writers to +whom they refer. + +[432] We in England may be thought to have made some slight movement +in the same direction by calling the united great council of the Three +Kingdoms the Imperial Parliament. + +[433] Although to be sure the Burgundian dominions had all passed from +the Emperor to France, the kingdom of Sardinia, and the Swiss +Confederation. + +[434] Nevertheless, Otto II was crowned Emperor, and reigned for some +time along with his father, under the title of 'Co-Imperator.' So +Lothar I was associated in the Empire with Lewis the Pious, as Lewis +himself had been crowned in the lifetime of Charles. Many analogies to +the practice of the Romano-Germanic Empire in this respect might be +adduced from the history of the old Roman, as well as of the Byzantine +Empire. + +[435] Maximilian had obtained this title, 'Emperor Elect,' from the +Pope. Ferdinand took it as of right, and his successors followed the +example. + +[436] See note 326, p. 270. + + + + +INDEX. + + + A. + + Aachen, 72, 77, 86, 148, 212, 316 note, 403. + + ADALBERT (St.), 245; the church founded at Rome to receive + his ashes, 286. + + ADELHEID (Queen of Italy), account of her adventures, 83. + + ADOLF of Nassau, 221, 222, 262. + + ADSO, his _Vita Antichristi_, 114 note. + + AISTULF the Lombard, 39. + + ALARIC, his desire to preserve the institutions of the + Empire, 17, 19. + + ALBERIC (consul or senator), 83. + + ALBERT I (son of Rudolf of Hapsburg), 221, 224, 262. + + Albigenses, revolt of the, 241. + + ALBOIN, his invasion of Italy, 36. + + ALCUIN of York, 59, 66, 96, 201. + + ALEXANDER III (Pope), Frederick I's contest with, 170; + their meeting at Venice, 171. + + ALFONSO of Castile, his double election with Richard of + England, 212, 229. + + America, discovery of, 311. + + ANASTASIUS, his account of the coronation of Charles, 55. + + ANGELO (Michael), rebuilding of the Capitol by, 295. + + Antichrist, views respecting, in the earlier Middle Ages, + 114 note; in later times, 334. + + Architecture, Roman, 48, 290; analogy between it and the + civil and ecclesiastical constitution, 296; preservation of + an antique character in both, 296. + + ARDOIN (Marquis of Ivrea), 149. + + Aristocracy, barbarism of the, in the Middle Ages, 289; + struggles of the Teutonic Emperors against the, 388. + + Arles; _see_ Burgundy. + + ARNOLD of Brescia, Rome under, 174, 252, 276; put to death + at the instance of Pope Hadrian, 278, 299 note. + + ARNULF (Emperor), 78. + + ATHANARIC, 17. + + ATHANASIUS, the triumph of, 12. + + ATHAULF the Visigoth, his thoughts and purposes respecting + the Roman Empire, 19, 30. + + Augsburg, 259; treaty of, 334. + + AUGUSTINE, 94. + + Aulic Council, the, 340, 342 note. + + Austria, privilege of, 199; her claim to represent the + Roman Empire, 368, 381. + + Austrian succession, war of the, 352. + + Avignon, exactions of the court of, 219; its subservience + to France, 219, 243. + + AVITUS, letter of, on Sigismund's behalf, 18. + + + B. + + Barbarians, feared by the Romans, 14; Roman armies largely + composed of, 14; admitted to Roman titles and honours, 15; + their feelings towards the Roman Empire, 16; their desire + to preserve its institutions, 17; value of the Roman + officials and Christian bishops to the, 19. + + BARTOLOMMEO (San), the church of, 287. + + BASIL the Macedonian and Lewis II, 191. + + 'Basileus,' the title of, 143, 191. + + Basilica, erected at Aachen by Charles the Great, 76 note. + + BELISARIUS, his war with the Ostrogoths, 29, 273. + + Bell-tower, or campanile, in the churches of Rome, 294. + + BENEDICT of Soracte, 51 note. + + BENEDICT VIII (Pope), alleged decree of, 197. + + Benevento, the Annals of, 150. + + BERENGAR of Friuli, 82; his death, 83. + + BERENGAR II (King of Italy), 83. + + BERNARD (St.), 109 note. + + Bible, rights of the Empire proved from the, 112; + perversion of its meaning, 114. + + Bohemia, acquired by Luxemburg A. D. 1309, 222; the king + of, an elector, 230. + + BONIFACE VIII (Pope), his extravagant pretensions, 109, + 247; declares himself Vicar of the Empire, 219 note. + + BOSO, 81, 395. + + Bosphorus, removal of the seat of government to the, 154. + + Britain, abandoned by Imperial Government, 24; Roman Civil + Law not forgotten in, at a late date, 32; Roman ensigns and + devices in, 258. + + Buildings, the old, destruction and alteration of, by + invaders, 291; by the Romans of the Middle Ages, 292; by + modern restorers of churches, 292. + + Bull, the Golden, of Charles IV, 225, 230, 236. + + Burgundy, the kingdom of, Otto's policy towards, 143; added + to the Empire under Conrad II, 151; effect of its loss on + the Empire, 305; confusion caused by the name, 395; ten + senses in which it is met with, 395-7. + + Byzantium, effect of the removal of the seat of power to, + 9; Otto's policy towards, 141; attitude towards Emperor, + 189. + + + C. + + Campanile; _see_ Bell-tower. + + Canon law, correspondence between it and the Corpus Juris + Civilis, 101; its consolidation by Gregory IX, 112, 217. + + CAPET (Hugh), 142. + + Capitol, rebuilding of the, by Michael Angelo, 295. + + Capitulary of A. D. 802, 65. + + CARACALLA (Emperor), effect of his edict, 6. + + Carolingian Emperors, 76. + + Carolingian Empire of the West, its end in A. D. 888, 78; + Florus the Deacon's lament over its dissolution, 85 note. + + Carroccio, the, 178 note, 328. + + Cathari and other heretics, spread of, 241. + + Catholicity or Romanism, 94, 106. + + Celibacy, enforcement of, 158. + + Cenci, name of, 289 note. + + CHARLEMAGNE; _see_ Charles I. + + CHARLES I (the Great), extinguishes the Lombard kingdom, + 41; is received with honours by Pope Hadrian and the + people, 41; his personal ambition, 42; his treatment of + Pope Leo III, 44; title of 'Champion of the Faith and + Defender of the Holy See' conferred upon, 47; crowned at + Rome, 48; important consequences of his coronation, 50, 52; + its real meaning, 52, 80, 81; contemporary accounts, 53, + 64, 65, 84; their uniformity, 56; illegality of the + transaction, 56; three theories respecting it held four + centuries after, 57; was the coronation a surprise? 58; his + reluctance to assume the imperial title, 60; solution + suggested by Doellinger, 60; seeks the hand of Irene, 61; + defect of his imperial title, 61; theoretically the + successor of the whole Eastern line of Emperors, 62, 63; + has nothing to fear from Byzantine Princes, 63; his + authority in matters ecclesiastical, 64; presses Hadrian to + declare Constantine VI a heretic, 64; his spiritual + despotism applauded by subsequent Popes, 64; importance + attached by him to the Imperial name, 65; issues a + Capitulary, 65; draws closer the connexion of Church and + State, 66; new position in civil affairs acquired with the + Imperial title, 67, 68, 69; his position as Frankish king, + 69, 70; partial failure of his attempt to breathe a + Teutonic spirit into Roman forms, 70, 71; his personal + habits and sympathies, 71; groundlessness of the claims of + the modern French to, 71; the conception of his Empire + Roman, not Teutonic, 72; his Empire held together by the + Church, 73; appreciation of his character generally, 73, + 74; impress of his mind on mediaeval society, 74; buried at + Aachen, 74; inscription on his tomb, 74; canonised as a + saint, 75; his plan of Empire, 76. + + CHARLES II (the BALD), 77, 156, 157. + + CHARLES III (the FAT), 78, 81. + + CHARLES IV, 223; his electoral constitution, 225; his + Golden Bull, 225, 236; general results of his policy, 236; + his object through life, 236; the University of Prague + founded by, 237; welcomed into Italy by Petrarch, 254. + + CHARLES V, accession of, 319; casts in his lot with the + Catholics, 321; the momentous results, 322; failure of his + repressive policy, 322. + + CHARLES VI, 348, 351, 352. + + CHARLES VII, his disastrous reign, 351. + + CHARLES VIII (King of France), his pretensions on Naples + and Milan, 315. + + CHARLES MARTEL, 36, 38. + + CHARLES of Valois, 223. + + CHARLES the BOLD and Frederick III, 249. + + CHEMNITZ, his comments on the condition and prospects of + the Empire, 339. + + CHILDERIC, his deposition by the Holy See, 39. + + Chivalry, the orders of, 250. + + Church, the, opposed by the Emperors, 10; growth of, 10; + alliance of, with the State, 10, 66, 107, 387; organization + of, framed on the model of the secular administration, 11; + the Emperor the head of, 12; maintains the Imperial idea, + 13; attitude of Charles the Great towards, 65, 66; the bond + that holds together the Empire of Charles, 73; first gives + men a sense of unity, 92; how regarded in Middle Ages, 92, + 370; draws tighter all bonds of outward union, 94; unity + of, felt to be analogous to that of the Empire, 93; becomes + the exact counterpart of the Empire, 99, 101, 107, 328; + position of, in Germany, 128; Otto's position towards, 129; + effect of the Reformation upon, 327; influence of the + Empire upon the history of, 384. + + Churches, national, 95, 330. + + Churches of Rome, destruction of old buildings by modern + restorers of, 292; mosaics and bell-tower in the, 294. + + Cities, in Lombardy, 175; growth of in Germany, 179; their + power, 223. + + Civil law, revival of the study of, 172; its study + forbidden by the Popes in the thirteenth century, 253. + + CIVILIS, the Batavian, 17. + + Clergy, aversion of the Lombards to the, 37; their idea of + political unity, 96; their power in the eleventh century, + 128; Gregory VII's condemnation of feudal investitures to + the, 158; their ambition and corruption in the later Middle + Age, 290. + + CLOVIS, his desire to preserve the institutions of the + Empire, 17, 30; his unbroken success, 35. + + Coins, papal, 278 note. + + COLONNA (John), Petrarch's letters to, 270 and note; the + family of, 281. + + Commons, the, 132, 314. + + Concordat of Worms, 163. + + Confederation of the Rhine, provisions of the, 362. + + CONRAD I (King of the East Franks), 122, 226. + + CONRAD II, the reign of, 151; comparison between the + prerogative at his accession and at the death of Henry V, + 165; the crown of Burgundy first gained by, 194. + + CONRAD III, 165, 277. + + CONRAD IV, 210. + + CONRADIN (Frederick II's grandson), murder of, 211. + + Constance, the Council of, 220, 253, 301; the peace of, + signed by Frederick I, 178. + + CONSTANTINE, his vigorous policy, 8; the Donation of, 43, + 100, 288 note. + + Constantinople, capture of, 303, 311. + + Coronations, ceremonies at, 112; the four, gone through by + the Emperors, 193, 403; their meaning, 195; churches in + which they were performed, 284, 288. + + Corpus Juris Civilis, correspondence between, and the Canon + Law, 101. + + Councils, General, right of Emperors to summon, 111. + + Counts Palatine, Otto's institution of, 125. + + CRESCENTIUS, 146. + + Crown, the Imperial, the right to confer, 57, 61, 81; not + legally attached to Frankish crown or nation, 81; how + treated by the Popes, 82. + + Crowns, the four, 193, 403. + + Crusades, the, 164, 166, 179, 193, 205, 209. + + + D. + + DANTE, 208; his attitude towards the Empire, 255; his + treatise _De Monarchia_, 262; sketch of its argument, 264 + et seq.; its omissions, 268, 299. + + Dark Ages, existing relics of the, 294. + + Decretals, the False, 156. + + Denmark, and the Slaves, 143; imperial authority in, 184; + its relations to the Empire, 398. + + Diet, the, 126, 314, 353; its rights as settled A. D. 1648, + 340; its altered character A. D. 1654, 344; its triflings, + 353. + + DIOCLETIAN, his vigorous policy, 8. + + Divine right of the Emperor, 246. + + DOeLLINGER (Dr.), 60 note. + + Dominicans, the order of, 205. + + Donation of Constantine, forgery of the, 43, 100, 118 note, + 261 note. + + Dukes, the, in Germany, 125. + + + E. + + East, imperial pretensions in the, 189. + + Eastern Church, the, 191. + + Eastern Empire, its relations with the Western, 24, 25; + decay of its power in the West, 45; how regarded by the + Popes, 46. + + Edict of Caracalla, 6. + + EDWARD II (King of England), his declaration of England's + independence of the Empire, 187. + + EDWARD III (King of England) and Lewis the Bavarian, 187; + his election against Charles IV, 223. + + EGINHARD, his statement respecting Charles's coronation, + 58, 60. + + Elective constitution, the, 227; difficulty of maintaining + the principle in practice, 233; its object the choice of + the fittest man, 233; restraint of the sovereign, 233; + recognition of the popular will, 234. + + Elector, the title of, its advantage, 232 note; personages + upon whom it was conferred by Napoleon, 232. + + Electoral body in primitive times, 226. + + Electoral function, conception of the, 235. + + Electorate, the Eighth, 231; the Ninth, 231. + + Electors, the Seven, 165, 229; their names and offices, 230 + note; the question of their vote, 257 note. + + Emperor, the position of, in the second century, 5, 6; the + head of the Church, 12, 23, 111; sanctity of the name, 22, + 120; correspondence between his position and functions and + those of the Pope, 104; proofs from mediaeval documents, + 109; and from the coronation ceremonies, 112; illustrations + from mediaeval art, 116; nature of his power, 120; fusion of + his functions with those of German King, 127; his office + feudalized, 130; attitude of Byzantine Emperors towards, + 189; his dignities and titles, 193, 257, 261, 400; the + title not assumed till the Roman coronation, 196; origin + and results of this practice, 196; policy of, 222; his + office as peace-maker, 244, 245; divine right of the, 246; + his right of creating kings, 249; his international place + at the Council of Constance, 253; change in titles of, 316; + his rights as settled A.D. 1648, 340; altered meaning of + the word now-a-days, 402. + + Emperors, meaning of their four coronations, 193, 195, 403; + persons eligible as, 251; after Henry VII, 263; their + short-sighted policy towards Rome, 277; their visits to + Rome, 282; their approach, 283; their entrance, 284; + hostility of the Pope and people to the, 284; their + burial-places, 287 note; nature of the question at issue + between the Popes and the, 385; their titles, 400. + + Emperors, Carolingian, 76. + + Emperors, Franconian, 133. + + Emperors, Hapsburg, beginning of their influence in + Germany, 310; their policy, 305, 348; repeated attempts to + set them aside, 350; causes of the long retention of the + throne by the, 349; modern pretensions of, 368, 381. + + Emperors, Italian, 80. + + Emperors, Saxon, 133. + + Emperors, Swabian or Hohenstaufen, 57, 165, 167. + + Emperors, Teutonic, defects in their title, 61; their + short-sighted policy, 277; their memorials in Rome, 286; + names of those buried in Italy, 287 note; their struggles + against nationality, aristocracy, and popular freedom, 388. + + Empire, the Roman, growth of despotism in, 5; obliteration + of national distinctions in, 6; unity of, threatened from + without and from within, 7, 8; preserved for a time by the + policy of Diocletian and Constantine, 8, 9; partition of, + 9; influence of the Church in supporting, 13; armies of, + composed of barbarians, 15; how regarded by the barbarians, + 16; belief in eternity of, 20; reunion of Italy to, 29; its + influence in the Transalpine provinces, 30; influence of + religion and jurisprudence in supporting, 31, 32; belief + in, not extinct in the eighth century, 44; restoration of + by Charles the Great, 48; the 'translation' of the, 52, + 111, 175, 218; divided between the grandsons of Charles, + 77; dissolution of, 78; ideal state supposed to be embodied + in, 99; never, strictly speaking, restored, 102. + + Empire, the Holy Roman, created by Otto the Great, 80, 103; + a prolongation of the Empire of Charles, 80; wherein it + differed therefrom, 80; motives for establishment of, 84; + identical with Holy Roman Church, 106; its rights proved + from the Bible, 112; its anti-national character, 120; its + union with the German kingdom, 122; dissimilarity between + the two, 127; results of the union, 128; its pretensions in + Hungary, 183; in Poland, 184; in Denmark, 184; in France, + 185; in Sweden, 185; in Spain, 185; in England, 186; in + Naples, 188; in Venice, 188; in the East, 189; the epithet + 'Holy' applied by Frederick I, 199; origin and meaning of + epithet, 200; its fall with Frederick II, 210; Italy lost + to, 211; change in its position, 214; its continuance due + to its connexion with the German kingdom, 214; its + relations with the Papacy, 153, 155, 216; its financial + distress, 223; theory of, in the fourteenth and fifteenth + centuries, 238; its duties as an international judge and + mediator, 244; why an international power, 248; + illustrations, 249; attitude of new learning towards, 251, + 254, 256; doctrine of its rights and functions never + carried out in fact, 253; end of its history in Italy, 263, + 304; relation between it and the city, 297; reaches its + lowest point in Frederick III's reign, 301; its loss of + Burgundy, 305, and of Switzerland, 306; change in its + character, 308, 313; effects of the Renaissance upon, 312; + effects of the Reformation upon, 319, 325; its influence + upon the name and associations of, 332; narrowing of its + bounds, 341; causes of the continuance of, 344; its + relation to the balance of power, 345; its position in + Europe, 346; its last phase, 352; signs of its approaching + fall, 356; its end, 363; the desire for its + re-establishment, 364; unwillingness of certain states, + 364; technically never extinguished, 364 note; summary of + its nature and results, 366; claim of Austria to represent, + 368; of France, 368; of Russia, 368; of Greece, 368; of the + Turks, 368; parallel between the Papacy and, 369, 373; + never truly mediaeval, 373; sense in which it was Roman, + 374; its condition in the tenth century, 374; essential + principles of, 377; its influence on Germany, 378; Austria + as heir of, 381; its bearing on the progress of Europe, + 383; ways in which it affected the political institutions + of the Middle Ages, 383; its influence upon modern + jurisprudence, 383; upon the history of the Church, 384; + influence of its inner life on the minds of men, 387; + principles adverse to, 388; change marked by its fall, 389; + its relations to the nationalities of Europe, 390; + difficulty of fully understanding, 392. + + Empire and Papacy, interdependence of, 101; consequences, + 102; struggle between, 153; their relations, 155, 216; + parallel between, 369; compared as perpetuation of a name, + 372. + + Empire Western, last days of the, 24; its extinction by + Odoacer, 26; its restoration, 34. + + Empire, French, under Napoleon, 360. + + ENGELBERT, 113 note. + + England, 45; Otto's position towards, 143; authority not + exercised by any Emperors in, 186; vague notion that it + must depend on the Empire, 186; imperial pretensions + towards, 187; position of the regal power in, as compared + with Germany, 215; feudalism in, 343. + + Estate, Third, did not exist in time of Otto the Great, + 132. + + EUDES (Count of Champagne), 151. + + Europe, bearing of the Empire on the progress of, 383; on + the nationalities of, 390. + + + F. + + False Decretals, the, 156. + + FERDINAND I, 316 note, 323, 401. + + FERDINAND II, accession of, 335; his plans, 335; deprives + the Palsgrave Frederick of his electoral vote, 231. + + Feudal aristocracy, power of the, 221. + + Feudal king, his peculiar relation to his tenants, 124. + + Feudalism, 90, 123; reason of its firm grasp upon society, + 124; hostility between it and imperialism, 131; its results + in France, 343; in England, 343; in Germany, 344; struggles + of the Teutonic Emperors against, 388. + + Financial distress of the Empire, 223. + + FLORUS the Deacon's lament over the dissolution of the + Carolingian Empire, 85 note. + + Fontenay, battle of, 77. + + France, modern, dates from Hugh Capet, 142; imperial + authority exercised in, 185; her irritation at Germany's + precedence, 185; growth of the regal power in, as compared + with Germany, 215; alliance of the Protestants with, 325; + territory gained by treaties of Westphalia, 341; feudalism + in, 343; under Napoleon, 360; her claim to represent the + Roman Empire, 368, 376. + + Francia occidentalis, given to Charles the Bald, 77. + + FRANCIS I, reign of, 351. + + FRANCIS II, accession of, 356; resignation of imperial + crown by, 1, 363. + + Franciscans, the order of, 205. + + Franconia, extinction of the dukedom of, 222. + + Franconian Emperors, 133. + + 'Frank,' sense in which the name was used, 142 note. + + Franks, rise of the, 34; success of their arms, 35; + Catholics from the first, 36; their greatness chiefly due + to the clergy, 36; enter Rome, 48. + + Franks, the West, Otto's policy towards, 142. + + Frankfort, synod held at, 64; coronations at, 316 note, + 404. + + FREDERICK I (Barbarossa), his brilliant reign, 167, 179; + his relations to the Popedom, 167; his contest with Pope + Hadrian IV, 169, 316; incident at their meeting on the way + to Rome, 314 note; his contest with Pope Alexander III, + 170; their meeting at Venice, 171; magnificent ascriptions + of dignity to, 173; assertion of his prerogative in Italy, + 174; his version of the 'Translation of the Empire,' 175; + his dealings with the rebels of Milan and Tortona, 175; his + temporary success, 177; victory of the Lombards over, 178; + his prosperity as German king, 178; his glorious life and + happy death, 179; legend respecting him, 180; extent of his + jurisdiction, 182; his dominion in the East, 189; his + letter to Saladin, 189; anecdote of, 214. + + FREDERICK II, character of, 207; events of his struggle + with the Papacy, 209; results of his reign, 221; the charge + of heresy against, 251 note; memorials left by, in Rome, + 287. + + FREDERICK III, abases himself before the Romish court, 220; + Charles the Bold seeks an arrangement with, 249; his + calamitous reign, 301. + + FREDERICK (Count Palatine and King of Bohemia), deprived by + Ferdinand II of his electoral vote, 231. + + FREDERICK of Prussia (the Great), 347, 352, 353 note. + + Freedom popular, growth of, 240; struggles of the Teutonic + Emperors against, 388. + + + G. + + Gallic race, political character of the, 376. + + Gauverfassung, the so-called, 123. + + GERBERT (Pope Sylvester II), 146. + + 'German Emperor,' the title of, 127, 317. + + Germanic constitution, the, 221; influence upon, of the + theory of the Empire as an international power, 307; + attempted reforms of, 313; means by which it was proposed + to effect them, 314; causes of their failure, 314. + + Germany, beginning of the national existence of, 77; + chooses Arnulf as king, 78; overrun by Hungarians, 79; + establishment of monarchy in, by Henry the Fowler, 79; + desires the restoration of the Carolingian Empire, 86; + position of in the tenth century, 122; union of the Empire + with, 122; results of the union, 128; dissimilarity of the + two systems, 127; feudalism in, 123; the feudal polity of, + generally, 125; nature of the history of, till the twelfth + century, 126; princes of, ally themselves with the Pope + against the Emperor, 162; its hatred of the Romish Court, + 169; the position of under Frederick Barbarossa, 179; + growth of towns in, 179, 223; decline of imperial power in, + 211; state of during Great Interregnum, 213; decline of + regal power in, 215; encroachments of nobles in, 221, 228; + kingdom of, not originally elective, 225; how it ultimately + became elective, 226; changes in the constitution of, 228; + its weakness as compared with other states of Europe, 302; + its loss of imperial territories, 303; its internal + weakness, 306; position of the Emperor in, compared with + that of his predecessors in Europe, 309; beginning of the + Hapsburg influence in, 310; first consciousness of its + nationality, 315; destruction of its State-system, 324; its + troubles, 324; finally severed from Rome, 340; after the + peace of Westphalia, 342; effect of a number of petty + independent states upon, 343; feudalism in, 343; its + political life in the eighteenth century, 345; foreign + thrones acquired by its princes, 346; French aggression + upon, 346; its weakness and stagnation, 347; popular + feeling in at the close of eighteenth century, 354; + Napoleon in, 361; changes in, by war of 1866, 365 note; + influence of the Holy Empire on, 378. + + GERSON, chancellor of Paris, plans of, 301. + + Ghibeline, the name of, 304. + + GOETHE, 236 note, 316 note, 356. + + Golden Bull of Charles IV, 225, 230, 236. + + Goths, wisest and least cruel of the Germanic family, 28; + Arian Goths regarded as enemies by Catholic Italians, 29. + + Greece, her influence in the fifteenth and sixteenth + centuries, 240, 252; her claim to represent the Roman + Empire, 368. + + Greeks and Latins, origin of their separation, 37 note. + + Greeks, effect of their hostility upon the Teutonic Empire, + 210. + + GREGORY THE GREAT, fame of his sanctity and writings, 31; + means by which he advanced Rome's ecclesiastical authority, + 154. + + GREGORY II (Pope), reason of his reluctance to break with + the Byzantine princes, 102. + + GREGORY III (Pope) appeals to Charles Martel for succour + against the Lombards, 39. + + GREGORY V (Pope), 146. + + GREGORY VII (Pope), his condemnation of feudal investitures + to the clergy, 158; war between him and Henry IV, 159; his + letter to William the Conqueror, 160; passage in his second + excommunication of Henry, 161; results of the struggle + between them, 162; his death, 162; his theory as to the + rights of the Pope with respect to the election of + Emperors, 217; his silence about the Translation of the + Empire, 218; his simile between the Empire and the Popedom, + 373; his demands on the Emperor, 386. + + GREGORY IX (Pope), Canon law consolidated by, 102; receives + the title of 'Justinian of the Church,' 102. + + GREGORY X (Pope), 219. + + GROTIUS, 384. + + Guelf, the name of, 304. + + GUIDO, or GUY, of Spoleto, 82. + + GUISCARD, Robert, 292. + + GUNDOBALD the Burgundian, 25. + + GUNTHER of Schwartzburg, 222. + + GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS, 336. + + + H. + + HADRIAN I (Pope), summons Charles (the Great) to resist the + Lombards, 41; motives of his policy, 42; his allusion to + Constantine's Donation, 118 note. + + HADRIAN IV (Pope), Frederick I's contest with, 169, 285; + his pretensions, 197. + + HALLAM, his view of the grant of a Roman dignity to Clovis, + 30 note. + + Hanseatic Confederacy, 223, 347. + + Hapsburg, the castle of, 213 note. + + HAROLD the BLUE-TOOTHED, 143. + + HENRY I (the Fowler), 79, 122, 132, 226. + + HENRY II crowned Emperor, 149. + + HENRY II (King of France), assumes the title of 'Protector + of the German Liberties,' 325. + + HENRY II (King of England), his submissive tone towards + Frederick I, 186. + + HENRY III, power of the Empire at its meridian under, 151; + his reform of the Popedom, 152; fatal results of his + encroachments, 152; his death, 152. + + HENRY IV, election of, 226 note; war between him and + Gregory VII, 159; his humiliation, 159; results of the + struggle, 162; his death, 162. + + HENRY V (Emperor), his claims over ecclesiastics, 163; his + quarrel with Pope Paschal II, 163; his perilous position, + 163; comparison between the prerogative at his death and + that at the accession of Conrad II, 165; tumults produced + by his coronation, 285. + + HENRY V (King of England) refuses submission to the Emperor + Sigismund, 187. + + HENRY VI, 188; his proposal to unite Naples and Sicily to + the Empire, 206; opposition to the scheme, 206; his + untimely death, 206. + + HENRY VII, 221, 223; in Italy, 262; his death, 263. + + HENRY VIII (King of England), 334 note. + + Hessen-Cassel, Elector of, dethroned, 232. + + HILARY, feelings of, towards the Roman Empire, 21 note. + + HILDEBERT (Bishop of Caen), his lines contrasting the past + and present of Rome, 406. + + HILDEBRAND; _see_ Gregory VII. + + HIPPOLYTUS a Lapide, the treatise of, 339. + + Hohenstaufen; _see_ Emperors, Swabian. + + Hohenstaufen, the castle of, 165 note. + + Holland, declared independent, 342. + + Holstein, its relations to the Empire, 398. + + HUGH CAPET, 42. + + HUGH of Burgundy, 83. + + Hungarians, the, 143. + + Hungary, imperial authority exercised in, 183; its + connexion with the Hapsburgs, 184 note. + + HUSS, the writings of, 241. + + + I. + + Iconoclastic controversy, 38. + + 'Imperator electus,' the title of, 316, 405. + + Imperialism, Roman, French, and Mediaeval, 375. + + Imperial titles and ceremonies, 193, 400. + + INNOCENT III (Pope), his exertions on behalf of Otto IV, + 206; his pretensions, 209, 217; his struggle with Frederick + II, 208. + + INNOCENT X and the sacred number Seven of the electors, 227 + note; his protest against the Peace of Westphalia, 341. + + International power, the need of an, 242; why the Roman + Empire an, 248. + + Interregnum, the Great, frightful state of Germany during, + 213; enables the feudal aristocracy to extend their power, + 221. + + Investitures, the struggle of the, 162. + + IRENE (Empress), behaviour of, 47, 61, 68. + + Irminsul, overthrow of, by Charles the Great, 69; meaning + of term, 69 note. + + Italian Emperors, 80. + + Italian nationality, era at which its first rudiments + appeared, 140. + + Italians, modern, their feelings towards Rome, 299. + + Italy, under Odoacer, 26, 27; attempt of Theodoric to + establish a national monarchy in, 27; reconquered by + Justinian, 29; harassed by the Lombards, 37; condition of, + previous to Otto's descent into, 80; Otto the Great's first + expedition into, 84; its connexion with Germany, 87; Otto's + rule in, 139; liberties of the northern cities of, 150; + Frederick I in, 174; Henry VII in, 263; lost to the Empire, + 211, 304; names of Emperors buried in, 287 note; the nation + at the present day, 389. + + Italy, Southern, 150. + + + J. + + JOHN VIII (Pope), 156. + + JOHN XII (Pope), crowns Otto the Great, 87; plots against + him, 134; his reprobate life, 134; Liudprand's list of the + charges against, 135; letter recounting them sent to him, + 136; his reply, 136; Otto's answer, 136; deposed by Otto, + 137; regret of the Romans at his expulsion, 137; his return + and death, 138. + + JOHN XXII (Pope), his conflict with Lewis IV, 220. + + JOSEPH II, reign of, 352. + + JULIUS CAESAR, 390, 392. + + JULIUS II (Pope), 316. + + Jurisprudence, influence of, in supporting the Empire, 31; + aversion of the Romish court to the ancient, 252; influence + of the Empire on modern, 383. + + Jurists, their attitude towards imperialism, 256. + + JUSTINIAN, Italy reconquered by, 29; study of the + legislation of, 240, 256. + + 'Justinian of the Church,' title of, conferred on Gregory + IX, 102. + + Jutland, Otto penetrates into, 143. + + + K. + + Kings, the Emperor's right of creating, 249. + + Knighthood, analogy between priesthood and, 250. + + + L. + + LACTANTIUS, his belief in the eternity of the Roman Empire, + 21. + + LAMBERT (son of Guido of Spoleto), 82. + + Landgrave of Thuringia, choice of the, commanded by the + Pope, 219. + + Lateran Palace at Rome, mosaic of the, 117, 288. + + Latins and Greeks, origin of their separation, 37 note. + + Lauresheim, Annals of, their account of the coronation of + Charles, 53. + + Law, old, the influence exercised by, 32; era of the + revived study of, 276. + + Learning, revival of, 240; connexion between it and + imperialism, 254. + + LEO I (Pope), his assertion of universal jurisdiction, 154. + + LEO the ISAURIAN (Emperor), his attempt to abolish the + worship of images, 38. + + LEO III (Pope), his accession, 43; his adventures, 44; + crowns Charles at Rome on Christmas Day, A.D. 800, 3, 49; + charter of, issued on same day, 106; relation of, to the + act of coronation, 52, 53; lectured by Charles, 64. + + LEO VIII (Pope), 138. + + Leonine city, the, 286 note. + + LEOPOLD I, ninth electorate conferred by, 231. + + LEOPOLD II, 352. + + LEWIS I (the Pious), 76, 77. + + LEWIS II, 77, 104 note, 191, 403. + + LEWIS III (son of Boso), 82. + + LEWIS IV, his conflict with Pope John XXII, 220. + + LEWIS XII (King of France), his pretensions on Naples and + Milan, 315. + + LEWIS XIV (King of France), 346. + + LEWIS (the German) (son of Lewis the Pious), 77. + + LEWIS the CHILD (son of Arnulf), 121. + + Literature, revival of, 240; connexion between it and + imperialism, 254. + + LIUDPRAND (Bishop of Cremona), his list of the accusations + against John XII, 135; account of his embassy to the + princess Theophano, 141. + + LIUDPRAND (King of the Lombards), attacks Rome and the + exarchate, 38. + + Lombard cities, 175; their victory over Frederick I, 178. + + Lombards, arrival of the, A.D. 568, 29, 37; their aversion + to the clergy, 37; the Popes seek help from the Franks + against the, 39; extinction of their kingdom by + Charlemagne, 41. + + LOTHAR I (son of Lewis the Pious), 77, 403. + + LOTHAR II, election of, 165, 228. + + LOTHAR (son of Hugh of Burgundy), 83. + + Lotharingia or Lorraine, 78, 79, 143, 183, 341, 349. + + Luneville, the Peace of, 361. + + LUTHER, 319. + + + M. + + Majesty, the title of, 247 note. + + Mallum, the popular assembly so called, 126. + + MANUEL COMNENUS, 193. + + Mario (Monte), 283. + + MARSILIUS of Padua, his 'de Imperio Romano,' 231 note. + + MAXIMILIAN I, 231, 310; character of his epoch, 310; events + of his reign, 313; his title of 'Imperator electus,' 316, + 405; his proposals to recover Burgundy and Italy, 317. + + MAXIMILIAN II, 323. + + Mayfield, the popular assembly so called, 126. + + Mediaeval art, rights of the Empire set forth in, 116. + + Mediaeval monuments, causes of the want of in Rome, 289. + + MICHAEL, 61. + + MICHAEL ANGELO, capital rebuilt by, 295. + + Middle Ages, the state of the human mind in, 90; theology + of, 95; philosophy of, 97; relations of Church and State + during, 107, 387; mode of interpreting Scriptures in, 114; + art of, 116; opposition of theory and practice in, 133, + 261; real beginning of, 204; reverence for ancient forms + and phrases in, 258; absence of the idea of change or + progress in, 259; the city of Rome in, 269; barbarism of + the aristocracy in, 289; ambition and corruption of the + clergy in the latter, 290; destruction of old buildings by + the Romans of, 292; existing relics of, 294; aspiration for + unity during, 370; the Visible Church in the, 370; ferocity + of the heroes of, 382; ways in which the Empire affected the + political institutions of, 383; idea of the communion of + saints during, 387. + + Milan, Frederick I's dealings with the rebels of, 125; the + rebuilding of, 178; victory of Frederick II over, 287; + pretensions of Charles VIII and Lewis XII of France on, + 315. + + Mahommedanism, rise of, 45. + + Moissac, Chronicle of, its account of the coronation of + Charles, 54, 84. + + MOMMSEN, 390. + + Monarchy, universal, doctrine of, 91, 97. + + Monarchy, elective, 232. + + Mosaics in the churches of Rome, 294. + + MUeLLER, Johannes von, 354. + + Muenster, the treaty of; _see_ Westphalia. + + + N. + + Naples, imperial authority in, 188, 205; pretensions of + Charles VIII and Lewis XII of France on, 315. + + NAPOLEON, as compared with Charles the Great, 74; + extinction of Electorates by, 232; Emperor of the West, + 357; his belief that he was the successor of Charlemagne, + 358; attitude of the Papacy towards, 359; his mission in + Germany, 361. + + Nationalities of Europe, the formation of, 242; relations + of the Empire to the, 390. + + Nationality, struggles of the Teutonic Emperors against, + 388. + + Neo-Platonism, Alexandrian, effect of, 7. + + Nicaea, first council of, 23, 301; second council of, 64. + + NICEPHORUS, 61, 192. + + NICHOLAS I (Pope) and the case of Teutberga, 252. + + NICHOLAS II (Pope), fixes a regular body to elect the Pope, + 158. + + NICHOLAS V (Pope), 279, 292, 312. + + Nobles, the, in feudal times, 125, 221; encroachments of + the, 228. + + Nuernberg, 259. + + + O. + + OCCAM, the English Franciscan, 220. + + ODO, 81. + + ODOACER, extinction of the Western Empire by, A.D. 476, 25; + his original position, 25 note; his assumption of the title + of King, 26; nature of his government, 27. + + OPTATUS (Bishop of Milevis), his treatise _Contra + Donatistas_, 13 note. + + Orsini, the family of, 281. + + Osnabrueck, treaty of; _see_ Westphalia. + + Ostrogoths, 24; war between Belisarius and the, 273. + + OTTO I, the GREAT, appealed to by Adelheid, 83; his first + expedition into Italy, 84; invitation sent by the Pope to, + 84; his victory over the Hungarians, 85; crowned king of + Italy at Rome, 87; his coronation a favourable opening to + sacerdotal claims, 155; causes of the revival of the Empire + under, 84; his coronation feast the inauguration of the + Teutonic realm, 123; consequences of his assumption of the + imperial title, 128; his position towards the Church, 128; + changes in title, 129; his imperial office feudalized, 130; + the Germans made a single people by, 131; incidents which + befel him in Rome, 134; inquires into the character and + manners of Pope John XII, 135; his letters to John, 136; + deposes John, 136; appoints Leo in his stead, 137; his + suppression of the revolts of the Romans on account of + John, 138; his rule in Italy, 139; resumes Charles's plans + of foreign conquest, 140; his policy towards Byzantium, + 141; seeks for his heir the hand of the princess Theophano, + 141; his policy towards the West Franks, 142; his Northern + and Eastern conquests, 143; extent of his empire, 144; + comparison between it and that of Charles, 144; beneficial + results of his rule, 145; how styled by Nicephorus, 211. + + OTTO II, 142; memorials left by, in Rome, 317. + + OTTO III, his plans and ideas, 146, 147, 148; his intense + religious belief in the Emperor's duties, 147; his reason + for using the title 'Romanorum Imperator,' 147; his early + death, 148, 228; his burial at Aachen, 148; respect in + which his life was so memorable, 149; compared with + Frederick II, 207; his expostulation with the Roman people, + 285 note; memorials left by, in Rome, 286. + + OTTO IV, Pope Innocent III's exertions in behalf of, 206; + overthrown by Innocent, 207; explanation of a curious seal + of, 266 note. + + + P. + + PALGRAVE (Sir F.), his view of the grant of a Roman dignity + to Clovis, 30 note. + + PALSGRAVE, deprived of his vote, 231; reinstated, 231. + + Panslavism, Russia's doctrine of, 368. + + Papacy, the Teutonic reform of, 146; Frederick I's bad + relations with, 168; Henry III's purification of, 152, 204; + growth of its power, 153; its relations with the Empire, + 153, 155, 216; its condition after the dissolution of the + Carolingian Empire, 275; its attitude towards Napoleon, + 359. + + Papacy and Empire, interdependence of, 101; its + consequences, 102; struggle between them, 153; their + relations, 155, 216; parallel between, 369; compared as + perpetuation of a name, 372. + + Papal elections, veto of Emperor on, 138, 155. + + Partition treaty of Verdun, 77. + + PASCHAL II (Pope), his quarrel with Henry V, 163. + + Patrician of the Romans, import of the title, 40; date when + it was bestowed on Pipin, 40 note. + + PATRITIUS, secretary of Frederick III, on the poverty of + the Empire, 224. + + Pavia, the Council of, and Charles the Bald, 156. + + Persecution, Protestant, 330. + + Peter's (St.), old, 48. + + PETRARCH, his feelings towards the Empire, 254; towards the + city of Rome, 270. + + PFEFFINGER, 351 note. + + PHILIP of Hohenstaufen, contest between Otto of Brunswick + and, 206; his assassination, 206. + + Philosophy, scholastic, spread of, in the thirteenth + century, 240. + + PIPIN of Herstal, 35. + + PIPIN the SHORT appointed successor to Childeric, 39; twice + rescues Rome from the Lombards, 39; receives the title of + Patrician of the Romans, 40; import of this title, 40; date + at which it was bestowed, 40 note. + + PIUS VII (Pope), 359. + + Placitum, the popular assembly so called, 126. + + PODIEBRAD (George), (King of Bohemia), 223. + + Poland, imperial authority in, 184; partition of, 345. + + Politics, beginning of the existence of, 241. + + Popes, emancipation of the, 27, 37, 281, 282; appeal to the + Franks for succour against the Lombards, 39; their reasons + for desiring the restoration of the Western Empire, 45, 46; + their theory respecting the coronation of Charles, 57; + their profligacy in the tenth century, 82, 85, 275; their + theory respecting the chair of St. Peter, 99; their + position and functions, 104; growth of their pretensions, + 108, 156, 217; and power, 153; their relations to the + Emperor, 155; their temporal power, 157; their position as + international judges, 243; reaction against their + pretensions, 243, 275; their aversion to the study of + ancient jurisprudence, 252; hostility of, to the Germans, + 284; nature of the question at issue between the Emperors + and, 385. + + PORCARO (Stephen), conspiracy of, 279. + + Praetaxation, the so-called right of, 228, 229. + + Pragmatic Sanctions of Frederick II, 212, 221. + + Prague, University of, 237. + + Prerogative, Imperial, contrast of, at accession of Conrad + II and death of Henry V, 165. + + Priesthood, analogy between knighthood and, 250. + + Princes, league of, formed by Frederick the Great, 352. + + Protestant States, their conduct after the Reformation, + 330. + + Protestants of Germany, their alliance with France, 325. + + Public Peace and Imperial Chamber, establishment of the, + 313. + + + R. + + RADULFUS DE COLONNA, his account of the origin of the + separation of Greeks and Latins, 37 note. + + Ravenna, exarch of, 27. + + Reformation, dawnings of the, 240; Charles V's attitude + towards the, 321; influence of its spirit on the Empire, + 319, 325; its real meaning, 325; its effect on the + doctrines regarding the Visible Church, 327; consequent + effect upon the Empire, 328; its small immediate influence + on political and religious liberty, 329; conduct of the + Protestant States after the, 330; its influence on the name + and associations of the Empire, 332. + + Religion, influence of, in supporting the Empire, 31; wars + of, 330. + + Renaissance, the, 240, 311. + + 'Renovatio Romani Imperii,' signification of the seal + bearing legend of, 103. + + Rhine, towns of the, 223; provisions of the Confederation + of the, 362. + + RICHARD I (King of England), pays homage to the Emperor + Henry VI, 186; his release, 187. + + RICHARD (Earl of Cornwall), his double election with + Alfonso X of Castile, 212, 229. + + RICHELIEU, policy of, 336. + + RICIMER (patrician), 25. + + RIENZI, Petrarch's letter to the Roman people respecting, + 255; his character and career, 278. + + Romans, revolts of the, at the expulsion of Pope John XII, + 137, 138; Otto's vigorous measures against the, 138; their + revolt from the Iconoclastic Emperors of the East, 274; the + title of King of the, 404. + + Romanism or Catholicity, 94, 106. + + Rome, commanding position of, in the second century, 7; + prestige of, not destroyed by the partition of the Empire, + 9; lingering influences of her Church and Law, 31, 32; + claim of, to the right of conferring the imperial crown, + 57, 61, 81; republican institutions of, renewed, 83; + profligacy of, in the tenth century, 82, 85; under Arnold + of Brescia, 174; imitations of old, 257; in the Middle + Ages, 269; absence of Gothic in, 271; the modern traveller + in, 271, 283; causes of her rapid decay, 273; peculiarities + of her position, 274; her internal history from the sixth + to the twelfth century, 274; her condition in the ninth and + tenth centuries, 274; growth of a republican feeling in, + 276; short-sighted policy of the Emperors towards, 277; + causes of the failure of the struggle for independence in, + 280; her internal condition, 280; her people, 280; her + nobility, 281; her bishop, 281; relation of the Emperor to, + 282; the Emperors' visits to, 282; dislike of, to the + Germans, 285; memorials of Otto III in, 286; of Otto II, + 287; of Frederick II, 287; causes of the want of mediaeval + monuments in, 289; barbarism of the aristocracy of, 289; + ambition, weakness, and corruption of the clergy of, 290; + tendency of her builders to adhere to the ancient manner, + 290; destruction and alteration of old buildings in, 291; + her modern churches, 293; existing relics of Dark and + Middle Ages in, 291; changed aspect of, 295; analogy + between her architecture and the civil and ecclesiastical + constitution, 296; relation of, to the Empire, 297; + feelings of modern Italians towards, 299; perpetuation of + the name of, 367; parallel instances, 367; Hildebert's + lines contrasting the past and present of, 406. + + ROMULUS AUGUSTULUS, his resignation at Odoacer's bidding, + 25. + + RUDOLF (King of Transjurane), 81. + + RUDOLF of Hapsburg, 213, 219, 221, 222; financial distress + under, 224; Schiller's description of the coronation feast + of, 231 note, 262. + + RUDOLF II, 335. + + RUDOLF III, 151. + + RUDOLF of Swabia, 162. + + RUDOLF III (King of Burgundy), his proposal to bequeath + Burgundy to Henry II, 151. + + Russia, her claim to represent the Roman Empire, 368. + + + S. + + Sachsenspiegel, the, 108 note. + + SALADIN (the Sultan), Frederick I's letter to, 189. + + Santa Maria Novella at Florence, fresco in, 118. + + Saxon Emperors, 133. + + Saxony, extinction of the dukedom of, 222. + + Schleswig, its annexation by Otto, 143; its relation to the + Empire, 398. + + Scholastic philosophy, spread of, in the thirteenth + century, 240. + + Seal, ascribed to A. D. 800, 103. + + SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS, concentration of power in his hands, 5, + 6. + + SERGIUS IV (Pope), 228 note. + + Seven Years' War, 352. + + Sicambri, probably the chief source of the Frankish nation, + 34. + + Sicily, imperial authority in, 188, 205. + + SIGISMUND (the Burgundian king), his desire to preserve the + institutions of the Empire, 18. + + SIGISMUND (Emperor), his visit to Henry V, 187; at the + Council of Constance, 253, 301. + + Simony, measures taken against, 158. + + Slavic races, the, 27, 143, 260, 378. + + Smalkaldic league, the, 322. + + Southern Italy, 150. + + Spain, Otto's position towards, 143; authority not + exercised by any Emperor in, 185; compared with Germany, + 303. + + Speyer, Diet of, 111 note. + + STEPHANIA (widow of Crescentius), 148. + + Swabia, extinction of the dukedom of, 222; the towns of, + 223, 313; theory of the Emperors of the house of, + respecting the coronation of Charles, 57. + + Sweden, improbability of imperial pretensions to, 185. + + Swiss Confederation, the, 306; her gains by treaties of + Westphalia, 341. + + Switzerland lost to the Empire, 306, 342. + + SYLVESTER (Pope), 43. + + + T. + + Taxes, mode of collecting in Roman Empire, 9 note. + + TERTULLIAN, his feelings towards the Roman Emperor, 21 + note, 23 note. + + TEUTBERGA (wife of Lothar), the famous case of, 252. + + Teutonic race, political character of the, 376. + + THEODEBERT (son of Clovis), his desire to preserve the + institutions of the Empire, 18. + + THEODORIC the Ostrogoth, his attempt to establish a + national monarchy in Italy, 27, 28; its failure, 29; his + usual place of residence, 28 note; prosperity under his + reign, 29. + + THEODOSIUS (the Emperor), his abasement before St. Ambrose, + 12. + + THEOPHANO (princess), 141. + + Thirty Years' War, 335; its unsatisfactory results, 336; + its substantial advantage to the German princes, 338. + + THOMAS (St.), his statement respecting the election of + Emperors, 227. + + Tithes, first enforced by Charles the Great, 67. + + Titles, change of, 129, 316, 400. + + Tortona, Frederick I's dealing with the rebels of, 175. + + Transalpine provinces, influence of the Empire in, 30. + + 'Translation of the Empire,' 52, 111, 175, 218. + + Transubstantiation, 326 note. + + Turks, the, 303; their claim to represent the Roman Empire, + 368. + + TURPIN (Archbishop), 51 note. + + + U. + + University of Prague, foundation of, 237. + + Unity, political, idea of, upheld by the clergy, 96. + + URBAN IV (Pope), on the right of choosing the Roman king, + 229. + + + V. + + Venice, her attitude, 171; imperial pretensions towards, + 188; maintains her independence, 188. + + Verdun, partition treaty of, 77. + + VESPASIAN, his dying jest, 23 note. + + Vienna, Congress of, 364. + + VILLANI (Matthew), his idea of the Teutonic Emperors, 304; + his etymology of Guelf and Ghibeline, 304 note. + + Visigothic kings of Spain, the Empire's rights admitted by + the, 30. + + + W. + + WALLENSTEIN, 335. + + WENZEL of Bohemia, 223. + + Western Empire, its last days, 24, 25; its extinction by + Odoacer, 26; its restoration, 34. + + Westphalia, the Peace of, 336; its advantages to France, + 341; to Sweden, 341; its importance in imperial history, + 342. + + WICKLIFFE, excitement caused by his writings, 241. + + WILLIAM the Conqueror, letter of Hildebrand to, 160. + + WIPPO, 227 note. + + WITUKIND, 85 note. + + WOITECH (St. Adalbert), 269. + + World-Monarchy, the idea of a, 91; influence of metaphysics + upon the theory, 97. + + World-Religion, the idea of a, 91; coincides with the + World-Empire, 92. + + Worms, Concordant of, 163; Diet of, 319, 334. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Holy Roman Empire, by James Bryce + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE *** + +***** This file should be named 44101.txt or 44101.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/1/0/44101/ + +Produced by Melissa McDaniel, Stephen Rowland, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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